In part one of this article, we looked at how dangerous copyright infringement and content theft on the web can be. I also shared three “proactive” steps you can take to help prevent those little buggers from violating your copyright. But now that you know how damaging blog scraping and content theft can be to your search engine ranking and reputation, you’re probably asking — “what do I do if my blog content is stolen?”

Well, today in part two I’ll share three steps you can take if someone does scrape your content or otherwise infringe on your copyrighted material.

Having these action steps in reserve is vital for not only protecting you and your business. But taking the right legal action can help to stem the tide of content theft overall. One of the reasons why these spammers and sploggers continue to aggressively scrape and steal content is because they think they’re getting away with it.

And unfortunately, they’re right for thinking that.

Sadly most business owners (bloggers or not) and even legit marketers and sales professionals don’t take any action when they see their copyrighted material appear on other sites. In many cases it’s because they think there’s nothing they can do.

But now, with what I’m about to share — you’ll see how easy it really can be to fight back. With the following steps you’ll be ready to help make it painful for those #@&%*! content thieves.

Just a reminder as I mentioned in part one — I’m not an attorney. And I don’t play one on TV either. The three reactive steps I share below are legal in the US, and they do work. But if you’re not comfortable with taking these steps on your own, or if you want to bring the full force of the law down on the offending party, consult an attorney. If you’re using your business blog to market, author a book, or create a product it’s worth a couple hundred dollars talk to an attorney.

Now, here are the three steps you can take AFTER your content has been stolen. (more…)

With more and more blog scrapers being used to create splogs (definition), it’s important to take steps to protect original content on your business blog. When your hard work and original articles appear elsewhere, it can do serious damage to you, your reputation, and your search engine ranking.

In this two-part article I’ll share six simple steps you can take to:

• stop the theft of your business blog content
• protect your reputation
• and guard your search engine rankings

Plus I’ll share two low cost legal responses you can take it that protection is violated.

The buzz about blog content theft

This morning as I was scanning my FeedDemon categories before heading out to Sunset beach, I saw what has to be about the 30th post I’ve read on content theft and copyright violation in the last month. The one I read today was by Ausie blogger Yaro Starak.

Content theft and copyright infringement on the web is a topic that’s becoming more serious with each passing week. It may not be a major issue for personal users, but the ramifications for business owners can be dire. Since we’ve given our business blog coaching clients detailed answers on how to deal with the growing problem. And since the authors in the special course we’re doing for our New York publisher Morgan James, have gotten even more customized solutions — I thought it would be good to share six GENERAL steps as guidelines.

Why am I emphasizing “general”?

I only mention this because we really are entering into a legal realm here. How far you go with (or beyond) any of the steps below will vary based on your business, your blog strategy, and what the intended end-use of your blog content is. I’m not an attorney,and I don’t even play one on television — so if you’re using your business blog to market, author a book, or create a product — invest a few hundred bucks and talk to an attorney.

OK, now that we’ve got the out of the way.

Before we get to the six steps, let’s make sure it’s clear why blog content theft and copyright infringement can quickly become a serious problem for you and your business.

How the theft of your blog content can damage you and your business

The majority of the content theft is not being done by human beings. It’s being done with software called (more…)

Bonus Class #2 held on May 24, 2006

Get the updated New Media Marketing Matrix Maps and eavesdrop on the continued conversation in the comments section by students who participated in the Bonus Class #2 on: “How to Get Tons of Free Publicity and BUZZ Marketing with Blogs, Podcasts, and Other New Media Tools”

You’ll see in the comments section of that original post that we highly recommended our students to pick up 3 books by authors we know, love and respect during the TeleClass - and we thought it was so important that we wanted to summarize these recommendations for you in this new post.

For your convenience we even included the link to Amazon where you can pick up each book:

1. An Army of Davids by Glenn Reynolds, How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths

Love, Love LOVE this book! It’s a quick read, and a page turner for the small business owner looking to get the edge up over big corporations using blogs, podcasts and other new media tools.

