Should I let others repost my blog articles, & if so w what conditions?

January 14, 2015 9:29 AM

I have received requests to repost my blog articles, that I write for the explicit purpose of generating commercial interest in my company. The blog is only a couple months old, so I haven't done tons of thinking about the various issues that can come up. These requests are coming from people who can easily be competitors or collaborators, as we work in the same space offering similar services.

While on initial reaction I have no objections, should I? I imagine there are benefits to letting them do this, and I prefer friendliness where reasonable. If I do let them repost, what are terms and conditions I might impose? I'm thinking stuff like they need to provide links to my contact info. Thanks for your ideas!

posted by cacao to Writing & Language (5 answers total)

Best answer: I will let people repost on WordPress because that automatically generates links back. For other requests, I tell them they can quote a small section and then link back to my blog post and my general blog, mentioning my name. Although there is discussion on whether search engines still distrust duplicate content, I try to avoid it. If nothing else, it blurs the issues when I do a regular search to check no one is stealing my content.

Also worth putting a copyright statement including this policy on your blog. If you do it on a page or sub-page, you can set up an auto reply you can hit in response to these queries if you want to save time.

Hope that helps, and well done for having such good content already that people want to use it!
posted by LyzzyBee at 9:48 AM on January 14, 2015

Best answer: Do be aware that sometimes these types of request can be thinly disguised spam. Do your research beforehand and be absolutely sure who you are dealing with. Do not let anyone have access to your blog and make sure you are absolutely clear in which context your content will appear. If you are certain this is above-the-board stuff, then go ahead but make sure that a) they credit you, b) they link to you, and c) they only use some part of your content.
posted by kariebookish at 10:06 AM on January 14, 2015

Best answer: Part of my job involves handling similar kinds of requests from people who want to reprint/re-post materials published by my work. What I almost always do is thank them for asking and explain that we would be happy for them to publish a short excerpt (or not) and the link back to the original on our site, but would prefer they not re-post the whole piece, because we make updates/corrections to things and they want their readers to have the benefit of the most up-to-date version, yes?

This works for people who are sincere and not spammy or scammy (the fact that they're asking at all is usually a good sign). YMMV in your field.
posted by rtha at 11:45 AM on January 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Duplicate content generally still gets a google hit. It basically splits the credit between two sources.

That said, it sometimes nice to get a new audience, so I generally allow this when asked.

I used to guest post for people a lot. I did this because I enjoyed playing on other people's playgrounds and I enjoyed the traffic from their site. I also was happy it created a "quality" link back to my site, but this metric was so abused that it's not a google penalty. That's why spammers are now asking you to clean up astroturfed links.

I don't much worry about it. I just allow it and when asked I try to be cool about it.

That said, don't ask and watch how I treat you.
posted by cjorgensen at 1:37 PM on January 14, 2015

You have a blog to build your client base, right? If so, one of your main goals with the blog is to build a list of subscribers, whether RSS or email or both, so you regularly appear in front of them reminding them of how smart and useful you are. You're building your brand, not someone else's.

Letting other blogs publish your posts in their entirety might get a few clicks through to your site, but it really helps the other blog. "Hey, this blog publishes good stuff," the other-blog reader says, not caring who wrote each post. And then they subscribe to THAT blog and not yours.

So I'd recommend allowing only an excerpt, with a link to your blog for the full post. That way readers see your work on your branded site with the big, beautiful SUBSCRIBE button right there.

It's a good idea to have a written policy for this that's easy for visitors to find. You might want to include other uses as well, such as your policy on translations.
posted by ceiba at 2:57 AM on January 15, 2015