Don’t Be A Copycat Blogger!

Dear bloggers,

Hope all are doing well. I have always been interested to meet you all with a beneficial post every time. I usually draft my ideas as writings but this time I have made this post with my bitter experience. Yes, most of the bloggers do spend some quality time to create well-researched blog posts with a fresh perspective  for their readers. But it hurts them when their content gets copied by other bloggers. Am I right? I have experienced this issue thrice!

Referring other blogs to get key points and doing competitor analysis are upright blogging activities, but copying or writing the posts with same style of other bloggers by not even changing the sub-headings is a level too low. They should understand the fact that posting original content will do wonders in gaining authority and helps to get higher rankings in search engines.

It’s a known fact that the bloggers who have gained good credibility never copy the content of others since they know how to survive in the blogosphere. Then you may ask who the ones who do such mistakes are? Newbies? Or bloggers with multiple blogs? Why do some bloggers copy content? What is the benefit of copying or following the same style? I have asked these questions to myself and decided to write some useful post on this issue which I wish would be an eye opener for copycat bloggers.

 

Why Do Some Bloggers Copying Content?

The following might be the reason for some bloggers to copy content from other blogs.

1. Content from popular blogs will help in improving traffic.

2. Have multiple blogs and no time to write.

3. Experiencing blogging burnout.

4. Feel lazy to write or due to bad communication skills.

5. The desire to earn from blogging in a short period of time.

bloggers-don't-copy-content

 

What Would Happen If Bloggers Copy Content?

Some bloggers copy content without knowing the impacts behind it. Some of them are

1. Hit by search engine algorithms

Search engine algorithms are getting smarter these days and it can easily detect either your content is original or not. Even though, bloggers will get traffic for copying posts in the beginning, their blogs will be blacklisted for content duplication and finally they might lose their organic traffic.

2. Reputation loss

Expressing views with own voice and involving with readers are deciding factors of reputation. If bloggers get hit by Google animals for scraped content, then readers will stop respecting them or they will even stop visiting their blogs.

3. Illegal

Copying content without proper citations would lead bloggers in a legal trouble. It is also called Plagiarism and it is ethically wrong.

4. Tough to stand out from the crowd

There are millions of blogs in the blogosphere and distinctiveness with a personal touch is essential for every blogger to generate blog posts. If not, it would be tough to stand out from the crowd.

5. Low monetary benefit

If they have met any of the above-mentioned difficulties, obviously the monetary benefits from their blog will be low.

 

How Bloggers Can Protect Their Blog Content From Copying?

Truly speaking, I didn’t have the knowledge to protect contents of my blog. Some guys have copied my blog posts, I did a research to save my content from stealing and I have collected the below information.

1. Text selection on blogs should be disabled.

2. It would be good to allow partial/short RSS Feed.

3. Digital watermarks can be used (some added data that is not visible to normal users)

4. Published content should be declared as copyrighted.

5. Using “TYNT” could be a good solution by leveraging copy-paste activity. 

If you are not conceived with my solutions, you may check this useful post on “How to find out who is stealing your content and what to do about it?” 

Conclusion:

Nowadays, Google and other search engines are doing a great job to reward the original authors and penalizing webmasters who steal information from other websites. So, write your own content and if you’re experiencing writer’s block, do discuss the issue with other bloggers to get some tips to write epic blog posts. If you’re sluggish in producing a good content, then I would suggest you to do some research and learn some writing tips to become a good writer.

Blogging is not a copy paste game! It requires passion, dedication and interest to build relationship with other bloggers and readers to build a successful blog. Unique content with personal touch really matters and I am sure that you’ll get a lot of love from search engines. Believe me, I am familiar with it! Stealing content from other websites/blogs is an immoral habit. Hence it is better to stop doing this illegal job.

We’re always busy in creating new things and we feel doomed if someone gets an unjustified gain of our hard work. I really feel terrible to find exact copies of my original content on some blogs without any credit and the most vexing part is that the copied content ranks better than the original content. Has this ever happened to you? What is your opinion about copy content done by some bloggers? 

I’ve discussed this issue with my all-time favorite bloggers! I would suggest you to have a look at their thoughts listed below.

Atish Ranjan from techtricksworld.com

Just report To Google in this case! It happens! In fact, few of my posts are copied and copied one ranks better than my original post.

Reginald Chan from reginaldchan.net

Reasons they copy your post is because they want to drive the same level of traffic.

Well, this could easily be done with visible meta tags etc.

Since your posts come first, Google algorithms will play a priority on that. This means that posts that get indexed first would be named original. While Google won’t do anything much on the matter until the next algo, it is safe to say you are still ‘okay’.

