After almost a full week of dealing with unoriginal affiliates who blatantly copy other sites, I finally ranted yesterday on our blog about affiliates who copy content (http://www.legacyaffiliateblog.com/affiliate-tips/original-design-copywriting).
Much to my surprise, it picked up some pretty quick steam on Twitter and some good comments were left, particularly one by our ABW buddy, Vinny O'Hare (nyfalcon).
So today I posted his good idea (one that amazingly I had never heard before) in a follow-up post about using Google Alerts to monitor sites that copy your content (http://www.legacyaffiliateblog.com/affiliate-tips/original-design-copywriting-followup)
For whatever reason it seems like in the last week, we have had a rash of affiliates doing this. I think it is just plain wrong and you won't last in our program. Be original! Don't blatantly copy into which someone else invested their time and energy. It's just plain wrong!
Zeus
July 29th, 2009, 01:34 PM
Good info about Google Alert. I didn't know about it.
I caught an affiliate (and ABW member) who made perfect copies of my sites after monitoring her comments on ABW. She always had the same problems with merchants promoted on my sites. Yes, it's just plain wrong and I'm glad an AM is talking about it.
sunnypi
July 29th, 2009, 02:12 PM
Thanks Matt and Vinny,
I think it's a very valuable bit of advice and we'll pass it onto our affiliates on the blog too.
Thanks guys!
ladidah
July 29th, 2009, 02:26 PM
I hate those sites that do that.
Little they know that Google will know and will put them into supplemental index.
I have google alerts out too for my sites and key phrases.
I also have thought about subscription to Copyscape[dot]com . Anyone used them?
One other thing I did, that may annoy my visitors, but have seen the drop in copying especially pictures is to disable Ctrl-right click on images. Also, disable hot linking on images. Yes, I have seen people just copy and paste with my affiliate links, pictures et al.
I also report them to Google.
MattMcWilliams
July 29th, 2009, 02:49 PM
I have not heard anything good or bad about CopyScape over the years.
A search on here for it doesn't yield much but this post may help: http://forum.abestweb.com/showpost.php?p=809077&postcount=1
And this one: http://forum.abestweb.com/showthread.php?t=53733&highlight=copyscape
Vinny O'Hare
July 29th, 2009, 03:34 PM
Ladidah
Using the right click will stop some of the people from stealing the images but anyone that wants the image can still get it pretty easy.
It stinks when someone grabs your image especially if its a good one but there are bigger things to worry about then that.
Dynamoo
July 29th, 2009, 05:14 PM
I've used Copyscape in the past to protect high-value pages, Google Alerts isn't quite as good but it is free.
The trick is to find a unique part of your text.. the last few words of a sentence and the first few of the next is often a good one to look for. Remember to use the -site:whatever.com modifier if you don't want to pick up your own results!
PDXreader
July 29th, 2009, 06:54 PM
I tried to copy Seymour Butts website but it came out looking like this...
BlogBonnieBlog
July 29th, 2009, 10:49 PM
approving sites once I had several newbie affiliates all with similar looking sites of another very well established affiliate that i knew pretty well. I contacted him about it and he was actually okay with it as he'd taught a class using his site as a sample and told the attendees they could use his site as a template of sorts to get going. He didn't necessarily mean to plagerize it graphic for graphic and pixel by pixel, but told me not to worry about it and did greatly appreciate that I would look out for him.
Probably not typical but something to keep in mind.
ladidah
July 29th, 2009, 11:17 PM
Ladidah
Using the right click will stop some of the people from stealing the images but anyone that wants the image can still get it pretty easy.
It stinks when someone grabs your image especially if its a good one but there are bigger things to worry about then that.
It's just a deterrent so not the entire site can be copied. If someone wants to really steal something they will find a way to do it. The only way for someone not to steal something is not to put it on the net.
MattMcWilliams
July 30th, 2009, 10:51 AM
I tried to copy Seymour Butts website but it came out looking like this...
I almost cried from laughing. That is one of my wife and I's favorite skits.
I have a fever and the only cure is...more cowbell!
MattMcWilliams
July 30th, 2009, 06:32 PM
Another follow-up based on an affiliate's tip on preventing others from framing your site:
And on another note, what is up with affiliates copying Ad Words campaigns? Do you really think you will last? Get original or get lost!
I guess that was kind of brutal, but really, how hard is it to write your own freaking ads?
I say this not only as someone who has written ads and as an affiliate manager who has to police this, but also as someone who thinks it is simply unfair and unethical!
One thing I would add to #4 (contact their web hosting company) is that is could pay to file the second request to the hosting company, if the 1st doesn't work, in DMCA complaint format too. The host then has to follow certain steps to maintain their common carrier (no liability) status that they can typically ignore if submitted in any other way.
One source of format help: http://www.google.com/dmca.html (and a few warnings)
List of Designated Agents: http://www.copyright.gov/onlinesp/list/index.html
Has worked well for us, at least...many hosts will respond that they require this format anyway. (As it also transfers some of the liability for a false claim to you, and lets the host follow a well defined process and ruleset.)
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