Copywriting 911 has already written about plagiarism and how the infringer can be beaten using DMCA. However, not every webmaster who published duplicate content is a shameless scammer. Some of them don’t even suspect that the lovely and amazingly cheap article they bought is just a word-by-word snippet from Wiki. Long live freelancers! I bet most of you guys have faced this problem at least once. Considering online marketing, good content – is the one that is at least unique, so let’s look at the best-known duplicate content checkers on the Web.

1. Copyscape

What? That’s a recognized leader in the plagiarism checker niche. To use the free online version you have to upload the file – it will be easier if you use a blog platform to publish your text, check the text and then delete it. But keep in mind that Copyscape pings Google’s indexed and archived sites, so for your test pages this may be ineffective. Today free Copyscape search is limited to 10 requests per one IP address monthly (compared to 20 initially). Premium version costs $0.05 per search and requires either the text or the URL to be pasted.

+ Copyscape deals not so much with full sentences as with separate word combinations. Even if the clause was divided into several parts and some conjunctions were inserted to cover up the traces, Copyscape will detect it very fast.

– The tool isn’t as reliable as one may wish. Though it claims to track 2000 words at one time, we’ve found Copyscape to be fully effective only for 500 words or even less, otherwise the results may be inaccurate. Even if the screenshot proudly informs you the text is “copyscape passed”, that still doesn’t guarantee it is 100% unique on the Web (let alone offline sources which aren’t considered by Google-oriented Copyscape).

2. Article Checker

What? A well-known tool in the webmasters’ community. Using Article Checker you can track articles (just paste the text into the whitespace), documents (with .txt extension) and websites. The checker searches Google and Yahoo for matches, yet in Yahoo its results are more profound.

+ It’s free, simple and available online.

– Unfortunately, Article Checker can only track full sentences, so some results just aren’t displayed.

3. Plagiarism Checker

What? Actually I know at least two tools under this name. First let’s talk about the one on the domain plagiarismchecker[dot]com. This online tool operates with Google and Yahoo and implies a common “copy-paste” mechanism. The domain is basically meant for students and authors, containing helpful articles on plagiarism and related issues, however, it can be useful for webmasters as well.

+ It’s easy-to-use and free. In addition, the new Plagiarism Checker option allows to check web pages, which makes it compete with Article Checker.

– Unlike similar tools, Plagiarism Checker has rather strict word-count limits; thus, you can track not more than 32 words at one time. So it won’t be good in long text tracking, but still can be applied to random search.

4. The Plagiarism Checker

What? Another educational software designed by the University of Maryland, yet webmasters can also take advantage of it. Enter the text, click the “check” button – and get a rather accurate list of results with links to the original sources.

+ The Plagiarism Checker is freely available online and effective.

– Doesn’t highlight the duplicate sentences in the original copy, so it takes some time to find the matches.

5. Plagium

What? A standard duplicate content tracker.

+ Available 24/7 and free.

– The text should be less than 1000 characters, but not too short. The number of requests is limited as well.

6. DupeFree Pro

What? Actually this tool is about comparing two texts rather than finding matches on the Web. Nevertheless, it is able to make 5 random phrase searches per user at the three main search engines.

+ DupeFree Pro is helpful for SEO: it calculates keyword density and gives a list of related keywords. Free for download.

– Isn’t so effective for plagiarism tracking in the Internet as Copyscape or Article Checker.

Other tools. Of course, there is a plenty of other content trackers, many of which are free and available online. Just explore the Web – and, who knows, maybe you will find some masterpiece of plagiarism checking?

Any alternative?

You must have heard about random search, or using search engines as content checkers. It’s quite easy: all you have to do is to copy and paste a random sentence into, say, Google and click “search”. Although many authoritative authors and webmasters prefer this simple method to special plagiarism tools, random search still has its weak points. Just take into account the name itself – “random” – and you’ll better understand its drawbacks. What if the random sentence you googled wasn’t plagiarized, but the next one – which you decided to skip – is really duplicate? All in all, random search doesn’t give any guarantee, though it is truly simple and free.

Choosing reliable writers, as well as the right freelancer policy, minimizes your chances to pay for plagiarized content, yet let’s discuss it in the next entry.

