If you are a newbie blogger, you have probably seen a few comments floating around about how great the community is. The amount of support you get is indeed phenomenal, granted you do your part to contribute. If you’re a team player, you will learn from your peers, and they will help you grow. But what I hope you haven’t heard much about is the dark side of blogging. Not only can it become very toxic, but it can also be very scary if you do not know how to protect your blog.
Recently, I witnessed plagiarism of fellow bloggers’ content. Not just the concept of the posts, but an acutal copy and paste of their content which was passed on without credit. On top of that, the offender proceeded to ‘stalk’ the bloggers on other sites by shadowing comments. While the goal isn’t to shame any bloggers as we are all learning, we do need to stay on high alert.
Sometimes, good people do bad things. It’s not for us to judge who is bad or good based on their actions – none of us are God. But what we can do is be vigilant and ensure that we take all the necessary steps to protect our own content.
Here are some simple things you can should put in place today, to protect your blog and its content.
Related: The frustrating side of blogging

Protect your blog through the DMCA
With so many people creating blogs every day, the internet has become saturated with content. So much so, that it makes coming up with original content feel like ‘mission impossible. Here’s the thing though – no matter how hard it is, plagiarism is never acceptable. You know that, I know that, and most fifth graders know that too… And yet it still happens. So if you have not yet heard about the DMCA, stop what you are doing and visit their site today. This is basically your not-so-friendly neighbourhood watch – but for the internet.
Registering your site on the DMCA website is fairly easy. You simply need to fill out a form, verify your blog and receive a badge that you will place on your site. Once your site is protected, they will be your first point of contact when you identify content theft. Once reported, they will ensure that the offender’s version of your work is removed from the net, saving you time and energy.
While there are paid options that cover much more, the free protection is a great place to start. You don’t need to splurge to be safe. I would know, I’m on the free plan!
Install copy protection plug-ins
If you are on a free, personal, or premium WordPress plan, unfortunately, this might not be an option for you. For anyone on the business plan, or self-hosted, stop what you are doing and download a copy protection plug-in now!
With such a plug-in, readers cannot highlight and copy the text on your blog. If you aren’t exactly sure what I mean, try to highlight any part of the text on this blog post to paste as a draft somewhere. If you managed, comment below and let me know! I would love to personally commend you on your magician skills.
If you were unable to do so, that is the effect of a plug-in called ‘WP Content Protection Plugin‘. Like everything, there is a free and a paid version of this plug-in, but as my blog is still a toddler, the free plan covers what I need. If you choose to download this or any similar plug-ins, make sure to do your research. This way, you will ensure that the plug-in covers your needs.
Ensure you have disclaimers
When I first started my blog, I was not aware that disclaimers were a must. After all, I planned to write original content and share it with the world – what harm could that be? After checking out many blogs and reading up on blogging 101, I soon came to realise that it is essential to have disclaimers in place.
If you are unfamiliar with disclaimers, they basically safeguard you from any legal action taken against you if someone uses your content as medical, legal advice, etc. They also provide clarity on your qualifications in related fields, the source of the images you use, and the legal rights you have on your content. While disclaimers are not just there to protect your content, they are essential for this purpose.
So you have disclaimers on your page and your content is suddenly free from plagiarism, right? Wrong! Having disclaimers in place is only part of the full equation. What purpose they serve is a whole different story. Luckily, I am married to a lawyer and am not afraid to enforce my legal rights if needed. But if that isn’t the case for you – though it would be a weird coincidence – don’t be afraid to enforce your legal rights.
I’d love to help out any bloggers that need more information, so feel free to drop me an email using my contact form.
Stay safe!
Thanks for the tips Shelly! They are indeed very helpful!
I’m working on a Disclaimer page for my blog and hope it’ll be ready soon.
All very great and very important pieces of advice there. Its so important to make sure that if you’re putting your work out there on the internet that you protect yourself!
Olivia | https://olivialucieblake.com
thanks for the tips, I really haven’t taken the time to do so. I’ve learned most of this through trial and error. one of the things I like best about blogging is that we all can learn from each other, just like I did here today and I see the importance of these steps
Thanks for the lovely tips Shelly!! ❤️
Excellent tips Shelly. I have a disclaimer in place but I’m going to look at your other 2 suggestions right now! Thank you.
3 more things on my to-do list! Thank you 😊
You’re welcome 😅
I never heard of DMCA. I’ll check it out. Thanks for the tip!
Happy to help ☺️
I recently installed a no copy plugin because I’ve been seeing so many posts about plagiarism lately. I haven’t signed up on the DMCA site before, though. I’m going to check that out today!
Awesome~ get on it ASAP! 😅
Wow, I tried so hard to copy your content, my screen got all blurry due to my massive thumb print 😑 😂😂😂 its your fault, you challenged 😐😐😂😂
Well I must say I am impressed, never heard of DMCA before, will check it out ,
Thanks for these wonderful tips 😀 ❤
Hahahaha I’m sorry that you aren’t a magician… maybe in the future you can be 😛
Never heard of DMCA or thought about disclaimers so will definitely look into that! Unfortunately I have the free wp account so no plug-in for me but thank you so much for helping me out the other day related to this post and also for making your all crystal clear and easy to understand for a Jr blogger like me! 🙂 ❤️
Awww man! No worries at all~ I’m here for that hun 😊
Thank you for this. I didn’t know 2 out of 3 of these.
I’m glad I could add value to your day 😊
Thanks for the awesome tips! I never heard of DMCA -and will check it out right after I jot this down.
Such a very timely post. Thank you!
I wasn’t aware of most of these you mentioned. It’s so important to protect your content – thank you for sharing these tips💛 x
You’re right- blogging is wonderful but there is a dark side too and I learnt that the hard way. I have had multiple posts of mine plagarised and now that my blog is bigger I have noticed people stealing ideas, bits of my posts and a couple of people even started mimicking how I sound which was SO weird. Recently, I noticed someone steal my ideas for interviewing other bloggers. I know lots of bloggers do this but the person literally called their interviews “blogger interviews with…” and stole the questions I use. I don’t even understand why you would steal someone’s questions like how uncreative can you be?
Anyway, thank you for sharing this because plagiarism is a serious issue on WP and it’s never okay to use someone’s content without permission or without giving them credit for it.
Oh gosh that’s insane! Did you call the person out for it? I think since your blog is really big, it’s unavoidable. The thing that the person copying doesn’t realize is that there are people who are already following you that would pick it up and spread the word. So sorry you have to go through this though 🤦🏾♀️
If I called people out for stuff like that I would be calling someone out everyday so I just let it go now. I feel like people who follow me do it because they enjoy my content as well as my personality and you can try to steal my content but you can’t take my personality. People definitely pick it up because I’ve had a few people email or DM me stuff people stole from me 😒 I just don’t get it though like why blog if you don’t want to create content that’s so weird. For most people creating content is the best part of blogging.
Thanks for the info on the plugin! I have the WP Business plan so I can install the plugins of which I run several.
Awesome! It will definitely make your content harder to plagiarize!
Thanks for reading 😊
So far so good!
Hi Shelly .. great points.. Miss you my friend!! 💖💖
Hey Cindy, thanks for reading! 💖
I think I’m back now 🥴
Oh it’s my pleasure. I hope.. been missing you.. I gotta add you in my favs so i don’t miss anything.. 💖
Very helpful tips for bloggers to protect their content.
These are very helpful tips. I wish I had come across this post when I was a newbie blogger.
Aww thanks for reading! Glad you made it through even without the tips 😅
Thank you. I found this so helpful because it was ALL new to me!
So glad it was helpful! And thank you so much for stopping by 😊