If they are often copying, you can easily report them via Google.

Of course, this is not healthy but it happens a lot and to nearly every blogger. I don’t really give much of a damn on this due to the above indexing part.

Why people copy?

Traffic, jealousy and even thinking of getting the revenue. For me, they just want a piece of the pie. With over 60m blogs, the competition is very real. Haha!

In terms of ranking, yes it will be affected one way or another. Simply because there is extra one competitor in the market. Of course, there are several very fast ways to make your article standout.

Nonetheless, hope this helps!

Badrinarayanan from onlinemoneyworld.com

This happened to me way back in 2008. I never bothered since I knew that any content that is published at a later date than the original content’s date is considered as copied content and it would not affect the first author. I don’t think it would harm your status in way. May be you can turn up your collar that someone is emulating you.

Just carry on.

Suresh Kumar from softwarebuzzer.com

It’s common these days. People copy A to z without permission. It certainly hurts the ranking for sure and here is what you need to do.

1. DMCA notice

How to request for URL removal of copied content?

Just find who all copied and file a notice for all.

2. Add a canonical tag in your site header

Share your views on copy content activities of some bloggers. Do you have any bitter experience like me? Discuss through your comments.


56 thoughts on “Don’t Be A Copycat Blogger!”

  1. Yup , it really hurts when some other bloggers copies your content and publish them on their blog and get’s better rank than our article in search engine 😉 . I always prefer to file DMCA against copycats 😛

  2. Hey!

    Thanks for putting me up on this 🙂

    Well, sadly we can’t do much about this but hey, at least you know are ‘hot’ in the blogging industry.

    Don’t get demotivated because of this. Why? Winners never quit and quitters never win!

    1. Hmm.. thanks for your motivational quote Regi.

      Yes, i understand that we could not do much about this issue. But I feel sad that some guys who have copied my content is in my FB friends list. I’ve requested them to do changes, one of them accepted my requested. But a guy refused to do so and I forgot about that matter.

      Thanks for your support and inspiration to do better blogging Regi!

  3. Hello mam,

    It seems like you are really sad about copying content from your blog. The same happens with me yesterday, I have asked my fellow bloggers the said Google will take action. But it really hurts copied content rank higher than original does.

    1. Yes WhateVer You Said thats true now adays people are acting like a copy cat but dont be sad just think that people are just jealous of you and want to become just like you

  4. Yes, if someone exactly copied your content, I am sure that his/her blog will hit by powerful search engine algorithms. Thanks for sharing your experience Sagar T Rajan. I appreciate your passion in blogging and suggest you to write more. Stay tuned!

  5. This is a very painful topic for those whose contents are regularly being copied. It’s purely an ethical issue apart from having valid ground of taking legal action against copycats. But just think of a person who is copying your contents will not be afraid of reputation consequences and his aim is just to steal and sell. They are the antisocial guys with very short vision of blogging. They wrongly presume they simply need to attract visitors on their blog with whatever ways they can do and after that dollars will be showering on them.
    You mentioned exact reasons of why people copy other contents. I think main reasons of their copying others contents are two. They either are not aware of the consequences of copycat or they are so-called online geek and have the black-hat tricks to avoid the consequences. But genuinely it is not possible to dodge the brutal whip of Google algorithm and sooner or later they are fined.
    Thanks again Nirmala for writing on such an important issue with very practical tips and tricks to avoid the impact of this malaise of content writing and to control this malpractice as much as we can.

    1. I truly appreciate for sharing your views Mi Muba. Yeah, this is really painful and I spoke with the guys who’ve copied my content. One of them genuinely accepted his mistake and listened my advice. Then he modified his content. Another guy told that he’ll give credit to me. But one of the guy refused to do any changes and argued with me badly.

      I spoke with him for his betterment but he was not in a mood to hear me. As I mentioned in the post, pro bloggers never copy the content of others because they are familiar with the impacts of copying content.

      Just to insist the effects of this illegal thing to newbies and some bloggers with multiple blogs, I’ve written this post.

      Thanks again Mi Muba for finding time to leave your thoughts here, hope it’ll help my readers.

  6. I really don’t care about copied content because all my niche blogs are with no pen name but every newbie does it at first until he don’t found any helpful article like this.

  7. Wow, This is really something valuable and most important for all the bloggers. A special thanks goes to you Nirmala mam for covering these awesome points of “Don’t be a Copycat blogger”.

