I'm Super Annoyed
I really try to write positive blogs and contribute to the Wealthy Affiliate community and share my successes, failures, tips, and advice on how to make successful websites. However, I have something I need to get off my chest, and also to save me time in the future of writing this over and over via private message.
Please do not rip off my website.
In this year alone I've had to contact 5 different Wealthy Affiliate members about them taking content directly from my website One More Cup of Coffee. Some members have gone so far as to copy the content directly. This is not a big deal actually because they will not rank for copied content and it won't affect the rank of my website. It's annoying, but whatever, they'll figure out it doesn't work.
What's more annoying is when people read my reviews and REWRITE them. The content ranks, sometimes right below mine.
What people don't realize, or don't care to think about is that I spend hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars each month to purchase these products. When I write a review myself, it can take me 2-6 hours to dig into the product, write the review, take screenshots, and do whatever else to get the blog post done.
If I have a writer do the post for me, I still pay for the product and pay $50-$100+ per article.
When someone skims my post for 10 minutes, the rewrites it in 20-30 minutes or pay someone $10 to rewrite it's extremely frustrating. How would you feel?
I realize that it's a small group of people that are doing this, so this blog post will not apply to most of you. I also do not want to start a fire here and make everyone scared that other people will start to copy your websites. To be honest, in my opinion, copying only becomes an issue when you announce to everyone that you are making good money.
So, for anyone that ever wonders where all the successful WA members are, consider that they may have met a similar situation that I have described above and just stopped sharing their success.
What am I going to do now?
Not much. I'll continue to notify the people via PM that I am aware they are copying me and ask them to stop. Then, I'll just continue to write for my website as I'm currently doing. Copycats will always crash and burn in the long term. If someone does copy their way to 300 sales, just remember that you have to look me in the eye next year in Vegas. LOL
I don't plan to "hide" my website, and I will continue to be active and help within the Wealthy Affiliate community. I'm not going to let a few people ruin the fun for everyone.
A gentle reminder...
If you are outsourcing your reviews, PLEASE give instructions to your writers. Give them actual products to review, or at least tell them to not copy other WA members' websites. When you hire a cheap writer and give them just a list of products with no instructions, there's a good chance that they will just copy what someone else has written.
Check their work too. See who is ranked for that product, and see if your money bought you a re-written article from one of your Wealthy Affiliate peers. Outsourcing doesn't mean your website is completely "hands off".
Properly Borrowing Ideas
I guess I should use this as a teaching opportunity rather than just a scolding opportunity!
If you are going to use information from other people's websites, just take care to make it look VERY different and add your own UNIQUE opinions and VALUE that cannot be found on another website.
For example, the thing that always tips me off to copycats is lists and key points in an article. When someone copies a list word for word, including things like video times, brackets for explanation, and ordered steps, I can see that it was copied, pasted, and maybe altered.
Switching ( ) for { } does not make it unique!
So if you want to look at my review to LEARN about a product, that's fine. Just don't take each of my key points and mix them up. Take one point then add your own perspective on it. then a point from someone else and use your own words to write something about it., Then add your own point.
Add a unique screenshot, video, heading, rating, or other things that make the post completely different. If you are going to be borrowing ideas, just borrow them. Don't rewrite them. That's still plagiarism.
The key thing is to add something that makes it YOURS, not just a repeat of what's already out there.
If you can't buy the product, at least you can comment on the advertising and/or sales page. Does the sales page (and your expectations) match up with what sounds like is on the inside of the product? Think about what value you can add that the reader cannot find somewhere else.
You can also talk about the general business model they are proposing. Is it easier or harder than affiliate marketing? How is it different? Do they provide adequate support? What features do they NOT have that Wealthy Affiliate has?
Those are all things that are easy to include, that do not require purchasing the product. There's also this training you can look at: https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/writing-p...
Perhaps it's my own fault for not explicitly saying that reading other reviews means you read them, absorb the information, then write your own thing instead of having two tabs open and taking notes. Also, if I do borrow stuff from other people, I make 200% effort to make my page different, so I cover my butt and cannot be accused of copying!
Update: This problem has continued, and will probably continue on into the future. As just a last piece please do not outsource your reviews from inexperienced writers, especially from Fiverr.com. If you hire a cheap writer and tell them "do your research" this probably means they are going to rewrite content from other websites.