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With the development of search engines one shouldn’t be an Eton graduate to find the necessary data on the Web. However, like anything in the world, search can and undoubtedly has to be optimized. After all, Google develops constantly and expects users to take advantage of its advanced options, not to shelve them as if it were something quite useless. Using some of Google’s search techniques, a sophisticated surfer can spend considerably less time on search than a newbie, who simply tapes the keyword and has to comb out multiple web pages before she comes over the needed info.

So, paraphrasing a famous tongue-twister, how many search results would a searcher search out, if a searcher could search searchingly? You can check it by yourself applying the following simple search optimizing tactics.

1.To improve the results Google automatically excludes common words, like “what” or “instead”. If these words do matter for your search, you should enclose them in quotation marks or put “+”.

Example: [“how to increase traffic”] [traffic +increase]

You can also use both of them to specify what kind of information you need exactly.

Example: [“increase traffic” +tips from pros]

2. To narrow the search you may want to eliminate some irrelevant results from the SERPs. Supposing you want to know more about cancer treatment, but drop only on horoscope descriptions in a very frustrating way. Optimize your search with the help of the “-” sign.

Example: [cancer -zodiac]

Note: When you add “+” or “-” signs, make sure they are preceded by a space.

3. You can also resort to the “OR” search to get alternative results. The only thing is not to forget to write it in uppercase, otherwise Google treats it like a meaningless keyword.

Example: [hotels Bern OR Geneva]

4. According to Googlers, one of their best developments – the “tilde” search – is undeservedly ignored by most Web surfers. However, this operator can be quite useful while searching synonyms and alternatives rather than exact terms. Thus, looking for a cheap car, you will be directed not only to the websites containing this keyword, but also to those which also sell cars at low costs but use different keywords, for instance, “affordable cars” or “used cars”.

Example: [~cheap cars]

5.Another helpful Google search operator is the “*” search. Did you like the tasks like “fill in the blanks” at school? Today Google can do them for you. Most people use the asterisk instead of another Google’s option – Q&A. Thus, you can find what you need by entering the beginning of the sentence, followed by “*”.

Example: [radium was discovered by *]

This option can be used as well to keep the search within the standard 10 word limit in case you are looking for a long sentence.

Example: supposing you need a strophe from “La Marseillaise”: “Arise, children of the fatherland/The day of glory has arrived!/Against us, tyranny’s/Bloody banner is raised.”
To find this very sentence you can type [“Arise, children ***/***** arrived!/Against us, */Bloody ***”], and Google will give it in full.

Note: Don’t forget about the quotations marks.

6. If you want all keywords to figure in the title, start your query with [allintitle:]. In case you type [intitle:], the document will contain the first keyword in its title, and the rest will be mentioned anywhere in the text.

Example: [allintitle: ancient Roman poetry] [intitle: poetry of ancient Rome]

The same thing is with URLs. Entering [allinurl:] or [inurl:] you can find the domains which contain the searched keyword.

7. Some people on the Web enjoy using rather complicated words, like “prestidigitator” or “syncretism”, while the rest of the community are at a loss about their meaning and feel like being defective not to know such “common” expressions. The solution is to use Google’s glossary. Just tape [define:] and the search engine will provide you not only with the definition but also with useful links to the sites related to your keyword.

Example: [define:tiara]

The next time you enter the Google search page, recollect these useful tips to save your time for more important things.

There are a few very important considerations to make when choosing a domain name for your business. The name itself should reflect your company or its services and products. While ego might dictate a personal name for your business, it is not recommended if you are marketing on the world wide web. Finding a business and domain name that tells what you do rather than who you are will be much more effective.

If at all possible, a one word domain name will have the greatest value and brand name recognition. Primary study data compiled by DomainsBot Labs shows that nouns are the most important part of speech when used in a website domain name. Two to three nouns used together can increase your ratings with the search engines to 90-100% serps (search engine results page). A noun and verb combination will still rank in the top 90 percentile. Some items to avoid in your domain name are hyphens between words and numbers used in place of letters. Made up words are also to be avoided unless you have a massive advertising budget to make the word familiar to the general public. Not only will they be harder for users to remember but the spelling errors generated will prevent your site from showing in results.

Once you have chosen your website name, it must be registered. You must purchase and register your domain name through an agent company. While the major search engine companies like Yahoo and Google offer this service, independent companies like GoDaddy can offer the same services for registering and hosting more economically. While you do not have to host your website with the same company you register the domain name with, there are advantages. Payments can be combined into packaged groups and discounted for multiple years of registry and hosting fees. Your registration fees should run no more than $10-15 USD per year.

