The first article I ever wrote was posted on 11 sites. Of those 9 copied the whole thing, gave me credit. One copied exaclty, no credit. One ran it through some program that made most of the sentences meaningless. Did not give me credit either. I assure you that nobody is buying from Mangling-Boy.

This is an aside to the reference to Proust. NOBODY is Proust. Helas.

Someone did that to me. They took the first paragraph from my Ezine article and posted it on their website without giving me credit and no contact information on their website. Yes, there are vultures out there.

I detest content thieves. If you don't have enough mental ability, education and creativity to do this on your own then go find some sort of work you can do.

I'm dead serious too. When I joined this site it was with a bit of trepidation, not because of internet marketing but because it attracts a large crowd of lazy people that want money for exactly nothing. That is not fair, it is not honest, and these thieves deserve neither respect or admiration.

thanks everyone. :) and the speck of dust thing is true and hilarious.

onward and upward.. !

Awesome Andy, just do know that it only takes ONE niche to be very successful online and it is much better to become great at one thing than mediocre at many. :)

Just wanted to mention that as I see far too many people trying to do too much at once and it leaves them with a feeling of being overwhelmed.

Misunderstood or not you have a point...There are a lot of lazy IMers out there who could care less about quality and content. So they end up putting out a polished turd that isn't even worthy of the whole polished compliment. As you get skilled in this biz stuff like that becomes irrelevant because creating great content and the giving of value TRUMPS ALL. And crappy turds like that won't even hold your attention for a minute cause you'll have more success than they could ever dream of. This is just the truth. It can seem like a big deal in the moment and you seem to understand that (which is great) but it's as they say "a speck of dust directly in the eye can seem really big until you realize it's just a speck of dust." I don't think anyone actually says that actually, because I just made it up.

Thanks Joan... perhaps I overreacted but I had spent a very long day writing and perfecting... I'm trying to lighten up and not be so anal about things b/c it wastes time. However, I agree with all that you have said below - 100%. Thanks for understanding. I just want to do quality stuff.

Oh and by the way... I thought I'd try outsourcing and see what kind of quality came back. I got scammed. It only cost a few bucks but I never got anything back for it. Live and learn.

Kathy, I saw the comment you are responding to in your other blog. He misunderstood you and I'm glad you told the story in more detail. The thing is, when people don't uphold a reasonable standard, everybody loses credibility. Especially when you're not meeting your customer face to face. He has no other way to determine if he can trust you or not, like looking into the whites of your eyes. So yes, the sloppy writer does affect all of us. Your blog was about the writer's lack of respect for his craft. That pisses me off too. No one's judging if he is the Proust of IM or not. If one doesn't write using reasonably good grammar, then maybe one is in the wrong business. I'm sure you have had people say to you "I'd never buy anything on the Internet because it's full of scams". Or "my credit card was stolen today, and AMEX had to issue me a new card. I'm not buying anything over the Net ever again". The guy who cuts my grass told me that this morning. And this doesn't affect you and me and everybody else here? Your anger, even without the above explanation is completely justified. Plagiarism doesn't cut it either. That's why, good or bad or in between, I write my own articles. Kathy, righteous indignation.