Unless you actually purchase the product and give them access to the members area, and pay the writer with explicit instructions not to use other websites for source material, there's a good chance they will rip off my or another WA members website.
8/10 people I've contacted with issues related to content copied from my website were using hired writers.
If you can't write product reviews yourself and you just 'pass the work' to someone else without thinking of where they do their research, that does not make you inculpable for their copyright infringement.
And yes, rewriting something is copyright infringement. I could not simply rewrite the Harry Potter books in my own words and call it my own.
Recent Comments
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You have every right to be annoyed, angry even. Plagiarism is Not cool. People are expelled from colleges and universities for this offense.
I appreciate you taking the time to describe ways to write so that one avoids commuting such offenses.
Have a great week.
Very often I can't afford to purchase products and services to review them and resort to the advertising/promotional aspects of them, which is something I've had education on, through critical thinking and logic.
I hope you have not found anything on my site that remotely resembles anything you've written. If so, it's pure accident and circumstantial. I know I have reviewed a handful of products you have, but I usually don't because if you've been there, there is no point in going there myself.
I think my Internet marketing days are coming to a close. I have lost the will and interest to continue, though it might come back in the days ahead. There are too many, like yourself, that have it covered and my own efforts need to be taken elsewhere than the promotion of WA. I'm finding too much competition here, in spite of doing what I can to put out unique content.
The only thing that does make my content unique is the fact that I approach these products on the level of their advertising, which does little justice for the product itself. Very few, if any other that I know of, approach in this way. I have been critiqued for doing this and not reviewing the product itself.
No, I haven't seen anything on your site Daniel. Most of the time I don't even notice. It's just a rare occasion that I'm checking rank of certain products and stumble upon other members that have ranked for the same products as me, so I want to see what they thought. Most of the time, it's a unique review.
You shouldn't quit Daniel - I actually enjoyed your reviews because they always offer unique perspective, and you take the time to really take down these products hard! You're a good writer.
Meh. I don't want to "punish" anyone. Most people are newbies that didn't think they were doing something wrong or people outsourcing reviews that didn't check their writer's work all the way. I'm not going to go around getting people kicked out, but I do have some limits when I need to put my foot down.
It does not get any lower than this. Speaks volumes about their character. Sorry you are dealing with this problem.
It's a shame you have to deal with this Nathaniel, but it's just as you said. In the long term they will crash and they will burn.
Very sadly, there is actually a product out there - a course - that teaches you how to replicate others' websites that have proven highly successful. It goes without saying that, in following the instructions in this course, you create the site, get it ranking and flip it on the site auction (I forget its name) and unfortunately, the person winds up with crap when the site he has purchased from there blows up in his hands when Google catches up with it.
It looks good. It's written well. It's very appealing to prospective buyers who have no idea what they're getting, and then when it flops, they're left scratching their heads, "What happened???"
Meanwhile, the person who is rinsing and repeating, having followed so-called 'wise counsel' of the course is, in return, making nice prophets creating more fakery.
If I were to go back to my review, I would write up a new one and, after learning more of what I know about this business of copy-catting, revisit the site reviewed and renounce some of the good things I had said about it.
It's totally wrong and unethical. No matter how well-made that course is (and it's done pretty well) it spells 'bad news!'
http://foolproofcashflow.com
for anyone else who wants to review it (if it's still there.) Remember the WA effort to help Dom come out tops in article submission? I invite an army to take the above site, purchase it the course offered on it, review it and TAKE IT DOWN!
These would be a bunch of sales for him that will put a new meaning on "indigestion!"
Needless to say, this guy is making a killing selling this course. It needs to be shut down. Albeit it, it's one in a million.
Wow! I'm so glad I didn't get a PM'd either (sorry to copy you, upsgirl-lol). The fact that I'm new here and don't have anything online yet puts me in the clear. But all joking aside, this could be a nightmare and I feel bad for anyone that's going through this. Thank you Nathaniell for the rant/teaching session. It's a good reminder of things to avoid and things to look out for. I'm sorry that you've had to go through this negative experience. I wish you continued success! KEEP YOUR HEAD UP!
I certainly empathise with you. It takes a big effort and lots of time to collect information, review and write about something. So well done for writing this post and hope it works for you.
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This is disgraceful Nathaniell. Plagiarism is a big no - no, and it disturbs me that certain members of WA should be doing this. I've every sympathy with you.