The patterns of blog postings and my own stressful moment
I just had a fleeting moment of stress! It began when I decided to Google the title of my most recent blog posting, Test driving Internet Explorer beta 2 developer tools. When the results came back, there were many postings with similar titles (to be expected) but one that stood out sent a shock wave through my body. It was for a posting on Robert Nyman’s blog and, for a moment, I thought the title was the exact same as my own! I admire Robert’s blog and read most of his postings, especially the ones focusing on CSS and JavaScript. Luckily I soon realized his entry was about IE7 beta 2 and not IE8 beta 2 developer tools. The remainder of his title wasn’t the same either, but because I instantly recognized his domain in the Google search results and saw that they were associated with a title that at first glance triggered familiarity with my own, thoughts of public condemnation due to plagiarism rippled through my brain!
Once I realized my mistake, I took survey of all the blog postings that were similar to my own, and there were many. Some were from small-time bloggers such as myself, and others from larger web design communities. I think from now on I’ll Google potential title’s just to see what’s out there. Maybe I’ll use them and maybe I won’t, but it will be a good exercise in understanding search results. After all, the writer in me could not go on living if I was blacklisted due to plagiarism!
I’m sure every first-time blogger goes through a similar experience that goes a little something like this:
- Start your blog
- Google the title of one of your postings
- See many blogs with the similar titles and:
A. Get stressed about the sheer volume of competition
B. Get stressed about the prospect of being called out for plagiarism
C. Give up blogging. - Blog about it (or not if you fall under 3 - C)!
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