How to Protect Your Content

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container zemanta-img" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><br /><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><div class="zemanta-img"><br /><div class="zemanta-img"><br /><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SnatchThieves003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:right;"><img alt="Picture of Snatch Thieves - SnatchThieves003.jpg" border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted" height="221" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/38/SnatchThieves003.jpg/300px-SnatchThieves003.jpg" style="border: medium none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="300" /></a></div><br /></div><br /></td></tr><br /><tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 300px;">Picture of Snatch Thieves - SnatchThieves003.jpg (Photo credit: <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SnatchThieves003.jpg" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr><br /></tbody></table><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /><span class="defaultfont">Your content is your most precious<br />asset. It takes efforts and time not only to create it but also to<br />protect it from thieves. Unfortunately, content theft is way too<br />common and there is hardly a site that hasn't been affected. <br /></span></div><br /><span class="defaultfont"><br /></span><br /><br /><br /><div align="justify"><br /><span class="defaultfont">On the other hand, as my experience<br />shows, when there are thousands of articles to be looked after, this<br />process takes too much time and in practice makes sense to do only<br />for important articles. Anyway, you can't let thieves go with your<br />content – you must know what to do when you encounter theft. Here<br />are the steps how to protect your content. <br /></span><br /><br /><a name='more'></a></div><br /><span class="defaultfont"><br /></span><br /><br /><br /><h2><br /><span class="defaultfont"><br />Why Your Content Is Your Most Important Asset</span></h2><br /><span class="defaultfont"><br /></span><br /><br /><br /><div align="justify"><br /><span class="defaultfont">Unless you are new to <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.zemanta.com/related-blog-posts/" rel="zemantacom" target="_blank" title="related articles">SEO</a>, the answer to this question is obvious.<br />As we say, “Content Is King”. You need original content in order<br />to rank well in Google and this is why you chunk articles, images,<br />videos, etc. to publish on your site. However, it is so easy to<br />copy+paste content and this is why content theft is so common. <br /></span></div><br /><span class="defaultfont"><br /></span><br /><div align="justify"><br /><span class="defaultfont">If it weren't bad enough that you feed somebody else's site for<br />free, the <a href="http://www.webconfs.com/duplicate-content-filter-article-1.php" target="_blank">duplicate<br />content penalty</a> adds insult to injury. Google is trying really<br />hard to deal with duplicates but it is way too common to see stolen<br />articles rank higher than your original. This is why it is so<br />important to protect your content in any way you can. <br /></span></div><br /><span class="defaultfont"><br /><h2><br />Place <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_notice" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Copyright notice">Copyright Notices</a> and Watermarks</h2><br /><div align="justify"><br />As naïve as it might sound, sometimes thieves aren't aware they<br />are stealing. There are many articles, images, videos, etc. in the<br />public domain that are free to use even commercially. In order to<br />avoid confusion your content isn't in the public domain, be sure to<br />place a Copyright notice in the footer of your site, or even better –<br />under the copyrighted piece of content itself. <br /></div><br /><div align="justify"><br />It also makes sense to add physical barriers to theft. For<br />instance, you can add watermarks for images and videos – these<br />aren't 100% secure but they will stop some of the thieves because<br />with your watermark it will be awkward to use the stuff elsewhere. <br /></div><br /><div align="justify"><br />For articles, you may want to disable text selection. This will<br />make it harder to copy content directly and will stop many thieves<br />because now copying your content involves more efforts.<br />Unfortunately, there are other ways to copy your content (though they<br />do require more effort), so if somebody really wants your content,<br />disabled copying won't stop them but it's more than nothing. <br /></div><br /><h2><br />Use Google <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Author" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Author">Authorship</a> to Guard Your Content</h2><br /><div align="justify"><br /><a href="https://plus.google.com/authorship" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Google Authorship</a><br />is a very useful tool when it comes to content protection and<br />building your online reputation. Basically, the idea is simple –<br />you enter your online stuff and claim authorship about it. <br /></div><br /><div align="justify"><br />The only issue is that you must use your real name – this is a<br />problem, if you write under a pseudonym, or ghost write, or simply<br />don't want to disclose your authorship because of privacy concerns.