Someone has been stealing my blog posts and I stopped it. With our parent blogging advice doing so well with our readers, I knew I had to include some solutions for others in case it happens to them.
I get a pingback. I freeze. They have taken so many articles! including my blogger’s articles which include pictures of their children.
I have proudly worked on The Baby Spot for years and I have had over 400 people write for this blogazine. When I started this movement, I never thought that I would be dealing with people stealing articles, but as I stared at this website who blatantly stole my articles and articles of my bloggers, I knew I had to take action fast.
But how was someone stealing my blog posts?
When we start to blog, whether personal or professional, a bit of our heart goes into each post. We are trying to make our readers laugh, cry, inspire or engage in our topic of interest. Whatever your motivation, you work hard at that post. You should never have to worry about someone stealing your articles. No one would have the gall to steal a piece of your blog, let alone copy and paste the whole entire post. Even more so, steal post after post after post and pin it to Pinterest. But it happened to me and I am going to show you how to deal with it.
When you run a website, you get a ping back when someone has posted a comment. This includes but it is not limited to when someone has reposted your post with a back link to you. I get a lot of these, mostly from readers commenting or bloggers linking their article that they have written for me back to their site. It helps their blogging resume to show that they have written for different websites and it feels nice when someone is back linking my site. Despite this goodness, I always check the article where the backlink is coming from. Always. You should too.
Check The Pings To Catch Someone Stealing My Blog Posts
I get a backlink to a popular post about 5 Wonderful Gifts for A Mom to Be Under $50. I am pretty happy as I tried really hard to think of chic gifts for a Mom to be that won’t break the bank. The article was able to provide the reader with jewelry and beautiful keepsakes that Moms would love. With that being said, I get a ping to approve or disapprove of the link back.
I have a ton of meetings for The Baby Spot, I have to email my assignment editor and I have a huge website revamp happening around our Blogaversary, coming up in just a few weeks. I just want to hit the approve button. But I don’t. I go to the site. I find myself staring at my article, on another site, with all of my links to great products taken out but all of my photos still there.
The full article is there. I had referenced a previous article from my 5 Wonderful Gifts for Mom to Be Article and I was getting a pingback from that, because the culprit forgot to remove the backlink. At the bottom of the stolen article is links to more of my articles, including an article I put out about Visiting Cork with the Family.
Stealing Personal Information
This article is so important because some of the photos were given to me from a fellow Baby Spot blogger which includes pictures of her young children. This “magazine” and we use that term lightly, steals articles from so many sources. Then they have the audacity to pin the stolen articles to his Pinterest account. The potential audience is redirected to him instead of the original writer. As I scan this site, I see that he has ripped off about a half a dozen articles of mine, including many that have personal pictures of children that were shared solely for my site.
The Baby Spot is a safe space for parents to feel more confident about talking about parenting subjects so I feel violated for my readers and writers. With that being said, I have the responsibility to let each of them know which I do in minutes and then I make my course of action to fix this immediately.
Check for The Email Address of Who is Stealing My Blog Posts
I go into action and check this offending site who is stealing my blog posts for an email address or any contact information. Of course this is not on their site. So I take it a step further. This is where it gets a bit technical.
I go to use Go Daddy’s search engine Who Is. This is supposed to be used to see if a domain name is available. It can also be used to get in touch with someone who owns a domain to sell it. I type in the offending website and up comes the name, address, phone number, email domain host among an array of information of the person who created the site. I decide to email this person.
How to Compose an Effective Email to Stop Someone Stealing My Blog Posts
I write the person who is stealing my blog posts and explain how it has come to my attention about how he had stolen articles from my site, placed it on social media and taken pictures including but not limited to of minor children to use on his site. I gave him an ultimatum. 24 hours to get this taken off or else.
I then contacted his website provider as they can also be liable for this. I got a busy signals (is this 1998?) for an hour but emailed the site about the offending content giving them 24 hours to take it down.
Filing A DMCA Complaint Against The Person Stealing My Blog Posts
Whether your work is copyrighted or not, you are the original writer of the content, you are the original owner as long as you have not sold your work. A DMCA Complaint to Google about someone stealing your blog posts tells Google to remove the site from Google search engines which can effectively kill a site. From here, you can go into detail of the offense, give links and have Google deal with the issue.
At this point, my Assignments Editor had told me that the offending website had taken down all of our articles. Which was great. However, as of now, this site is still active, stealing people’s work daily, including stealing my blog posts. I mentioned it in a few of my blogging communities. Five more bloggers came forward that their information was on this site also. It’s going to take some time but this site’s days are numbered for stealing my blog posts and others.
What is the Benefit of Stealing Blog Posts?
If a person can pull of stealing content from a blog they can redirect traffic to their site (even though Google’s PANDA will penalize them). They will be able to trick sponsorships and advertisers to pay them to advertise on their website, send free products and more. The perks of hard working bloggers would be reaped by someone who is a thief and that is not good. The truth is, you have the potential to make thousands of dollars a month stealing blog posts if you don’t get caught.
Effectively, it’s a way to make some fast cash.
How Can We Stop Someone Stealing My Blog Posts
Unfortunately, you cannot stop someone from stealing your content. They make a conscious decision to steal. There is no way to shut down a site immediately for copying and pasting partial or full versions of articles.
Ways I Check If Someone Is Stealing My Blog Posts
There are ways to check if someone has stolen your content. You can go to Google Alerts which can help you find your culprit. This includes photo searches to make sure your photo is not duplicated.
You can also go to CopyScape and check if your information is being used. To access premium search options, you do have to pay. However, if you have a lot of information, keeping your site secure may just pay for itself.
If you are a big blog, you may want to look into more cyber security options. Cyber Security Specialists can’t stop people from attempting to steal your blog posts but they can get it shut down quickly.
Don’t Make a Plagiarism Mistake
As if you were in high school and university, you can only take snippets of information for research. You must backlink to the original site and cite your work as if you were writing an essay. It gives the proper person credit. You must never steal or alter pictures from a website without full written permission.
I am happy to say that my site is safe, secure and free of blog burglars stealing my precious posts. Make sure your posts are secure too. I know these tips will help you in your blogging journey. They will save you a lot of trouble from the dreaded blog burglar.
