My Most Stolen Article --This is RIDICULOUS!!

by Raydal
58 replies
I just submitted an article to EA which I wrote about 7 years ago.
I had submitted this to an article directory. The article was
rejected by EA because it was already on another site.

So I did a check and found my article on a ton of site with
no author resource box. Even popular marketers who should
know better.

Just do a search for "7 Secrets To Building Your Online Credibility"
and you'll see what I mean. It's a waste of time for me to
contact all these websites--so I really don't know what is the
lesson here ...

Phew!

-Ray Edwards
#article #ridiculous #stolen
  • Profile picture of the author Sam Rodrigo
    Ray,

    Why not improve the article or update if you can and resubmit?

    Sam
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    • Profile picture of the author Raydal
      Originally Posted by Sam Rodrigo View Post

      Ray,

      Why not improve the article or update if you can and resubmit?

      Sam

      That is possible bit it still doesn't give me credit for my original
      work. I'm still surprised by the "big websites" that are using my
      article as though they wrote it.

      -Ray Edwards
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  • Profile picture of the author Joshua Uebergang
    That's some fine distribution you got there Ray. I imagine time has a lot to do with it. Did you just submit it manually to a few major directories seven years ago?

    Perhaps you can contact a couple of the bigger sites, the ones that would bring you traffic, with an author bio in the email. Or outsource it.
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    • Profile picture of the author Raydal
      Originally Posted by Joshua Uebergang View Post

      That's some fine distribution you got there Ray. I imagine time has a lot to do with it. Did you just submit it manually to a few major directories seven years ago?

      Perhaps you can contact a couple of the bigger sites, the ones that would bring you traffic, with an author bio in the email. Or outsource it.
      That was one of my original articles I wrote when I was just testing
      my hand at article writing. I think I submitted it to one article
      directory back then. So I guess it's because of the long time why
      it has gone so far. But interestingly a lot of sites have only
      recently posted it on their blogs-AS THOUGH THEY WROTE IT???

      -Ray Edwards
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      • Profile picture of the author HQArticleWriting
        sorry to hear about that Ray. must be darn good content!

        Joshua's idea is good if the time is worth it about contacting the larger sites and getting credit (and traffic!) from the site. shoot'em an email, if not give a call.
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  • Profile picture of the author Droopy Dawg
    Join the club man... it happens to everybody. The bad thing is that there's really nothing you can do about it
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    • Profile picture of the author Bryan Zimmerman
      Originally Posted by Droopy Dawg View Post

      Join the club man... it happens to everybody. The bad thing is that there's really nothing you can do about it
      Yep, I was searching for where a couple of my articles were in the serps today and found two different sites that had one of my articles on it with no resource box. And to top it all off they were ranking higher than my original article they stole. Just made me laugh a little, even though it shouldn't have.
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  • Profile picture of the author Allen Graves
    They may not know, Ray. It could have been sold in a PLR package or as a bonus to another product.

    AL

    p.s. This is why you should get a link in the body of your article along with a text version of the URI.
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    • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
      Originally Posted by Allen Graves View Post

      They may not know, Ray. It could have been sold in a PLR package or as a bonus to another product.
      You're absolutely right. It was, and still is, sold as PLR. On WF, in fact.

      I have sent Raydal a PM with a link to the WSO.
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      • Profile picture of the author Allen Graves
        Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert View Post

        You're absolutely right. It was, and still is, sold as PLR. On WF, in fact.

        I have sent Raydal a PM with a link to the WSO.
        Well isn't THAT great?! Pretty sad - that WSO should be immediately taken down - that is if Ray can prove it was plagiarized.

        AL
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        • Profile picture of the author neddag
          Originally Posted by Allen Graves View Post

          Well isn't THAT great?! Pretty sad - that WSO should be immediately taken down - that is if Ray can prove it was plagiarized.

          AL
          This is very common unfortunately. I recently purchased a huge package of PLR here. I ran a quick check on about 25 of the articles and 10 of them were published at EZA.

