Domain Owl

Got original content? If not, you could get sued. So goes the conventional wisdom now developing as the frontier of Internet media, law and standard operating practices grows another branch. Those RSS feeds may not be “free” after all. For rogue operators online, the “cut and paste” method of website development may be a thing of the past. The hounds of copyright legality are upon content thieves.

Taking a bead from a domain industry leader, I reference (and cite under pain of death) Elliott Silver’s comprehensive blog post today concerning content theft. The relevant article in Wired revealed the significance of getting published in conventional print run and digital media under a syndicated banner even in this day and age. The cost of these media operations assumes use of the material under its own auspices.

The company Righthaven actively pursues legal cases against websites that puncture the value of the native content by posting it on their websites and deriving SEO value and reader interest. The details of the copyright actions pursued by this company are something every website administrator needs to know about. This is in fact a sort of domain insurance, where activities like content writing and posting build value in a site.

It should go without saying that new website ventures should contain original content. but so many newb bloggers haven’t learned that concept. And many more domain speculators actively lift feeds and copy and paste entire sections of websites as a matter of course in the race to adsense and search engine revenue. The issuing of takedown notices is a time consuming and complex activity not all bloggers and webmasters understand how to do.

Who is doing the stealing? Bloggers and other webmasters, for the most part. Silver’s article sketches a swipe at the poor Web journalism practiced by many online text contributors, but the real picture is so much more broad than that. Many (but by no means all) domain speculators populate websites using models of virtual copy theft and content “relocation”.

For what can only be slivers of cents on the dollar, random webmasters draw from the RSS feeds of multiple sites and indiscriminately repost to fill up their site pages. This practice is uneasily as common as it is overlooked and underenforced for online copyright violation. More companies like Righthaven, online services that look to police online copyright violation are needed.

Infringement is an art form for many webmasters. They seek to diffuse and obfuscate the original post yet steal or repost most of it on their own sites, often without any link or pingback to the original site.But if internet practices lawsuits go forward, a new set of rules might soon be in place.  A new rubric of online content policing might spring forth.

Many webmaster who conscientiously invest in original content would like to see this happen. Hosting companies may get involved at some point. There is a rule of common sense that should be part of every hosting company terms of service. Content theft should be an act that terminates hosting company liability. Sites composed of over 50% stolen content could be taken down by disconnect notices.

And just think what the Google rankings would scramble to show then.

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The major focus of any webmaster effort in uploading content is creating discoverability from other website searches, search engine queries, connecting keywords and article links, and indexing material on the site to easily scannable listings browsers can sift through. The challenge comes in finding new ways to add content and keep the reader interested while earning SEO credibility at the same time.

SEO wasn’t built in a day, but many websites have been. And it shows. Some sites full of text never become even an SEO glimmer in the distance, thanks to sloppy site planning, ellipsis of the site plan function, aging content and unoriginal content submissions. A plain looking subject based site might have a page rank much higher than its flashy appearing neighbor.

The ability of the random user online to find your site and the related content regarding set of words or keywords is discoverability. Basic formatting and content submitting practices can enable better and better discoverability promoting articles. Search readability and keyword density before submitting. Make sure source links are embedded correctly. Submit items and updated site plans to search engines regularly.

1. Search for updated and relevant subject articles.

Review these articles after scanning. look for source material to investigate and review. Submit a partial lead in teaser of original article content with a link to the full text source. Post the name or publication title of the source and the date. Remove or archive older material. Writing an introduction orients the site visitor to what content the article contains.

2. Instill a ‘pedia” Resources

Create an information archive of chronologically listed articles and content abstracts written by you. WikiPedia is a member authored archive of dictionary and encyclopedia mimetic data entries which are by no means the last word, completely bias-free, or always updated. Building an independent data source that is better than the Wikipedia entry for the subject matter is a very good way to get SEO traction and search inquiry redundancy.

3. Scan Publications

Look for upcoming article features in the “Coming Soon” or next issue agenda. These can be investigated and reported now and create updated and current discoverability at your site. Scan for research completion, new product announcements, education and publication news. New websites and new magazines arr erupting every day. Get readers the skinny on the newest resources, indexes, link directories, blogs and books.

