Most of us get upset when someone steals our words and passes them off as their own. Some folks get their panties (or undies – probably unwashed with holes in them) in a bunch if someone uses a picture they took, even if they get a link. If you don’t want your ideas or content to be stolen, the only preventative is to not publish it. In my opinion, once it’s on the web, it becomes less yours anyway. Even if it is yours, it’s not that important. However, I avoid using other people’s ideas as often as possible. Really, the only way to write originally is to write fiction, poetry, about your cat, your opinion—everything else comes from someone else; otherwise, you wouldn’t know about it in the first place.
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Posts Tagged blogging ethics
Is it possible to steal blog content ethically? The answer is yes, but if you follow these guidelines, you will be forced into actually thinking, thus creating your own original content. Don’t get the wrong idea from this article’s evil title! This is more about being influenced by other content and learning, not stealing. There are many different types of bloggers, and blogging means different things to different people. This is basically my personal blog and is not niche related, but I do apply some seo tactics to gain search engine traffic.
The thing is, unless you are just writing original poetry, fiction, creating your own art and so forth; your blog is not original (not 100% original). It is impossible to be 100% original because everything we do is influenced by things others have already done.
Let’s take a look at some particular blog models:
The News Reporting Blogger
Many bloggers re-report the news. Some are into politics, entertainment, trends and so on. If you are not the person who actually broke the story, you are stealing (according to the AP). A recent hot topic is media giant The Associated Press and their republishing guidelines. Take a look at it:
AP republishing guidelines
I do find the AP’s republishing guidelines to be ridiculous – those prices are a bit high. Every major news source (like CNN, Fox and others) has permission from the AP to use their stories, but they pay for it and give them credit. If I announce that comedian George Carlin died on my blog (like many did yesterday), I obviously heard it from somewhere – does that make me a thief? I don’t think so, but if it were up to the media corporations, you would be fined and charged with a crime.
In my opinion, the AP should be thanking and paying us to get their info out there! (as long as we give them credit)
If you put a picture of Britney Spears on your blog, but didn’t actually take the picture yourself, are you a content thief? In some people’s eyes, yes you are. Here are some basic ethical guidelines for using other people’s content.
- If you use a picture from someone else, make sure you at least link and give credit to the originator. In blogging or Internet terms, links are good and you want lots of them – especially one way links to you. How many uncredited pictures do you have on your site? I have 12.
- If you quote another blogger, give them a link and full credit.
- Never copy and paste entire paragraphs from another blogger or site owner – it’s rude and wrong. Hell, I’ll drive across the country and burn your house down for doing that (ok, maybe I won’t…haha)
- If another site owner has pictures which are clearly marked as their property, do not steal them and put them on your site. If you like it that much, ask them for permission. Some authors are really touchy about it.
- Most bloggers like links and like to be quoted. If someone lets you know they didn’t like you using their information, remove it and apologize. You can quote me for free as long as I get a link.
- Just give links and credit every time. I have been thanked for using other people’s quotes and pictures, but I give links and credit. I have never been asked to remove a link or picture.
- Feel free to link to this post. I’d like it if you linked to all of my posts:)
The Money or Affiliate Marketing Blogger
This is where the most stealing happens of all blog types. I personally may or may not have other blogs in this niche that are not associated with this blog. I don’t want Google or anybody else knowing what I do or what I own. While some consider that in itself to be unethical, I think of it as being smart.
Here’s how I would go about creating content for this niche: Don’t steal outright. If you went to school, you should know how to write a book report. If you read ten articles about using adsense from other sites, you probably learned something from them. You can create your own unique blog post from those ten very easily. Read them, learn and add some of your own ideas – don’t just cut and paste. Don’t just change a few words, change it completely and make it your own. Check out my post on article marketing for a more in depth look into doing this.
It’s much like writing a song. There are thousands of hit songs that have the same exact musical chord progression on all of them. The songs are all different, but the general backbone is exactly the same. If someone had copywritten the D-C-G chord progression, thousands of number one singles never would have happened. Originality is your job. It is impossible to write a 100% original make money blogging post, but you can give it your personality and spin – that’s what gives you credibility and originality.