    According to me this is an eye opening article for all the bloggers who really care about their Blog and blog readers. Thanks again mam for sharing this mind-blowing post with us. keep updating 🙂

    1. Most welcome Amit and thanks for reading this post.

      This post is not for all the bloggers! I’ve complied some negative impacts of copying content for newbie bloggers so that they’ll avoid this bad practice and do better blogging.

      Blog posts with own voice and personal touch sounds great. I know this concept very well and provoking the same for other bloggers. Keep visiting.

  8. Hey Nirmala,

    Wow very nice subject you put on before us. I was not knowing before your post that we can trace copied content.

    Really it happens particularly with newbies. So you have mentioned a definite way out few bloggers tips was awesome.

    Thanks for the perfect piece.

    1. Cheers with your appreciation Shiwangi.

      Yes, some bloggers used to steal our content without our knowledge to get ranking benefits. I would say that they’ll get short term benefits and though to withstand for long.

      Thanks for showing your regular presence Shiwangi, Keep coming here to learn some useful stuffs.

  9. Much inspiring..
    But, Copycat’s will gets effects this while they prepare for adsense submission and they loose their time in blogging..
    Once if they came to know that their illegal work.. they will stop and tackle their own ideas..
    Thanks again for the better article Mam.. !!!!!!!!

    1. Hmm.. yes, you are exact Rahul Suresh! They’ll come to know the impacts of copying content later and before that they might loss their reputation and support from readers.

      Thanks for sharing your views, stay tuned to check some beneficial stuffs.

  10. Hi Nirmala,

    There are many reasons for Google penalty and the main reason is duplicate content. In the beginning of blogging many newbies try to manipulate Google by copying the content of many famous blogs just to fill up their own blog.
    Beginners think as having great content from some famous blogs will make their blog famous.

    I mean how can it be like that?
    Bloggers should write their quality content on their own.
    Thanks for sharing this post with us.

    ~Ravi

    1. Well said Ravi!

      Yes, some newbie bloggers thought that taking content from famous blog would help them to drive traffic. But they unaware of the impacts of copying content. Of course, every blogger should have quality posts with their own style to gain good credibility and to make money.

      Thanks for sharing your opinions, keep visiting here!

    1. I would say that your point is very exact and true. Some bloggers do mistakes at the early stage of blogging but they realize their mistakes and doing better blogging now. Thanks for adding your reply here Anand, keep coming!

  11. another time you post such a nice and informative post. All blogger know how important is get ride of copy content. Main author are giving almost everything on that content but if anyone copy that content they are surely disappointed. Nice post.. Hope all blogger are know the value of original author of the post and create own post rather then copying other content by just copy and paste..

  12. I have always heard this – copying content is disastrous but my experience does not reflect this…My content is being stolen by 4-5 websites and 3 of them appear above me in google search…The content is copied word to word…I do not know an easy solution – i know i can complain but that is a difficult process…Google should take care of atleast word to word copying…

    1. Hmm.Yes Karnal Singh! Copying and altering a single post is getting good rank on search engines. But I would say that such posts will hold a high SERP for short time. It’ll hit by search engine updates for sure, until then they could enjoy the organic traffic.

  13. Hi there!

    Copied content always hurts the writer. I am quite happy because I haven’t yet found somebody copying my content.

    Even if someone copies my content, I have decided not to give a darn! Google is smarter than them and I am sure I would rank better. Reporting to DMCA might be a waste of time sometimes!

    Some article spinners spin the article very well. The spinning is so good that its difficult to declare it copied. Google must find a solution to this!

    Have a nice day! 🙂

    1. Welcome to my blog Yashraj!

      Thanks for sharing your point of views in copying content. Glad to know that you’ve not experienced this difficulty till now and yes, it really hurts someone have stolen or imitated our post. Article spinning is somewhat better than copying content but it would be good to modify the subheadings, order of points, links before publishing the post.

      Writing what we know is the best thing and it is good to refer some blogs to add some key points. Keep reading, thanks for your comment.

      1. Hi there!

        Thanks for the quick reply. Its good to see that you take good care of your readers (by replying to each and every comment ASAP) 🙂

        Unique content is something that is appreciated in today’s era and thus, article spinning would be the right choice as well.

        Lets go for unique content!

        Have a nice day!

  14. Great Blog post Nirmala Mam . I have also seen that may blogger copy blog post from other blogs to become a blogger . But that is not right also they couldn’t get succeed by doing that because google algorithm is made for that and when it updates those bloggers blogging career stop automatically . So concentrate on writing original , Useful and good blog post that help someone . Their is not any shortcut in blogging also ,

    1. I am welcoming you here and absolutely there is no short cut to thrive in blogging. Search engines algorithms are getting smart and hence I believe that the spammers will throw away.

