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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Domain names live in a state of optional value. They depend on the current state of a website pertaining to that url or a future site built by the domain owner, a webmaster, a site editor, or some programming guru. Domainers have learned by now to skip all the shortcuts, tricks and ladders to get visitor traffic and develop any domain name to its fullest content driven potential.

The best type of website to make right now is one that provides content, resources or ideas that other sites can use. Many webmasters put up sites without access to the content making talent or blog writing skills such sites require. Producing content today for online publication is the equivalent of encyclopedia publishing sixty years ago. But the turnover in its being refreshed is measured in milliseconds.

The gimmick of online site architecture is to give the people what they want. Making a web site people want would seem obvious. Make a portal or destination online that provides a fact sheet, source, how-to crib, problem solution or unique resource, and let people know how they can find it. Articles with a fresh perspective, satiric slant, sarcastic wit or in-depth analysis “sell” online.

RSS feeds prowl for distinctly sticky content with eyeball traction. Yet all too often webmasters and domainers with a new domain name acquisition come running, clutching plans for a wannabe site nobody needs. They stuff the landing page with ads, tapping their fingers until the Google and affiliate wealth rolls in. They blister the blogs with irrelevant and nonsensical comments destined to be dumped as spam. They expect something from nothing.

Some site editors use site plan models of sites that don’t apply to their content or subject . Some project managers for the website use a software that doesn’t suit the data type or discoverability of that content type. Some webmasters make outsize graphics and logos that dominate a site’s front page and bury the lead content under a scrolldown that will never happen.

Why work to make new sites with no original content at all? The energy coming from the Internet is that subject matter of all types in accessible language is available to anyone. Worried about medical symptoms and think it might be mesothelioma? Look it up. Trying to install that wall corner bracket mount of HDTV? Look up the YouTube before you screw it up.  Thinking about what kind of prom dress is in this year? Search online to get the last word.

People are now accustomed to using the Internet for information, advice, counseling, social contact, communication, and instruction. That is a lot of authority to hand to a second generation website architecture and cram it with ads and expect people to drop by and pay attention. But some of the most avidly visited sites provide help and shortcuts people want.

The websites for gaming cheats and keystroke cribs and video game information and “quest” data are a terrific example. The information, like in a computer manual, television circuit diagram, warranty brochure, or “Dummies” book, is  supplied in shorthand for brief reference. The main information, for example,  is at the game site. But all the users (game players) want to plow through the gobbledygook and get to the action.

Online site browsers are such “game players”. They want to visit the quickest site for their chosen item and close the circle of question and answer the fastest. But even a quick Google search can yield thousands of search  results that puzzle them. Why do so many sites get reported as results that have nothing to do with what they typed in? This is the SEO wrangle webmasters must conquer through critical application of content, keyword, tags, and search terms.

Writing for other website publications, broadly keyword tagged with subject and categorical application, can make thousands of webmasters a day flock to your site. RSS feeds and visiting browsers can make or break a site by their absence or presence. Participation and promotion of a site’s main message seeds from there. But the stamp of originality and competent authorship must be present.

The marketing needed to launch a website can take several traditional avenues that have been imitated online. Viral “friends and family” promotion of a website taps one network. Social network sites’ promotion of a site and its purpose taps another network. Providing content for RSS feeds for other webmasters infuses another network of potential site visitors. Professional site listings and links also contribute to exploratory traffic.

One javelin into this new user base is the involvement of site content with promotion via social network sites. These sites, like Twitter, Google, MySpace, Facebook, and others derive from assembled pieces of other sites published daily. When the content material is tagged by category and subject, new readers can investigate easily. Such sites demand fresh content all the time.

Webmasters building websites from a pure profit perspective need to evaluate their raison d’etre and provide more than just one more streaming Google ad-based url. They need to research the competition, provide a unique assembly of information or solution data, compose it attractively and program it to work easily and visually for effective visitation online. Then link it up.

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