Now, blatant stealing happens every second on the Internet, but if you are at least honest, give credit and a link, you are doing better than 99% of everyone else. If you bitch too much about stealing and protecting every word you write, you are asking for congress to meter the Internet – we sure as hell don’t want that.
When you publish anything on line, it’s like putting a brand new Sony Playstation out on the street corner and not expecting anyone to steal it. They will steal it…period. Welcome to the Internet.
Having said that, I still don’t want new protection laws and Internet rules. If big corporations had their way, there would be two separate Internet’s: The fast lane for paid businesses, and the slow lane for everyone else. What big corporation wouldn’t want to actually own the Internet? Let’s hope that never happens and we retain net neutrality (click the link to see how you can help preserve our rights). Basically, you have to take care of your own backyard. If some scraper site republishes an entire post from you, take a look at the ads on their site. I recently had it happen to me. I reported an adsense violation to Google, and the site was removed in less than a week. So take care of your own content, give credit for every picture or quote you use and just be a good blogger…it’s not that much to ask for.
I am not very fond of using social bookmarking to promote my blog. I think people often forget that blogging is social networking, but get overly caught up in different sites to build traffic, like Digg and many others. My favorite is Stumbleupon. What most people don’t realize is how much traffic a single stumble can bring. Because of how the Stumbleupon algorithm works, it is fairly common to receive massive quantities of traffic from only one person stumbling you at the right time. Every now and then you get that lottery stumble, which can generate thousands of visitors in just a few hours.
On May 19th, my great blogging buddy Marzie – the Genie Princess stumbled my homepage (thanks Marzie!). I had reached around 80 visitors that day, until that magical stumble! A few hours later, I noticed I was up to 674 readers and 969 page views in under an hour – that was quite an explosion of traffic. I ended up with almost a thousand visitors before I went to sleep. Many of those visitors left comments and viewed more than one article, which was fantastic. You don’t always get such an explosion of traffic, but every now and then, you do. It’s freaking great when it happens.
I wrote an article about how to use Stumble correctly: Stumble Upon: A Cool Ethical Approach with a few solid tips and a few great links you should check out. Here are a few more:
- Don’t stumble your own articles – a TOS violation
- Don’t trade stumbles with people – a TOS violation
- Don’t ask to be stumbled – a TOS violation
- Try to review what you stumble – many people don’t bother. I explain how in my link above.
- Use it often, and it will increase your chances of being stumbled
- Let people know you’ve stumbled them in a post comment
- Make sure you review every time you stumble
All these tips are basic, but if you violate Stumbleupon’s terms of service, they will drop your account. I know many people this has happened to. It’s a great way to support your fellow bloggers. Many people use social networks only to gain things for themselves, they rarely do things only for others. This is what is wrong with society as well as in blogging. I use Stumbleupon everyday because I know how powerful it is. I stumble people’s homepages, and also when I see a really good post. Just keep the Stumbleupon toolbar open, and use it liberally. If you use the stumble tool bar, take a look at who stumbled your site. You do that by clicking the little white balloon while looking at a particular page. The ethical and honest way to use it, is to stumble lots of people and hopefully you’ll get stumbled too – not because you’ve asked (hey I’ve asked before but I won’t anymore), but because someone chose to on their own.
Sometimes I wish I had a different approach to blogging, but I am happy with my methodology. I have written many Bobby’s Batch posts where I link to my fellow blogger’s fine posts. In my opinion, it is the best way to help people out. If blogging worked by such ethical and kind giving, the blogosphere would be a better place. My blog is rarely found in Google searches landing on my homepage. With Google searches, my individual blog posts are found, which is what I want. It is the content that matters, not the homepage. However, I am trying to change my views on many things in blogging, be much more positive and less critical of what other people do.
One thing I really like to do on each of my Bobby’s Batch posts, is that each have a unique title and an article included before the links are listed. I have a few blogging observations this week I’d like to share with you.