          Sad really. I don't think the seller knew this (giving the benefit of the doubt), but he simply repackaged all the PLR he had on his hard drive. He probably purchased it as PLR at one time as well. Who knows how far back it got started.

          Ned
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          • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
            Originally Posted by neddag View Post

            This is very common unfortunately. I recently purchased a huge package of PLR here. I ran a quick check on about 25 of the articles and 10 of them were published at EZA.

            Sad really. I don't think the seller knew this (giving the benefit of the doubt), but he simply repackaged all the PLR he had on his hard drive. He probably purchased it as PLR at one time as well. Who knows how far back it got started.
            I agree with you that the seller probably didn't do it intentionally, and probably got it in a pack that was sold to him as PLR.

            This highlights one of the major problems of using PLR. It has been mentioned before, but the threads usually don't get many reads, unfortunately.

            As a publisher, you are responsible for what you publish. With PLR, oftentimes, you really don't know the source of it. While, legally, the publisher bears the responsibility, in real world application, both the original author and the publisher are victims. The original author because his work is stolen and claimed by others as their own, and the publisher because they purchased an article they believed they had full rights to label as their own.

            If you use PLR, it's best to buy PLR only from the original author, so that you have a greater assurance that what you are buying is really PLR. (Of course, that's not to say that someone couldn't steal articles and pass them off as PLR, but there you can at least track down the article to the original thief.) When PLR gets passed around and around, you really don't know where it came from. And, the liability will fall upon the publisher.

            Also, if you buy PLR from the original author, instead of in packs that have gone round and round, you reduce the likelihood of an author one day coming across your site and saying, "Hey, you stole my article!" Which can be embarrassing and difficult to explain to your loyal readers when you have to take down the article or admit you really didn't write it...
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          • Profile picture of the author neddag
            Originally Posted by neddag View Post

            This is very common unfortunately. I recently purchased a huge package of PLR here. I ran a quick check on about 25 of the articles and 10 of them were published at EZA.

            Sad really. I don't think the seller knew this (giving the benefit of the doubt), but he simply repackaged all the PLR he had on his hard drive. He probably purchased it as PLR at one time as well. Who knows how far back it got started.
            I should clarify to say that the PLR pack was not purchased as a WSO but through the Classifieds section. Therefore I knew obviously that the seller was not the original author. That's why I checked to see if any of them were in EZA.

            As Dan mentioned, it's always best to buy from the original author when possible.

            Ned
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    • Profile picture of the author raynman
      Originally Posted by Allen Graves View Post

      p.s. This is why you should get a link in the body of your article along with a text version of the URI.
      would you do this in all of your articles?
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      • Profile picture of the author Allen Graves
        Originally Posted by raynman View Post

        would you do this in all of your articles?
        Absolutely
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  • Profile picture of the author Raydal
    It seems as though a lot of blogs are using it to promote Commission Blue Print.
    I've seen a few blogs who are using mt article then referring to CB at the end.

    Just look at this Google results:



    All lost links and credit for me.

    -Ray Edwards
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  • Profile picture of the author GeorgR.
    well, sorry, this is the internet.

    With all the autoblogs out there (me having a bunch myself)...yes, they go out and get articles...and not ALWAYS is the resource box kept.

    EZA and all those directories are not without a reason called "article mills"...and yes, their main purpose is to distribute content which is used and re-used all over the web.

    If you submit an article to any such directory, you must also expect your articles to appear on many, many other sites.

    I myself am often amazed to see people complain about this.

    This is as absurd as publishing a RSS feed and wondering why the content appears on some other sites

    Add: this being said, i am not saying its is legal or ethical to reuse the articles without the resource boxes intact..is just how it is. SOME sites keep them, some just take the content and cut off links and resource boxes. Look at popular plugins like caffeinated content, how they work.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nick Brighton
    Hi Ray,

    How did they get hold of the original? Do you mean you submitted it to a directory 7 years ago and now you're unable to resubmit to EZA?

    Either way, take it as a form of flattery...you know that plagiarists cannot keep up with the smart creators, and you're a smart creator.

