What to Do if Someone is Stealing Your Content

May 2, 2013 by · Leave a Comment
Unfortunately, calling the police is not an option here...

If someone is stealing your content, be it text or photos or anything, there are a number of steps you can take. 1. Begin an initial investigation. DON'T be wrong. Make 100% sure that it is your content that they have on their site. If it's a new blogger, or a seemingly innocent copy (even though it is annoying) of your content, try your hardest to give them a break and contact them first. Strangely enough, some people really don't know the rules of plagiarism and stealing content. Do them a favor and shoot them an email asking them to remove your stolen content or provide a link back to your site (whichever you prefer). Try to avoid aggressive words like "stealing", "illegal", "I'll shoot you" and stuff like that. If that initial email fails, try a more stern "this is my content, please remove it to avoid further action" email. This is typically referred to a "cease and desist" letter. Save your records of sending the email and any other contact from the other person. You … [Read more...]

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Bloggers ~ You Could Be Using a Gadget that Links to Malware

May 1, 2013 by · 1 Comment
blog list gadget pic

Something came to my attention again this week and I realized that I should write a post about it. There is a gadget in Blogger that some folks are using which is leading to their sites showing this screen in Google Chrome due to links to malware: Would you continue to a site if you were first greeted by that message? Probably not. Do you want to avoid this happening to your blog? Probably. Here's what was causing it in the few cases that I have seen: That's the Blog List gadget. Here's the issue... The concept is great: it will automatically put a link in your sidebar for some of the blogs you follow and will update with their most recent posts. You can choose to display such features as the title of their post, thumbnails from their post or more! Great idea. The problem lies in the setup options. See the options below? I would recommend adding blogs manually if you are going to use this gadget. The problem the other options create is that most bloggers follow too … [Read more...]

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8 Elements of a Great Blog Design

April 29, 2013 by · Leave a Comment
posts on homepage

1. A Clear and Appealing Header This is the first impression for most blogs. It's on the top of the site, it's generally the image that loads first. It's what sets the tone for the site. The header doesn't have to be fancy or professionally designed. It should, however, contain your site's name and should set the tone for what's on the site. This site, for example, has a fairly simple header. It does, however contain a clear site title and tagline while looking good (if I must say so myself). 2. Content and ad Separation While you do want your ads to be "clickable", you don't want them to be confusing. Don't deceive your readers into clicking an ad. That'll get someone to not come back to your site. When it comes to your content, make it easy to read and difficult to get distracted by what's around it. Your ads and promotional stuff should compliment your content, not distract people from it. 3. A Simple Top Menu Try not to have 2 rows of menu options. A menu … [Read more...]

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Better Blogging Series ~ Stop Wishing

April 26, 2013 by · Leave a Comment
Better Blogging

Welcome to Part 2 of the Better Blogging Series. This series will run over the course of a couple of weeks and will provide some ideas and plans of action to make you a better blogger. To see all of the current posts in the series, click here. I know it happens. You see another blog who has reviewed a product that you love or they are sponsored by one of your favorite companies and you get a little jealous. You'll probably even utter, "lucky". There's nothing wrong with that, if you let it motivate you. If you sit and wallow and say "oh poor me" and "why did they pick her", you're never going to get sponsored. The truth is, you have no idea how hard that other blogger worked to land that opportunity. You don't see the countless sponsorship rejection emails they got. You don't know how many times that blogger agreed to post/tweet/feature that company as part of the sponsorship. Assuming that things are just falling into the laps of other bloggers is the worst thing you can … [Read more...]

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Better Blogging Series ~ Be Personable

April 25, 2013 by · 4 Comments
These are just a few things you can write about to personalize your blog.

Welcome to Part 1 of the Better Blogging Series. This series will run over the course of a couple of weeks and will provide some ideas and plans of action to make you a better blogger. To see all of the current posts in the series, click here. This one sounds like a given, but it's not. Pick a topic. Google it. There are probably dozens of results with posts about that topic. So how do you stand out? I've said this in a few other posts as well: there are thousands of lifestyle blogs out there, but there is only one you. People will come and go from your blog if there's not enough you in it. People can find product reviews, outfit posts, make-up tutorials or fashion advice anywhere, but it's your personal spin that makes it unique. It's you they'll remember. You have to get your readers to like you. Even if another blogger has a larger budget to buy clothes for fashion posts, or if they get more products to review, you can make yours better and more appealing by adding … [Read more...]

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