We love it when readers love our stuff!
We love it, even more, when they love it so much they share it with other people. Having said that, there are right ways and wrong ways to share. Because we want our material to have the widest possible audience, we’d like to suggest some ways you can share ours and other’s blog information appropriately. After all, no one wants to plagiarize someone else’s work. Politicians have lost elections for doing it. College students have been flunked out of school because of it. Yet there is so much information out there on the Internet that plagiarism does occur, often unintentionally. Using my site as an example, here are three ways to avoid it and still be able to use the material you like.
- The link method
- The quote method
- The commentary method (my personal favorite because it’s about you)
The link method
Let’s say you really like our recent blog post on using social media to sell homes. You can post a link on Twitter, on Facebook, your blog, website, or email blast, with just a quick reference to what the article is about:
“Richard Hartian, a real estate professional who has a lot of expertise in helping Realtors use social media effectively, has a great article on his website. Check it out—www.winningagent.com/article. I totally agree with Rich’s point of view about social media, which is why I use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other tools to keep in touch with clients and make sure their properties have the widest possible exposure.”
That’s all you need to do—your readers can take it from there.
The quote method
Perhaps you think your clients could use some tips on getting their homes spruced up and ready to sell. So here’s a sample blog post you might use:
“Real estate expert Richard Hartian has some super tips on getting your home ready to list. He says: ‘Declutter. Remove almost everything from your countertops, open shelves, or other flat surfaces. Put your family pictures away, keep small appliances out of sight. What’s left out should be decorative rather than functional. Everyone knows you have a coffee pot and a blender—we just don’t want to see them.’
Rich has nine other useful tips on his website in an article titled 10 Ways to Make a Buyer Fall in Love with Your Home. You can read all ten of his tips at www.winningagent.com/article. If you’d like to sell your home, call me and I’ll make sure we work together to make those buyers fall in love with YOUR home. I don’t just list homes. I help sellers like you list their homes the right way, with specialized knowledge that produces faster sales at higher prices.”
The commentary method
Perhaps you feel all or most of a particular article on our site deserves to be seen by your clients immediately, without having to click through to another site. That’s great, and here’s the right way to do it. Introduce the article as we’ve described above, referencing the Winning Agent website in your intro. Then copy the relevant paragraphs, put them in quotes, and add your commentary after each one, indicating how you are using this information to better serve your clients. For example, we recently posted an article titled Ten Questions Clients Will Ask. This is the ideal article for commentary, because you can reproduce the questions and give YOUR answers. Like this:
“What is your online marketing strategy? Clients know that the Internet is a powerful marketing tool. Over 85% of all buyers today begin their process with an online search. Both buyers and sellers want a Realtor who is Internet savvy and has a dominant online presence, beginning with your personal website.”
You might add: “If you’re reading this blog, you already know I have a lively Internet presence. My firm has a website with a direct link to my personal site. I update my site regularly and post a new blog every Monday morning. I also post status updates daily to both Twitter and Facebook.”
We especially like the commentary method because it helps you appear as the expert, rather than simply being a conduit for another writer.
Sharing content this way is likely to get you a trackback. What’s a trackback? It’s a link back to your site referencing the information you shared. A connection between your blog and the one you shared. It can increase your traffic – which, after all, is really what you want!
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