Blog Posts for Ruby Lane Shop Credit

I've been a semi regular blog poster to the Ruby Lane "Notes from the Lane" for several years. My goal was/is to become more faithful about writing my blog to earn the maximum credit every month to offset my shop fees. With almost 1,000 items in the shop, they can get rather high.

Last month I had submitted an article and I was surprised when I received a polite response saying, yes, they would accept that article, but in the future, they would no longer accept articles I wrote that had been published elsewhere first. Elsewhere being my personal blog on blogger, COBAYLEY, my page here on TVV, my page on Facebook, COBAYLEY, etc. I understood that and withdrew my request that they publish that article. I fully understand the Ruby Lane wants their blog articles to be fresh and they want to be the first to publish them....I wrote another article and submitted it, I assured them that it had not been published elsewhere and that I would wait to publish it to my blog. No problem. It was published and I received my $35.00 credit.

Yesterday, I wrote the article about the Lalique perfume. I submitted it and again assured Ruby Lane that I had not published it elsewhere, that I had gone the extra steps to have the long conversation threads removed from Facebook and TVV. I assured them that I would wait until Ruby Lane published the article (if they chose to) to post it to my blog.

This morning I received this message back from Ruby Lane..."

"You can post the link from Notes From The Lane after we post it on our
blog, however, you can't take the content itself and make a "new" blog
post about. This would be duplicate content, rather than sharing.
If you are ok with this, please let me know and I can publish your article"



I was surprised as I had never been aware of this.  
I did a quick check on a few of the Ruby Lane "Notes from the Lane" and found several that 
were posted on personal blogs.  There was no linking to Ruby Lane's blog whatsoever.

So...I'm wondering if $35.00 is enough for my sharing my R Lalique Perfume story....
I'm going to have to think about this.  
I would not be able to publish the blog post here, I would only be able to provide a link to the 
Ruby Lane Notes, the same applying to my Facebook business page, I would only be able to link 
back to the "Notes", I could not publish the article in it's entirety anywhere...

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Alley Cat Lane on June 20, 2012 at 10:48am

This is nothing that Ruby Lane is enforcing alone. I write Squidoo articles, and duplicate content has become a very important issue. Google frowns on duplicate content and will lower your rankings or drop you entirely if you post the same content on more than one site. In previous years it was not a problem so you may find older blogs or articles in which this occurred with no repercusssions. You can posts links to the blogs or articles but you cannot repost the actual content. If you want to post on several sites you have to do major rewrites so the content is not duplicated word for word.

Permalink Reply by CheriShops - Admin on June 20, 2012 at 10:51am

Hi Carolyn,

that is odd as I had blogs published there that I did let them know I had published previously on my Blog at blogspot?

Maybe this is a new policy?

I edited your post to stop the text from scrolling off the page...I think it was related to the text from the copied RL message? But at least now it doesn't scroll off the page

Permalink Reply by COBAYLEY on June 20, 2012 at 10:54am

Thanks Cheri...Ally Cat...the blogs I found duplicated were from the past couple of months. I don't have an argument with Ruby Lane's policy, but I think if it applies to me, it should apply to all posters. And...my deep question is, is $35.00 enough compensation for an exclusive?

Permalink Reply by Alley Cat Lane on June 20, 2012 at 11:07am

It definitely should apply to everyone. Only you can decide if it's worth the compensation. If you are drawing a lot of customers through your blog, maybe it isn't. Maybe more customers outweighs the small compensation you would receive.

Permalink Reply by Graceful Antiques on June 20, 2012 at 11:10am

Google frowns on duplicate content and will lower your rankings or drop you entirely if you post the same content on more than one site.

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The site as in RL or individual shops? I ask this as I was included in a Got Vintage video on RL recently. I assumed since if an item is on RL it is permissible as it is their site and also assume this is where the person found my photos as I am not a member of this group.

Fine for the exposure but not fine if it will cause Google to lower my rankings. Hopefully it will not be duplicated all over the net but stay on RL.

Permalink Reply by Graceful Antiques on June 20, 2012 at 11:12am

In your case and on this bottle Cobayley that is a hard call.

Permalink Reply by COBAYLEY on June 20, 2012 at 11:26am

OK...someone explain this to me...now I"m confused (easily happens)...so, I give RL the right to "own" my article. It is posted to the "Notes from the Lane"...then, others like the article and it is shared to their pages etc, a facebook page, and yes, here on TVV...now, is that "duplicate content"?

Permalink Reply by Deer Path Vintage on June 20, 2012 at 11:33am

Co, this is common practice for paying publishers. They want all links to link back to your original piece with them. That's not to say it can't go anywhere else, or that you can't add it to your blog page. The way it's usually done is you would take the first few paragraphs and place them as as a lead-in on your blog and then tell your readers they can read the rest on Ruby Lane and give them the link. So no matter how they share it, readers will have to go to Ruby Lane to read the complete piece.

Hope that makes sense! You could ask your contact at RL if that's acceptable. It should be no problem with them, since it will always come back to them.

Mona

Permalink Reply by Graceful Antiques on June 20, 2012 at 11:33am

http://www.rubylane.com/info/termsofuse

States it can change and evidently it has towards the bottom. Specifically it would be up to them I guess.

Permalink Reply by Ruby Lane on June 20, 2012 at 3:00pm

Hi Folks,

Let me clear this up. In the past we had no problem posting blog submissions that were previously posted to a personal blog BUT with Google relatively new rules about duplicate content ---- where they 'threaten' to 'stop' indexing our content because it is duplicated somewhere else on the Web ---- we had to change our 'rules' about duplicate content. I will tell you we have received notices about duplicate content from Google and also Squidoo. We cannot risk losing our indexing or our ability to network socially. It would hurt us and our bloggers, but the whole idea is to get content out there with your name and shop link. (Squidoo didn't like us using a shops description for a shop item. They completely removed the lens.)

The blog program is Marketing's baby. We birthed it. When the economy started it's downward spiral we wanted to give our shop owners a means to offset their shop fees so we, Karen and I, developed and launched the program. We are very proud of it and we absolutely love the articles we receive each and every month. But, it is after all a we 'want' to do it and not a we 'have' to do it. Perhaps $35 doesn't seem like a lot of money but it is what we can pay for the articles. And we allow two per month which is a total of $70 you can potentially earn for writing an article and articles only have to be 300 words. We do however think the better the article the more it will be read and passed around. One of the best things you can do for marketing your shop is to establish yourself as an 'expert' and writing informative, accurate articles will do that for you. The blog is completely indexed. It is a great marketing tool.

So, please, don't take this personally. It is just the way of the internet and we have to change and accept their (Google & others) rules if we want to stay in the game. Believe me, we didn't like it either. But, change in every facet of life is inevitable and absolute.

Carol

Permalink Reply by Ruby Lane on June 20, 2012 at 3:14pm

PS If we do find the blog articles and other articles we put out on the internet published in their entirety on the Internet we do contact the site and politely ask them to change it to a link or remove it. But, we obviously can't police the internet for duplicate articles, we can only respond to information we receive and to those entities, like Google and Squidoo who contact us to register a complaint.

Permalink Reply by COBAYLEY on June 20, 2012 at 3:29pm

Carol...thank you for your response and your friendly manner. It helps soothe my ruffled feathers. Before I read this, I messaged Bianca and agreed to RL's terms and agreed to have RL post the article. I haven't heard back as of this time from RL. This article is very personal to me as it shares what I consider a monumental achievement in the antiques and collectibles business.

I'm interpreting your response to mean that I can say, post the opening paragraph on my personal blog and then the link to the "Notes from the Lane"...is that correct?