Archive for category Pay Per Click (PPC)

Yesterday I posted an article entitled “Don’t Copy - Be Original” and in less than 15 hours, the comments have been rolling in.

In one comment Vinny O’Hare made an excellent point about how to protect yourself from being copied.  He says to set up a Google Alert for specific phrases of unique content that likely can only be found on your site.

So let’s say you have a sentence on your home page that reads: “Have you dreamed for years about learning the guitar?” This is not likely to be an exact phrase that someone else would think up on their own and if someone else is using that exact phrase, you will receive a Google Alert about it.  You can then check out their site and see if they are copying you.  Perhaps they just happened to think of that phrase themselves and are not copying you, but perhaps they are.

I will be writing more about how to protect yourself from copycats in the coming days and also what actions you can take.

Thanks Vinny for the great suggestion!

This should probably go without saying, but one of the absolute worst things you can do as an affiliate is to copy someone else’s site.

Recently, I had to terminate an affiliate for doing just this. In fact, this affiliate was so blatant, his site even used the original site’s name in the copy and the about us page said he was the other person. Utterly blatant stealing!

It is this simple…we do not tolerate affiliates blatantly copying what other affiliates (or merchants) are doing.

There are a myriad of reasons why you should not do this. Among them:

1. It is unethical…need I continue? OK I will.
2. Your site will be punished. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but before too long, your site will be banned by Google and other search engines for duplicate content. This will apply to both Pay Per Click and Search Engine Optimization.
3. Your commissions will probably be reversed and you will be kicked out of any program managed by a reputable affiliate manager.
4. You might get sued. In fact, count on this.

Seriously, how would you feel if you devoted days of your life to designing a site, writing the copy, and then some nitwit copies everything you do, spending maybe one hour and trying to steal your hard work?

Be original. Design your own graphics or use some stock art at the very least. Write your own copy.

It is fine to observe what others are doing and get some ideas from them, but copying their text word for word and literally stealing their images is a big no-no.