Cost for hosting your website on the company’s servers depends upon the size and usage of your site and can be as little as $5 USD a month for a starter package and increase upward from there. Keeping your registration and hosting with the same company also makes it easier to keep up with your domain names and the times they need to be renewed. This is of the utmost importance as failure to keep your registration current can cause your domain name to default and possibly be sold to someone else.

While it may cost a bit more in registration fees, it is best to purchase all the top level domain name extensions for your business and website name. You will definitely want to use the [dot]com extension for your business website. Owning the rights to [dot]biz, [dot]org, [dot]net and [dot]info will prevent a competitor from creating a knockoff site similar to yours and funneling business from you.

Finding the availability of your chosen name can be searched through either your preferred registration company or use the services of whois[dot]com. Whois lists the ownership information and contact addresses of all domain name owners. They are also affiliated with companies that will act as agents to attempt purchasing currently active domains that you may wish to acquire.

What is the main condition for promoting your website? An appropriate niche being found? A brilliant advertising campaign? A good neighborhood? Of course, all these factors are of high importance, however, there exists the most significant consideration – that is content. In combination with smart linking and some other Internet marketing tips, good content can increase your site’s traffic incredibly, bring it to the highest SERP positions and make much profit.

Just imagine: amazing and captivating, original and logically organized, relevant and keyword rich content, sweet delicious content with an appetizing golden brown crust… But suddenly, to your horror, you discover that someone has stolen the basic feature of your site and now your content can’t be called unique anymore. What will you do?

In prehistoric times thieves were torn to threads or just fed to wild animals. People of the Middle Ages subjected them to tortures. Two centuries ago swindlers were killed in duels. But nowadays such steps are a little bit out of fashion, in addition, there is a more progressive way to punish tricksters – I mean DMCA, or Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

As a United States copyright law, DMCA outlaws production and distribution of devices which serve to obtain the access to copyrighted works. It also criminalizes removing copyright management information, like the author, title, copyright owner’s name, terms for the data use and some identifying symbols. Such illegal actions as abuse of the copyright law and dissemination of anti-security tools imply various civil penalties – from banning the plagiarist website to imposing a fine or even imprisoning.

The law includes several exceptions, and not any borrowed data is considered the violation of DMCA. Thus, the act allows to use online information for educational, governmental and law enforcement purposes. Another example is computer programs or games coming in obsolete formats and requiring the original hardware to get access to; in this case the necessary programs are “borrowed” for the preservation or archival reproduction purposes.

But what if that isn’t the case, and your content, based on the best SEO copywriting technologies, was shamelessly stolen and placed onto other site(s)?

First you should determine the extent of the offense and try to find out about the infringer as much as possible. You can contact the circumventing websites’ owner directly or send him/her a warning letter. If your message is ignored, and the copyrighted content wasn’t removed from the offending site, make up a DMCA infringement notice by yourself, or with the help of a lawyer, and send it to the hosting provider.

To attain its object the notice should meet certain requirements. To make it clear, your notice has to contain detailed identity of the copyrighted material, such as identification of the web page or posts where the data was published and the URL coming with the title, name of the source and date, – or the link leading to the initial post. Then it should provide the identity of the infringed data, its name and all accompanying posts and pictures, if necessary. Don’t forget to include your contact information, like email or fax. The DMCA notice is concluded with the signatures of the copyright owner and the author. Such host as Google require handwritten signatures, yet in most cases an electronic one is still valid. (Learn more details and examples by visiting Google’s DMCA department on the web.)

The majority of hosts will reply to your DMCA notice within 1-3 business days. In most cases the response is favorable, as any host doesn’t want plagiarists on its service. Nevertheless, don’t send the notice without being completely sure your content was stolen, otherwise such actions will be considered illegal.

There are many example when, thanks to the DMCA’s interference, circumvented data was removed from the the sites-offenders, and the latter were even banned. So, be aware of these methods standing on guard over your website reputation.

It may seem strange, but originally the idea of junk mail was quite innocent: in 1978 Gary Thuerk, currently known as the Father of spam, decided to create such mail invitations that would be quick to send and wouldn’t cost much. As the mailing list of Digital Equipment Corporation, where Gary worked as a marketing manager, numbered 600 persons, it would take a long time to make up a personal message for each of them. So, Gary just drafted one invitation and sent it to all 600 people.
This way spam came into the world – the world that not only didn’t expect it but also was completely horrified by the annoying “newcomer”.

