I Hate Thieves! Blogger Steals My Content!
Posted by Alan Mater on Apr 14, 2009
Okay, this post is pretty personal, but there is a lesson here if you’re a marketer online.
Basically what happened is that one of my articles ended up on another blog. Thanks to Google Alerts I found out about. I highly recommend using Google Alerts to keep track of your name and domain name.
Anyway, what this blogger did was take my article from one of the article directories that it’s posted on and put it up on his blog. No biggie, right? Well at first I thought… “awesome, someone likes my article and wants to share it with their readers.”
Well after investigating, I find that, while the person aknowledges that I’m the author, he completely removed my resource box from the article. If you’re familiar with article marketing, you’ll know this is in violation of the author’s copyright.
This guy went even further by not only removing my links, but adding his own throughout the entire article. When I saw this I was quite irked to say the least, and still am.
Luckily (or maybe not) for me he has contact information on his site, so I emailed the owner and asked him to include a link to my site since he blatantly had removed it. Of course, I have yet to get a response. I also told him I would take further action if he didn’t comply (which seems impossible now).
I then went to Whois.com and looked up the contact information and web host for this domain. After finding out the host, it turns out you can’t contact them unless you have an account with them. How convenient, right?
I then decided to leave a comment on the page that my article is on. Well, I found out that the owner had conveniently deleted it. What’s the point of allowing comments if you’re just going to delete them anyway!
My last resort is to post about it here. People like this make me mad. They can’t come up with their own content, so they steal other people’s content and don’t give credit back by at least keeping their links. Yes, my name is there, but that’s just not enough, and it violates the terms of the article directories and the author.
You can view my article as well as check out the blogger who stole my content at http://www.getcashonline.org/work-from-home-online.
I absolutely hate thieves and hope this guy gets what he deserves. I know this problem is everywhere and can’t be avoided. It’s people like this that give the honest people a bad name.
What’s your experience with this? How did you handle it?
Tags: Article Marketing, author, blog, comment, copyright, credit, domain name, google, google alerts, marketing, online, Steals, violation, web host, Whois
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I don’t think it’s really worth doing anything about this kind of thing. It happens too often and most of the sites that scrape content seem to vanish after a while.
David’s last blog post..Free Fluid WordPress Themes and CSS Templates
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Alan Mater
@David@SEM Labs, Hi David, thanks for stopping by.
You’re right. Other than what I tried to do, there’s not much else that can be done. The time spent pursuing further to me wouldn’t be worth it.
The funny thing is that the scraper blogs usually keep your links.
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David
Yeh
I saw a WP plugin that added coypright links to everything in the WP feed. Maybe that could be called scrape bait 
David’s last blog post..How to Stop Your WordPress Blog Getting Hacked
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I hope you no followed that link, at the very least you don’t wanna give him any juice.
I couldn’t find it myself, but JR from http://getinternetmarketingstrategies.com/ has an AWESOME article on this very topic with lots of useful resources.
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..Understanding The New Rules Of SEO
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Alan Mater
@Dennis Edell, Hey Dennis. Nice to see you here again.
Yeah, I know. I decided to remove the hyperlink as I thought of that myself.
Thanks for the link. I’ll check out the resources and see if I can get anywhere.
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Dennis Edell
@Alan Mater, If not just contact her, she’d happily send you the link.
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..Understanding The New Rules Of SEO
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Alan Mater
@Dennis Edell, Will do… thanks.
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Twitter: farffa
:
This has happened to me as well, and I guess it will happen in the future as well.There are always people who take credit for things they haven´t done.Nothing to worry about, 99% of people play the game right and give you a link back.
Tom’s last blog post..Marketing With Articles
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Alan Mater
@Tom @ Home Business Marketing Tips, Hey Tom, thanks for stopping by.
You’re right, and this kind of thing has always been happening. It just gets under my skin a bit. Luckily for us they are the minority.
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That’s lousy. Blatant stealing online is pathetic beyond belief.
You could write a series of followup posts that focus on content-stealing, making sure to include the name of the blog….it would probably show up in the SERPs should someone search for that particular site.
