Kingpins of Bad Neighbourhoods
I was chatting to another blogger last night over Skype and he happened to mention something that was getting under his skin. Another blogger repeatedly referenced topics that first appeared on my friends blog but this other guy never credited him, not once.
This can happen absolutely accidentally. We all pretty much read the same blogs in any niche, hear much the same news, have similar ideas. The examples he gave were very compelling though. It doesn’t help that the two blogs are not so much in the same niche but in direct competition.
There is no way to avoid this, you have to just let it ride and hope your audience is smart enough to work it out. It happens to all of us.
Our one piece of protection is our own uniqueness. If you always create rather than reproduce, rephrase or rework you will be more original and therefore more valuable over the longer term. People who rehash tired old topics and formula will start to lose their audience over time whereas yours will grow as word of mouth spreads.
Another thing to give you confidence without resorting to attacks is to remember that this practice is the symptom of something deeper. In New York the police discovered if they painted over graffiti and fixed up broken windows the overall crime rate went down in those areas. Someone with such poor ethics likely has built their own bad neighborhood. Likely their followers will be much the same or else will see the light soon enough.
People who “steal” are working from a position of weakness. They acknowledge they are either too lazy or not smart enough to create their own so they have to take yours. In most cases you will find one piece of bad behavior among a bigger pattern of overall bad habits. If they are rotten enough to take credit for your work, what else might they be getting up to? Look at their blog and I am sure you will find all sorts of other abusive tactics going on.
With this in mind my advice to my friend, and my advice to you, stick to your ethics. Do not call them out on what they get up to, rise above it. Continue to do the best work you can, provide value and delight, help people solve their problems and entertain. While you are doing all you can to help they will be doing all they can to take. People are smart, they will work out who is the good guy eventually.
Have you ever come across this, or had to deal with a unscrupulous blogger? How did you manage the situation? Let me know in the comments …
Tags: blogging, tips, news, advice
Posted on June 09th, 2007 by Chris Garrett in Blogging
Hey Chris,
I love what you wrote here. I’ve never dealt with it in blogging, but I’ve seen it happen with websites and articles- basically plagiarism.
You’re right- if someone is directly plagiarising from me, then they can’t be me.
In the case of someone like the example you stated, I would actually reach out to that person. Say: “Hi,” and perhaps even thank them for getting the word out about the ideas you’ve been writing about.
I wrote an article awhile back on this topic that might be of interest:
Marketing and copyright lessons from the Grateful Dead.
Nope, it’s not a blog post- it was before I took an interest in blogging. It’s just a plain, ‘ol article.
I think the key, as always, is to stay in one’s heart and be authentic. Copycats will soon show up to be who they are- because they can’t be you. And, if push comes to shove, the publish time on your blog will prove the point to anyone who questions who is the real one.
It is so funny to read this now. Last night I was reading a handful blogs all related to a particular subject and the last one I read, the author repeated word for word what someone else had said on a subject. I had to check to see if it was the same person because it was the same words. Even if the opinion was the same, it should have been referenced and/or reworded.
great post!
Chris,
You are on target about not letting others bad behavior effect you. This is a primary point and avoids the general nastiness of pride and ego that we see crop up now and then.
Many blog because they want to share, inspire and educate. Could there not be cases where you could reach out to a plagerizer with the motive of education or being of assistance?
It takes courage. Doing nothing can be mistakenly viewed as an endorsement or permission. Standing up, sharing an opinion, offering assistance is valid, and may not include changing the other person’s behavior.
But what if it helped? What if there was a change? Imagine the benefits to all involved!
Good post Chris.
When I first starting blogging on my travel blog I would take news articles from the BBC, and add a few words myself.
I quickly realised that this wasn’t going to get me far with duplicate content etc. and changed. Now, if I do blog [or rant in my case] about a specific news article, then I add a snippet of the news article as a quote and then write my own opinion, and ask readers for their opinion to generate discussion.
Readers like to be asked to comment.
Hi Chris,
I agree with your take on this subject of plagiarism -
‘take the high road’ but I couldn’t help wondering
what the outcome would be if your friend posted a
comment on the copycat’s blog?
Fran
Just try to keep reinventing things, be creative… You will stand out no matter how many copy cats there are
I use a lot of website content - from reviews, to opinions, to news stories - on most of my websites. My rule is to ALWAYS give credit with a name and a link. Plus, if it’s a quote from an article/post, always format it to make it look that way. And to give it a unique spin, I add comments, opinion, other sources (with links of course). It’s ethical, nice, and incoming links are always a good thing for your blog. It’s how some folks find my work, after all.
Not acknowledging sources is dishonest. But that is not enough. Recently I sent Hugh Mcleod at gapingvoid.com a link to a TED video on my blog which I knew he would be interested in. Hugh has just been taken on as a new media consultant for microsoft and this video was a new microsoft image viewing/networking product. Rather than linking to the TED video directly he linked to the version on my site. I estimate that one link got me maybe 1500 semi-qualified hits. How many hits would I have got if Hugh had just embedded the video on his own site and acknowledged my recommendation? 20?
Acknowledgement is not enough - if you find something on another persons site its OK to quote from it, but duplicating the whole thing on your own blog (with or without an acknowledgement) is flat out wrong, imho.
I do feel that before you accuse anyone of stealing “ideas” ot “topics” you need some very firm evidence. There is a synchronicity in the blogsphere that means often thousands of peoples minds turn to the same subject at the same time.
@Mark - I hold by the idea what you put out you get back so unless someone is doing something damaging I just try to increase the good stuff and don’t sweat the bad. I’ve had to grow a thick skin to lots of the less fun aspects of blogging and writing
@Maria - Makes you wonder if they realise we actually read this stuff?
@Jim - You could reach out but I think let them get on with it, their loss in the end
@DarrenC - Your thoughts and a discussion will always be better than “here is something, go look”
@Fran - Might be worth trying but I really wouldn’t want to get into a debate with the person …
@Liefdesverdriet - Exactly, increase your own originality
@Anne-Marie - Yup, blogging positively brings rewards. If only more people would try it
@Peter Ralph - Yes as I said, we often all read the same thing at the same time, sometimes you know, othertimes you merely suspect - either way I think it’s best to concentrate on our own good stuff rather than worry about others bad