What determines the quality of an article? The perceived usefulness of the information it provides or the integrity of the author. I bet you don’t feel safe acting on information provided by a known cheat! You will rather do business with a fellow who has proved that he is honest. Men and women of high integrity get peoples attention effortlessly. They can sway people’s opinion even when their stand on an issue conflicts with experts opinion. The bottom line is people trust and listen to men of integrity.
It is based on this knowledge that I have been laboring to build a good reputation online. I want people to know me as a man of integrity. Also, I strife to ensure that my websites gain and maintain credibility. I was terribly upset when I discovered that some new bloggers lacks this knowledge and they have been stealing my articles!
Why will someone steal my content and paste it verbatim? This really came as a shock to me. I consider my articles to be the work of a budding blogger (amateur). Yet some newbie bloggers are constantly stealing my content and pasting it verbatim on their site without my permission! Yet they are trying to build successful business online.
At first I was angry because I was scared that their action will earn me a penalty from Google. Big Brother Google frowns at duplicate contents and penalize webmasters for it. It is a sure way of getting Google Page Rank Spank!. So I decided I was going to sue those guys and write stinking articles about them. They deserve any insult I hurl at them, don’t they?
Well on a second thought, I remembered that one of my goal is to help new bloggers find their feet online by sharing with them my experience. So instead of getting bitter, I decided to write a post about the danger of copying other peoples content and pasting it verbatim.
Simply put, stolen content damages your reputation as an online entrepreneur, and erodes your site credibility! Hey, can you afford that!
Success online is more dependent on your integrity than any other factors put together! If the online community classify you as someone that is trustworthy, a person of high integrity, then you are made. The reason is simple, they will listen to whatever you have to say. Even when you say something wrong, they will give you the benefit of doubt and classify your error as “a genuine mistake”.
However, if you are ever caught and labeled as a dishonest person, then you can consider yourself bankrupt. Just like you, nobody wants to trust a cheat. The online community does not forget dishonesty. It gets etched on STEEL and is stored for life! You can be rest assured that the search engine will dig out the story of your misbehavior 50years after the blunder was committed.
If you are in need of articles for your site and you feel too lazy to write them, there are noble ways of getting them.
- Request for guest-posts from other bloggers. You will be pleasantly surprised at the kind of response you will get. I am certain you will receive more than you expected. That will afford you the opportunity to choose the best articles and post them on your site with dignity.
- Get articles from article directories such as www.ezinearticles.com, www.buzzle.com, www.ArticlesBase.com, www.webpronews.com, www.goarticles.com, www.articlealley.com, www.articlecity.com, www.articledashboard.com, www.digital-women.com, www.articlemaniac.com etc. Such articles are free for re-publishing as long as you keep the copyright details and links provided by the author. The disadvantage of this is that the articles are usually duplicated on other sites beside yours. However, it will not be classified as stolen content.
- Write your own articles even when you don’t feel like. Air your personal opinion on any matter that is of interest to you. At first, the quality of the articles may be poor, but as you build your integrity as an online business owner and sharpens your writing skills, you will become a respected member of the online business community. This in my opinion is the best option.
I often get inspired by reading others articles and jotting down their ideas. However, I always ensure that I write my own opinions in my articles. The content may not be perfect or classified as the work of an expert, however, they are mine and unique. If you read enough of my articles, you will begin to feel that you know me one on one. That is the way it ought to be.
The online community wants to know you as a person. They feel more relax dealing with a person they can trust as a friend. Stolen content will surely misrepresent you and when you get caught as a thief, your reputation is ruined! So stop copying and pasting others content, it is social suicide for your online business. I wish you success in your online ventures. Cheers.
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Tags: Blogging, Entrepreneurship, Tips and Tricks
i can’t remember the website but i’m sure it would be easy to google to find it, but i know there’s a site out there that can quickly compare the entire internet against a website you put into their search engine and bring back any site that has stolen your content. it’s very quick and easy. you don’t even have to register with their site.
amys last blog post..As Promised
Yep, I can’t remember either Amy. There is a website that will quickly match up sites with similar content. It’s not 100% correct but it tries.
Susans last blog post..What are Short Sales?
Thanks Amy. But the problem is what to do after discovering the thief. Often times, I get hold of such thieves from linkbacks showing in my dashboard, or in my technorati. The issue is, what should I do to them? They seem to be increasing by the day 🙁
The website the above posters are trying to recommend is http://www.copyscape.com It is a cool tool I came across a few years ago.
Also, I suspect that the plagiarism you are complaining about is done automatically. There are several useless blogs out there with automatic bots that scan the blogosphere and automatically copy the content and have it republished on their own blog. Their main motive is to make money from your post through ad revenues. 😡
Oluniyi David Ajaos last blog post..How e-gold was brought down
Oluniyi David Ajao, am in love with your counsel. But we can’t remove sharing from the african culture. So the best solution is that when a blogger masters blogging, he will stop stealing other people’s content. So, lets dismiss the case here.
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It is quite interesting to have you visit and drop your thought. I hope you are not equating your funny explaination to an apology for my content you copied verbatim without permission.
I love your determination, but you need to amend your strategy, it may actually come back to haunt you when you have reached the top of the ladder. Cheers.
In the context of the topic at hand, copying information from people’s blogs and publishing on your own blog is called STEALING – in simple English.