A Cheetah bite hurts! But this secret, 100% fail-proof tip will make sure you'll never have to lick your wounds again...
Cross-posting
Just like a lot of people here on SteemIt I already had a blog before I joined the platform. Maybe you too have a (self-hosted) Wordpress blog, a Blogger blog, a blog on Tumblr, on Instagram, a YouTube channel, and so on.
At first, SteemIt looked like an excellent medium to finally earn some real money from my blog posts. Before I joined SteemIt, the only earnings I had were the peanuts I got from Google Adsense and a couple of affiliate networks. I thought I'd finally found a way to be rewarded for all the effort I put into that blog.
So I joined SteemIt and started cross-posting articles from my blog.
It didn't take long before I got my first upvote. I was very curious who had upvoted the post of a complete newbie, but then...
BAM! :0(
At that time, this one little sentence ended my dream of being able to monetize my blog posts...
Fortunately, I've learned a thing or two along the way, and I discovered the one and only 100% fail-proof way to not get bitten again.
Cheetah
I already introduced you to Cheetah in one of my previous blog posts.
(Missed it? Read 'To Flag Or Not To Flag, That's The Question... now.)
She's a nice little kitty, but when she detects duplicate content, she bites you. She bites you in the form of a (worthless) upvote, and a message that says that duplicate content has been detected. With this message, she's warning your readers that your content might not be original.
It's up to your readers to decide whether they will give your post an upvote and/or a comment or not.
Getting a Cheetah bite is NOT an accusation of plagiarism, it simply means that the bot detected content that already exists somewhere on the web.
The Consequences Of A Cheetah Bite
Since SteemIt is all about original content, a Cheetah bite can have serious consequences.
Once your post has been found by Cheetah, it's unlikely that it will receive a lot of upvotes, let alone comments.
If Cheetah has to bite you repeatedly, the Steemcleaners will move in and you will not only lose part of your reputation score, you also risk to have your name put on the blacklist. This means your posts will be hidden from the public.
The Importance Of Original Content
Everywhere on SteemIt, it is stressed that you should be posting ORIGINAL CONTENT.
You may not be aware of it, but there are valid reasons for this.
Posting duplicate content has a negative effect on SteemIt's ranking in the search engines. The search engines' algorithms do not only detect duplicate content, they also know which copy was added first. As a result, the original article will get a higher place in the list, and the one with the duplicate content will be pushed down the list. I guess I don't have to tell you that this affects the amount of traffic the site gets.
But there's more...
If a website is adding duplicate content on a regular basis, it might end up on the blacklist.If blog owners start republishing their entire blog content, it sends out a wrong message to other people who do not understand the difference between cross posting and plain plagiarism.
If cross-posting is done right (more on that later), it is not considered to be plagiarism. Copying an article from a random website and posting it here on SteemIt is. And since plagiarism is illegal, SteemIt risks receiving DMCA notices and having to pay legal fees.
I assume we can agree that we don't want that to happen, right?!
How To Cross-Post Responsible
There are ways to cross-post your article without being penalized by Cheetah or the Steemcleaners. Below, you'll find some tips on how not to wake Cheetah.
(Always be careful when cross-posting. The tips below are guidelines but are not 100% failproof. Neither is Cheetah. There's only 1 tip in this list that can give you a full guarantee. I bet you didn't know about that one!)
1 - Post on SteemIt first. Wait a couple of days for the post to get indexed by the search engines and then post it to your blog. (To really be sure, you should wait until the post has reached payout.)
2 - Rewrite the article before reposting it. You can do this manually (which is always the best choice) or use a quality article spinner to do it for you. In both cases, check your rewritten article before posting it by running it through a plagiarism checker.
3 - If you use quotes in your post, make sure you use the markdown format and put '> ' in front of it. Also, do not forget to cite the source.
4 - Consider posting a self-written summary of your article and a link to the full-length blog post. (Do not shorten that link, or you'll be detected by @beerbot.) By adding a little extra (and unique) like a question, you instantly turn your article into an efficient tool that will increase engagement.
5 - Always add a link to the original article.
6 - Always credit your image sources.
7 - Replace any HTML code with Markdown styling.
8 - Repurpose your article. Here are some ideas on how you can use your content to create a completely different post.:
- Create a Slideshare presentation
- Create an infographic
- Create a video (series)
- Create a podcast
- Turn lists into summaries and summaries into lists
- Create a course, upload it to Udemy and post an introduction on Steemit
And the best tip of them all:
9 - Ask Cheetah to whitelist you before you cross post an article from your blog
Yep, I plead guilty: I've saved the best for last.
You can simply ask Cheetah for permission to repost one of your own articles.
I found out about this when I visited the Seemcleaners' Discord channel.
