soul proprietor

Tonight I’m going to be doing a lecture at a University.  What am I talking about?  Online plagiarism in the blogosphere.

This opportunity could not have happened if I didn’t have experience with business biters stepping into my online hub and raiding my henhouse.  Over the years, I’ve had to deal with a constant stream of internet thieves who felt free to help themselves to my blog posts, web copy, and even my header.

Worse yet, some of these content thieves were not random strangers.  In fact, one of the most blatant rip-offs happened from a peer that I thought I could trust.  You can imagine my shock when I saw my webcopy for my tarot business consulting almost word-for-word on her webpage.

While these incidents hurt my ability to trust people in the online tarot world, they also forced me to get a lot smarter about protecting my turf.

I learned how to properly copyright my blog (which was very handy when one salty woman demanded “proof” that my material was copyrighted).

I learned how to issue a DCMA takedown notice.

I learned how to alert Google to these shenanigans.

I  wrote a blog post on what to do if this happens to you (I get emails all the time about this post from entrepreneurs from many different industries).

And now I get ready to deliver a talk on this subject. To a university no less.

Wow.

The takeaway: if you find yourself in a situation with your business – any situation – use it as a teaching moment for you and for others.  Don’t let one failure or let-down pull you off-center and or make you give up in disgust.

Empower yourself and then empower others.

The most resilient and successful entrepreneurs take their lumps and turn them into gold that they lovingly share.  Be that person.

“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”  ~ Maya Angelou

Blessings,

Theresa

© Theresa Reed | The Tarot Lady 2015

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