Copyright Permission Strategy

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1. World Wide Distribution RocksA 

In many concerts, workshops and events I go to - they have a strict policy: no cameras allowed.

But I read about this rock band - who instead of not allowing cameras, encouraged it!A  They would shout to their audience:

“Take a picture of us with your digital camera; when you get home, blog about us, and put our picture on your blog!”

As a result, the band gained fame and sold more CDs!

2. The Other Side of the Coin

I usually have the rock band frame of mind: I don’t mind others using material from this blog.A  But there is another ugly side: Google and other search engines don’t like duplicate content.A  If other websites copy your posts,A  they may rank higher in search engines for the keywords in that post.A  And all the natural search engine traffic will go to them instead of coming to you.

So what should you do?A  Have a strict do-not-copy notice and enforce it?

3. The Solution

The solution is finding the middle path. I don’t allow people to copy all my posts.A  But I’ll let them republish one or two of my posts on their blogs or websites or newsletters.A A  Here are some rules I try to follow:

i.A  I don’t allow scrapers: people who syndicate the entire RSS feeds on their websites.A  I actively go after them.

ii. But I don’t mind if people syndicate excerpts of all my blog posts on their website.A  Excerpts is fine.A  In fact, its more than fine - as people will click on to this blog if they like the excerpts.

iii. Linking to other posts you’ve written before - from your new posts is a good idea. Because even if people syndicate your entire RSS feed, they will be sending their visitors back to you who click through the link to other posts.

iv. Using the Feed Footer plugin is a good idea too - if you use WordPress.A  You can add a copyright notice and a link back to your blog from underneath all your blog posts.

v.A  If people email me and ask if they can re-publish a post of mine, I usually say yes.A  Even if its for commercial purposes.

vi. In fact, I’ll also go through the trouble of re-writing the introduction of that blog post to better suite their audience if I feel like it’ll be worth the extra effort.A  By re-writing the introduction, I also make sure that Google indexes both the posts.

vii. I do use a tool from time to time to find people who plagiarize my content without permission.A  But I usually leave those people alone who’ve just copied one of my posts - and that too - to make a point of their own.A  I only go after people who copy all of my posts.A  The tool I use is available for free.A  Its called Copyscape.

Action Summary:

• Don’t discourage people to republish your work.A  It could lead to increase in traffic.
• But make sure you take steps to see that they don’t duplicate everything you write.
• Make sure that people send traffic to you whenever they use your material.

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Posted by Ankesh Kothari under Traffic on 09 Aug 2007

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