Social Media Advisors

We are Social Media Advisors, a Social Media Speaker, & Custom WordPress Site design.

Do You know When Someone Is Stealing From Your Site?

Online Consulting, Social Media Advisors

Yesterday morning I was very disturbed when I awoke.  As usual one of my first stops for the day is checking my Blackberry to see if there is any new email emergencies from my clients that I need to address.  Luckily nobody broke anything over New Years.  But, I did notice 3 new emails in my inbox that were showing “New Comments” on old blog posts.  Now, this isn’t uncommon to get comments on old posts, but when I opened them up I noticed they were all pingbacks.

Getting pingbacks is not that uncommon either as people from time to time refer back to our blog posts and when they link to them on our WordPress site, we get a notification.  But, when there were three that all were used in my recent post predicting Trends for 2011, I knew something was up.  So, I followed the pingback which directed me to a scraper site that is just feeding in featured posts on ActiveRain.  The person feeding these posts only let like 10 show at a time and have it set that the others cannot be viewed.  Unless you go in & look at their feed, then you can find plenty more.

There are zero posts of original content on the site.  Also, there is no attribution as to where the stuff comes from.  This person is blatantly stealing content from hundreds of people.  What is even worse, (if it could get any) they are using a trademarked word their domain.  The term REALTOR® is trademarked by the National Association of REALTORS®.  I know that many people have tried contacting this person to remove the content which no avail.  Hopefully NAR will soon step in as well for the violation and between them & all the idividual complaints the site will be shut down soon.

I thought about adding a link over to the scraper site, but I don’t want to help their business by linking to them or driving traffic their way.  The irony of the site is that it is built to sell WordPress Sites to Real Estate Agents.  I think if you are going to try & sell a product to a consumer you should start by generating your own unique content and not stealing from others.  No matter how sneakily you try to do it, you will be found.  Also, using others content will not help you a bit with SEO rankings.  As I have done more investigating I have found they actually have several different sites set up all on a .io type of domain.

Each of his sites seem to be some sort of scam.  The one I clicked on took me to an app they designed that will automatically email your boss an excuse when you are late for work and miss a call from your boss because you are still sleeping.  Sounds like the type of person I would want to hire to work with… This is just another reason why it is imperative to be monitoring your online presence so that you are not a Loser. Also, pay closer attention to your trackbacks & pingbacks to your site, you never know who may be stealing your content.

2010: Looking Back (and Ahead)

Social Media Advisors

Thanksgiving is the time of year when I thank God for the blessings he has bestowed upon me and my family, but I typically find myself in a more reflective mood as years end (and begin, of course).

With that in mind, I wanted to take a minute to reflect on 2010 and what it has meant for me.

As I’ve written here and elsewhere many times, I am truly thankful for my wife and four children.  In a couple of days, we’ll be celebrating our 18th wedding anniversary.  Frankly, it feels like a lot less time has passed, and that makes me happy.  I love her deeply.

My son just turned 12, so before 2011 ends, we will have a teenager living in our house.  I remember when my wife took me to the Chinatown restaurant in Austin to tell me that she was pregnant the first time, and how happy I was when I found out we were having a boy.  Since then, we’ve been overjoyed to welcome three daughters as well.  My son and I are very close, but my little girls have a way of wrapping me around each of their individual little fingers.

My mom remains an important part of my life, and that of my kids. She had a minor health scare a few months ago, but it seems that all is well now, and for that I am certainly grateful.

2010 brought a couple of interesting milestones in my personal life. I turned 40 in August, but it didn’t really faze me.  I think the blow was softened by the fact that I lost quite a bit of weight this year (56 pounds as of this writing).  Today, I was able to give myself a welcome surprise gift, since I had to get a smaller pant size again.  My waist went from a 40 to a 33.  I think the last time I worn pants that size was when I was in high school.

Business was good overall, but I’m hoping for a far better year in 2011.  The economy seems to be showing signs of big-time improvement, and this fall was our best in four years for my real estate firm, which could be a terrific indicator.  I’m planning to expand our company this next year, assuming I find the right agents to do so.  210 Consulting also continues to thrive, but this is also something I hope to grow and hone as time goes forward .

I learned a lot about what really matters to me this year. I remain highly involved in the church that we helped to start a couple of years ago, and I have some ideas for charitable/outreach/mercy projects that I would love to expand upon in the upcoming months on my own.

I enjoy teaching and writing very much, so I might seek more opportunities to conduct classes in my areas of expertise, both locally and nationally via webinars and perhaps recorded audio/video.  With regard to the writing, I hope to re-focus my blogging efforts again.  This seems like as good a time as any, right?

I would love to hear what you have in store for this new year and beyond.  I welcome your input below.  🙂

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/