    Let them have it, and secretly create a new killer article that somehow creates a juxtaposition against the original...

    ...play one off the other.

    "Why my article 7 Secrets was a lie..."

    "Why 7 ways to build online credibility article was missing this crucial truth..."

    "The real truth about building online credibility and why it takes more than 7..."

    Etc. Etc.
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    • Profile picture of the author Raydal
      Originally Posted by Nick Brighton View Post

      Hi Ray,

      How did they get hold of the original? Do you mean you submitted it to a directory 7 years ago and now you're unable to resubmit to EZA?

      Either way, take it as a form of flattery...you know that plagiarists cannot keep up with the smart creators, and you're a smart creator.

      Let them have it, and secretly create a new killer article that somehow creates a juxtaposition against the original...

      ...play one off the other.

      "Why my article 7 Secrets was a lie..."

      "Why 7 ways to build online credibility article was missing this crucial truth..."

      "The real truth about building online credibility and why it takes more than 7..."

      Etc. Etc.
      I think I like your idea Nick. Maybe I should write another article
      about how my article was stolen--not a bad idea.

      Sometimes instead of fighting the wind you just hoist a sail.

      -Ray Edwards
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    • Profile picture of the author Pam M
      Originally Posted by Nick Brighton View Post


      "Why my article 7 Secrets was a lie..."

      "Why 7 ways to build online credibility article was missing this crucial truth..."

      "The real truth about building online credibility and why it takes more than 7..."

      Etc. Etc.
      Great article ideas! I can understand if or why Ray
      wouldn't want to write a new one, but this plan is
      a pretty good strategy for making lemonade out of
      lemons, I think.

      Pam
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      • Profile picture of the author Nick Brighton
        Originally Posted by Raydal View Post

        I think I like your idea Nick. Maybe I should write another article
        about how my article was stolen--not a bad idea.

        Sometimes instead of fighting the wind you just hoist a sail.

        -Ray Edwards
        Exactly. I used to freak about things like competition, then I realized that most of them are so weak that all I have to do is turn their own guns on them and they will soon shoot themselves in their clumsy own feet...

        When they wanna play with your gun, let them. Just don't tell them that it has a kickback strong enough to break their wrist

        Yeah, writing about how your article has been ripped off is another further twist too.

        "My most ripped off article...how I made a viral masterpiece"

        "Here's how to get ripped off, and respected online"

        "Why plagiarism can pay off for the victim, and sucks for the plagiarist"

        ...and on and on.

        In fact, you could write hundreds...and this would only help people seek out your ORIGINAL article, to "see where it all started"...

        There's always a way to turn a neg to a pos.
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      • Profile picture of the author jmidas
        It is unfortunate, but anyone who writes a lot and writes well is going to face this at some point. People are gonna grab things when it suits them.

        As crappy as it is, I would just chalk it up to a bad experience and move on before it you lose sleep over it or it takes away from your current productivity.
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        • Profile picture of the author yesacpow
          I have the same problem with a lot of my articles. Recently I was checking to see where my articles are ranked and to my surpise several blogs and websites had my articles without my resource boxex

          Awe well just gotta move on
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    • Profile picture of the author John Henderson
      Originally Posted by Nick Brighton View Post

      Either way, take it as a form of flattery...you know that plagiarists cannot keep up with the smart creators, and you're a smart creator.

      Let them have it, and secretly create a new killer article that somehow creates a juxtaposition against the original...

      ...play one off the other.
      Nick's absolutely right. In "Liar's Poker", a colleague takes the credit for the author's creation of a financial deal:
      My degree in art history finally served my career. I knew all about frauds. Ask yourself: What would a painter do if a rival stole his work and put his name on it? He'd paint a replica and issue a challenge for the rival to do the same. And that's what I did. (...) We conceived another deal, similar enough to the first to be unmistakably from the same hand.
      So Ray, I'm looking forward to reading "Secrets 8, 9 and 10 to building your online credibility".
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  • Profile picture of the author GeorgR.
    articles go viral, its a GOOD thing. Some of them i found actually DO have links still in them..
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  • Profile picture of the author Raydal
    I can 'understand' article scraping and auto-blogging and all that
    stuff. What I was surprised about was the number of 'respectable'
    sites where the owners had their name as the author of the article.

