This morning I was checking my blog’s incoming links, and I came across two unusual links from blogs with very weird names. Before I continue, I’m not trying to give an impression that I get a lot of incoming links. I get very few, which is why I can afford to check them out.
I went to check them out, and I found my blog RSS feed being used by a splog!
In case you didn’t know, a splog comes from the word spam + blog. These content thieves use your RSS feed as their own blog content.
There’s AdSense in their blogs, which means they’re earning money from my content!
Worse of all, Google could say that my stuff is duplicate content and remove it from search engine rankings! Grrrr….
What I did so far is to:
1) Send the webmaster an email asking them to remove content within 48 hours
2) Logged a complain with Google AdSense
3) Reported their sites to splog lists.
Sigh…
If they don’t continue, I will draft a Cease and Desist letter and send to the web hosting companies.
But then I feel like there’s nothing much I can do. Any advice to give me?
Update: Here’s an article you can read if this happens to you. What Do You Do When Someone Steals Your Content by Lorelle on Wordpress
Photo: Roman Olmezov
December 3, 2007 at 16:55
你被點名了!!
Adino: Sorry… I only understand ni x? x? duo? le!!
Can translate ah?
Update: I just realized I’ve been tagged
I don’t think I can do this without my wife’s help
December 3, 2007 at 19:59
me too
There r a few using my stuff without permission. Not even a more….jus take 100%
Adino: The only thing we can do is to punish them by reporting to Google. But it is quite difficult. Google wants us to write in an official letter. I intend to do that, and then use one of those free fax services to send it to Google
December 4, 2007 at 03:57
This is unexpected… I hope you can solve it soon, without too much trouble.
Adino: Sigh… I don’t think it’s so easy to solve it.
December 4, 2007 at 09:13
My blog also contained alot of spam comments.. How to avoid that ar ??
Adino: Spam comments, I think you have to use Akismet spam filter lor. I don’t think you can block spam, you can only filter them.
December 4, 2007 at 09:43
Some problem here. Well, keen to know how to report those sites to splog lists!
Adino: Wow, I think it’s worse for you because all my posts are just meaningless words, but yours have nice comics!
I updated the post with a link you all can check out.
December 4, 2007 at 12:37
Delete their trackbacks from your site. Don’t give them any links from your site.
Adino: Oh, that’s a good idea! But I can’t seem to find my trackback management page in wordpress… I’ll go home and search my wordpress database or something
December 4, 2007 at 19:39
I don’t think I’ve got this problem. *touch wood* But even if it did happen, I wouldn’t be able to track it cos Blogger doesn’t have trackback links.
Adino: I suspect most bloggers have this problem, but they don’t realize it until one of these sploggers accidentally send a trackback.
You can use the copyscape website or Google some unique phrases in your blog to see if it turns up anywhere else.
December 5, 2007 at 07:13
I also get those thieves on my blog, thanks for the info
Adino: No problem