I reached out to my other bloggy friends to see if this has happened to them before and what did they do about it?
I think that blogging is an amazing form of expression, and there are some awesome blog writers out there that I am so impressed with and enjoy reading their blogs so much. I would never think of coping their ideas, posts or pictures with out their knowledge or permission. Besides, that I think that your blog and your posts are original to you and you should try to come up with stories and features of your own instead of copying other people.
This prompted me to write this post for myself and for all the amazing blogs that I read who's writers I know put lots of effort into writing their posts. So here's a few do's and don'ts of giving credit where credit it due!
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Pictures say it all, if using pictures from other public sites please DO give photo credit to that site or photographer, like this.
Give'em a Shout Out, If you love a fellow bloggers idea or post rather than steal their content and write something similar on your blog DO give them a shout out on your blog and point people their direction, like here. Your blog readers will thank you for pointing them to a fantastic new blog!
Don't follow, someone Else's blog if you plan on stealing content or ideas. They will find out and it's just plain tacky.
Copyrights, DO put a notice on your blog saying that everything is copy written. Just in case people don't know, they can see it and be warned like on my blog.
Writers block; If you have writers block (and we all do from time to time) instead of stealing another original content DO opt for weekly features that a lot of bloggers due that is considered "acceptable" and not stealing like Wordless Wednesday.
If you really love a story; or photo featured on someone else's blog make sure to send them a notice that you want to repost it on your blog before you do, like this blogger did for me! It makes them appreciate you even more, trust me!
Don't play dumb; If a blogger catches you copying them don't play dumb and pretend that you didn't do it. Take this opportunity to learn from this and come up with your own original blog. And DO delete the posts that you copied.
