When you are a blogger, you have to be very careful with copied content. If you want your blog to remain credible, there should be no plagiarism. A lot of bloggers do not want these complications. In order for you to avoid this situation, there needs to be some education on the topic. Most bloggers won’t intentionally go out and copy the work of others. There are the cases when you do want to use some facts posted elsewhere.
You can use the facts you find on the internet, but there are some rules. If you are covering a topic that has been covered many times before, it can be a bit tricky. Paraphrasing is one of the best ways to incorporate the content found online. Depending on where you are, you would select your service for that area.
If you are a #blogger trying to protect your #site’s rating by avoiding #plagiarism, we have some ways you can avoid it. Click To TweetPlan ahead
A lot of the time, plagiarism happens when you are not giving yourself enough time. Deadlines are important, but this is where planning and time management is important. Give yourself enough time to check your content. A paragraph rephrasing can take longer than one would assume. Trying to say something differently without changing the meaning is not always easy. If you are updating your blog weekly, do not start a day or two before the post should go live.
State your sources
As soon as you find some information online, be sure to take note of the source. It is easy to forget where one read some information. The trick would be to copy the link and post it at the bottom of the post you are working on. This is just an easy way for you to have all the links you want to refer to.
You can easily avoid plagiarism by referencing your sources. It is one of the most popular ways bloggers fight plagiarism.
Have several sources
When you are working on a blog post, research more sources. If you use one specific page for your research, it is easy to copy the content. It may not be intentional, but it is more likely. When you go through a few sources, you have a lot of different views. You can then use that as a foundation for your own post. This is also a great way to expand your knowledge on the topic and give you a more in-depth idea of what is worth mentioning. Life is not always the way we see it, and there might be some interesting information you will only find with proper research.
Paraphrase
This is one of the best, yet challenging ways to avoid plagiarism as a blogger. You see content somewhere else, and you play around with the wording a bit. There is some paraphrase software available to make this process easier. Sometimes you do not read information on a specific website. It might just be common knowledge that you want to share. Be sure of the way you share this information. It still cannot be plagiarised. You can check some of the plagiarism software to make sure it is not copied.
Quote
When it comes to quoting, you need to keep it short. You should not use entire paragraphs from another website and then add it as a quote. Take snippets and then quote it, giving reference to the original writer. You also do not want to add too many quotes to your blog post. It can be a little distracting for the reader.
Just use up to two quotes per blog post if you can. This does not take away from the content you wrote. If you have a lot of quotes in one post, it can start to look like plagiarism.
Visuals
We don’t often talk about visuals, but it can also involve plagiarism. You cannot simply use images and videos from another source, without giving credit. We are always thinking about text, but the rules are the same for visuals. Ask permission if you are using someone’s photos or videos. If it is a big blog or website, you can simply cite. Just as writing, photographers are artists too. There is a lot of work that goes into these types of results.
Tools
As mentioned before, there are a lot of tools you can use to paraphrase, but also check for plagiarism. It does make it a little easier and should be included in your content plan. These programs can include Copyscape, which is very popular among writers. It is just a sure way to see if you did not unintentionally copy anyone else’s work. Even if everything is said in your own words, there might be some information out there that are similar.
If you are someone who has been blogging for years, you know the pain of finding a unique topic to attract readers’ attention. Tool for generating unique blog topic ideas can help you!
Go beyond
There is some information that has been mentioned hundreds of times. If you want to stand out from the blogs out there, go beyond the usual. You want to read more than just other blogs on the topic. Go to the library or find academic content if available. You cannot use this information directly, but it gives you a better chance to write an effective basis to write your blog post.
Conclusion
Plagiarism can be avoided if you are careful. Just because it is written in your own words, does not mean it won’t be plagiarism. Always double check that your content is free from these types of accusations. It can highly affect your rating status; It just isn’t worth the trouble of fixing it. Instead, avoidance is the best option here.