Can you change your habits? All experts believe you can if you want to change them. I’m one of those people; I hate calling myself an expert most of the time but hey, if I don’t every once in awhile then why would anyone want to work with me?
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There’s a phrase where the number changes all the time saying that it takes “this many” times to consciously do something to change a habit. I’ve tested that one multiple times and have learned that it’s not always true. When it comes to working out, eating better, or generally enjoying yourself, it’s hard to sustain those habits; trust me on this one, unless your life is in danger, it’s not easy to do.
Having said that, you’re probably wondering what I’m leading to. I’m talking about blogging and coming up with content for your blog. I’ve seen a lot of bad habits, some that border on being unethical, some that border on lazy. What are they? In a nutshell, let’s look at these three.
The first, stealing content from other people. What happens is that a person sees an article someone else wrote, copies it, changing a word or two here and there, and sends it out as their own. Sometimes they don’t even go that far; they just copy and paste it, put their names on it, and go about their business.
Bad idea folks. One, it’s smarmy. Two, it could be illegal. Three, it’s definitely unethical. Look at my posts, near the bottom of each one. You see that copyright logo? That means it’s my work; don’t steal my work. And don’t steal anyone else’s work.
There is one time when this might not be so bad, and that’s if you’re stealing from yourself. In that actuality, you’re not stealing, just sharing with a different audience. Online newspapers do that all the time; you’ll notice that they write their own local stories, but other stories are written by national and international outlets. If you wrote something for someone else, ask them if they’d mind if you put it in your own space some months later. They probably wouldn’t care, but only do it if you’re not a prolific writer.
The second, writing sloppily. No one is perfect, but consistently misspelling words you should know how to spell that spell check is telling you is wrong each and every time, not using punctuation properly, and generally writing content that makes no sense… very bad idea.
Finally, the third, which is not being consistent in any way with your content. I hate visiting blogs where I see a post every 4 to 6 months; ouch! I’m not following any blog like that, and I’m not even going to waste my time leaving a comment on it, even if it’s written well. If you don’t care enough about your audience to even try to be regular, why should I? Maybe you’re not prolific enough to write a post daily, but writing at least one post of at least 300 words.. that’s too much of an effort?
That’s all I have for now. I could write a lot more but this one’s already over 500 words. See how easy this can be? If you’re doing any of those 3 things I mentioned above, break those bad habits. Trust me, your business will thank you for it.
The “stealing content from other people.” is a little tricky. I admit I use a lot of content from others on Twitter. It is called ReTweeting yet I ALWAYS give credit to the source. I may have retweeted you a time or two Mitch. It is just TOO easy to click ReTweet or repost with a ‘RT’ in front like this: RT @Mitch_M “Seems to be snowing in central New York… again… lol” I even will put quotes around it so they know it is yours.
The interesting thing is PLR. Content one person writes then sells to another person for the right for them to republish it. I am about to embark on a project using PLR content. I will indeed clean it up and make it ‘my own’. This is different and definitely not stealing though the area is grey-ish.
What do you think about PLR Mitch? Have you written about it before?
Why yes I did Troy, many years ago: http://www.imjustsharing.com/plr-private-label-rights/. I even marketed two packages of PLR stuff, which consisted of 2 packages of 10 articles on different topics.
As for RT’s, I don’t think that’s stealing content at all, but sharing. Stealing content is going to someone else’s blog, copying what they’re written to yours, and passing it off as your own. Even if you’ve stolen 50% of it that can be considered stealing. It’s much more serious an issue with me than a retweet; that I think is an honor 🙂
Hey Mitch, one should never copy content unless in enhances your post and then you should always link to the original article.
I’m guilty of your last point. But then I have way too many blogs and I just can’t update them all regularly. I suppose I could but then I wouldn’t have a life. 😉
You’re going to want to see next Monday’s post then Pete, as I kind of reveal something 🙂
Ooh, I can’t wait! 😀
It’s hard enough updating my blogs but I still try and catch some of your posts Mitch.
As I do yours my man 😉
ooooh. I am excited! I wonder what this big surprise is gonna be? Any hints?
It’s not really a surprise as much as a change in my business life and some lessons others might learn from it Troy.
I have Mitch and several others, including you ‘Sire’, on my Feedly feed. I never miss a post!
My blogging bad habit might be my all-round bad habit: smoking. I know it’s a shame, I just can’t quit and I have to smoke a cigarette every single hour even when blogging or on the road. It can make my schedule less effective and it doesn’t make too many good things to my health neither but it is just a bad habit… a really bad bad habit…
It’s something to work on Peter. I assume you know all the stuff about dopamine and how that’s what keeps people smoking right? I hope you figure out how not to let it rule your life; my dad passed away from lung cancer. Wishing you luck.
“Others might learn”? Is it something I already know? Oh I hope I learn something too.
Give us a clue Mitch. Is it bigger than a bread box? LOL!
Everything I do is bigger than a bread box; does anyone actually still use bread boxes?
Sorry about this Mitch…
Hey Peter- Go to Youtube and look for user FunnyVinez
Maybe stuff you can use on your blogs.
Thanks Mitch. 🙂
Hi Mitch !
I just wanted to say it brings me joy reading your blog posts, they’re quite informative and motivates me to improve my blog.
I am similar to Peter where consistency can be a bit of an issue, sometimes I post a couple times a month then sometimes I just abandon the blog for a while.
Thanks for the kind words Peter. Although people can write at their leisure on their blogs, it’s hard to build up an audience if one writes that inconsistently. If one doesn’t really care about that type of thing, then it’s not such a big deal.
Actually, I have two bread boxes. they are aluminum with an acrylic and etched roll up door. Perhaps I should write about them for 1kSmiles as they always make me smile. LOL. 🙂
See, I’m giving away free advice again lol
I will repay you with shout outs and back links if you like. 🙂