2. The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors And Closing Deals Online written by our good friend Scott Allen and David Teten.

If you’ve spent any time at all networking online, then you’re already familiar with Scott Allen. He’s one of the best examples of someone who knows how to network using social and business networks, and his book is one of the most detailed account giving you the history of how New Media first got its start. For those of you who’ve asked us what other social networks are out there - just grab his book, and they’re all in there!

You can even get a free download copy of The Virtual Handshake here. Although if you’re a real book lover like I am, you’ll also want to pick up the book so you can highlight sections, take notes, and bring to the beach. The free download version is great to review while you’re waiting for your physical book to arrive from Amazon.

3. The Next Millionaires by Economist/Entrepreneur, Paul Zane Pilzer.

Simon, one of the participating students, recommended this book in class, and commented, “Another great book that discusses the philosophy of how the ‘little guy’ has the advantage today is ‘The Next Millionaires’ by Paul Zane Pilzer.”

“The Next Millionaires explains in detail why the 21st century will be known as the age of the entrepreneur, and how you can stake your claim to being one of these next 10 million millionaires–” Pilzer

Here’s the original blog post on New Media where you can continue in the conversation, and make book recommendations of your own to other books on New Media and the next Age of Communication - staked in favor of the small business owner.

Copyright © RPM Success Group Inc. 2002-2006. Other bloggers and journalists are allowed to excerpt and link to posts (as is common with bloggers,) as full credit/attribution is given to AdvancedBusinessBlogging.com and RPM Success Group Inc.

Learn how to unleash the maximum marketing power of business blogs, podcasts, and RSS (in any industry, profession, or niche) with Marketing With Business Blogs™.

Deborah Micek is the “Communication Coach.” She’s a published author and weekly columnist for the Honolulu Star Bulletin. You can reach Deborah directly via [communicationcoach@gmail.com].

Consumer generated media is fast becoming an undeniable driver of the New Media Marketplace. It’s an important factor in designing an effective marketing strategy in just about every industry and niche. And for those business arenas where it’s not yet a major determinant of marketing success, it’s just a matter of time. In this article we’ll look at three ways you can immediately position yourself to successfully market in this new arena (and it’s not the way you’ve been told by “marketing pros.”)

Consumer Generated Media is the combination of comments, reviews, critiques, and complaints generated by customers and devoured by prospective buyers in the New Media marketplace of blogs, forums, and social networks.

When you boil down Consumer Generated Media to it’s essence — it’s really just word of mouth. But now, powered by business blogs, podcasts, and other New Media tools, word of mouth marketing has been put on multi-media steroids.

Understanding the trends in the New Media Marketplace are what give you the competitive advantage

There is an irreversible transformation taking place in the marketplace of the new millennium. The consumer is in control. She has all the information, commentary, and comparisons she could want at her fingertips. If you’re not taking advantage of the online persuasion tools of the New Media Marketplace and adapting your marketing to interact with your audience — I can guarantee you that one or more of your competitors are.

Here’s a practical example from the auto industry to help drive this home for you

Marketing studies in the automotive industry reveal that the Internet is now inseparable from the purchase cycle. Nearly 75 percent of customers cite word-of-mouth recommendations as the most influential factor in their car buying discussion. More of that is shifting online every day. If you want to think of it another way, over $300 billion in global auto sales are directly influenced by the recommendations of others.

That’s some pretty serious power behind word of mouth. And this is where the Consumer Generated aspect of the New Media comes into the picture. Let’s dig a little deeper for more practical examples.

What car and truck buyers can teach us about marketing with blogs and the new social media. (more…)

Good news for business bloggers using podcasts and video. According to eMarketer, there’s an ever growing audience to engage and connect with. Their recent Worldwide Online Access report estimates that one billion people will have access this year, with 250 million households having broadband access.

eMarketer defines users as accessing the web at least once per week.

