The problem with the Internet is……
….there is no barrier to entry and anybody can copy your site and/or copy your ideas in a matter of minutes.
For example: On June 25th I launched VoIPsuppliers.co.uk. A few days later I notice a very similar site has launched at www.voip-compared.com. A closer look at the WHOIS details sees that the domain was registered on June 29th.
So in a matter of days since I launch my site, a competitor site that has a very similar look and feel and even domain name has launched on the web and is competing with me in the PPC engines.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not claiming any kind of copyright infringement of even stating that this site is ripping mine off - it isn’t. After all it’s only a splashpage with a very basic price comparison table. What I do find slightly annoying though is the fact that I hunted down all of the logos that I use on the site. I then cleaned them up, resized them in Photoshop and saved them as .GIF files. Now if you look at the logos on my competitor’s site; www.voip-compared.com you will see that all of the logos used are *exactly* the same size as the ones on my site. So either the siteowner has tracked down the same logos as me and in a freakish coincidence resized them at exactly the same size as I did. Or he simply cut and paste them from my site.
Again, not a major big deal but slightly annoying nonetheless. I have actually noticed another two VoIP comparison sites spring up after mine using the same comparison table layout, but at least those had the decency to get their own logos!
Oh well, all is fair in love, war and the web.
What I’m listening to right now: Jaheim - “Ghetto Love”
Wednesday, July 5th, 2006 at 10:29 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Welcome to my blog. My name is Kieron Donoghue and I run UK Offer Media Ltd. I thought it would be fun to post a daily (well hopefully daily) blog, writing about my experiences in Internet Marketing and more specifically Affiliate Marketing. I'll include some personal stuff too, probably about my other passions, music and cars. Please feel free to post your comments and thoughts too.
July 6th, 2006 at 12:26 am
Well that just sucks. But that’s what happens on the Internet.
If it’s any consolation - your site looks far better than your competition’s.
July 6th, 2006 at 10:56 am
Kieron
Seems they read your Blog, have a look at the site now.
Andrew
July 6th, 2006 at 10:57 am
Lol…
“Site temporarily down for maintenance.
Apologies to Kieron…”
July 6th, 2006 at 12:01 pm
Hi Kieron,
Massive apologies for this - very embarrassing to find out about this today. The page was a mini-project that I had given to a new developer and I just didn’t think to check the existing sites out there for signs of duplication. It does make it worse that the sites were launched within 4 days of one another.
Copycat sites are things we have had to contend with in the past, and they are definitely very irritating and upsetting…
I have sat down with the person involved and have emphasised that any kind of plagiarism is unacceptable.
The site has been taken down immediately - please accept our sincerest apologies.
Best wishes,
Chris
July 6th, 2006 at 5:11 pm
Kieran didn’t use an anchor link in this post to Chris’ site so how did he know you discussed the site? I’m thinking he knew about your activities all along?
July 8th, 2006 at 1:47 pm
So cynical! Maybe Chris reads Kieron’s blog like the rest of us and just noticed his URL being mentioned. At least he had the guts to come on here and apologise for the lack of etiquette even if didn’t exactly break any laws in copying Kieron’s GIFs.
July 8th, 2006 at 1:47 pm
“Site temporarily down for maintenance” .. What’s the betting it comes back up with slightly different sized images
lol
It is annoying when this kind of thing happens. But…
Chris, I wouldn’t be too hard on yourself. As Kieron said himself, it’s not like you’ve really done anything wrong. These price comparison / review tables are ten-a-penny. It would be a different story if it involved some original content theft. Re-sized images don’t *reaaally* count, annoying though that is to your competitors (sorry Kieron!) :).
July 8th, 2006 at 1:47 pm
But how did they find it in the first place?
July 10th, 2006 at 7:14 pm
Chris has emailed me as well as posting on this blog and has also very generously sent me a case of wine. Thanks Chris, very kind of you.
July 10th, 2006 at 9:39 pm
Maybe we should have two sites for each new one in the future - one for the bottom feeders and scrapers - let them come and do their thing and then a month or so later put up the real site -
It won’t stop it but they are less likely to strike twice -
You really lucked out with having someone stand up and take it …and get a case of wine to boot! Cheers!
-Jon
July 12th, 2006 at 10:24 am
I’ve had that happened to me too….found that someone had copied entire pages including word-for-word actual text from my site. I sent them an official cease and desist letter giving them 5 days to take it down and also contacted search engines to inform of plagiarism. I also contacted trademark owner as I had noticed that the (numbskull) who had copied my site had omitted to include any disclaimers ….ironic that this was the one bit of my site that they DIDN’T copy !
Within 5 days I had received an email from the ‘Company owner’ with the excuse that the ‘web designer’ had done this ‘without his permission / knowledge.’ Needless to say, 3 months later, the company owner still has not arranged with his ‘web designer’ to create alternative content as there is still an ‘awaiting content’ notice on each of the pages.
Funny how they always seem to blame their ‘web designer’ when it is &^%&^$%$ obvious that they are one and the same and thought it wouldn’t be noticed and that they could get away with it!
Makes me mad too - but what can you do? In my own case, I made damn sure that I followed up on the trademark infringement issue with the result that the site now has been forced to include a humilating legend on the front page of the site as follows ‘We have been asked by the trademark owner to expressly point out that we have no connection ,association etc etc etc’
Revenge is a dish best served cold……
July 14th, 2006 at 4:44 pm
Looks like Chris has done the honourable thing though. Good on him.
Kieron, I’m interested in how you decide whne it’s appropriate to create a new mini site like this one, and when you prefer to add it to UKoffer.com? I’m assuming a dedicated site has a better chance of getting SEO rankings, but as most of your model is built on PPC….? (great podcast by the way!)
When do you decide that a new offer is spreading UKoffer too thin?
July 15th, 2006 at 2:11 pm
Hi Stephen,
if I think a new sector or niche is going to be big enough then I will always try to build a mini-site or landing page. One of the main reasons for this is so I can buy a domain name that is relevant to the sector, in this case VOIPsuppliers.co.uk. And as I’m sure you know, domain names with keywords in tend to get better CTR’s on the PPC listings.
August 10th, 2006 at 7:15 pm
Is it cost effective bidding on VOIP PPC terms?
The CPA is pretty low for these programmes and I bet the minimum bids are quite high.
January 24th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
Hi Mate
I’ve just blogged about a new service that should be able to help you prevent, or a the very least cure problems like these in the future. It’s a service called Numly.
Good Luck,
Lee