In the Cheetah channel, I discovered a pinned post that explained how to ask to be whitelisted and which rules you have to follow when reposting.
Basically, you need to contact @anyx with your request and wait for him to reply.
To get on and remain on the whitelist you need to follow 3 rules:
- Only repost new articles
- Include a link to the original article in your SteemIt post
- Add a link to the Steemit post to your original article on your blog
More information, thanks to @guiltyparties:
If cross-posting from a currently live site, I would suggest first of all putting a link to your Steemit profile from the site itself to verify it and then letting us know. We'll add it to the database of verified accounts. Then, simply adding a note to the bottom of the post. If Cheetah comments, reply to her. We read her comments for her.
Another update from @guiltyparties about ‘older’ posts on your own blog:
You may repost. New content is always suggested of course but there are no rules against moving older posts. Just make sure it's clear that this is your own work. People get confused otherwise.
I bet you didn't know it was this easy?! ;0)
I'd like to hear your stories:
Do you cross post your blog articles?
Have you ever been bitten by Cheetah?
Did you ever have to deal with the Steemcleaners?
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Good tips @simplymike. However, the Cheetah bot sometimes even upvotes posts that have a specific signature at the end of the post, which a lot of authors at the end of theirs, which I think should be addressed and corrected.
Even when you’re on the whitelist?
If you’re whitelisted and she does, you simply need to contact her devs on the Discord Channel and they’ll fix it.
NOTE: ask to be whitelisted begore you cross-post
This situation it’s been as a nightmare to me.
I began in this community one week ago, and i thought it was so simple as include links of the other site in Steemit and same for each other sites. But not. Cheetah beatten me for three times and i Think it has having a cost for me... :(
I will try to Reach that whitelist.
Thank you for your advises.
your are right dear.. @ebargains
Great article - upvoted and resteemed.
Thanks for confirming what I suspected, but hadn't had a chance to confirm with @steemcleaners yet. In my short time here so far I've found them to be very helpful, but also very, very busy.
I really hope this gets the attention it deserves, because some of the established bloggers and news-sites that have come over to Steemit don't seem to get this.
Thanks also for the idea on repurposing articles - I hadn't thought of those. I had a bunch of things published on an independant news site, Independent Australia, last year, and I know they are OK with me republishing - but I didn't want to just repost it.
Finally, (as you mention in a previous post) people who see posts that are clearly cut and paste without attribution to the original can report it here: https://steemcleaners.org/abuse-report/
Thanks for the support. It’s indeed something few people are aware of, I think.
I discovered it by accident, when I was checking out the Steemcleaners discord channel for my previous article.
Since my own blog has been a bit neglected since I’m on Steemit, this is very useful inormagion: I don’t have to write different articles anymore, which will save me a lot of time
All good tips and ideas. Very well-presented.
The purpose of Cheetah isn't to accuse anyone of plagiarism, which is what most people think, but to suggest similar content. There have been times where post writers who cross-post have been able to discover stolen content. I'm a cross-poster myself; had a large site for many years before shutting it down. If Cheetah picks up one of my articles (it hasn't yet, but I wouldn't be surprised) then I'd know I got ripped off by someone.
If cross-posting from a currently live site, I would suggest first of all putting a link to your Steemit profile from the site itself to verify it and then letting us know. We'll add it to the database of verified accounts. Then, simply adding a note to the bottom of the post. If Cheetah comments, reply to her. We read her comments for her (unfortunately she's not that advanced of a bot -- no AI there yet).
Thanks for the extra tip
A question, though: I have a blog outside of SteemIt myself. I think some if the content I wrote in the last couple of months would be perfect to post on SteemIt. If I would update them with a footer that mentions a repost on Steemit and add a link to the steemit post, would that be okay? Or do the rules only involve ‘new posts’ (and how old can a ‘new post’be to be considered a new post?)
No, that's fine. You may repost. New content is always suggested of course but there are no rules against moving older posts. Just make sure it's clear that this is your own work. People get confused otherwise.
Thanks
Unfortunately I just got a different opinion from Patrice at #cheetah Discord channel: "@jliu#6305 We only whitelist if new content is being picked up by @cheetah. Part of cheetah's function is to let the community know that the content posted isn't fresh content." So I cannot crosspost old articles from my blog/website without being mauled by the beast ;), even if I use SteemPress and add a link to the original content and I can prove I am the owner of the original content ...
I've never gotten bit by Cheetah, however my content is cross posted from my WordPress blog automatically using SteemPress which handles the verification for me for the most part on the Steemit blog itself and I regularly reference my other material and I link to several of my social media on said WordPress blog including to Minds and Steemit profiles.
If you were indeed a network marketer, you might have some interest in "Linkwheels", provided it's not used for abuse, a linkwheel is a rather useful tool for verifying that "Yes, this indeed is me" without having to worry too much about plagiarism accusations.