    These are not 'spam blogs' for adsense.

    These are no 'newbies', these are people who have been marketing
    for years online. I just thought they should know better.

    -Ray Edwards
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    • Profile picture of the author GeorgR.
      Originally Posted by Raydal View Post

      I can 'understand' article scraping and auto-blogging and all that
      stuff. What I was surprised about was the number of 'respectable'
      sites where the owners had their name as the author of the article.

      These are not 'spam blogs' for adsense.

      These are no 'newbies', these are people who have been marketing
      for years online. I just thought they should know better.

      -Ray Edwards
      i understand. But...see it from the other side:

      I myself have a bunch of health related blogs. I am not running them without a reason, but because tehy are supposed to make money.
      (Reviews, Ads, CB affiliates....things like that)

      Now...i see articles getting pulled (if its an autoblog)...say "the best candida cure".....appearing on my blog. There is only a problem: The article has affiliate links from someone ELSE in it, blatantly asking every reader of the article to click on his link .)

      This is pretty much a problem...
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    • Profile picture of the author JoeCool
      Originally Posted by Raydal View Post

      What I was surprised about was the number of 'respectable' sites where the owners had their name as the author of the article.

      These are not 'spam blogs' for adsense.

      These are no 'newbies', these are people who have been marketing
      for years online. I just thought they should know better.

      -Ray Edwards
      Ray,

      Like a previous poster implied, all it would have taken was one person to originally rip off your article and include it in a PLR package that they sold or gave away to hundreds, if not thousands, of people.

      These respected site owners that have you surprised may have thought they bought (or were given) the PLR rights legally, and had no problem publishing them under their own name.

      Too late to monitor an article you did seven years ago, but maybe this lesson will help you keep a close eye on any new ones you publish.

      ~JoeCool
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  • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
    Originally Posted by Raydal View Post

    I just submitted an article to EA which I wrote about 7 years ago.
    I had submitted this to an article directory. The article was
    rejected by EA because it was already on another site.

    So I did a check and found my article on a ton of site with
    no author resource box. Even popular marketers who should
    know better.

    Just do a search for "7 Secrets To Building Your Online Credibility"
    and you'll see what I mean. It's a waste of time for me to
    contact all these websites--so I really don't know what is the
    lesson here ...

    Phew!

    -Ray Edwards

    Ray, this is the reason why I submit my articles to EZA before I put them
    on my blog.

    This way, there is nothing for anybody to steal until after the directory gets
    it and then I can still put it on my blog.
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    • Profile picture of the author Raydal
      Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim View Post

      Ray, this is the reason why I submit my articles to EZA before I put them
      on my blog.

      This way, there is nothing for anybody to steal until after the directory gets
      it and then I can still put it on my blog.

      Actually I did post this article to a directory (I don't remember which one
      it was so long ago) but was hoping to post it with EA when I got the
      rejection because the article wasn't mines.

      Even if the article was 'spun', but every word remains the same.

      -Ray Edwards
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  • Profile picture of the author Bruce NewMedia
    wow Ray, you're right! ... a bunch of folks are claiming authorship of your article. That is not good. Do you suppose you could have thwarted this if you had known about it years ago?

    I think the problem is you're too good a writer Ray. These fools all like to copy from the best :-) (I read it btw, it's a good article)

    ...anyway, the idea to write an article about, for instance, HOW 'ARTICLE CHEATERS' ARE RUINING LEGITIMATE AUTHORS is a good one. Thats a way to capitalize on this.

    It would seem to me every article directory would want to feature an article about that topic.
    _____
    Bruce
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  • Profile picture of the author John Atkins
    Learn from your mistakes!

    FIRST
    Submit your articles to Ezine

    Then you can submit it to other directories, but you must always submit it to Ezinearticles first.


