Oops sorry it's spelled: plagiarism.

OK. So I finally got my first call about my business and it was someone alerting me to the fact that my website was almost identical to hers and she wanted me to take my site down immediately

I nearly threw up on the spot

She found me through Copyscape. I highly recommend you all do this immediately with your own websites.

Anyway, how this came about was I had a girl who I only know from another online forum who wrote my content for my website. I had given her a link to an Australian VA directory because I wanted to make sure she used Australian terminology, spelling etc. She produced what I thought was a very impressive site and with a little tweaking I launched it only to discover a couple of months later that she had ripped the content off not only another VA but a VA in my home town of Melbourne, Australia!! This VA it turns out was a member of the VA directory I had linked her to. I am not a member but thought it would be helpful for her when writing my content to view some Aussie sites, BIG MISTAKE.

Anyway, I managed to convince the other VA that this was just as much of a shock to me as it was to her and I would rectify it immediately. I then spent the next three hours changing my content to personalize it to me and me alone, obviously something I should have done from the start but trusted a so-called expert believing she was writing me original content.

And of course, I know nothing about this person other than their username and they haven't been back to that particular forum in over a month. Took my money and disappeared.

Anyway, believe it or not this other VA was very understanding and has even offered me some of her overload work, can you believe that! Wonders will never cease...:p

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~ Danielle ~
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f3.../vgfbanner.gif

O my, I'm so sorry to hear that.

So sorry to hear of your troubles! What a thing to have to deal with! It's great that the other VA was so understanding, it really shows the caliber of person she is. I have run copyscape several times, well when I remember to do it, and so far my site hasn't been copied. Thanks for the reminder!

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Doreen R. Patrick, MVA, ACS, CIVA
www.virtualbusinesspartners.net

Wow - I *just* wrote a thread about this last night - I'd found this VA site (not yours) that had copied and pasted EVERYTHING from another VA site (including the typos).

My whole rant was based on the fact that as business owners we really should be able to come up with some kind of text for our sites - or pay someone to do it right. But you *did* pay someone and got burned...it's a good lesson and in the end you've got this great new contact!

So I guess some kind of sideways congratulations are in order

Better you found out sooner than later and if you need any assistance once you've rewritten your content just post here and we'll all help!

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Wow! I think I would feel SICK if I had paid someone to provide high quality ORIGINAL work and they screwed me over! I'm really glad the other VA was not only understanding about it but wanted to work with you in the future. This says a lot about BOTH of you!

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Lily Chambers, The Virtual Office Goddess, LLC
Author "How to Do Your Own Small Business Bookkeeping"

That is nauseating.. But how amazing you picked up your chin and immediately went and made some changes to your website.. That speaks highly of you!!!

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Winslow Girl Virtual Assistant
www.winslowgirlva.com
Taking Virtual Assistance to the Next Level

Same thing happened to me. I just found out too when I checked the copyscape site. Unbelievable. I pay for material and I worry about copy right issues and then I find that my site has parts of others on it too. I am trying to fix mine and website is acting all crazy on me now....

Wow this is shocking and disgusting. Thank you for the site to enable us to check.

It's wonderful how you were determined to change quickly. Good Luck.

By the way does anyone know about a site that prevents copywriting, plagarism (sp???), etc.

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Be Well,
Carla
www.bwellbusinessservices.com
virtually meeting your needs

Originally Posted by vainparadise

Same thing happened to me. I just found out too when I checked the copyscape site. Unbelievable. I pay for material and I worry about copy right issues and then I find that my site has parts of others on it too. I am trying to fix mine and website is acting all crazy on me now....

Uggg, that sucks. I wish I had known about Copyscape before I paid for my site. Hoping anyone here who is in the process of building a site uses this tool before they pay for any content.

My site has a couple of hiccups in it too now I've made so many changes. I have to find those line breaks that are now appearing in my border. I will have to figure it out but please take a look and let me know what you think. It certainly doesn't look as nice as it originally did and doesn't sound as professional in my opinion, but I can tweak it as I go.

Any suggestions would be appreciated:

Virtual Girl Friday

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~ Danielle ~
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f3.../vgfbanner.gif

Originally Posted by BwellBusinessServices

Wow this is shocking and disgusting. Thank you for the site to enable us to check. It's wonderful how you were determined to change quickly. Good Luck. By the way does anyone know about a site that prevents copywriting, plagarism (sp???), etc.

There isn't really any way to 'prevent' content theft or plagiarism - although you can add code to your site to prevent right clicking (ie - making copy/paste harder but still not impossible)

As far as preventing plagiarism in purchased content - always ask to see the content in full before you pay, run it through copyscape or just search for phrases from it in google. If you find it elsewhere you know it's not original. Of course, writing it yourself to begin with is the only surefire way to avoid the issue.

I have to admit I had no idea so many people were paying for content. One of the things I loved most about setting up my VA business site was crafting my content and then rewriting and tweaking as time went on...It was really important to me that my site had MY voice, etc. so there was never any question where the content would come from.

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