More Lessons.

I'm on a roll! I believe I'm in the part of the learning curve where you think you got and applied all the instructions correctly, only to find... ehhhh... not so much.

Maybe my contribution to training is to reinforce what our instructors say not to do, although, I did think I was doing it right. (See what I mean? LOL!)

Today's lesson, if you cannot verify without any doubt that the image you are using is permissable, then don't use it.

I found this stunning image of a black-lipped oyster shell filled with Tahitian black pearls that I wanted to use for my site's main image. Of course, I found it via a Google Images search and it, like all its neighboring photos, carried the standard Google disclaimer, "This image may be subject to copyright." So, I did my best to find an attribution, some version of the image that had been watermarked, something, anything to say don't use it. I found nothing. Deciding no news was good news, I went ahead and used it.

In six-weeks' time, I went from "no news was good news" to "there's good news and bad news." The good news is that somebody actually was paying attention to my photos and content. The bad news is that the somebody essentially raked me over the coals for "stealing" someone else's image. I felt terrible, explained my error, pulled down the image and apologized. But, the damage was done, and my credibility in the niche most definitely took a sound hit.

So! Let that be a lesson to me! And you. Good grief. I'm starting to sound like a broken record!

On the run!!! Tee hee...