Article Content vs. Real Life – Plagiarism
The 2nd in a series of videos that brings questionable article-writing practices into the real world.
Two weeks ago we unveiled the first video in this series: Article Content vs. Real Life – Keyword Stuffing. The purpose of the series is to explain certain unethical article practices that are fairly common, yet provide no real value to either the reader or the author … or are just downright naughty. They include everything from keyword stuffing and plagiarism to article spinning and copyright infringement.
If you’ll recall, what motivated this series is the realization that despite the fact that almost all Expert Authors are good people, many of them do things in their article writing and marketing practices that they would never do in the real world. They don’t fully comprehend what’s inappropriate about their actions.
This video series brings these less-than-upstanding article writing practices into the “real world” of everyday life, where it quickly becomes amusingly obvious just how unacceptable they really are.
In this episode, one man discovers the painful consequences of taking credit for somebody else’s work.
Downloadable Versions:
Taking credit for somebody else’s work is probably the most horrific offense you can commit as an Expert Author – as a matter of fact it’s illegal under certain circumstances. So please don’t do it in your articles.
What To Do If Somebody Takes Credit for YOUR Content
- Contact the person and ask them to make it right.
- If they don’t, contact their web host to report a copyright violation.
- If the web host fails to respond, report the web host to their web host or ISP.
- By the time you reach a Tier 1 ISP, this issue will be resolved because no Tier 1, 2 or 3 ISP allows infringement.
Unfortunately, we don’t have the resources to get involved in these matters ourselves. Please see #3 in our Authors’ Terms of Service. We do have multiple full time people on our team, plus proprietary technology, that’s dedicated to stopping, preventing and mitigating article content infringement.
Reality Check: No plagiarist ever rises to traffic power over the long-term. That means that while it’s irritating that a a few publishers can be unethical, most are good, honest folks. There are too many market forces in play to prevent the unscrupulous individuals from profiting wildly from their unethical ways.
Keep Your Ghostwriters Honest
If you hire ghostwriters, you could unwittingly be party to plagiarism if you don’t do your due diligence. Follow these steps to help prevent any ghost writer you hire from providing you with duplicate content:
- Agree upfront that you will accept articles that only contain 100% original content.
- Demand complete exclusive rights to all content you receive.
- After receiving the content, check 2-3 random complex sentences in a search engine. Surround the sentence in quotes to assure that you’re searching for an exact match. You should find no exact matches of any complex sentence.
- Make sure you research your prospects in advance and ask for multiple samples and referrals. If they’re a reputable ghost writer they will happily provide this information.
Despite the unsavory nature of the topics we’re covering, we’re still having a lot of fun with this video series. They provide an entertaining way to address these awkward subjects. Leave a comment and let us know what you think of this video and the series as a whole – then get back to writing and submitting your next set of high-quality, ORIGINAL articles!
no problem! Just steal it :-)
June 9, 2010 at 3:46 PM[Reply]