It is often said that imitation is the biggest form of flattery; however, on the internet, this compliment can backfire on so many levels. To make a place for oneself in the blogging world, the content has to be original and creative to stand out from the rest. Bloggers and content creators who are not morally mature are often too focused on monetizing their content, rather than making sure it is original. Well, if Karma doesn’t catch up with such individuals, Google usually does, by either lowering the website’s ranking or asking to remove plagiarized parts. The following steps will help you take a detour from the most common shortcut used on the internet, which is plagiarism.
Plan Ahead
One of the essential ingredients in creating original content is to plan ahead. Make a list of ideas that you want to put forth and how you’re going to present them to your audience. This rough outline allows you to form a clear picture of what the end result will look like. Planning ahead also makes sure you don’t miss any of the points you have in mind. When making a list of all the ideas, make sure to add a reminder to run your post through a free plagiarism checker. Why? Its importance will be elaborated further on.
Give Yourself Enough Time
Take the pressure off yourself and give yourself enough time to write something worthy of your name and effort. Most often, the route to plagiarism is taken when there is a lack of time, and the writer is in a hurry. So, give yourself enough time for the writing process.
More Than One Source is Important
There is a higher chance of plagiarism when you stick to one source for inspiration or information. To avoid falling in such a trap, make sure you do thorough research (if required), to get a better understanding of the topic from your own perspective. You can combine all the different ideas and work them out in a way that is unique to you.
Paraphrase
Other than using a Plagiarism Checker (which I’ll get into in a bit), one of the most effective ways to avoid plagiarism is to paraphrase. Paraphrasing is simply rewriting something in your own words. Google usually detects paraphrasing and lowers the ranking of the website by default. What you as a blogger need to remember is that you cannot simply rephrase what someone else has written. As suggested, use more than one source, but use them as a means to get a better understanding of what you want to say. So, when you rewrite, the post then becomes unique to you because it is drenched with your perception and thoughts.
Quote and Give Credit Where it’s due
Quotations come in handy when you’re trying to prove a point. Don’t make the mistake of paraphrasing what someone has said, instead of quoting them and give them due credit. Also, if the credit is given, you needn’t worry if the quote is flagged on the plagiarism checker. Why? This is because you have cited the source and that is enough. Some bloggers also create backlinks to their peers or sources when quoting them, so it’s a win, win situation for both.
Always Use Plagiarism Checker
Before publishing your blog post, make sure you run your content through a plagiarism checker. You’re not sure what a plagiarism checker is or what it does? As the name suggests a plagiarism checker takes your work and compares it with a million other posts online. If it detects any similarities between your work and other posts available online, it then flags or highlights those sections. To make it easier for the user, the plagiarism checker shows you exactly where it’s copied from.
Protect Your Own Content
If you’re worried if anyone has copied your work, then you can copy their work and run it through a plagiarism checker as well. This way, all your doubts will be clear. If your content has been duplicated, you can then take the required action against the website owner. On the other hand, if it hasn’t been copied, well, then you can breathe easy.
