To Simple Machines Forum (SMF) Admins : Building links.

The SMFoogle Network

What is the SMFoogle Network?
The SMFoogle Network is a voluntary network of forum administrators who display RSS content from SMFoogle.

Which RSS feeds are available?
RSS feed for new forum submissions : http://www.smfoogle.com/rss.php?list=latest&s=P&p=1
RSS feed for top sites : http://www.smfoogle.com/rss.php?list=top&s=P&p=1

How and where do I display the rss feeds?
The free content management system (CMS) known as Tinyportal allows for the creation and display of RSS blocks. I'm sure there are other systems that are compatible with SMF that will do just as well at displaying the feeds. In addition, I would recommend that you add the rss feeds into your blogs in order to create even more exposure. Consult the website that offers your software of choice for further details regarding the displaying of rss feeds.

Do you have any other recommendations?
Yes. One strong recommendation is to use the RSS Feed Poster modification on your forum. In essence, what this will do is allow you to capture the rss feeds from SMFoogle as SMFoogle updates and approves new sites. New sites contained in the rss feeds will then be posted into your forum automatically. This provides a permanent link to other SMF sites. Another reason why this modification is heavily recommended is because as new sites are approved for inclusion in the SMFoogle directory, older sites will drop off the list. By using the RSS Feed Poster modification, you're helping to ensure that there will always be a link to other SMF sites on your forum.

How does this benefit me?
Doing this will benefit everyone. The link to your site will be transported all over the SMFoogle network. When Google, Yahoo, or MSN (and other search engines) find those links, the number of backlinks to your forum will increase -- automatically. Each link to your site counts as a positive "vote" toward your site. And the more "votes" that your site has, the more likely it is that your site will be displayed before sites with similar themes or content on the search engine results pages.

What is SMFoogle's content?
We feature forums running the Simple Machines Forum software. That's it. All other sites will be denied. The administrator of SMFoogle personally validates that each site in the directory somehow links to a forum running SMF. This is why SMFoogle has the domain of SMFoogle.com.

Sounds great. How can I support this effort?
The best way to support this effort is by creating an rss feed on your personal blog or forum that uses the rss feeds from SMFoogle. Placing a link to SMFoogle.com on your site will help as well.

Where is SMFoogle hosted?
We're hosted on a shared server. As the popularity of this free service increases, the limitations of a shared hosting environment will become more and more apparent. When the day comes, this site will move to dedicated hosting. However, dedicated hosting costs much more than shared hosting. While Adsense advertisements and shopping in our Amazon affiliate stores offsets the cost of hosting, the amount of revenue from these sources is not enough to pay for dedicated hosting at this current time. If you are the administrator of a reputable hosting company, and can offer SMFoogle a special rate please contact us.