This is a quick follow on from my previous post on beating the feed scrapers. The comments on that post made it clear that a lot of people simply don’t have access to the plugins that make adding copyright and links back to your site to your post feed really easy. But there is a simple way to make sure every post you write, and therefore every post feed, contains a copyright statement and a link back to your site. It will work whatever blogging platform you use, too, and I feel daft for not having thought of it before. Rosie@leaves’nbloom already did, though I am suggesting a slight tweak to make it look nicer but still be reasonably effective. I know that this is teaching Grandmother to suck eggs for many of you, but if it is helpful to just one or two it is worth putting it out there.
It means creating a piece of code that you will then save in either a draft post or a text editor so that you can easily cut and paste it into the bottom of every new post you write. The code will contain a simple copyright statement and a link back to your own site. Because it is in the post it will also be in the feed. It also makes it easy to set up a google alert to check for when that chunk of text appears elsewhere, indicating a possible scraping incident. That last phrase conjures up images of scraped knees…
People able to use the plugins mentioned in my previous post don’t need to do this – they will handle it all automatically. All you need to do is set up the google alert.
[html]
©Copyright 2011
Your Name.
All rights reserved.
Content created by Your Name for
Your Blog Name.
[/html]
Just cut and paste the code from the box above, remove the line breaks so that it is all one line, and replace the generic stuff with your own details. For instance, mine would look like this:
[html]
©Copyright 2011 Janet Bruten. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet Bruten for Plantaliscious.
[/html]
Which in normal “visual” mode (“compose” in Blogger), and in the final published post, looks like this:
©Copyright 2011 Janet Bruten. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet Bruten for Plantaliscious.
The idea is that you will copy this relatively unobtrusive line in to the bottom of each post you write, which shouldn’t put any legitimate person off but will perhaps offer some meagre pay-back if you get scraped – at least anyone reading the post on another site will see the copyright and statement about where it was written for. Just remember to copy the code version and to make sure you are in “HTML” or “Edit HTML” mode when you do this.
Its now easy to set up a google alert so that every time google finds a new result for your alert content you get an email. Hopefully this will just be one, each time you publish a new post with the copyright text. If you see alerts for sites other than your own, which you have not authorised, you can follow up – if you want to.
Go to the google alert page and type the text from your copyright notice into the search terms box within quotes – you are looking for exact matches. Copy the “visual” version not the code. Mine would look like this:
“©Copyright 2011 Janet Bruten. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet Bruten for Plantaliscious”
Select how often you want to receive results and where you want them sent to – it doesn’t have to be your google email address – and press “Create Alert”. Job done. Sit back and hope that the results DON’T come rolling in…
Hope that helps, sorry the previous post was so wordpress.org focused. Now I am going to turn my attention back to the gardening. There are seedlings to prick out, new growth to monitor, unfurling buds to record…
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Hi,
I’ve put the copyright in my footer, will be interesting to see if I get anything back! lol, I don’t expect anything :)
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Hi Liz, I hope all you get back is notification that you just posted!
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Thanks for this useful information. Sounds like a simple step to help bloggers keep track of what’s happening with their posts.
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Happy to help. I think simple is good – otherwise “they” win by making our lives harder.
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Janet, this is wonderful information. I had read Rosie’s post but it wasn’t entirely clear to me how to add this piece of information. Will be looking at instating this in the near future.
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Good luck Marguerite, hope you don’t find you are being plagiarised. A definite case of no news being good news.
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I think I have now learned a useful new abbreviation – PIPFF (sounds like the noise you get when opening a canned drink!). Sorry to be so frivolous in relation to such a contentious subject :)
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Your levity is most welcome! Not sure that PIPFF will catch on though…
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thank you Janet for these uber useful latest 2 posts – have bookmarked them for reference as so much to digest. Put the code in my latest post and will download the WP plugin for next time. Have a great weekend – clearing more of the allotment no doubt.
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Hi Laura, you know me all too well! Yes, more digging on the cards. Have a great weekend.
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Janet thank you very much for this, I have just created my copyright stamp and added it to my latest post with a link back to you to thank you, Frances
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You are welcome Frances, glad you found it useful.
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Being technically challenged, when I first read anguished posts about scrapers, I wrote the copyright bit, with an embedded link . Now I just copy and paste from my previous post.
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Sounds perfect – it has to be easy to be done, really.