4. Sift the RSS Feeds

All RSS feeds are not created equal. Look for RSS feeds with consistently new content, freshly updated entries, and original source material. make sure the balance of the site is greater than three quarters fresh and original articles and content in scale to RSS feed material. Try not to mimic RSS feed material coming form the same sources. If every RSS feed content stream channels the same 5 topical or industry subject blogs, the content will not SEO index as well.

5. Sign up for Press Releases

Websites like museums, publications, organizations and research and other sites have mailing lists and RSS feeds and press release media churning out relevant content all the time. Sign up for these newsletters and review them for new stories and content you don’t have yet on your site. A website churning out press releases sends the same resource on every topic.

Author your own press release for any independent media or topical information archive. Web users who want a quick primer instead of a formal dictionary listing will be more comfortable using your site for coaching, research, and background support for keyword terms and usage. A site about one topic is meant to bring diverse media and data together.

6. Raid the Web Links Directories

Find relevant sites for content articles and news of your topic and bookmark them. Visit and weed out the ad filled click grabbing sites form the intuitive, accessible eays to read ones. Rank the web directories as a feature of your own site directory of links. Find ways to rank of respond to the websites that readers can use to optimize their searches for quality information.

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Getting a blog launched takes time and effort. But usually by the time a domain gets a series of chronological entries up and behind it, the webmaster or chief blogger loses interest and the new additions die away. This is why SEO researchers get stranded at forgotten blogs and websites that haven’t been updated for months or years. But SEO is what bloggers must keep doing to get noticed and attract new readers.

Methods to a better blog might just be a bracing checklist away. When the initial zest to write reams and reams of opinionated content start to pall, responsible bloggers and competent webmasters buck up. Use a different strategy every day to change things up for your SEO discoverability. Just reworking the responses and presentation of many of the below items can form the basis of a complete blog post or article.

1. Check the News

Every morning or at night check the news related to the key technologies or subjects related to your blog. Google the words or devices, subject words and “news”. The news articles approved by media outlets can give only the bare bones sketch of important news events, often written by editors who may not know as much as a webmaster or site owner about the topic or the principals involved.

Put some ballast in the tanks and report a more robust news story, and search engines and other webmasters will find your content and check back. Do some searches on your own and come up with supplemental material the news editors or reporters couldn’t be bothered to add. Deadline news writers for print and web media are seldom as up to date as the blogs and sites that follow the individuals or event concerned.

2. Slurp the Feeds

RSS news feeds often contain hastily rewritten or cribbed text content grabbed form press releases and other sources. RSS feeds are made to be fed to eager listeners while they drive to work, jog or do their chores. But a more in-depth treatment of the news article with additional information, expanded details and more sources amplifies the content.

News feeds were designed to populate sites with content that mirrored the topics and subject matter to a limited extent. But with the extent to which news feeds are utilized for templates and minisites, they may have lost a great deal of SEO value for site discoverability. Include the dates and times in the top of your posts so readers can check the timeliness of the reports before they read.

3. Browse the Forums

Forums are an excellent investigative source of how the herd who pays attention to any one type of blog subject will move. Does everyone want the next level development, or do they want things to stay the way they are? Why do some users feel one way and others encourage another point of view? Forums are touchstones where new ideas and groundswell support for a movement can happen in a flash.

Forums rise and fall dependent on their user shifts. See what types of users are moving in new directions. See what the savviest users are saying and take a bead on the conventional wisdom. See the places they talk about online where they get news and information. Those are road maps for sites to go to learn more about your topics and keyword article material.

4. Do the Rewrite Right

Rewrites that are repurposed jumbles of meaningless text don’t benefit anyone, certainly not the SEO value of the site. Webmasters who get fooled by these approaches often wait for search engine results and discoverability that never happens. Rewrites with fresh information and modern points of view appeal to readers trying to get a grip on the snapshot view of the topic.

But often magazines and journals have extremely outdated findings and conclusions. Writing an updated treatment of such an article bears the stamp of web journalism because it allows an online reader to see the history of a topic and its new directions at the same time. The SEO value moves downstream to the new sources of data on the subject, and upstream to the links that forged the progress the text articulates.

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