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Copyright 2005 Randy Charles Morin
Part of the KBCafe blog network
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Now that you know you've been blogiarized, what do you do about it? The last thing you should do is walk away and do nothing. Inaction will only mean more blogiarism and splogs in the future. It's simply a matter of speaking up and telling the right people about the blogiarism or splog. Let me tell you the ways I've used successfully in the past to combat blogiarism and splogs. Start by finding out who this guy is working with. You see, if he has AdSense ads, a FeedBurner feed, a blog hosting service or a Web hosting service, then you can usually go right after his partners and hit him where it hurts. Send them an email complaint. For some services, there are specific ways of contacting the right people. Let me enumerate them.
AdSense
Many blogiarizers or sploggers use AdSense as a way of monetizing their efforts. There's two primary ways of inappropriate blogs to the AdSense team.
The first two steps failing (too often the case), I have found that Jason Goldman is a good contact on the AdSense team.
Yahoo! Publishers Network
Very similar to AdSense, some sploggers attempt to make their money using Yahoo! Publishers Network. Splogging is against many of the subsections of section 6, Members Conduct, of the YPN Terms of Service. The TOS says to report these abuses to Yahoo!'s Customer Care, but I can't find anything on that page that helps you report YPN splogs. Yahoo! must fix this.
FeedBurner
Some blogiarizers and sploggers, go to the extent of publishing a FeedBurner feed on their blog. You can report them to feedback@feedburner.com. I've done this in the past and the blog (not just the feed) actually disappeared within the hour. The blog may have disappeared for other reasons, but it's worth pointing out, even if it's a coincidence.
Blogspot
Most splogs are hosted on Google's blog hosting service called Blogspot. Each Blogspot blog is suppose to have a Flag button in the top right corner of each blog page. This is not always true and there are likely two reasons for this.
You can also try to get splogs de-indexed from Google. Remember, Google is every Webmasters best friend. Getting a splog removed from Google's index should have a severe negative effect on the splog traffic. Here's one way of reporter a splog. Type the URL of the splog preceded by the modifier "site:" (example site:www.the-splog-url.com/page) then hit enter. Then scroll to the bottom of the page and click-on "Dissatisfied? Help us improve." You are then presented with a form where you can give Google the appropriate feedback.
Another secondary approach is to contact Matt Cutts. On numerous occasions, I've sent Matt lists of splogs, which he quickly removed from Google's index and forward to other appropriate Google teams. Matt is likely the #1 warrior in the fight against SERP (Search Engine Result Page) Spam. Thanks Matt!
SplogSpot
Another way of telling the world about a splogger, is to list his Website at SplogSpot.com. SplogSpot has a difficult submission form, the CAPTCHA is a killer, but if you can bypass it then you are a smart human and your submission will be reviewed for inclusion in the SplogSpot database.
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Randy
ok so why does someone smarter than me not figure out how to block an rss feed from being published were they don't want it? what does it matter to you if someone else is "splogging" and making money off there account? My real question is what gives anyone the right? if your rss feed is being published in full someplace and you don't like it tell the person and do something about it. But attacking someone in the manner that you do is just dumb!
The only way to stop someone from re-publishing your RSS is not to publish RSS.
Why do I care that people splog? Imagine an Internet without SPAM filters?
The Website owner has been told. That hasn't stopped him.
I guess we should just leave SPAMmers to their craft too!
Randy
If I were interested in SEO-related info, I'd now have a choice: read that one blog, or import al those sources in a feed-reader a-la Google reader or Bloglines myself... And I don't see the difference.
But then... hey, what do *I* know?
This is no judgement against what's going on here OR there. I'm just curious what all this fuss is about. So if Randy or anyone else could enlighten me... please do.
FreeBee
Randy
Something tells me it is related to the issue discussed....
Regards,
IrishWonder
Rss feeds are to be syndicated.
You are a parasite for trying to do this to somebody.
I dont like splogs as much as the next man but all this spam hunting will came back to bite people like you in the future.
Wimp
Randy
Please,
Randy
A: Most all splogs link back to the source. Linking to source, has nothing to do with whether something is a splog or not.
Q: Does he publish the entire article as his own?
A: He publishes whatever is in the RSS feed, which part of the time means, yes, he publishes the entire article.
Randy
So, if I start a new account at BlogLines, make it publicly available, and enter the Feed addresses of all of 301's sources, then either BlogLines or myself are splogging? Because that's what all this boils down to, as far as I can tell. I would, after all, be using my BlogLines page to publish all the same info as 301 is doing, without adding any info of my own. I'd be stealing, and BlogLines would have supplied me with the means to do so!
FreeBee
Randy
So I wish you all the best in this battle that you think you must fight, but I'm not going to support either side.
So long,
FreeBee
I can't agree with this statement. The way I came across this one is because a page of "search results" appeared in one of the search engines when I was looking for something else - well, the URL also contained the search term which I removed prior to posting it here. So it looks like you're spamming the SERPs as well...
Regards,
IrishWonder
And I could go on forever.
RandyRandy
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