I have only been blogging for two years, but I have learned a lot along the way. I certainly have my blogging “heroes” who I look up to and respect and admire. I think we all have people that we see who are doing things that we want to do ourselves. But when flattery turns into copying—well, let’s just say that I am not fond of that.
We all have our “styles” and “voices”. In my quest to be different than your everyday garden variety “mom” and “lifestyle” blogger, I have worked hard to develop my style and the topics and writing that you see on my website. Not to say that I don’t touch on topics and subjects that others do, because when you are blogging about current events and pop culture, things are bound to be discussed in volume. But when I am known to blog about something in a certain way and have been doing so for two years, I expect that you find your own way to do it and not bite my style that I have worked hard to cultivate. In other words, stay in your lane. And I will stay in mine.
Lately, I have had not only to deal with copycats, but other people who have taken my work and copied and pasted it on their site and not given me credit. I certainly do not like that and will call out anyone who does so. Stealing someone else’s work, whether it be photos or words or any other artistic entity is not cool. Be original people!
Some of you may call this a rant, and yes, you may be right. But it’s also a call to action. Protect your voice, your brand, your style at all costs. And work hard to cultivate your craft your way. Do it on your own merit and not on the merit of others. And by no means should you ever steal someone else’s work and use it as your own. These Internet streets are getting gangsta—don’t get embarrassed by being called out for taking someone else’s work.
Don’t bite, don’t copy, and don’t jack. Be the fabulous self that YOU are. There can only be one ME 🙂
LOL – yes Danyelle there can be only one you! No doubt! 🙂
I so agree with you on this subject. I had someone whom I considered a friend, take the recipes from my blog and use them on hers. Never gave me credit for anything. It hurt to know that all the hard work I put in to research and cooking (especially setting measurements)was pretty much gone because someone decided to be a copycat. I eventually took the blog down for about 6 months. I just started back again, in which I changed the name and made sure my info was copyrighted. Everything is still a work in progress but I am trying to remain postive and pray that this doesn’t happen again.
Kimberlee, I am sorry to hear about that. It’s a shame that other people can’t come up with their own material, but I am glad that it did not stop you from blogging and sharing your voice. Kudos to you!
I loved this blog so much, I think I am going to cut and paste it to my site!! Yes… wait… oops!
Great blog
LOL – that was funny Aisha 🙂
Good blog and rant, sometimes you have to do that. That is why I decided to try and use my own pictures, or use a subscription based service. Love your blog.
Whitney, using stock photos or paid photo services are the way to go. At the very least, crediting the photographer or site in which you got the images from works as well. Thanks for commenting.