Blogging Tips

As we approach Christmas and the rest of the holiday season, many are already starting to look toward the new year and finding ways that they can improve their blog.

Though I don’t typically like New Year’s resolutions, they seem to be mostly self-defeating, it is a great time to look at what you did or didn’t do over the past year and how you can improve.

With that in mind, here are several copyright and content-related steps that you may want to consider taking in the New Year as you use the turning of the calendar as a chance to get a fresh start.

1. Add a Copyright Notice

Even though copyright law does not require any kind of notice for copyright to be affixed to a work, it exists merely by fixing the work into a tangible medium of expression, every site should have some kind of copyright notice on it.

The reason is because it not only puts aside any misunderstandings about the law (many people still feel that works without the notice have no protection) but it also puts the reader on notice, which might have legal benefits down the road.

If you already have a notice, be sure to update it in the New Year and, when you do, make it an automated process so you never have to do it again.

2. Add a License

As important as having a copyright notice is, you also need to make it clear the terms under which others can use your content.

If you don’t want others to use your work and wish to reserve the maximum amount of protection, simply say “All Rights Reserved” and leave it at that. If you want to encourage some sharing, perhaps consider a Creative Commons License or, if you want to be asked first, a Konomark.

Make your wishes clear and those who want to be good neighbors will follow them.

3. Find a Good Stock Photo Site

Images are important to blog posts but simply taking images from anywhere can lead to serious copyright headaches. Instead of using Google Image Search, find a good stock photo site and use those images.

Morguefile and Stock.XCHNG are both great free stock photo sites and there are a ton of microstock photo sites that will sell you images for as little as a dollar.

There is simply no reason to get in a copyright war over an image in a blog post, too many great, free alternatives exist.

4. Start Tracking Your New Content

Start monitoring where your content is being used. Free services like FairShare make it easy to track where your work appears on the Web. by parsing and searching for what’s in your RSS feed This can both help you spot infringements, but also let you know who is talking about your work.

It’s a great way to not only enforce your rights if you wish, but to also follow the conversation and participate in discussions you might have otherwise missed.

5. Spot Check Your Old Content

In addition to tracking where your new content appears, you might want to do an audit of some of your older work as well, in particular anything that you didn’t create, such as guest posts.

You can use services like CopyScape to search for the work, see where else it appears and make decisions about what to do. Specifically, you want to make sure the content wasn’t plagiarized, and see where it is being used elsewhere on the Web.

It probably is not worthwhile to go through and check all of your old posts. But focus on any posts you didn’t write and particularly popular ones. You may be surprised what you learn.

Bottom Line

As much as New Year’s resolutions are broken, something that is the punchline of a bad joke these days, it still makes sense to take advantage of the new calendar to make some changes and adjustments.

One of the things every blogger can do is look at the way they approach their content, as well the content of others, and start making adjustments and improvements to the process.

The result, if done well, will be a safe legal climate, a better understanding of how one’s work is being used and, if desired, better control over one’s creations.

It’s a great way for a blog to start 2011 and and an excellent opportunity to make the new year better than the last.