    Originally Posted by Raydal View Post

    I just submitted an article to EA which I wrote about 7 years ago.
    I had submitted this to an article directory. The article was
    rejected by EA because it was already on another site.

    So I did a check and found my article on a ton of site with
    no author resource box. Even popular marketers who should
    know better.

    Just do a search for "7 Secrets To Building Your Online Credibility"
    and you'll see what I mean. It's a waste of time for me to
    contact all these websites--so I really don't know what is the
    lesson here ...

    Phew!

    -Ray Edwards
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    • Profile picture of the author Eric Lorence
      Originally Posted by a-marketing View Post

      Learn from your mistakes!

      FIRST
      Submit your articles to Ezine

      Then you can submit it to other directories, but you must always submit it to Ezinearticles first.

      Probably not good advice...

      Submit to your own site first, why write original content to boost another site like EZA?

      Write and work for you own web property, don't work for someone else.
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      • Profile picture of the author John Atkins
        You are absolutely right!

        BUT

        If you are going to submit your articles to a directory, you must make sure that you always submit them to ezine first.


        Originally Posted by Eric Lorence View Post

        Probably not good advice...

        Submit to your own site first, why write original content to boost another site like EZA?

        Write and work for you own web property, don't work for someone else.
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      • Profile picture of the author Jon Alexander
        Originally Posted by Eric Lorence View Post

        Probably not good advice...

        Submit to your own site first, why write original content to boost another site like EZA?

        Write and work for you own web property, don't work for someone else.
        as wagglerheimy just said - beccause it may get stolen, and then ezinearticles wont publish it.
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        • Profile picture of the author Makabongwe Maseko
          Hi Ray,

          What I want to know is that are you still getting traffic from that article you submitted 7 years ago. I sure you must have sites with your original bio.

          Thanks.
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        • Profile picture of the author Eric Lorence
          Originally Posted by Jon Alexander View Post

          as wagglerheimy just said - beccause it may get stolen, and then ezinearticles wont publish it.
          And so what if they don't?

          EZA is not the "end all be all" of article marketing- that is a myth.

          You don't "need" to be published on EZA to do effective article marketing.

          If we have little control over over our content once it's published...

          At least it would be indexed first on your own site.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
    I know how you feel, back in 2005 I created a SWEET flier for my salesmen to use. It had such success that I put it on the front page of my web site in bullet form. 2 years later I got a wild hair and did the Google for the title phrase. I found 4 competitors who had copied it and other content from my site!

    I made some phone calls and intimidated a couple of them to remove my content and just last week I got word press to completely delete several blog post's after I showed them the archived version of my page from archive.org. At first word press told me that their content was not similar enough to remove it. I had to reply back with several links, content quotes and directions where to find it in the blog post's.

    Word Press mailed me back later that day and informed me that they deleted the content and contacted the creator of blog about it! Woot! Vindicated!
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  • Profile picture of the author Daisuke
    You only have 218 sites you'll have to complain to
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  • Profile picture of the author Will Edwards
    Yes - it happens all the time. I have found other people copying my articles without credit and even publishing my newsletters as content on their sites.

    If your content is being picked up by RSS, see if you can get your links into your RSS Feed. If it's being copied by people, especially those who know better, they may have fallen foul of buying dubious PLR content.

    There was a guy here in the forum (no names etc) who sold a 'PLR' pack of articles which had clearly been written by other authors - some of the articles had resource boxes intact.

    Now, he said he had the rights to do that - i.e. to sell them as PLR. And, I am not saying he did anything wrong either, but it made me - personally - question the remaining content. So I immediately deleted it when my suspicions were aroused.

    Again, I have no gripes against this fellow. I am merely pointing out that - either by accident or design - some people may not fully understand the concept of PLR; or perhaps do not share the same concept.

    There is nothing - except morals and ethics - to stop unscrupulous people grabbing your stuff and marketing it as PLR. Perhaps something similar happened to your article in this case.

    It's a problem for all good writers - which we all know you are.