About Pagerank
I have many pet peeves about blogging and I believe them to be rooted in my personal sense of ethics. One area most bloggers do not understand is concerning Google pagerank. I’m often perplexed when I see a personal blogger (or any blogger) displaying their pagerank in their sidebar – it’s obvious they have no idea what pagerank is or why it exists. Pagerank determines your ability to be found through a google search while they are looking for answers of some type. If you write a personal blog, especially about your life, etc, then pagerank is absolutely meaningless to you.
No matter how high it is, you will not be found through a search unless they enter your blog title in the search bar – how many people will ever do that?. This is especially true if you have a non-niche blogspot blog. To me, any stat in your sidebar, is much like wearing a clothing item with price tags hanging off of it – it’s just a little tacky. It’s like wearing a t-shirt with your college diploma imprinted on it.
Much of my outlook stems from martial arts, Zen and musical instrument playing/building. One of my favorite comparisons is a martial arts teacher wearing a black belt with ten stripes on it and the word ‘Master’ written in big letters across his back. Any real martial artist knows this probably means he cannot fight nor has any conception of martial art combat. I think what I’m saying is it is what’s inside that matters, just like my perception of people. Maybe I’m a little too uptight or hardcore about this, but I’m trying to get over it.
I am a musician and have been playing stringed instruments for decades. When I hear modern pop musicians, the music itself has become irrelevant – much of it written on a PC program using patches and samples. The music is usually written around a star vocalist by someone else, not by the singer. There are very few musical artists that actually write the music for their own songs. Nowadays, a great guitarist or drummer has become irrelevant. I cannot name hardly any gifted musicians in today’s popular music scene. They are simply a rare breed. The ones who do make it are extremely lucky. Just look at rap music. I am not saying that all rappers don’t have talent, what I’m saying is that the music backing their rap is ridiculous and requires absolutely no talent to compose. An artist who doesn’t write their own music (actually compose it and write in down in musical notation) should not be allowed to win a Grammy award. If they had this rule, 95% of all Grammy winners wouldn’t even qualify for an award. It’s like McDonald’s hamburgers: just because they’ve served billions doesn’t mean they taste good. They are like fast food TV dinners. I cook my hamburgers at home…you know, the ones that really are good.
Views on Entrecard
Lately, I’ve found my blogging, or how I visit other bloggers being taken over with things like Entrecard. Blogging is not about how many points you get on Entrecard. The idea of writing meaningful content has been replaced with this click happy attitude of point collecting, showing off stats and so forth. It wasn’t like that a few years ago – this is an all new type of fever, and it’s getting worse. The truth about Entrecard, is while it may increase your traffic, the traffic you get is 90% one second visits, which is really bad for for any blog. This is why I only use it sparingly. Also, if you use Adsense or many other PPC programs and you have the ads on the front of your homepage, you will become smartpriced and render your profits worthless. It’s so much better to only have ads on individual posts, and not on your homepage. Entrecard will increase your bounce rate (the quickness by which people instantly leave to click onto the next Entrecard site..haha), which is what you don’t want. Before I installed Entrecard, the average visitor looked through 7 articles on my site and spent 10 minutes looking through them. Now, it’s down to one pageview and a two minute visit average. I am seriously thinking of removing it from my site, but with so many friends depending on it, I have fallen in to a pit of dependence and am afraid I may lose many readers if I remove it. It’s like nasal spray – once you start using it, you can’t stop because your nose will stay stuffy for a few agony filled weeks upon quitting. It’s a definite catch-22. I probably use Entrecard for 5 minutes per day and click one if I see it. I only pay a max of 128 credits for an ad and I have never turned down an ad. I see some people rejecting 35% of all attempts to purchase – what is that all about? If I see someone rejecting a larger percentage of ads, I will not even attempt to get one as I don’t want to ruin my 0.00% rejection stat…hahaha!
