Looking for blogs that you can probably leave keyword-targeted comments on? Try searching for this
“just another wordpress” keyword
Since these bloggers haven’t modified the general description, chances are they aren’t real SEO savvy, and you could probably get in some nice one way links. Just don’t outright spam them, at least leave a halfway interesting comment…
The readers who frequent this blog often know I’m a big fan of Google Alerts, and I use it often to build links and keep track of a few other things. Google Alerts is a free service from Google that emails you whenever something new has shown up on the Internets with a search query you’ve specified.
Since I’m sitting on an SEO panel tonight covering blogging, splogging and SEO, I thought I’d post a quick little ditty that you can do to keep track of who’s stealing your content (without permission).
When you blog, there are certain things that you have control over, besides the ‘meat’ of the post. For most blogging software, you can modify other things, such as posted-by, date formatting and tagging. Somewhere you need to find something that you can make unique to your blog - a phrase, a set of random numbers, or a weird tag. For this example I’ll use a number/letter combo: 68wcrada72
Once you’ve decided on something, make sure you incorporate it into every post as you write (as I just did).
Then head over to Google Alerts and set up your trap.
(Click to see larger image)
Make sure you add the -domain.com or else you’ll get an alert every time you post.
Now when someone steals your content and posts it on their website, you’ll get an email showing you the link to the splog. Take appropriate action - ask the author to take down your content. If they don’t, or won’t answer, take further steps such as flagging inappropriate/spam posts on Blogger or reporting the splog to WHOIS (if appropriate).
People are out there to steal your content. Since we can’t stop a copy/paste, at least we can still keep tabs on what’s happening. Don’t let people use your content freely!
Tonight I had the pleasure of speaking with Jaelithe Judy, the writer who will be moderating the upcoming SEO panel that I’ll be sitting on (along with Ellen Gooch) next week. She has great charisma and I can tell this is going to be a fun session. Since we are expecting a crowd of mostly personal, professional and corporate bloggers, the session will focus around that audience. Without giving away all the topics we’ll discuss, here is a “10,000ft view” of what is to come.
Oh, we’ve got lots more, including a nice list of resources that will help our audience get more traffic, more effectively promote their blog, or make more money from their website. And we’ll be taking questions from the audience!
The panel will be just one of many Interactive sessions to attend this week in St. Louis at the Play:StL festival. Some of the other sessions (some of which sound pretty cool to me) include Cyberbullying, Business and Social Media, and even one on the dreaded CSS (yukk!)
Get a wristband for the festival at a host of local places, and half your money will go to LiveFeed. If you come the SEO panel, please take a moment to introduce yourself, I’d love to meet you!
