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
