Y’all, I had something way more fun to talk about today, but I am too mad to even type. Seething. So here’s what happened.
As a blogger, I work really hard on my content and keeping up with this space. Over the past year and few months, I have been consistently trying to grow my blog into a business and doing all that it takes to do so. I share my blog posts through social media, and my biggest traffic source is Pinterest. I noticed that one of my most popular pins started to fizzle out, maybe about a month ago. I thought it had lost its mojo. Last night on a whim, I decided to do a little investigating. I first looked at it on my iPad and noticed that something was wrong with it. So I thought, what would happen if I typed in “10 Things You Must Do in Napa Valley,” the title of my most popular pin of all time? Would my pin come up? Well, let me tell you. My pinnable image from that blog post sure did, and it took me right smack to another website with my ENTIRE blog post copied and pasted onto another site. This impersonator’s pin was what popped up when you typed in my key words. I quickly left a comment telling them to redirect to my site and the original post, and that I would be in touch with Pinterest for impersonating my site and pin as their own. They have since removed the pin altogether. I’m still working on getting my blog post removed from their site. (And I’m waiting to hear back from Pinterest about the matter all together.)
I get that Pinterest is all about re-pinning other people’s content. But the whole honest point of Pinterest is to be redirected to the original source. I cannot stand when people quote a source as Pinterest. Pinterest was not the original content maker. They are simply the facilitator of sharing the goods. Click one step further to find out where the image and content is coming from, then give the original creators the credit.
My blog posts are shared a lot. I love that and am thankful for it. I love when people use one of my images, and then redirect others to my site or a specific blog post. It’s great. But stealing an entire blog post, pictures and all, is downright illegal. Stealing anything is illegal. Stealing intellectual property, words, photographs, designs, and creations in its entirety and claiming it as your own is copyright infringement. Be original. Be honest.
After I was sick to my stomach and cried real tears of anger, I wanted to call it quits with this whole blogging thing. I didn’t want to write this post at all. As a blogger, I know I am prone to people copying my content, but when it happens to you, it’s like a sucker punch to the face. It still stings. Where does that leave me now? Just mad. But the losers don’t win. The bad guys will not win. Here’s hoping to a better day.
Let’s keep in touch, shall we?
You can see where I’m linking up on this page.
I’m outright disgusted by this Kristy and I’m so sorry it happened to you. I’ve had to fight to get content removed from others’ sites as well. Fortunately, when you formally file a DCMA notice, they have to respond quickly (and they usually do).
As you know, I’ve been dealing with the hijacked pins issue this week too. Totally not fun. I too wanted to quit blogging. When you work so hard on content and someone scoops it and is making a profit on it… that’s just sickening and upsetting.
Hang in there friend. You have a loyal readership who loves and supports you. We’ll back you up throughout this thing. <3
xoxo
Thank you so much for your help, Jennifer! They are starting to get flagged, and I sure hope they stop what they are doing. One of my friends in Dallas had one of her most popular pins stolen along with her post from the same people! She asked they redirect to her site, and they did. I don’t know why they didn’t to that when I asked. I guess I scared them!
Thanks for being such great friend! :) It means a lot!
And just copied and pasted! How lazy can you be?! The Internet is a strange place. I had a friend who found an entire blog of pictures of her son being passed off as the son of that random blogger.
Don’t let the bad seeds get you down. Some people REALLY suck. But you (and your blog!) are amazing. Plus I’d be really sad if you three in the towel. Because I happen to love reading along.
Yes! They’ve been doing that a ton, and apparently it’s been working for them. :/ People can suck, but then there are the rest of us who don’t, and it makes everything worth it.
Thank you for being so awesome and encouraging, Erin! I appreciate it more than you know. I’m not going anywhere, either. ;)
That is just awful! Hopefully it is all removed soon. Some people are just the worst, grr!
It’s almost fully resolved. Thank goodness! Thanks for hanging in there with me, Laura. Hope you had a great weekend!
Praying for an awesome outcome friend. And if not, we have a legal letter ready to throw their way. Love you friend, hold your head high and know they may take your blog posts, but they can never take your AWESOMENESS! (said in my best Braveheart voice)
Thank you so much, friend! You are so right! How dare someone try to take my awesomeness away?! Lol. It’ll never happen. Love you!
Thinking about you! I hope it’s all getting organized. I’m seriously sickened by that post, I can’t believe that it was copy/pasted. SO LAZY and SO Illegal!! I would hate to see you throw in the towel, you’re doing amazing things on this space of yours and you’ve accomplished so much! XO
Thanks, Tawnya! I’m so thankful for friends like you who make these kinds of things seem like not such a big deal after all. :) It’s behind me now, and I’m going to keep on keeping on. I hope you’re doing okay!
This is the worst! I always have a fear of something like this happening and hate that it happened to you! Also, that post was golden when we planned our trip this past winter! Glad you’re getting it straightened out!!
It was pretty annoying, but I dealt with it and am moving on. I’m glad that post helped you, too. It definitely served its purpose then. ;) Hope you had a great weekend, Liz!
WHAT???!!! I’m so mad for you and so sorry you are having to deal with this.
Thanks, Brettni. I’m not the only one it happened to, but it is frustrating. Just part of the job, I guess. Glad it’s almost all settled though. :) Hope you had a wonderful weekend!
That makes me so mad for you!
I need to just start making videos like you do, Hannah. Maybe people wouldn’t be so inclined to steal them since you can always track those. ;) Who knows. Blogger problems. I’m just dusting it off and moving on. Hope you had a great weekend!
what that is so irritating. How do you find out if your Pins are on Pinterest and going to your own site?
I noticed that there was no traffic coming in anymore from my most popular pin, so I did a search by chance to see what came up. It turns out that someone had stolen my image and copy and pasted it to their blog. It’s since been taken down, and my pin has been restored to being what pops up now. I guess you just have to be vigilant about searching for yourself sometimes to see what comes up. ;)