I have several link wheels set up through IFTTT, but I just did some more reading on it and I think I need to make some adjustments to set them up correctly.
I hadn’t tried the plugin since it was updated. Before, I couldn’t get it to work. Glad to hear it can be set up without triggering cheetah
It's because of how Cheetah operates. If you upload a YouTube video, then share that YouTube video to Steemit, Cheetah won't recognize it as copycat material because it's posted so close to the original time of upload. The same effect applies to SteemPress, which also does the verification thing automatically to a degree. Just look at any one of my posts and scroll to the bottom to see what I mean. It'll say it's "posted from my WordPress blog LinkHere".
The issue arises when you post older content from your blog.
If you had issues with SteemPress in the past, give it another shot, it was super easy to set up.
Thanks for the tip!
You use the busy tag in your post, which triggers a thought in me that all busy.org content is a duplicated content from the steem blockchain.
However, they are receiving a lot of traffic from search engings.
doesn't look like they are suffering from the issue of duplicated content.
I had never thought of that, but it is true. The same goes for all the Zappl posts...
I just checked, there isn't even a backlink to the other post...
Maybe somehow they're all attached to each other??? I really don't know...
All platforms, including Steemit, are merely user interfaces to the Steem blockchain, so every article is stored on the blockchain (replace "steemit" with "steemd" in the URL to see what it looks like) and can be seen on each platform. They are not multiple articles that are copied, there is just one article seen through different platforms.
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This is still an important issue to me, since there have been a number of instances of created content, that I myself created, that I may want to re-post here on steemit...
I am still learning the ropes, and am reading as much as I can.
Peace, and profit, and all that jazz.
I’ve updated the post with the information @guiltyparties gave on which steps to take to be allowed to cross post new articles. I’m going to try to find out about older articles, but for now I think the safest thing to do is repurpose them
Hello!
This situation it’s been as a nightmare to me.
I began in this community one week ago, and i thought it was so simple as include links of the other site in Steemit and same for each other sites. But not. Cheetah beatten me for three times and i Think it has having a cost for me... :(
I will try to Reach that whitelist.
Thank you for your advises.
I’ve updated the post with some new information on how to get whitelisted. It may be best if you talk it over with @anyx on the discord channel ( be patient, it can take a while to get a reply)
Thaks so much!!
I can not find this person on Discord Chanel... can i find him (of her) in any specific room?
Anyway, i’m thankful for your answer too!
well noted!!!
it was so demeaning as a newbie when i finally got flagged by cheetah and because of my orientation then i thought i was gonna end my chances of continuing on the platform let alone earn some few dollars
Follow the guide to be added to the whitelist, and you should be fine
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a very nice and interesting post.
I like it very much.
success always brother.
Steady
Hi, Meaning if that cheetah appeared in the blog that I have posted I was blacklisted for having a similar content with the other steemit user but I never put someone else in my articles...
I think its best to contact them directly through their Discord channel
Yup I just did...and waiting for answer..Thanks
This is very informative and helpful post that deserves an upvote and resteem. Thanks @simplymike for the effort.
Beer Bot and it's creator are now reposting articles from news sites on autopilot and sitting back, collecting. Lol.
Re-reading this and in context of your other post (on upvote requirements in contests) and the comments therein, I feel Cheetah is a good example of peer-to-peer consequence.
Technically speaking, anyone has the ability to post anything they want on the blockchain. It's a Jungle. There is NO law.
However, Steemcleaners have rallied the power of the masses and the power of their account to impose US copyright laws on everyone using the Steem blockchain, regardless of weather of not those laws are applicable in any country outside of the United States.
They're no different than Grumpy Cat imposing his opinion.
Who is the bad guy is subjective. While I personally side with the Steemcleaners— love it, all for it, because I'm an American and I like the privilege of our belief in copyright. But alas, it's just a belief. A blockchain is international. Jurisdiction is blurry. Power is might.
Such is anarchism— which despite my benevolence, fully support, and fully support the right of those who are not so benevolent to be so also. It's like a mutual respect between good and evil. Lol. I'm pretty good at that being a Gemini and all ;)
Some solutions would be:
Those who like the old steemit and the power of rule create their own interface with their own governance.
Those who want to compete on the present and evolving steemit create more actual opportunities to distribute their own wealth
There is no such thing as decentralization. It’s a bubble.
There will always be people pushing up their believes to others.
I’ll get back with a decent reply to you tomorrow. I’m so exhausted by trying to follow up on everything. It’s days like these that make me realize that English still takes an effort - lol
I feel you. And disagreements as they may be, they're all healthy for mental digestion. I learn a lot from others and their views as well and invite the discussion. I value you and you're contributions and thoughts and I thank you for sharing your points of view.
Engish is a rough language.