I’ve recently had my content stolen by a splogger. This splogger had no original content of his own – he stole many blog entries from elsewhere and posted them on his splog. Granted, yes, he gave credit back to me – and the other bloggers – in the form of a link, but he did not ask permission for posting my entry on his site, and used his own name and link in the “written by” link..
I wrote about this recently because Dawno from Absolute Write had the same thing happen to her. She successfully got her post removed from the splogger’s site.
Let’s start first with a definition of splog.
“Splog” is short for Spam Blog. Spam blogs are blogs that don’t provide any real content for users. They exist solely to game the search engines. These splogs may exist just to have links to other websites or, they may have ads on the blog itself. The content on splogs are auto-generated, either from some other source or a list of useless keywords.
Why do we hate Splog?
Splog clutters the internet with useless content. Web search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN, and blog search engines such as Technorati, IceRocket and Bloglines serve to manage the huge amount of information available on the Web. Splog makes it much more difficult to find the useful information.
That, and they steal our content, posting it as their own.
In my search for info on fighting splog, I came across this blog entry. While there’s good info in it, it’s sad – pathetic even – that the comments turned into a spamfest. Dude, if you’re going to complain about spam blogs, why are you not fighting spam comments? Anyway, read the post.
What’s a splog? A splog is any blog whose creator doesn’t add any written value. I’m sure some might argue that packaging data, such as news feeds or the blog posts of others is added value. I don’t think it is. After all, that’s why there are topics and indexes. If I want information about the Dallas Mavericks, I can search for it, optimize it, and save it. Because indexes are based on freshness, my searches are automatically updated, freshest data first, as new posts are introduced.
Yup. I can Google just as well as the next person, and I seldom have problems finding what I’m looking for. I don’t need no splogs.
Brenda Coulter recently found herself the victim of a blog aggregator and tried – unsuccessfully – to have her content removed. The website stealing her content – not once, but over and over again – had the nerve to post a comment to her entry, justifying their thievery. Brenda’s retaliation? Putting a blurb advertising her own book at the beginning of her entry. Since only the first bit of the entry shows, it’s working for Brenda, advertising her book. Creative and intelligent. 
What can you do if you find yourself a victim of splog? Read my previous entry for tips on how to deal with stolen content. As well, you can report splog to SplogReporter and SplogSpot. Report splogs using adsense to Google. Report splogs hosted on blogging sites such as Blogger, WordPress, LiveJournal, and the like to the blog hosting company.
And most importantly, never give up! Never surrender!
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I hear ya.
One of my entries was copied by a splogger. I’m not impressed.
Spread the word.
Good God! What will they think of next? It is absolutely astonishing to see just how low some people will go. This article needs to be read by all writers with blogs. It sure sheds the light on these thieving slugs!