Last thursday night, I found out that 98% of my blog post was copied word for word including the original images in a Filipino-owned forum (only the image with me in it was removed). This resulted to my site losing a lot of traffic considering I was the only blogger who had a screenshot of the subject of my post. Google ranked the unauthorized copied post higher than the original and my post didn’t come out of search results.
While we can look at it as a form of flattery, it is still unethical. Sadly, it happens a lot in the online world. With this in mind, let me share with you some tips regarding posting stuff online. Hope this helps all of us while we continue with our online journey.
DOs & DON’Ts:
- blog passionately, what excites you, what you know
- ensure you follow your company’s guidelines on blogging (or else you might get fired)
- respond to your commenters
- put a disclaimer on your blog identifying how readers view your content, e.g. sign up for creative commons
- always cite sources and links, including images
- When you like something online and want to “quote” it, be sure to take only a snippet or at the most, 1 to 2 paragraphs then link back to the source.
- obey copyright— is the text, audio, image or video you are including licensed under “fair use“?
- When in doubt, *ask* the content owner for permission first.
- Always be respectful whether you blog, disagree with other bloggers or when you comment.
- Remember when you blog, you can also be sued for libel.
- do not get the image link from another site and embed it on your own, even if you link back.
- do not copy entire post and publish it on your website (even if you link back).
- do not lie when you blog; readers can tell if you’re lying
- do not spam other sites with your links.
These DOs & DONTs also could be applied to forums & social networking sites.
You can also checkout the ff. sites for tips on blogging:
Now, what if you find out that your content was stolen? Here’s what you can do:
- Ask the person who stole your content to delete it
- Report that your content was stolen (blog it! share it on social media)
- Ask Google under DMCA provisions to block the offending site
- If you still want to pursue legal action, seek the advice of a lawyer and be prepared for a long legal battle
wow! good thing you did something! xoxo
yep, the guy apologized right after I sent him a message via facebook.
That's too bad. So did you contact the content thief? Did he delete all your content to his forum? I am puzzled on how Google rank the one that just posted your content over your own blog which has been indexed by Google already.
Anyways those are useful tips.
Yes I did. he removed the 1st post but my entire content is still in the forum until now.
Re: Google Ranking, it's all about SEO. That site is SEO-intensive. And I heard that the site does this a lot, they copy the whole post. Tsk tsk!
There's a link to a set of government regulations regarding copyright and plagiarism online, although the site address escapes me at the moment. One thing of note, however, is that it's maddeningly unclear on the subject of online content.
That said, one other thing that you can do in response to the plagiarist is to contact the blogging service or hosting provider for his/her site. Most blogging services are willing to support cases like these, and sometimes a hosting provider will help you out.
While I have little experience with lawsuits over copyright (although I'm aware of others who've gone through this), you'll probably only see a long legal battle if the other party has the resources to try and starve you out. I figure that demanding a settlement from an independent blogger will most likely see faster resolution than, say, filing a case against a television station. It would be better to get some formal legal advice for these situations, though.
thanks Sean! very helpful. A lot of people also shared that informing the hosting provider is the way to go. Coz copying whole content and pictures even if you link back can get your site to shut down.
Yeah I know a thing or two about SEO but I know when it comes to duplicate content the one who “copied” the content, hence is newer will get penalized. Well I guess those aren't true anymore.
my site had bad SEO… I never learned how to do it and been frustrated in searching for one who can help me fix the SEO of this site.
That site however is SEO-optimized.. their posts has always been in the top 5 in google searches.
That usually depends on the hosting provider, actually. Some hosting providers will be interested in giving you a hand, while others won't care a whit. They'll probably be more receptive to the danger of litigation, though.
yeah that's correct.
Thanks for sharing Sean! 🙂
Okay what exactly about SEO you want to know? You can check out my article about Alexa ranking and Google PageRank in my blog here -> http://www.nothingbutrandom.com/google-pagerank… and my article about my 3 month old blog http://www.nothingbutrandom.com/my-three-month-…
I'll check them out, thanks thanks! 🙂
Ok just fire away your questions if you have any.
BTW, Google this -> Alexa Ranking Tips and you'll find my article in fourth place (been there for 2 months now, a few days after I published it)
Can I contact you via your YM id? I really need help haahaha! 🙂
Sure, I just accepted your YM request.
Hey, Roch! Thanks for sharing this! =) I love your site, and I learn a lot from it. Thanks, thanks! 😉
Even prayers on-line (like Yahoo Groups) are being copied. Hay! =(
Anyway, can I share this on Facebook? Thanks. =)
yes, ofcourse! 🙂