Barbara Ling, Virtual Coach’s last blog post..Offer PREMIUM Content via these 7 Wordpress Membership Plugins/Software Goodies
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Alan Mater
@Barbara Ling, Virtual Coach, Hi Barbara, thanks for stopping by my blog.
That’s a great idea! Thanks for the tip
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[...] Download my FREE ebook and learn how to properly format your articles to get the best return on your efforts. Feedjit Live Blog Stats « I Hate Thieves! Blogger Steals My Content! [...]
yeah i just checked his site out its doing poorly as far as ranking is concerned his alexa ranking is through the rough high (mean just below 4 million) he has no compete.com or quantcast ranking and his posts seem like none of them were written by him since he can barely write like the other post you wrote you received the email he sent you- was a big indicator that i just knew it wasn’t his writing since the posts are well written and his grammar is so poor
almir’s last blog post..Vital Tips That Can Aid Any Blogger
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Alan Mater
@almir, Yeah, it’s sad in a sense. I’m not sure what his goals are, but he’s definitely not going to make much money from his blog, if any at all.
There are ways to monetize a blog using duplicate content and actually drive traffic to it and make money. You just have to know what you’re doing.
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maybe he just likes your blogs and wants to share it to other too, but then its stealing. Nice post, thanks for this one.
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Alan Mater
@Glass Beads, That’s fine with me if someone truly likes my content and wants to use it on their blog. However, I expect recognition for the post as well as the post being unaltered. The person also needs to link it back to the original source. That’s just common courtesy.
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Glass Beads
@Alan Mater, did you discuss it with that guy? to think, he stole your content, maybe he did it to others too just to have something in his blog.
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Alan Mater
@Glass Beads, No I actually didn’t. That’s a very good possibility and something I didn’t even think of. It wouldn’t surprise me, but I haven’t gone through it to see.
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Glass Beads
@Alan Mater, maybe you need to alan because if you don’t then he’ll continue stealing your contents here and show or tell others that he wrote it.
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Alan Mater
@Glass Beads, That’s a good point. I’m going to take a look at his blog more closely and get in touch with him if I see he’s doing this to others.
or maybe he/she’s dumb that they can’t post their own topics and can’t write any contents about it.
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Alan Mater
@Glass Beads, Well, I think it comes down to people being lazy. I do know that not everyone is a natural writer and many find it difficult. But, that comes back to them being too lazy to learn and come up with their own content.
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he/she’ll never learn no matter how it takes if he/she continues this thing.
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Alan Mater
@Glass Beads, Agreed. The amount of money made from a blog like that will not be much at all, either.
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[...] I personally don’t have a problem with other people using my content as long as they keep all links intact and cite the reference from which they got the content from. That’s all I ask. I have had some problems with this in the past, as you can read from this post: I Hate Thieves! Blogger Steals My Content! [...]
I just discovered that someone was using my blog posts last night. It really annoyed me, so I looked up the domain owner’s details via “Whois”. Sent him a curt e-mail.
Will be interesting to see if he keeps doing it. If he does I’ll send an e-mail to his blog host.
I’ll give up if I have to keep upping the ante endlessly, though. That’s just a waste of energy.
Still, it’s very annoying. I also feel sorry for someone who is like this. Have they no shame, or pride? It’s a truly pathetic thing to do.
It also seems to make no sense. Why don’t they put the energy they use copying stuff writing something original? It’s honest, and will benefit them more in the long run.
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Alan Mater
@Matt, Hi Matt, firstly, thanks for visiting and commenting on my blog.
I hear your pain and totally agree it’s very annoying. Unfortunately, as you pointed out, it’s mostly a waste of energy on our part to try and fight everyone that does this.
I’ve had more instances of this happening since I wrote this post, and I don’t even bother doing anything as it’s mostly going to be in vain. People like this are the minority, so it’s better to just spend your energy on more fruitful efforts.
Nonetheless, it does get under my skin, so I can totally relate to how you feel. Hopefully this will be an isolated incident for you.
Take care!
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