D.I.G.
May 29, 2009 by Andy
D.I.G. stands for Datafeed Include Generator. The software works with flat-file databases and produces files that can be included in other web pages.
You can see an example of datafeed products in a WordPress site here:
Or even in the sidebar of a post – Diabetic Cookies
When a new feed is made available, the software will recreate the files that are being inserted into these pages and upload the new files. All products on the site are therefore updated.
The software has extremely flexible selection options allowing you to:
- Easily select specific products from the feed
- Optionally specify how many products to show
- What order to show the products (alphabetical, by price etc ascending or descending)
- What information from the feed to show
- The layout of the product feed information
- etc
What this software IS NOT:
Many people who have used feed software and scripts are use to a different type of product. Many allow you to import a feed and get the software to auto-generate an entire site. This software DOES NOT do that.
Why?
Because sites built that way do not rank well as they contain no unique content.
That’s not to say this type of functionality wont be included in the future, because some people want to generate the site and add unique content later. The future of this product is undecided.
OK; here is the deal.
The software is in its early stages of development. It currently works, but there are a great many new features I want to add to it. I’m not going to go into details here…
What I am intending to do is let 100 people buy a copy now. Those 100 people will have exclusive access to the software and a forum where we can discuss the development of the software as well as tips and techniques for adding products to websites.
These 100 people will help mould the development of this product, as well as have access to all future updates.
Since my experiment with Twitter has not worked out so well, I have decided to build a mailing list for this product. Remember, I am only selling 100 copies. If you are interested, please sign up below, and I’ll notify you when it is ready.
The form below is double optin. That means once you enter your details you will be sent an email. You WILL NOT be subscribed to this notification list unless you click the link in that email.
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Hi Andy,
I’m interested !
Cheers
Hi Andy,
how will your software compare with Datafeedr ? Also, will a future version of the software cloak the affiliate links? I have heard that web sites with obvious affiliate links don’t rank as high in the search engines.
Thank you,
Robert
Robert
I have not used Datafeedr and only heard of it a week ago, so I cannot comment on how they compare. From what I have seen with Datafeedr, they handle all the feeds for you, correct? My questions about Datafeedr would then be:
1. What happens if you have a feed that you want to use that Datafeedr does not support?
2. With the same feeds available to everyone, is there competiton, or does Datafeedr work in a way to stop competition being a problem?
3. What happens if Datafeedr goes bust, or stop business? Does that mean you can no longer update sites?
I am intending to subscribe to Datafeedr once my software is out to the “lucky” 100, to see what we might be able to include, but I am not looking to make a competitor to Datafeedr, I am trying to create a tool that will help people use Datafeeds responsibly, easily, and have fun at the same time.
Why not use Google’s Friend Feed, a lot less junk being sent through.
Not near as Spammy
Hi Andy,
So are you saying your datafeed product is mainly for building out 1 page or post at a time? So a datafeed with say 4,000+ items will have to be built by hand 1 by one with your product?
Maybe I have been lucky but I seem to do ok with large datafeed sites.
Hows the weather over in the CI’s? Man, I gotta get over there for a month’s scuba diving holiday soon.
Cheers,
Mark
Hi Andy
How true are your comments on Twitter Posts – both frequency & rubbish.
I am interested in D.I.G. updates
Many thanks.
Nadine
Mark
When working with datafeeds, I think a little differently to a lot of people. At the moment, the tool works with individual pages on a site, and does not generate huge sites automatically from datafeeds. Why? Because sites generated that way contain no unique content and don’t do well in Google unless you add more value. That’s not to say that the tool wont evolve to include a feature that can generate entire sites (it is actually easy to do that from where the tool is today, its just not something I personally want). The 100 people who buy this tool will have a big say in how it develops. I am not selling a tool and leaving it at that. The tool will be developed agressively to make it the best it can be, and that is where the 100 people come in – feedback, wishlists etc. I would say that the tool that will be sold is probably only 10% of the tool it will become.
BTW, weather is really hot now. Summer has taken its time coming, but I think it is finally here
How will we find out if we can be one of the 100 to try this out? I like that you can write about something, add a few products and get some good sales. Might be easier than adding one at a time too.
Looking forward to it.