Podcasting and video blogging will gain a wider audience with broadband’s growth. What’s interesting is seeing where the greatest broadband growth is happening:

Living here in Hawaii, it’s no surprise that the highest percentage of broadband households (40%) is in the Asia-Pacific region. I’m amazed at how “wired” Japanese and Chinese/Taiwanese tourists are when they visit here. They love being connected so much that Honolulu is currently developing a city wide wireless network, starting with Waikiki.

With more and more people coming online, that not only means that the pool of ‘heavier’ internet users will increase. It means more specifically that the online audience for your niche or industry will increase as well.

A rising tide lifts all boats … if your boat is in the water. The growth of broadband is terrific news. But what’s more important is what you’re going to do with your awareness of this trend. What are you doing to be found by and engage those new customers? And how are you adapting and marketing with the New Media?

Learn how to unleash the maximum marketing power of business blogs, podcasts, and RSS (in any industry, profession, or niche) with Marketing With Business Blogs™.

John-Paul is a published author and weekly columnist for the Honolulu Star Bulletin. As a Business Coach he helps small business owners market, manage, and sell more with self-influence and persuasion. You can reach J.P. directly via [communicationcommando@gmail.com].

There’s an ominous cloud of bias, censorship and control building on the horizon of the New Media Marketplace thanks to Google. If you’re in business, a blogger, or do any type of marketing or news reporting using New Media — you’d better pay attention to an alarming trend of censorship.

Concerns with Google’s far reaching power over news dissemination and search engine domination are nothing new. As early as 2002 people began to speak out.

At first, some called concerns over Google’s goals of global search domination an alarmist cry. Many in the New Media and open-source communities saw any such concerns being rooted in marketplace competition. (After all, some thought Google was going to save us all from the “evil empire” of Microsoft.)

A 2004 mini-movie clip ‘EPIC 2014′ by Robin Sloan forecasts in vivid detail Google’s goal to “save the world” and unite all the internet in a “personalized information construct.” Sounds inspiring, right?

Some saw the predictions summarized in EPIC 2014 as reassuring. That small business, bloggers, and the New Media would wrest back control from the mass media outlets of the 20th century. Others saw the forecast as chilling. Now with Google’s track record of actual actions over the last two years, the general consensus is shifting overwhelmingly to the later.

(If you haven’t seen the movie, watch it now to understand the full context of what you’re about to read. If you are visually impaired, Robin Good has a summary transcript here.)

Google gets big, green, and ugly

Since Google has becoming a publicly traded company, it’s been infused with huge amounts of money. But with that influx of cash, it’s like the companies underlying personality and character has been put on some type of steroidal serum. Like mild and meek (more…)

HUGE gains for social networking sites — video trumps all comers

Marshall Kirkpatrick highlights a recent study by Nielson/NetRatings that shows the top social networking sites making huge traffic gains over the last 12-months. MySpace saw the biggest growth (367% increase,) but what’s conspicuously missing is any mention of YouTube’s massive traffic gains. From non-existence a year ago to blowing past AOL Hometown, MSN Spaces, and Xanga. And if you gave YouTube a handicap of 2 million out of the gate, the percentage increase in popularity would have trumped even MySpace.

Dunlop shows how podcasts can build loyalty and traffic

Take a look and ask yourself how you could use Dunlop’s example with your business blog, podcast, or video blog.

RSS … a marketing must!

Why RSS is essential for business owners and marketers? Phil Gomes does a great job laying down the reasons in this multi part series.

The Da Vinci hustle gets exposed — first bloggers, now offline

Th blogosphere has been a buzz for weeks now about the release of the Da Vinci Code movie, proving once again the preemptive nature of the New Media. But over the last week or so the offline media and critics have piled on with the New Media to expose the attempted hustle of the American public. As my partner Deborah says it’s not “so dark the con of man.” It’s “so dark the con of Dan(Brown)”

Michael Novak sums up the Da Vinci hustle best here.

Enjoy!

Are you a busy business owner stretched for time, but yearning to come up with new profit producing innovations? A business blogger dealing with information overload? A sales professional or marketer looking to stay several steps ahead of the competition?

