Blogging

If you like to know the properties of links on the sites you visit, Firefox version 3.6 is a bit lacking unless you add a link property plugin that recreates the function many of us used to take for granted.

If all else fails, there’s one final step you can take to ensure your scraper’s website is taken completely offline, as soon as possible.

If scrapers are still making money off your content at this point, you can take your issue directly to their advertisers and hit back in the bank account.

And if your scraper parasite is still in the search index, a few letters notifying your writes under the DMCA can help ensure the search engines know who is the original and who is the copy-cat.

If the initial emails and private messages don’t get your scraped blog posts removed, there are other more damaging (and entertaining) ways to strike back at content thieves.

When blog scrapers threaten your reputation in the search engines, you’ll eventually have to fight back just to protect yourself. Since we’re feeling like generous and nice people, we’re going to start off with some polite email requests before we start doing damage or publicly mocking the offender.

Its easy to ignore most scrapers, but once in a while they get their act together and figure out how to rank with stolen content. Here are the basic steps to fix that kind of mess.

Increasingly, the search index’s reaction to your posts is quick and revealing. The other day I managed to learn that the hard way while doing some “clean up” posts.

I won’t hesitate to write some personal junk here, because it seems like I won’t be able to get back on topic until I get over the personal problems.

A look back on the last 100 posts and 11 months. Comparisons of the site’s revenue, traffic, and SEO statistics between now and after the first 100 posts.

Once spammers get their foot in to the door of your comment section, they will attract more of their kind and give confidence to those who think they can score a spammy link from your blog. One way to cut down on the noisy submissions is to ensure that they never show up – not even for a minute!

The FTC is making a whole lot of waves, but the ruling is symbolic and unclear. Not only will enforcement be next to impossible, but the guidelines themselves seem to ignore the realities of online marketing.