This is a subject that I don’t think gets covered enough. If you run a blog, it’s important to keep it up to date, and having the time to write all of that content can be tough. It’s oftentimes much easier just to use someone elses article on your own blog.

This is perfectly acceptable, but there’s some guidelines you need to follow.

First, you need to consider the source of the content. Depending on where you’re getting the content from, there can be specific rules regarding duplicating the content and using it for your own use. Most article directories have this spelled out for you. However, if you decide to pull the content from a personal/business website, you may want to contact the owner to make sure they allow you to use it.

Most content owners are more than happy to allow you to use their content on your blog, but this comes with stipulations. For the most part, you’ll be required to cite the name of the author with a link back to the original source where you got the content from. With article directories, there’s usually code you can copy and paste that already includes this information.

If there are links within the content body, they usually have to stay intact. With article directories, there’s almost always an author resource box, and this will have to accompany the article on your site, otherwise you violate the copyright.

Now, I happen to know of some people who are very adament against people using their articles on other sites. That’s understandable as they put in a lot of time and effort to write high quality content for their site. It’s rightfully there’s, and they have the right to reject anyone from duplicating it.

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!

What actually prompted me to write about this is not from that post I just mentioned; although, it’s the same circumstance. You see, I was just made aware of another blog that published one of my articles and disregarded my policy and proper etiquette of content duplication.

I have already contacted the owner, and hopefully we can get this resolved without any legal action.

I just want to make everyone aware that it is a copyright violation to use someone elses content without proper citation, and in some cases, without the content owners approval. You can face legal action for disregarding this.

Of course, I’m not an attorney or anything, so use your own discretion in this matter. Regardless, there’s always going to be people who don’t follow the “rules” of the internet. Luckily for us they’re the minority. Don’t let this discourage you in any way from using other people’s content when you think your readers could find value in it. And, don’t let this deter you from creating high quality content of your own.

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?