Rhonda
I’ll announce its release via the notification list, and once 100 sales is reached, it will be removed from sale. First come, first served. There are only about 170 on the notification list, so I doubt it will sell out immediately. It may go to my newsletter subscribers to fill the last few spots. I will also give you plenty of warning about when the release will happen.
Hi Andy,
What will be the price of your datafeed software?
Thanks,
Dhiraj
Price will be announced once I am ready for release.
Andy,
I await with interest as want to be able to do this by being unique, innovative and by adding value.
There is a good review of datafeedr here:
netprofitstoday.com/blog/datafeedr-affiliate-store-solution-for-wordpress-bloggers
The other 2 popular alternatives are:
PopShops
wordpressdatafeedimport.com/wpdfi
Plus there is a useful simple video tutorial on datafeeds here:
affiliates-world.com/affiliate_datafeed_site/1.html
Thanks Noel. I have seen DatafeedR and think it does a lot of things right. My big concern with it is that they control the feeds. If they went out of business or decided to quit for whatever reason, what would happen to the sites? My guess is that you would no longer be able to update the sites as they are updating the feeds for you.
The Datafeed Import script at wordpressdatafeedimport.com/wpdfi is not what I want to create here. I would like to hear if anyone is making good money from sites built with that script. Also, do those scripts update the site, or are you left with old products as soon as a feed is updated?
A lot of datafeed software and scripts create entire sites just out of a datafeed. That is not my intention here as a lack of unique content is dooming the site to failure. My idea with this software is to allow integration of datafeeds into quality sites with the bloodsugardiabetic.com pages I have shown above a good example.
Would be interested in this especially integrated with cart such as is commerce or Miva)
I wont be putting any cart features in this software, sorry.
Hi Andy
I actually use Associate-o-matic (Amazon) and BANS on my travel site. Originally I wanted to see what they would do, which turned out to be not so much, and frankly I have kept them on more as a service to members. One consequence of this is an amazing number of pages and backlinks (2,364,931 external backlinks from 21290 domains according to majesticseo.com!).
BUT these are really useless as most come from Amazon and Ebay (you can tell by drilling deeper) and have no effect as far as Google is concerned. In fact, I am sometimes worried they may have a deleterious effect on my rankings.
Looking at your examples, it seems to me that the most effective use for datafeeds is in targeted niches where relevance is obvious, and there is substantial content on the same page. Of course, finding relevant feeds may be a problem, and some kind of filtering system to improve relevancy of content would be useful,e.g. by checking for the presence of certain words in items.
Apart from drawing in feeds from external sources, it would also be useful to be able to use one’s own database as a source. I’m a great believer in never using two programs when you can get one to do both jobs!
Just a few thoughts, looking forward to future developments.
Best wishes,
Tony
Hi Andy
Received your email thanks.
Will the app be able to use feeds from any merchant? but in particular ShareaSale?
Any idea of when you’ll have it finished?
JC
Hi John
Yes, the software will work with any flat file datafeed (not XML). I have tried it with CJ, Shareasale and Trade Doubler so far without any issues. I will be hoping to find a way to convert XML to flat file so that those feeds can be used as well.
Hi Andy:
In your last update you stated:
“Obviously I wont be able to add every
requested feature, and my primary goal with this tool is to create
something a little different.”
Can you elaborate on what you’re thinking?
Thanks,
Jim
Sorry Jamie, but I prefer to keep my ideas under wraps for now.
Hi Dr Andy, its great anticipation that I await your emails every sunday and really enjot every section of the articles. I am looking forward to the data feed for the websites and will be part of the first 100 to buy that. When do u feel it will come out. I shall get the other beta version you have created with niche blur prints, will download it later tonight and check it out too.
RE-ADSENCE SYSTEM.
Hi Andy,
I refer to Newsletter #256 and a project you are working on multiple high quality sites designed with adsense in mind.
I think this is a good idea as I note Joel Peterson has also devised a system of creating many mini sites to generate small income returns per site. As you say it all adds up in the end.
Your idea of course, takes this step further by building quality websites,(the opposite to mini ones you might say), is an interesting concept. Depending on cost as against those of a mini-site, I think you will find some webmasters attracted to any adsense system you might come up with.
Regards
Dave