Ok, that’s enough negative critiquing of Entrecard. It really depends on how you as an individual use it. It really does offer more positive benefits than it does negative and I have made several new friends through it. I think like anything, it can be detrimental if you overuse it and depend on it too much. People forget you could just as easily go through the main directory of Blog Catalog visiting everyone there, leave comments, make friends and gain new readers the old fashioned way.
There’s really no way to judge whether content is good or not, at least from an algorithmic standpoint. That is really up to the masses. I also realize that I don’t control anyone but myself and the content I write, so I will not take the outside world personally. On another aspect, I have many blogging friends, all writing different content. Some write only about their family, some are just having fun, some write with stunning brilliance and some are trying to get rich – most fall somewhere in the middle. No matter what they write, I still read because they are friends!
What it boils down to, is that we are all in this thing together and amazingly, we are all getting along quite well. I am just trying to come to terms with my perception of the blogosphere. I don’t like show offs, but I may still like the person doing the showing off. I think it’s a crazy thing to call yourself a liberal or conservative, because none of us are truly one or the other. I am an independent in my political, religious and every other belief I have – chances are, so are each and everyone of you on a deeper level. Now for this weeks links:
How To Upgrade To The Latest Version of WordPress – from Garry Conn. There are lots of sites that can show you how to upgrade your self-hosted Wordpress blog, but this one is actually easy to understand. It shows you how to do it step by step via FTP, which is really the correct way to do it.
Euromillions Rollover Contest – comment here – from FiddyP. My buddy Andy Bailey’s new contest. All you have to do is leave a comment to win a great prize. As you may know, I won his last contest and quickly received my brand spanking new set of headphones. While you’re there, check out his many fantastic articles.
Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less – from Rolando. Go to this post for information on how you can help convince congress to drill for oil here in America. Like Rolando and many of you, I can barely afford to drive with these skyrocketing gas prices. The way you change things is by simply getting involved.
Perfectly Imperfect – By Catatonic Kid. She is truly a brilliant writer and is definitely worth reading. This post is but one of many great ones. Be sure to visit her, you see some truly introspective passion.
Incomplete Figure – By Francis Scudellari of Caught In The Stream. This is a strange and undulating poem. It’s actually one of my favorites of all the poems I’ve read on line. I love the unusual perspective. I am new to his blog, but really enjoy his writing style and his unique drawings.
The Blood River Flesh Hunter – A bizarre short story I wrote a few months back (one of my personal faves of my own work). Please read the above poem and then read my story, you will feel very unusual when you’re done…I promise!
You Know You’re a Flirt When – Written by The Sandman, one of my favorite writers on line, offers this fantastic and hilarious post. Highly recommended! This is a late addition to this batch – I’m so glad I saw it.
You My Niche
Oct 24
Why Most Niche Blogs Are Worthless
So you’ve started your blog and you’ve read the advice of the pros. Do you believe that by following the advice of big money making blogs, you will be rich? Most people who follow the advice of professionals will be right where they want you to be, beneath them. Niche is pronounced “nitch” in case you didn’t know. I used to think it rhymed with quiche…LOL!
Love Yourself Love Humanity
Oct 22
My Contribution To the Blogging For Friendship Writing Project
The Storm Has Passed
For the first time in my entire life, I am not depressed. This may not sound like much of an accomplishment to you, but after hating myself for years, it is nothing less than astonishing to me. No longer do I blame the wicked clouds of bad luck which seemed to shadow every aspect of my being.
Ethical Commenting- Comment Luv
Oct 11
Posted by Bobby Revell in blogging tips, wordpress
Beyond Ethical Commenting
Having a do-follow comment policy is very cool and really nice for your readers. While many of you might think this has nothing to do with blogging ethics, in the land of Revellian, it does. Does it mean you are unethical by not being do-follow? Of course not.
I look at it as being a notch above mere ethics! Being a giving member of your blogging community makes you ethically cool!
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Tags: andy bailey, blogging ethics, comment luv, commenting, ethical Commenting, ethics, plug ins, readership, wordpress, Wordpress plug in