Blog Scraping, one low-tech way to detect it.

The reason I began this new blog was because some low-life had scraped the content of the old ones.

I found out about it entirely by accident, when I was researching

about a local landmark (which I had previously posted about)

and there was my old post, in its' entirety,

presented on another blog,
as their own work!

I dug around and found dozens, if not hundreds, of my original posts,
complete with my photographs.
Many of these posts were about my family and friends.
It is theft and it left me not wanting to write again.
Trouble is, I enjoy blogging...


The main thing I want to pass on in this post is one low-tech way
by which you may be able to tell whether your blogs are being scraped.
(There are better ways,
 and lots of advice out there
if you search the internet for the information.)


What we noticed was that there would be occasional spikes in viewing figures.


Say your blog normally gets a hundred hits a day
and
you suddenly see a hit of between 50/100 hits all in the space of a couple of minutes,
well
that is a mighty spike
and
should be easy to spot,
if you can be bothered to check your figures once or twice a day.


I have very little technical knowledge
but I do know that scraping is done using some sort of programme
which lifts the content very quickly,
hence the spike as it grabs
all
that it wants.


So,
 keep an eye on those viewing figures,
watch out for a big spike in them.
It could mean that your content is being scraped,
although I hope not.
fliss&max
xxx