Forum Moderators: not2easy
Much of my core content is in the 250-word range. Depending on how many little factoids I want to throw in I probably get these done in 15 to 30 minutes. Of course, I have my reference books at hand or know where to find the info on the web.
On a themed site as you do more research you build more resources you build more knowledge you build more content and you build more quickly.
Just wish we had those 48-hour days in which to get all the ideas done.
Jim
LOL! How true.
>> Of course, I have my reference books at hand or know where to find the info on the web.
That's the situation I'm in. I know the topic very well and just need to do a bit of research to fill in the blanks but I know where to get that info fairly quickly.
If your web market as authoritive sites for it that are nnon-profit or governmental or similar, they may have freely available and usable content that you can simply modify (like re-writing someone else's term paper in school). We for instance have a site that has writeups about a few cities. The cities' official tourism division (governmental) have write-ups about their cities they have allowed us to usem with or without modification since it benefits their city either way (unless of course we turn their writeup into something disparaging, which isnt our intent). Saves us time, gets incorporated into our site in relatively different text (we have been re-writing the content based off the original), and means we can get through thousands of words a day of writing with only one writer (yes, he actually writes. There are tons of other parts of our site that need custom written content, as well as numerous (most) cities without decent tourism sites - or any tourism site at all).
Just a suggestion that seems to be working for us.
- Rob
We ask for (and await) permission whenever there is NOT a statement that says "the contents of this page/article/review/etc are free for your use, commercial... "(our particular case)" ...or private" or something similar. We will not plagurize work, be certain of that... and so far we have never received a no. Our site contains such info in the resources part of it (which is almost every page) - so in addition, their site gets listed as either a resource for our visitors to visit, or directly as the source/contributor to the article - or both... though we have yet to be asked to do such.
The other alternative, is of couse, certain (most?) affiliate programs... like we freely use Amazon's reviews, images, descriptions and much more (90% of what you see on an item page) and we dont ask them, because they (1) state permission is given in the affilate program, (2) suggest we (all affilates) do so, and (3) provide tools and access to their database to easily do so...
An explanation of what we do (which may not apply to others looking for content... ) is we help people find a certain product in a certain area... the cities provide information about that area... we display that information in the city info portion of the page we show our site viewer...
If any of that doesnt makes sense, feel free to sticky me, or post here if you think the questions relevant or helpful to others.
To sum it up I would suggest (and we always follow this suggestion) to always ask (and wait) for permission to use someone else's content unless their usage policy (ALWAYS find and read it - if you cant find it, email them first) specifically states that an entity of your type (ie: commercial business, non-profit business, private individual) has explicit permission to do so without the need to ask or let them know.
There are also a few that say "free for use... etc, etc, etc... but email us and send us the URL it is on." or something similar.
You may have known all of the suggestions I listed here, so, if so, hopefully they will serve as possible edification to others (unless they're just totally crap ;-)
- Rob
The reason I ask is because I've run into a few US funded websites where they strongly urged me to link to them rather than use their content. They didn't come right out and say 'no' but they didn't like the idea either. It seemed to me they really want the inbound links. Now I don't like to stir things up and I won't steal content but it struck me as odd that they were so adamant. In the end, they lose out anyway, I used other sources and they don't get the exposure.
<edit>Well not everything is public! For more details: [copyright.gov...] </edit>
[edited by: lorax at 7:46 pm (utc) on Dec. 23, 2002]
One suggestion in such cases is a compromise (we havent yet run into such situations, but planned ahead and have this policy for such)... as if you can incorporate part of their info (ie: if it's a writeup, maybe the first 30%...) and have a "Read more at Site A" link to their page that contains the rest of it...
On the basic issue, my answer is still the same. Unless the page states "free to use, copy, etc..." (as applicable to our business and site type) we always ask - just that simple for us, and the suggestion we give everyone who asks.
It doesnt matter to us whether "Joe" wrote a page about Huntsville Alabama, or the official state/city department of tourism did. If they own the writeup and state free use, we do. If it's a governmental site, regardless of lack of copyright and the wrote/"own" the article, we STILL ask unless the page states "dont ask, just do".
We figure it's the safest policy. Generally, btw, as our own personal rule of thumb, we let everyone know when we've included their "free for use" content, even when they dont request notice.
- Rob
...we STILL ask unless the page states "dont ask, just do"
Understood and have done the same. It is a good policy to abide by. I was just wondering outloud. ;)
The website I'm preparing to build will use full citation for all works from which we either republish a work in it's entirety; use quotes or paraphrase from; or simply use as reference material. I fully believe in giving credit to the authors.
