Black Hat Tip: Dapper Content Scraper

So you’re into some black hat stuff? If you’re more into the idea of setting up a blog that you won’t have to update yourself, you might want to take a look at a service called dapper.

dapper is actually an ad network, but they also have a little side service that will let you copy content from any website on the internet. It was created as a tool to help them create targeted ads for their service, but there’s a much funner way you can use it.

I definitely recommend watching a demo on creating a feed using dapper, but I’ll go through a few steps here.
If you want to see if there are existing dappers already, enter the URL of the website you want to grab some content from.

In my example I chose CNN.com. Then you can choose which type of format you want it to output. If you plan to autoblog this content on a Wordpress install using a plugin such as FeedWordPress, you should probably choose RSS feed.

If you want to make a customized feed, choose “Create a Dapp.” The site you’ve chosen will show up within the dapper internal browser.

Here, you’ll have the ability to choose pages from the site that you want to copy. When you find a couple of pages you like, click the button, “Add to Basket.”

In order to get the best results, you should stick with pages that have the same template or dapper will get confused.

Now that you have a couple of pages, click “Next Step” over on the left side of the screen. dapper will analyze the pages and then provide you with the content it found and will then let you choose blocks of content from the pages that you want it to extract.

All you have to do is select the areas you want and if it selects areas you don’t want just click on them again to remove the selections.

When you’re happy with your selections, select “Save Field” at the bottom of the screen.

Give your feed a name and Save.

Click “Next Step” on the left side of your screen again and you’ll be able to preview your feed. If you like it, save it.

On the next screen you can give it a name, description, some tags and the option to make private if you want.

Now hit the check box next to the feed you want and hit the RSS button that shows up below it.

There’s your feed, do with it as you wish.

Of course it’s against the TOS of dapper to copyright infringe so be careful not to get your account terminated or anything.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 27th, 2009 at 4:31 am and is filed under Black Hat. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.