People blog for a number of reasons, mostly to get their ideas out there. One takes the time and effort to share their thoughts and information in the hopes that they will attract an interested audience. The vast majority of blogs on the internet have a very limited audience. The reason for this is that only a few people are ever coming across their articles to begin with. Only a select number of blogs have large reader bases.

One possibility for blog popularity is that a blogger becomes lucky enough to attract a wide audience due to provocative content, or due to effective marketing.  One of the most effective and free forms of internet marketing involves taking advantage of RSS (really simple syndication). In essence, RSS makes it possible to share blog postings on internet news feeds. If your blog postings are RSS accessible then interested individuals or websites can have RSS feeds that display your content as it becomes new. The effect of which is that people who aren’t visiting your blog or website are going to see your recent articles. Each time a new article is posted, it is automatically sent out via RSS to RSS news feeds.

This can be a blessing for some, and a curse for others. The problem with RSS is that it makes it very simple for people to “steal” content. Typical RSS feeds make it clear that the content is from another originating source, and that it is simply being fed. Others however, use RSS feeds in other more objectionable ways. Here is the best example of something that occurs typcially. You read a blog and assume that the postings are coming from the author(s) of the blog. With RSS, a blog author need not write any content, but can use RSS technology to populate their blog with articles from any blog they wish. Meaning, that they can take articles from anywhere, and put them on their blog as though they were their own articles. Plagiarism and probably copyright infringement. As a reader of the blog, you assume that the website owner is writing the content, and have no idea all the articles they post are from other places.

For some people, the power of RSS to get their content out there is a blessing. Yet for other’s it represents yet another way the internet is facilitating the distribution of content they wish to protect. There are few RSS standards, and lots of ways to manipulate feeds and content. It is in fact, quite easy to take copyright protected content and pass it as your own. Because of this, most bloggers, or writers in general that provide regular postings are fearful that their content will be distributed without their permission, and worse yet, not being credited to them.

For those who are content in allowing their content to shared freely, it is advisable to sign each blog posting with your name or the postings’ originating source (the original blog or website) so that people reading the content know where it is coming from. This is the best option for people who are OK with their content being shared, but still want readers to attribute it to the actual author.

Alternatively, there are tools that you can use to protect your content. If you use FeedBurner, you can track where your content is going, and then contact any unauthorized people who are displaying it. It is usually a good idea to allow for some people to use your content as long as they have your express permission. FeedBurner allows for detailed tracking of what and who is reading your content. It is further recommended that you use Google Analytics on your blog or website. Google Analytics is a free and powerful service from Google that provides an amazing level of detailed information regarding access to your website. You can even perform a mere Google search on the titles of your articles or postings to see if they are placed on other sites.

If you discover unauthorized usage of your content, you must contact the website and tell them to take it down. More often than not, a simple demand letter will suffice. The next step would be a formal content take down demand letter using more powerful legal terminology mentioning copyright law and the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). After that, if things don’t change, you should consult with an attorney on how to proceed.

Using the above mentioned tools, you can effectively monitor and guard your content, and at the same time know that you are getting the right audience breadth for your blog. RSS is an amazing tool that will get your ideas shared with a large audience, but be mindful of it’s possibilities. If you are a blogger, learn as much as you can about what RSS does, and does not do, and how you can protect yourself in the event someone distributes your content on their or other websites without your permission.

Learn more about using RSS tools at FeedBurner.