    Best wishes,

    Will
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  • Profile picture of the author KentuckyJeff
    I had the same thing happen, but not to that extent.

    I'm still pretty new at Internet Marketing and thought articles would be a great (free) way to start. I submitted several articles to EZA, and after a while I did some searching and found one of my articles published on a site. Which looked to be a good, professional looking site, I was actually excited at first, until I saw that it was published without the resource box.

    It was kind of a major let-down, but I guess there's always going to be some people that will do things 'their way.'

    One uplifting thing though, I was using a redirect on one of the links in each of those first articles, and I got my first Clickbank sale from one of them. So I looked at it as proof that it is worth writing articles.

    I guess you take the good with the bad and hope that there's more good!

    It just sucks that it's so easy to rip-off another guy's work. I would imagine at least one of your thieves is reading about him/herself in this thread. If they are - YOU SUCK!!
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  • Profile picture of the author activetrader
    Originally Posted by Raydal View Post

    I just submitted an article to EA which I wrote about 7 years ago.
    I had submitted this to an article directory. The article was
    rejected by EA because it was already on another site.

    So I did a check and found my article on a ton of site with
    no author resource box. Even popular marketers who should
    know better.

    Just do a search for "7 Secrets To Building Your Online Credibility"
    and you'll see what I mean. It's a waste of time for me to
    contact all these websites--so I really don't know what is the
    lesson here ...

    Phew!

    -Ray Edwards
    Getb over it and move on! Big deal! Happens all the time
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  • Profile picture of the author visitsingapore
    Well..I read about this article when I did a google search, really a lot of similar links and contents are almost like 99% similar it not 100% the same. I am consider new in article writing. i am sorry to learn about Raydal's (Ray L. Edwards case), I saw one website acknowlede the author: Ray Edwards Article for freelancers: 7 Secrets To Building Your Online Credibility
    Is this the same person??
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  • Profile picture of the author Ross Dalangin
    Welcome to the club! It happens all the time. I think someone submitted it to article directories with oro without your approval before that is why many sites are using it now.

    Ross
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  • Profile picture of the author Mario Brown
    I also think that you should move on and focus on new articles. Happens all the time and it makes no sense to waste time & energy contemplating what to do against it because it will happen again.

    Affiliate Marketing isn't a game, it's all about money and therefore it's a Sharks World out there unfortunately. Some (lots) out there will do whatever they can to use cookiestuffing, steal your sale, steal your traffic from hub pages and squidoo lenses, steal your article and use dirtey scripts and what not.

    That's just another reason why I completely switched to product creation. Shall others fight this war to rank higher and make more sales.
    Now at least they are pushing my product and I get the sale, doesn't matter which affiliate won the fight.

    Don't get me wrong, I would love to see that everybody out there is nice and playing fair game - but the truth is that this is one of the most competitive markets out there and and it's all about 'eat or get eaten' IMO.

    2 cents - mario
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  • Profile picture of the author gabibeowulf
    Well ... This is really a good thing ) .. I don't know why you're complaining about it ..

    You now have the opportunity to contact all the article websites and tell them to post your resource box as you're the original writer and can prove so or be prepared for legal action

    Either way, you're still wining something
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  • Profile picture of the author rapidscc
    Hi Ray,

    Well one thing's sure. You are one good writer. Don't cry over spilled milk. It doesn't do any good.

    Just build, build, build....These things happen to the best of us...

    :-)

    Omar
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  • Profile picture of the author ways2earn
    Ray,

    this sounds ridiculous all your hardwork's undone by these people. There should be some way to stop these people who just steel the credibility and yet they never confess atleast who the original author was.
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  • Profile picture of the author cmbwealth
    Unfortunately plagerism has been going on for a lot longer than any of us. So, swear a bit, and go back to writing. In the end you will win out.
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  • Profile picture of the author zerivabella
    Wow Raydal,
    that's a bummer. I am not that good a writer but I have my pics and graphics ripped off but it is difficult to tell where they are being used.
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  • Profile picture of the author cballi
    I have bought or rec'd for free a few PLR packs that clearly look to have come from an article directory (keywords, word count, summary). If you submit your content to an article directory, do they now own the article and free to sell it as PLR?

