Is this plagiarism?
 

I may not like the answers I get to this question, but on the other hand, I can't afford to not ask it....

I am working on an affiliate marketing website. I have not yet posted it for reasons that will become clear momentarily.

Here is what I did to create the content for the home page:

1) I did a cut and paste of a site I liked.

2) I went through the copy and "re-worded" every single sentence. The content remains essentially the same, but no sentence has been used word-for-word.

3) I went through the text a second time, and deleted about 25% of the sentences, and replaced them with completely new ones off the top of my head.

I now have good, solid copy, but I'm still concerned about plagiarism. If I'm still too close to the line, I planned to pull content from one other, similar site, and go through the steps mentioned above, while interweaving all of the information together into my final work.

Here 'tis. Is what I have done plagiarism? If so, what additional steps might I take to ensure that I can never be accused of crossing that line? Modeling the success of others is one thing, but I don't ever want to be accused of stealing it.

Thanks for listening. I appreciate any and all responses, no matter what they may be. If the consensus is that I have not plagiarized, I'd be happy to post the site for opinions about it.

Mike Long

It's a fine line, there.
 

> Here 'tis. Is what I have done plagiarism?
> If so, what additional steps might I take to
> ensure that I can never be accused of
> crossing that line?

Add new content. There's an old saying in academia that "stealing from one source is plagarism. Stealing from four sources is research."

Do a little research, eh? :)

Re: It's a fine line, there.
 

> Add new content. There's an old saying in
> academia that "stealing from one source
> is plagarism. Stealing from four sources is
> research."

> Do a little research, eh? :)

I remember that line now from my university days... :-)

Thanks. I definitely had it in mind to use at least one more source, possibly two. As much reading as I do, I defintitely have a laundry list to choose from.

Thanks again,

Mike

Re: It's a fine line, there.
 

Mike,
You have stated yourself that its plagiarism,
But you take a look at any direct marketing site and you could say
that they are all the same; just worded differently, and if its different
then its not copied,
Swings and roundabouts, if you can look at your
site and say that is the copy of etc site; then I would research more!
If its not a carbon copy then go for it,

You know everyone wants to see the URL now, To try
And see which site/s you copied.




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Re: It's a fine line, there.
 

> Mike,
> You have stated yourself that its
> plagiarism,
> But you take a look at any direct marketing
> site and you could say
> that they are all the same; just worded
> differently, and if its different
> then its not copied,
> Swings and roundabouts, if you can look at
> your
> site and say that is the copy of etc site;
> then I would research more!
> If its not a carbon copy then go for it,

> You know everyone wants to see the URL now,
> To try
> And see which site/s you copied.

Hi Martin,

Thanks for your response. Actually, I don't recall stating that I am certain I have plagiarized, but that's okay. I'm sure I must have said something that could be construed that way. What I feel I have done is create a "swipe file", that simply needs to be "massaged" some more before it is ready for the world. :-)

I won't do a comparison between my site and the other. It simply wouldn't be fair to the other site. (I'm not worried about protecting myself at the moment. The page is buried on my ISP's free page, and has only been there for a few days).

Mostly, I want to make sure that I do nothing to hurt my original source. He has put together a well thought-out, organized, classy website, and I don't want to harm it in any way.

Everybody has a differing opinion on what plagiarism is. I understand that. My concern is to do everything in my power to be honest, ethical and above-board. The flip side to that is, I know that successful people model themselves after others who have already been successful.

Therefore, what makes logical sense to me, is to find folks who are successful, and do what they do...WITHOUT STEALING THEIR HARD WORK.

As others have said, it's a very fine line to walk. What I will do is go back to my content and continue to tweak it. When I'm comfortable that it won't be recognized by anyone, I'll put the link out there. That will pass my own self-test. If no one recognizes where it came from, that will pass the community test to my satisfaction.

I should have it better prepared in a day or so.

Thanks again for your input. I greatly appreciate it.

Mike

Okay, here it is...
 

Okay, I feel pretty good about things now. I went through and re-wrote almost everything in my own words.

Keep in mind that none of the links work yet. I'm only posting to get feedback on the content of the homepage.

Let me know what you think so far. Thanks a million.

Mike


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Re: It's a fine line, there.
 

Hi Mike
I will refer you back to your initial post:

Here is what I did to create the content for the home page:

1) I did a cut and paste of a site I liked.

Not to worry no drama's
I could not work out which site its from, however I do not go for them so much these days, Your site looked ok though
Warmest Regards
Martin


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Re: It's a fine line, there.
 

> Hi Mike
> I will refer you back to your initial post:

> Here is what I did to create the content for
> the home page:

> 1) I did a cut and paste of a site I liked.

> Not to worry no drama's
> I could not work out which site its from,
> however I do not go for them so much these
> days, Your site looked ok though
> Warmest Regards
> Martin

Okay, that makes sense. I can see how it could be construed that way - though I certainly didn't stop at that point. :-)

Thanks again...no worries. :-)

Mike

Why copycat?
 

Why don't you just use your own creative abilities and then you don't have to worry?

Nan