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You are wonderful! Thanks for this. I just got home and saw this, very much appreciated. Will copy and paste and do a Google alerts — thanks !!!
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You are welcome! Have a great weekend.
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Hi Janet, just to let you know that your ‘link’ for your lastest comment on my blog doesn’t take me to this blog, but to a new empty wordpress blog. Just wanted to let you know!
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Agh! That’s annoying – thanks for letting me know. Will head off and fix it…
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All fixed now Janet :) Well done!
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Thank you! I’d never have known…
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Hope you are happy with me mentioning you on today’s post for Esther’s Boring Garden Blog.
http://esthersboringgardenblog.blogspot.com/
Let me know if not.
Esther
P.S. Baycorns still sitting beside me in envelope. Our usual post office has closed so we have to go to town. Should be able to send this afternoon. If not, will risk first class stamp instead of having it weighed. It isn’t very heavy. E.
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You didn’t – but if you had, I would have smiled and not minded at all! No worries re baycorns. As and when.
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Yes! I did! Look at the picture of the twig of bay towards the bottom of the page on the right. It says ‘Bay reminds me of Plantalicious’ -with a link . . . which I clicked to bring me back to here!
Esther
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Oooh, so you did, and it is a really lovely link too – I admired the pic and missed my name! Thank you :-)
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Janet, thanks for doing all this research and trying to make things simple for us less proficient blog users. I think this is going to become more and more of a problem as more people start blogs to make money rather than just for sharing and bouncing ideas around. I’m considering that I stop following any blogs that I see are trying to make money by doing reviews and adding links to advertizing sites but then I know that one of those blogs is by a good friend so I would miss reading her blog. It will be very sad if these people spoil blogland for the rest of us. Christina
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Hi Christina. I think it can all feel like a bit of a minefield really. Its sad that the selfish actions of a few mean others feel the need to try and protect their blogs. I don’t personally mind people having a few ads in their sidebar or doing occasional reviews to cover their hosting cost etc., but I would quickly give up on any blog that was just that. I don’t think it is the fault of people who run ads etc, just the selfishness of people trying to make a quick buck out of other people’s writing by stealing it.
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Janet, I so admire your savvy techno skills. I will have to reread this when not so tired. I get a headache trying to understand all this code stuff and admit to being frightened of doing it at all. Afraid I will mess up something. Thank you so much for this helpful post!
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Hi Carol. Let me know if you have problems, I’ll gladly try to help, but you honestly can’t do any damage as such – worst case you end up with some funny looking stuff at the end of your blog post which you can easily then delete and try again. Good luck! And given that I’m not sure it will make that much difference, you may be better off just ignoring the whole thing. Why let them spoil your fun!
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Thanks for both this and your last posts Janet which are most informative and useful. I have had a photo lifted in the past :( Will be coming back to your posts in the daylight and will make necessary adjustments to my blog. Sad to say but there are some unscrupulous folk out there in cyber land. Hope that you are having fun in the garden this weekend.
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Hi Anna, sorry to hear you have had photos stolen. I am deep in the battle of space for new seedlings this weekend, shuffling things around to make room – there are worse ways to spend time! Hope you have a good weekend too, and that the posts make sense in daylight.
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That’s a lot neater than the automated addition I’ve set up for my RSS feed in Feedburner – off to change it immediately :)
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Glad to help!
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PS it’s also worth checking who else is being scraped at the time to see if you know anyone else whose having their posts pinched.
I’ve had a couple of scrapings recently which have also scraped the Gardeners World and Guardian blogs. It’s rather satisfying to set the might of their legal departments after the scrapers!
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Nice! Not yet been scraped myself – or not that I can tell – but told Carol@May Dreams Gardens about finding several of her posts on a site… I like it that we can look out for one another. When large legal departments can also be roped in? Karma!
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Janet – you have written a really useful couple of posts here.
I dont often get scrapped – I think my images are too big! and I dont say much – however I think I will take your advice and set up a copyright and google alert. Sadly, this wont help me for the images that get “nicked”
K
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Glad you found them useful Karen – sorry to hear you have images nicked. Take poorer pics?!
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I like the way you did yours – I have a different one on feedburner aswell – I think when I get time later today I’ll change mine to the way yours is. Thankyou so much for the link back to my blog – forewarned means being forearmed!
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Hi Rosie, thanks again for bringing this to our attention – I love how supportive the garden blogging community is.