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As a blogger, I deal with plagiarism a lot. I can’t even catch it all, but I try to catch the most problematic people. One thing I will not agree with is that it’s a sign of success.
Plagiarism is a huge problem in the world of blogging. People copy and paste articles, putting their names on it. They pass it off as their own. Sometimes, they will say where they got the piece, but they’re the ones getting the views (and therefore the income) from my hard work.
I saw once that someone said plagiarism is a sign of success. They suggested that writers, artists, and everyone else in the creative space should stop complaining. People clearly liked what they wrote.
Well, no. That’s the simple answer to that.
Plagiarism costs the original creators money
When someone copies the content, they take views away from the original source. Even if they offer a link back, they’re still taking views. Once someone has read the whole post, they’re not going to click the link to get the content back.
Then there’s the fight to get the plagiarized content removed. This takes hours that would be better spent on original content. I’m really fortunate that most of the places I put my work for revenue share has a legal team to fight the battle for me. I used to have to do it all myself, and it got tiring.
You also have no idea where the content is being placed. While your work is good, other work plagiarized or written by themselves could be poor quality. Now your work is with that work and it’s going to affect the view of your written words.
The simple fact is that plagiarism isn’t a sign of success. Anyone can be plagiarised. People will try to go after the lesser known bloggers because there’s a lesser likely chance they’ll be caught. It’s just a problem with lazy people.
MORE: How a blogging niche will give you more time
If you think you can take content without getting explicit permission from the creator, you’re in the wrong.
