Content Vs. Credit

My forum is suppose to be the number one resource of its kind. The most organized, most rare info, the best resource. I came across some information that is not exactly found across the net that easy. I'm looking for ways for people not to copy and paste it so easy. That, and I'm looking for ways for people to register to see the content. With this said, the only thing I can really think of is putting the content as an image. I know this is no good for seo. But would it hurt me that much? Theres still the page title, and im titling the thread. I would like to know, whats everyone standpoint on content vs credit for content and information?

I've had this problem in the past...I just let people take it I guess. What I did was post tutorials on other sites with credit for my site and at the top of the thread/tutorial I always put, "for the most up-to-date guide, visit *link to my tutorial on my site*". I like to put water marks on my images (that I use in the tutorials) as well as linking to other tutorials/guides on my site. This makes it much harder for copy-pasters to go around and copy all of your work. I get a lot of traffic from people copying and pasting my stuff on their site and then having most of my "requirements before starting" links all linking back to multiple threads on my site lol.

I would keep the content open. At least you will be first, and can still establish yourself as an authority. You will also, naturally, end up building quality links back to your site.

If you don't get as much traffic as possible, the window of opportunity may close as competitors emerge.

"It's better to be first than it is to be better". Be fast, be first.

Originally Posted by Joe Ward

"It's better to be first than it is to be better". Be fast, be first.

I disagree.


I was 2342121315th in my niche.

Now, i'm number 3 because i was better.

well what should I do BrianSOL, i would really like if my content was protected on mysite, but thats nearly impossible...what did u do? how where u "better"?

It's entirely up to you what you want to do.

Me, i created an original reference section with tech articles, faq's, and how-to's, and it still leads the niche for the most organized info.

Behind google and yahoo, my competitor is my 3rd most popular referring url.

see, thats what im doing basically, gathering content and organizing the content...it is a lot of work on the web masters part...any tips on how to make it easier on the web master as far as organizing data into one forum so everyone can search without the web master having to gather all this information himself?

also, how did you protect your unique content from competitors?

i did this all back in 2001... so its been up for a long time now. I simply made article forums at the top grouped by type, and set them to read-only.

i have 0 protection on them.

if anyone is going to steal it, its going to be a user, not another webmaster.

that is true, but my niche is pretty tiny, and i no all my competition, im first to attack the niche as u have...

Originally Posted by briansol

I disagree.


I was 2342121315th in my niche.

Now, i'm number 3 because i was better.

It's certainly hard to debate your process.

In the context, I think it's best to be the first to place content on the web to be crawled. As a baseline, I would assume the site (if public) is at a reasonable level of quality, else it would not be public.

If the content is really solid, there could be automated methods that would even strip the text out of the image and place it on another site. But, it would be an effective deterrent for most of your competitors.

Originally Posted by billyjohnsonjr

My forum is suppose to be the number one resource of its kind. The most organized, most rare info, the best resource. I came across some information that is not exactly found across the net that easy. I'm looking for ways for people not to copy and paste it so easy. That, and I'm looking for ways for people to register to see the content. With this said, the only thing I can really think of is putting the content as an image. I know this is no good for seo. But would it hurt me that much? Theres still the page title, and im titling the thread. I would like to know, whats everyone standpoint on content vs credit for content and information?

doesn't do you much good to have the best content available if nobody knows about it. if you don't open it to search engines, then you can't optimize it for search engines. if you don't open it to guests, then even the people that find your site won't know what great content you have. many people (myself included) won't bother registering for a site that doesn't make something freely available to visitors.

while people sometimes worry about others stealing their content, most of the time, people are happy to link to you if you have done a good job with presentation. it's really much less of a concern in my experience than sometimes people imagine.

if you want to protect stuff to force registration, i would say your best bet could be to make part of the content available publically, and part of it require a registration.

Originally Posted by goddess_dix

doesn't do you much good to have the best content available if nobody knows about it. if you don't open it to search engines, then you can't optimize it for search engines. if you don't open it to guests, then even the people that find your site won't know what great content you have. many people (myself included) won't bother registering for a site that doesn't make something freely available to visitors.

while people sometimes worry about others stealing their content, most of the time, people are happy to link to you if you have done a good job with presentation. it's really much less of a concern in my experience than sometimes people imagine.

if you want to protect stuff to force registration, i would say your best bet could be to make part of the content available publically, and part of it require a registration.

I left everything open. I rather people find me, and join because its a good site with good information.

Excellent. Now just be proactive. Keep building great content, and continual optimization of your site in every area you can identify.

Quick question, I want to get my site critiqued by the members and staff here, but do not want to post the link because Google will crawl it and index it, any other way of doing this?

Create a separate thread with your request. Don't include the link. I'll look it up and provide the critique without disclosing your URL. Other staff will have access as well using your license info.