Today the average computer user gets around 10 junk mails per day, and this amount is increasing year by year. Spammers never rest, sending about 90 billion spam messages a day, mainly through botnets or zombie networks – Internet computers used to transmit spam and viruses. Thus, spam damages both the national economy as a whole and separate companies in particular, making people spend time on reading junk messages and money on installing spam filters.

One of the most irritating things about junk mail is that once your computer is equipped with some spam detection mechanism, permission-based messages can happen to be never delivered to your inbox only because your filter treated them like spam. Just imagine that your business partner addresses you a list of tempting discounts, but as the mail contains such prohibited words as earn or discount, your spam filter classifies it as spam, and you remain absolutely unaware of a profitable business offer.

To prevent the formation of false positives – legitimate messages which are determined by spam checkers as spam – you should follow these spam filtering advice:

First create more than one e-mail address. One or more addresses are used for business contacts, friends and family, while a separate e-mail is dedicated to dealing with commercial companies and service supplies. This way spam is unlikely to interfere in your business affairs and personal life.

Secondly, if you receive a mail from a familiar sender, but the message contains a suspicious attachment, check with the sender. In case he/she didn’t send any, delete the message without viewing it.

Generally the subject line of business letters have a definite well-thought topic which reflects the content neatly. However, some people neglect this rule and leave the subject line empty, or, which is worse, write something like !!! and some words in capital letters. In this case email protection systems think the message is spam and eliminate it. Ask all your correspondents to indicate the topic in the subject line properly.

Besides that, you can show your junk mail filter what is spam and what is not, using such systems as Barracuda Quarantine or e-filtrate which also help to identify the spam rate for your own outcoming messages.

Finally, if you want to stop receiving newsletters you subscribed to before, don’t use the “Report as Spam” button, but just click “Unsubscribe” instead. Otherwise the mailer will block this message not only from you but also from other recipients, and you may become an obstacle to people’s correspondence.

Let’s face it: some up-to-date technique innovations are too smart, so smart, in fact, that they turn out to give more trouble than benefit. Supposing you want to sell a product and inform your potential customers about the discounts using email. A quite simple plan, nevertheless, your message may stay undelivered. The point is that various email protection systems, such as SpamAssassin or Aristotle Spam Defense Network, do their best to filter all the unnecessary data, and rather often they overdo. According to the report placed in Time Magazine, 40 to 70 percent of all incoming emails are simply wiped out before they could reach their destination. Moreover, up to 27% of legitimate emails are spam-filtered without getting into the recipient’s inbox and, the worst of all, it remains unknown to the sender!

So unfortunately, many of today’s spam filters aren’t perfect and the risk that your email may never be read is still high.

However, there exist some useful tips which help to survive the most insidious filters.

First let’s see what we are dealing with. Spam filters review all incoming emails, seeking certain patterns which can be classified as spam. The system scrutinizes separate words, as well as word combinations, sentences and even colors. Depending on the email’s content, the spam filter adds to or takes away points from its scoring system. If the spam score rates about 20% of the total (usually, the upper limit equals to 5 points), the file will get through easily; if it equals to 21-50%, the filter marks it as possible spam, and if the score happens to be 51% or more, your message is automatically killed.

To prevent such a dismal end, your should make up your email very properly. For example, the subject line content is very important, as it is checked the most thoroughly. Your subject line should contain the date which helps to take off some 0.5 points, and if it also has a newsletter header, a whole dozen of points will be taken off, too.

Next, keep the size of your email within 20K to 40K range. If your message is under 20K, the protection system can consider it as spam and will add up to 0.7 points.

Some formatting, like caps (particularly in the subject line), colors and hyperlinks shouldn’t be overused. No good will come of excessive punctuation either.

Besides that, experts advise to avoid cliches like Dear… and to replace remove with unsubscribe. Other words and phrases which are “unpopular” among spam filters, are money making, financial freedom and click below (use go here instead).

In addition, to go successfully through any kinds of protection systems, the message has to be personalized with the customer’s name.

Finally, the best way to save your email from the filters is to be included in the address book of your recipients: in this case you don’t have to pass through the spam checker at all.

To be continued…