Free Traffic Tips

Here’s a perspective on Content Theft from Read/Write Web:

“What would you do if someone was ripping your RSS feed off – that is, copying every single post into their website? And what would you think if some software companies actively encouraged this activity? I call these people RSS Ripoff Merchants. (a sidenote: I’m absolutely not talking about fellow bloggers who re-post an occasional post of mine – I’m specifically talking about sites that brazenly re-post everything and are doing it for commercial purposes).

I started off by laughing at it, but there’s a serious side too. Content has value and these Ripoff Merchants are completely glossing over that fact.”

Read more about RSS Ripoff Merchants.

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The issue of how to protect one’s work online grows more serious to those it affects as RSS gets more popular. So how does you deal with the fact that a tiny portion of the population invited to syndicate your blog abuses it beyond all rational reason?

On the one hand, you don’t want to pay TOO much attention to the issue. After all, what we focus on in life expands. And having content stolen from your site isn’t such a prevailing issue that most people will ever have to deal with it. It, in fact, places you into a very elite group, once you have people stealing content from you — most of the time bad content isn’t stolen on any regular basis.

And anyway, the vast majority of syndicated blog content and article reprints are 100% legitimate. Pretty much, if you see a live link back to the original content or content provider, you’ve found good content. And that’s most places, so online content theft isn’t out of hand yet. It may never be as bad as all that, who knows…

However, I thought I should dedicate a day to the topic. A few people brought some sites to my attention that others are using my content to profit from techniques I am against, some are fabricating testimonials from me, and one person even took an article of mine that was exclusive to an online newspaper I write for, changed about five words and republished the article as his own content. That wouldn’t have been a big deal if some major online publications hadn’t accepted the paper.

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Some of you lovely folks have been trying to get in touch with me since I left town. Now that I’m back I’m alarmed at how many of these messages are about people who have tried to steal my content, either to promote shady products, scrape clips from my blog or articles to market their own articles, or to fill their blog with content that doesn’t link back to me, or credit me (particularly when their syndication of my content is done in such a way that won’t benefit them – why do it then???)

And I hear you, and thank you.

When you start to become known, folks seem to think they can just rip you off, as they start to see you as an “entity” and not a person. To a point, I’ve accepted that this happens.

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You can’t say toMAYto toMAHto about buying links anymore in regards to Google. One of their engineers is telling you whether or not they think it’s cool.

Clip ==>

Google engineer Matt Cutts confirmed that links are important to Google in his blog post: “Google (and pretty much every other major search engine) uses hyperlinks to help determine reputation. Links are usually editorial votes given by choice, and link-based analysis has greatly improved the quality of web search.”

However, he also stated that “Google does consider buying text links for PageRank purposes to be outside our quality guidelines” and that he “wouldn’t be surprised if search engines began to take stronger action against link buying in the near future”.

He also revealed further information about what can happen to web sites that sell links: “Reputable sites that sell links won’t have their search engine rankings or PageRank penalized–a search for [daily cal] would still return dailycal.org. However, link-selling sites can lose their ability to give reputation”.

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Clip ==> “Google have [sic] confirmed a pilot project to “open up communications” with webmasters they feel are breaking their guidelines. Emails are being sent to selected websites flagged for removal from the Google index. In the comments of this post, Google’s Matt Cutts said “Google is trying out a pilot program to alert site owners when we’re removing their site for violating our guidelines. JavaScript redirects are the first trial, but we’ve also sent a few emails about hidden text, I believe.”

Thoughts ==> I am greatly tickled by this. On the one hand, it’s a great program to let people definitively know that Google doesn’t like certain things. To the new webmaster who’s just honestly trying to get into the searches, how lovely…

But how incredibly embarassing it must be to get an email from Google when you know you’re being bad.

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Thoughts ==> Gee. I wonder if they’re thumbing their nose at the “I’m feeling lucky” button on Google’s home page?

Clip ==> “Instant Search gives you answers as you type — no more waiting!

Why feel lucky when you can be right? With Instant Search, results instantly appear for Yahoo! Shortcuts and common searches. Give it a spin! Type in these examples below, or try your own searches”

Link ==> Instant Search

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I’m still getting back in the swing of things, so we’re having Search Engine Day today. We’ll likely go back to Tuesdays next week.

Wendy Boswell at About.com’s Websearch section is always coming up with great resources for search engine optimization. On the page I’m quoting below, she lists the top ten search engine optimization blogs – and she should know.

And I’m not just saying that because she lists this blog as number 5.

From her listing:

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Volume II, Issue XX :: Lead Generating Issue

In this Lead Generating Issue:

* Targeted Leads Overnight – My Secrets go to the First 50.
* Beyond Links In Article Marketing
* All the Traffic Weapons are Zero-Cost this week!
* Free downloads, course, and a free audio course too.
* It’s only $7 – no it’s not a typo. The catch? There’s only 50 of ‘em.

and…

What got me 100,000 mentions in Google?

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