    Sounds like this happened here. How does this work?
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    • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
      Originally Posted by cballi View Post

      If you submit your content to an article directory, do they now own the article and free to sell it as PLR?
      Not any article directory that I'm aware of, but be sure to read the TOS before submitting to a directory.

      What likely happened is that people either didn't understand what they could do with articles from article directories or they just didn't care, and grabbed articles and sold them as PLR. They may have stripped out the resource box or they may have kept it in, depending on whether they thought it was okay to do, they knew they were stealing or they just didn't care.

      Then, those PLR packs get sold, mixed up, bundled, resold, rinsed, washed, bundled, sold again, mixed up, resold, sold again and so on until who knows where it came from anymore.

      PLR is a good idea, but can be a nightmare when you throw into the mix people that don't know or care about copyrights and add copyrighted content into PLR packs that get passed along.
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  • Profile picture of the author TeamGlobal
    Hi Ray,

    Sorry that happened to you. It is unfortunate that it is becoming more and more common.

    You are right in thinking it would be tedious to go after all of them to have your correct resource box added. I would definitely contact a few of them and simply have them remove the article rather than trusting them to include your resource box. Although you would get more traffic if some of the sites permanently included your resource box it would be tedious to have to "police" the inclusion of your resource box on these sites.

    All The Best,


    Tony
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  • Profile picture of the author thadley
    I don't know why you can't just re-write it with the same content. People do that all the time. There are untold courses out there to teach people how to do that. I haven't written any articles yet but now I know to submit them to EZineArticles first.
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  • Profile picture of the author Raydal
    I'm coming to realize myself that a lot of posters bought this article
    as a PLR product. What is strange is that most reputable article
    sellers know that their articles have to pass the Copyscape test.
    so if you are selling or buying PLR products you can find out how
    original they are the same way EA finds out.

    And I don't agree with those who say "it happens to everyone, just
    move on". Evil persists sometimes not because of evil men but
    because good men do nothing.

    Part of doing something is building awareness through this post.

    About 6 years ago an author called me and threatened legal action
    because I used 2 words from his book--Yes, 2 words. As far as he
    was concerned the concept was his. He wasn't satisfied that I even
    quoted my source.

    Read my blog and you'll see that I don't write crap. I put time and
    effort into my articles. Sorry, but I just can't look the other way.

    -Ray Edwards
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    The most powerful and concentrated copywriting training online today bar none! Autoresponder Writing Email SECRETS
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  • Profile picture of the author Raydal
    UPDATE: I've been contacting ezine directories and also the
    marketer who (allegedly) has been selling this article as part
    of a PLR product for the WSO.

    One article directory has responded and is taking some action.
    But part of the strategy suggested here was to 'strike back'
    by writing another article. So here's a blog post I made about
    this.

    Copywriting Tips And Tricks 7 Secrets To Building Your Online Credibility -Stolen Article

    Hopefully it would get some more people's attention.

    -Ray Edwards
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    The most powerful and concentrated copywriting training online today bar none! Autoresponder Writing Email SECRETS
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  • Profile picture of the author dearaewi
    I've been a "collector" of PLR for a few years and love to use it on a number of ways, sometimes just to kick off ideas, other time to rewrite, etc. After I read this post I did a check and sure enough, yup, I had the very same article in a package of PLR I got a while back. I did dump off the hard drive.

    Ray, I think you did the right thing is giving some fight. Writers put their time and heart into their words and work and it's a damn shame to have it ripped off. Maybe nothing will come of it but you stood up for yourself and what's right and that deserves support and respect.

    I write a lot of articles for my main site and often find them all over the place. Up until now I've just blown it off as being too busy to do anything about it and also being a very non-confrontational person but maybe I'll step up next time and stand up for everyone who pours out their heart and passion into their writing.

    Kudos to you for standing up for the principal!

    Deanna
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