If you fall into any of these categories, you know how important it is to make every minute of your day as productive as possible. Yet at the same time — you also know that one of most important responsibilities you have is staying on top of your niche, industry, and competitors.

So there you are, left in a quandary. Two critical business needs that up till now have been diametrically opposed. But now with the power of RSS, you can quickly and painlessly put an end to that struggle. And that’s critical, because let’s face it … the overwhelm of information usually leads to procrastination or plain old neglect.

With a pair of easy to use tools, you can harness the power of RSS and put it to work for you and your business. You can do your research, create new online and off-line contacts, keep ahead of competitors, and spawn a host of innovative profit producing ideas in a fraction of the time it would have taken you just two years ago.

In fact, you can cover more material and come up with more profit producing ideas in 30-minutes using these two tools than you could with five hours of online and off-line work.

So what are these two tools that harness RSS to save you time and help make you more money?

Well the first is FeedDemon, the most efficient RSS aggregator on the market. The second is ThunderBird.

Rather than blather on in a few posts, we’re going to cover the benefits and applications of these tools in a short video series. So let’s get started today with a brief introduction to FeedDemon and the FeedDemon video specifically for business owners, sales professionals, and marketers.

FeedDemon - the busy business owner’s research and innovation mega-tool

There are plenty of free RSS readers and aggregator out there, but they are big time wasters compared with FeedDemon. Not to mention that (comparatively) they’re ugly as sin too.:)

As you’re about to see, FeedDemon 2.0 has a look and feel similar to Microsoft Outlook 2003. But it has a much prettier management area that’s user-centric and custom tailored to managing RSS feeds. None of the free RSS aggregator alternatives offer the same level of organization, customization, or filtering capabilities as FeedDemon. And that means more time, nore results, and more advantage in your corner.

Click the images below and the video will open in Windows Media Player (WMP)
If you do not have WMP installed, you can download it here for free

Part 1 (11.2mb / run time 9:44)

(more…)

Did GM make a big mistake this Spring with their Apprentice commercial competition? Many traditional marketing experts called the outcome a failure. At the same time, GM claimed victory on their FastLane business blog, while anti-SUV pundits claimed they were the victors.

Yet no matter what your viewpoint is on this corporate experiment in generating New Media buzz — there is at least one very valuable lesson you can learn from their experience.

First, a quick 60-day rewind

If you’re not familiar with what happened back in late March and April of this year, here’s a quick thumbnail sketch. It’ll help you put things in context and take away a very valuable lesson from this New Media marketing play.

Earlier this year Chevy launched an online campaign to tie their brand in with the hit show The Apprentice. Chevy invited people to submit their own version of a Chevy Tahoe commercial after building it with GM supplied components. GM provided audio and images that “contestants” could combine with their own screen captions to create their own “unique” commercials.

GM’s plan was to generate some serious word of mouth with their effort. They thought they would get their audience “participating” and bloggers spreading the buzz. But what was intended to look like a graceful swan dive into the New Media marketplace, ended up looking more like a pig in a tutu belly flopping into a kids wading pool.

Why did it end up that way? It wasn’t for a lack of effort …

GM really honestly thought they had it right. They thought they understood how to create buzz with the New Media and blogs. But they confused “participation” with an uncontrolled free-for-all. And that was the root of the flop.

You see, GM’s approach to this attempted word of mouth campaign allowed many of the (more…)

Blogging and New Media are about networking, buzz, and word of mouth. Scott Allen shares three good tips on leveraging your time.

Leverage and networking tips for New media marketers

Some good strategic analysis of the New Media component of Social Networking sites. Be warned, you’re entering the realm of college professors here, so prepare to navigate around the occasional incoherent babblings of self-indulgent “traditional marketing” rhetoric peppering an otherwise helpful overview.

Wharton marketing professors review of New Media and Social Networking

New media is far more powerful in its reach than the credibility-challenged and ideologically-compromised old media. Will Secretary Rumsfeld take Hugh Hewitt’s advice on leveraging blogs and the New Media?

New Media methods for reaching the “real” mainstream