      Stay tuned Prafull!

  15. I found it inspiring, precise and well written content. I’ve personally encountered some lazy bloggers engaged in copying contents from other High PR sites. Still, they claim that the content present on their site is 100% original.
    Bundle of thanks to the author!

  16. Hello Nirmala Mam,
    yes ! Your all reasons are 100% correct as you said some blogger copy post of other blogger because they have no time to write . Then in thia topic I am suggesting a best option for him they need to left blogging because blogging always take time and if yoy have no time to writing then left it and enioy your life . Hahaha

    by thw way nice article mama thanks to share . 🙂

  17. It hurts , it really hurts. Being a blogger, I try to write the best content for my readers and when bloggers copy our content I really feel sad for them but not angry. Because , they aren’t gaining anything. Even , if they gain something it’s just for a short period.

    I think it is most of the newbies who make this mistake. It’s because they aren’t familiar with this field . Rather than filling a complaint or being harsh with them ., we should actually make them understand why they shouldn’t do this and guide them in the right path.
    3 years back I made a similar mistake, I didn’t know anything about blogging and then one of my friend guided me to the right path 🙂

    Have a nice day 🙂

  18. Thanks for this interesting post!! Online plagiarism is so common these days. As a blogger I unfortunately know this subject too well. My content has been copied many times. I recommend using a service called Copyleaks – http://www.copyleaks.com to detect sites that copied your content. I have found a few websites that plagiarized my content using it.

    cheers,
    Rich

  19. It is a shame people steal your work and try to take credit for it. I know how much effort and time sometimes goes into researching and writing one article.

    I am curious, how did you find those copycats? Did somebody pointed it out or you stumbled upon it yourself?

  20. Hi Nirmala,

    Sorry about that to hear that you experienced this issue thrice.When Loyal bloggers are investing their precious time in creating their own content for their blog it really hurts when others copy that very easily.Actually I read in shoutmeloud that we can register a DMCA complaint with the blogger who copies our content or images.I am new blogger and haven’t come across this till now.Hope Your post helps me in future if I come across the same issue

  21. Hello Nirmala Ma’am!
    you’ve written an amazing post!
    When i was new to this blogging world(3 years ago), i used to just COPY-PASTE articles from Other sites. i even don’t care about which niche i am posting that time.
    But after then, i learned a lot about blogging and started my new blog. Copying Content from other sites was my silly mistake. i apologize all those site owners from whom i copied content three years ago.
    You refreshed my memories. I will suggest newbie’s to strictly not to copy content.
    Thank you Ma’am for such awesome article!

  22. Hi Nirmala Di,

    People copying the content from others blog post since they think that it is available on net, hence they can copied is easily but as per my knowledge which is also mention in your article by Badrinarayan that it won’t affect the first author since google is very smart to check the first author of the article hence first author can sit back and be relax and feel proud that your post are doing such a wonder in the blogosphere that people are started following and copying blog posts. 😉

  23. Thanks for this article. Good to know that I am not alone but this has become a serious problem. In some cases, the copycat blogger even writes his name in his author bio as the author and as a matter of fact, I have seen one that filed a DCMA notice against me for my own content, ofcourse I came down hard on him later and his hosting company had to suspend him but I am just wondering how bad this could get.

  24. Hello Nirmala,

    I agree with you about the issue of copying. Copying content or ideas of other bloggers is really bad habit and we can’t achieve anything from it rather than waste of time and etc.

    I guess only original content will stand a chance for getting good traffic from search results.

  25. Stealing someone’s content and his hard work is not at all good. What happens if we have copy write on the content with dmca. Will they still be able to steal the content.

  26. This is soo irritating and it happened a lot with me wherein new bloggers steal the content from my website. I always used to keep a regular check on duplicate content through copyscape. Google is very smart these days so we don’t have to worry much about it.
    Keep up the good work Nirmala.
    Cheers,
    MJ

  27. Great post Nirmala 🙂 I too accept all the point you have mentioned. Coping content from other blogs are illegal. Thanks for sharing such informative post.

  28. Really it hurts a lot when some one copy your site content. There are still many people who are worried to theft their content. You write a great post on copied. Thanks

  29. Reasons why Google loves Blogs are :

    They contain fresh,unique,helpful,useful,regular and updated Content.

    While you are ruining all that by being a copycat Blogger.

    So please stay away from that thing.

  30. Yeah true bloggers won’t copy they are unique and share what they know and try to publish unique content.

    Thanks

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top