RSS feeds are great for getting more readers, but they can also be the source of the theft of your posts. What can you do to limit the problem and give yourself the best chance of a quick fix if it does happen?
By Keith Lunt, © HowToStartMyBlog.com

Some bloggers are so lazy that they do not bother to write for themselves, but instead use plugins to gather content from RSS feeds on other websites. They do some work so that their blog ranks well and then effectively steal not just the content, but also traffic, from other blogs. How do you prevent this?

RSS Feed – Summary Or Full Text?
Just giving a summary in your RSS feed will almost certainly protect you from such theft, but your readers might also not find it as useful and might leave. So, it is not an option.

Copyright Your Blog
Just put somewhere on the header, footer or sidebar of your blog that the content is copyright of you. It won’t stop any theft, but it is a requirement of getting copied content removed.

Name Drop In Your Posts
If you write an introductory paragraph in your posts, then just include a simple copyright after it, for example By Keith Lunt, © HowToStartMyBlog.com. If you don’t then just find somewhere else to include it within the content. Given that it will be appearing on their blog and they are claiming the posts as their work, this might be enough to put some fraudsters off copying your work.

Include Some Stock Photos
A bit of a nasty trick this one, but join a stock photo library and download some photographs or images that are suitable for including in your posts. It’s better if you can buy some that are exclusive to that library.

Then include these in your posts. If the post is copied they will copy the image. Then just email the library and tell them that you are aware that they are displaying unlicensed photos that have been copied from your site. It won’t protect your blog, but if you are having trouble getting content removed then there is someone else on your side.

Include A Related Posts Plugin In Your RSS Feed
You should be using a related posts plugin already in your blog, but is it active in your RSS feed? If not, it should be. That way anyone copying your posts also copies the related posts links and then gives you some links back to your website. Even if they “nofollow” the links, you will get some of their traffic visiting your website (and that’s how I first discovered the theft of my own posts!). And these extra links off their site might persuade them to copy from elsewhere.

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