What Is The Value Of Other People’s Content?

Get inspired, share, or search!

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This article is letter (O) of our “Your Words Have Worth" series that shows your words and online content have value. “Your Words Have Worth" looks at what's the hottest, latest, and greatest for the coming new year and beyond. Find links to more articles in the series below.

Everyone has a voice online. What does that mean? It means everyone sure is making a lot of noise online. Other people’s content fills our eyes everyday. So how do you use other people’s content? Does it inspire you or hinder you? Sharing is caring, but do you keep within copyright when you share? Lastly, we’ll give you some tips on maximizing your search engine inquires.

Checking Out The Scene

Checking out your competitors is a normal part of the online business process. Beyond just doing healthy research, we all play the comparison game when we look at other people’s blogs. It’s an inevitable part of human nature. Is their blog better than ours? Has more comments? Loads faster? Cleaner design? Other people’s content has a way of lighting inspiration or envy.

Be inspired by other people’s blogs

Inspiration is the best thing you can take away from another person’s blog. One, it’s confirmation to the content creator that their blog adds positivity to the world. Two, inspiration stirs up your creative urges you can channel into creating content.

Looking at other blogs can help propel you out of a writer block slump. Inspiration from other blogs can help jumpstart ideas such as…

… new article topics

… study a new point of view on a topic you are already familiar with

… find exciting methods for writing headlines

… understand how they structure their ideas,

… a glimpse into a future you can achieve when looking at a successful blog

… jump-start your critical thinking skills

Vhinz, a commentor in an seoclerk forum, explains how he is inspired by other blogs:

My aspiration to become a blogger actually begun when I become interested in reading other people's blogs. It inspired me to learn how to create my own blogs. And every time I'm stuck or not motivated to write, I would go back and read blogs that inspired me before. Doing so gives me strength and new hope to continue striving and learning and put my brain to work to produce great ideas.

Turn comparison To Inspiration

Too often, comparison can lead to paralyzing, unhealthy scrutiny of your own content. Instead, focus on positive, constructive thoughts that will lead you to your goals.

1. Compare yourself with you. When you compare yourself to others, you don’t see the whole picture. All you see is their successes. Focus on how you can be in competition with yourself and how you can be a better person than who you were yesterday.

2. Stop “shoulding” all over yourself. Saying you “should” have done this or “should” have done that is counterproductive rumination. The past is over and what’s done is done. Use “want” and see how your inner dialogue shifts.

3. Be grateful for what you have. Oprah said, “Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” Listen to Oprah.

Beware When You Share

Sometimes, a piece of content is so inspirational, informative, and awesome that you want to share it with your whole audience! This process is also known as content curation.

Content curation is key to any successful content marketing strategy. At the same time you want to know what you are doing to to avoid copyright infringement.

Avoid copyright infringement. Sharing other people’s content may seem simple, but it is intertwined with copyright law. As a general rule, copyright in U.S. immediately attaches to anything you create.

Basic Permission. Reach out and ask the content owner if you can use their content. Make sure you outline how you want to use their content.

‘Share’ Function. Many articles include social share buttons where you can simply click an icon and share it to social media. This type of sharing works seamlessly.

Creative Commons. Creative commons is a type of licensing where creators give other people permission to use their work in certain ways. Look at the limitations of the license, if there are any.

Formal License. To do something more than a simple social media share, you will want to agree upon a formal license between you and the content creator.

Link Sharing. Sharing a URL isn’t subject to copyright, so sharing one doesn’t raise copyright infringement issues.

Adding Commentary. If you want to add commentary, share quotes or a link to the main article. Copy and pasting the entire article is a no-no.

Add your value. You want to focus on repurposing content. That means you add to the conversation instead of copying the conversation. Here’s where you can add your value.

Your point of view. You are not me and I am not you. Add your unique perspective on a piece of content and let others see your fresh way of viewing the world. It’s your original voice that keeps others coming back.

Add, Don’t Repeat. Link back to the original content to give proper credit and to show you want to continue the conversation.

Too Much Content? Aggregate. If you have a favorite handful of tutorials, instead of writing an individual blog post for each one, do a cool round up of your favorite tutorials.

Syndicate. Syndication, a technical term for sharing other people’s content on many platforms simultaneously, helps a lot when sharing content.

Search Engines

Search engines are the main way we find other people’s content. Here are some more specific ways to raise your search engine prowess.

Search for blogs to read on Blogger and WordPress:

Blog hosting sites, like Blogger and Wordpress, have search functions specifically for content on their platforms. Great news if you already use either of these sites to host your own blog. You don’t have to rely on Google and you get specific results for content on just Blogger blogs or Wordpress blogs. It gives you an opportunity to discover new blogs, connect with other bloggers, and keep up with your favorite blogs.

People search engines

Creepily enough, there are also search engines specifically to look for people. Welcome to the digital age where your identity has become online content. These types of search engines range from Pictriev, facial recognition software that sees how similar you look to celebrities, to Facebook.

Search Engine Lifehacks

If you want to be a search engine master at finding other people’s content, use these methods:

Use quotes

Using quotes around a word or phrase indicates you want to find that exact phrase

Find similar sites

If you want to find a site similar to Amazon, type into your search engine

related: amazon.com

It’s a great way to find new sites to explore

Search by keywords

Look for a page that contains all your keywords by typing in “allintext:” before the search term

allintext: best content 2019

Word Up:

It’s an inspiring amount of content that creates the internet. Naturally, we want to share all this great content. It’s an awesome thing to share content, add your own perspective, and continue the conversation. Of course, still be respectful of the content creator and stay within copyright laws.

And if you’re still looking for more content, there are search engine tips you can use within individual platforms, search engines to find people, and search engine hacks. How do you respond to other people’s content?

Sources: socialfresh, wordpress, bloggersentral, lifehack, techreviewpro

This article is letter (O) of our “Your Words Have Worth" series where we write an article for each letter of the phrase. “Your Words Have Worth" looks at what's the hottest, latest, and greatest for the coming new year and beyond. Find links to more articles in the series below.

(Y)ou And Your Content. The Future Is Looking Bright

(O) Monetizing Content When (O)ur Words Have Worth

(U)tilize Your Content To Make Your Words Have More Worth

(R)epublish. Repurpose. Reinvent. Repeat!

(W) Surprising Places (W)here You Will Find Your Content

(O) What Is The Value Of (O)ther People’s Content?

(R) The (R)ole Future Content - Where It’s Been And Where It’s Going

(D)ating And Business: The Secret To Success In Both

(S) How (S)uper Influencers Monetize Content

(H) Be (H)appy Living The Content Lifestyle [Infograph]

(A) ...coming soon

(V) ...coming soon