<br />If your site has multiple writers, you still can use Google<br />Authorship but each of them must claim his or her articles<br />separately. <br /></div><br /><div align="justify"><br />Once your content is entered in Google Authorship, Google knows<br />it's you who created it, so even if it gets copied somewhere else,<br />you won't get the duplicate content punishment. <br /></div><br /><h2><br />Set <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.google.com/alerts" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="Google Alerts">Google Alerts</a> to Watch for <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copying" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Copying">Copied</a> Content</h2><br /><div align="justify"><br />Protecting your content from theft is one thing, catching thieves<br />is another. Even if you do a good job in guarding your content, there<br />will always be thieves. The easiest way to catch them is with the<br />help of Google Alerts. <br /></div><br /><div align="justify"><br />Google Alerts is another useful service from Google. Without going<br />into too much detail, the logic is this: <br /></div><br /><div align="justify"><br />You copy sentences from your text and create alerts to be notified<br />when they appear online. You need to make them a direct match (i.e.<br />use quotations), so that when your words get discovered somewhere<br />else, you get an alert. It's best if you create 2 or 3 alerts per<br />article – one for the first paragraph and some more from random<br />places in the text. <br /></div><br /><div align="justify"><br />Your first paragraph might be copied more – for instance as an<br />intro to your article, followed by a link to your site. This isn't<br />theft but you still might want to be aware of it. Also, if your<br />content is published and you are quoted as the author, this<br />technically isn't theft either, though you certainly might not like<br />it. <br /></div><br /><h2><br />Steps to Take to Deal with the Theft</h2><br /><div align="justify"><br />After you get an alert and discover that content of yours has been<br />stolen, here is what you can do next. <br /></div><br /><h3><br />Prepare Your <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evidence" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Evidence">Evidence</a> <br /></h3><br /><div align="justify"><br />The first step is to gather your evidence. This means to make<br />screenshots and prepare the original files. Of course, it's hard to<br />prove you were the first to publish this particular piece because<br />having the drafts for an article doesn't mean much – they could<br />have been created afterwards in attempt to frame the original author.<br />For images and videos, if you have the source files, this could be<br />more of a proof. <br /></div><br /><div align="justify"><br />If your content is indexed in Google and it has a date (and of<br />course this date is prior to the date the copy was indexed), you can<br />use this as well as an evidence the content was stolen from you, not<br />vice versa. <br /></div><br /><h3><br />Contact the <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theft" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Theft">Thief</a> (and Their Host, If Necessary)</h3><br /><div align="justify"><br />After you have your evidence, now it's time to take real steps.<br />You might be tempted to but don't start biting right away. First,<br />send a friendly email to the infringing party. Even if the<br />probability isn't high, it's possible the theft wasn't on<br />deliberately. It's possible that after your friendly email the blog<br />owner removes your content and the problem is solved. <br /></div><br /><div align="justify"><br />If the friendly email to the blog owner doesn't help, contact<br />their hosting provider. Attach the evidence you have and if the<br />infringement is blatant, it's quite possible their hosting provider<br />might even close their account, if they don't want to remove the<br />stolen content on their own. <br /></div><br /><h3><br />File a DMCA Complaint <br /></h3><br /><div align="justify"><br />Very often the steps in the previous sections suffice to deal with<br />thieves but if they don't do the job for you, you will have to use<br />the heavy artillery – i.e. file a DMCA complaint with Google. <br /></div><br /><div align="justify"><br />You submit a <a href="https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/dmca-notice?pli=1" target="_blank">DMCA</a><br />(<a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_Act" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Digital Millennium Copyright Act">Digital Millennium Copyright Act</a>) complaint with Google to tell them<br />to deindex content stolen from you. In this case 'stolen' means used<br />without your permission or without crediting you. Google is usually<br />quick in removing stolen content, so you can expect that shortly<br />after you submit the complaint, it will be removed from <a class="zem_slink" href="http://google.com/" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="Google">Google's</a><br />index. <br /></div><br /><div align="justify"><br />Dealing with content theft is very time-consuming but if you want<br />to protect your rights (and your SEO rankings), you need to do it.<br />It's a never ending battle but with the right tools, as described in<br />this article, your chance of success is good. source: http://www.webconfs.com/how-to-protect-your-content-article-54.php</div><br /></span><br /><br /><div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><br /><img alt="" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/pixy.gif?x-id=c4812747-f15a-47da-84cb-4fe4c19e8dab" style="border: none; float: right;" /></div><br />

How to Protect Your Content

Picture of Snatch Thieves - SnatchThieves003.jpg (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Your content is your most precious asset. It takes efforts and t...

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