So over the last week I have written a couple of stories on subjects which were apparently written or covered by other domain blogs days or even weeks before.
I have gotten messages like “hey I wrote about that yesterday or two weeks ago.”
On the other hand I see stories written by other’s in the domaining chain I wrote about days or weeks ago published like its big news breaking today.
Personally I have never written to anyone with the “Hey I wrote about that First” line but maybe I’m wrong.
But I understand that not everyone is on domaining.com every day.
I also understand that some people block my feed like they block other domain blog feeds (i block some feeds as well) and therefore they never read what I or other’s write.
I also understand that the way that a story is titled may draw a lot more interest in the same exact story just because of the way the story’s headline reads.
Finally I understand that not everyone even uses domaining.com, that readers follow certain blogs, follow certain Twitter accounts and therefore might not see a story I write or someone else writes.
Other days I see the same breaking story basically repeated on many domain blogs (including mine. like the sale of Data.com) within the same 1 or 2 hour period with no objection.
The bottom line is that are you guys are the readers of the material so how do you feel about it?
Do domain bloggers have a obligation to see if a topic has been written about before and if so credit the original source of the material?
Is the 1st in line entitled to credit or is news, news that can be repeated on CNN, ABC news, Fox news MSNBC etc without crediting another or original source?
What do you think?
News is news.
You and others should write about it.
Just put your spin on it.
Do you think the New York Times says
“We are not going to cover a story because the Washington Post just wrote about it.”
If a different blogger or news site has done an extensive analysis, you can write about it but give them credit for the work. You can report it and give your opinion or opposition to the findings.
All te news outlets write the same story they got from the AP and credit the AP, so indeed this might be an annoying problem that if it were me I might find it anoying enough to stop blogging and let everyone else fight over this.
I believe Elliot addressed this problem quite elegantly on his blog once stating that it may be the same news but he is presenting it with his opinion and analysis which is his creation, even if his opinion is the same as someone else.
Better you focus on having fun in Singapore.
Agreed that it is annoying to filter through them on Domaining… but a site about domains should be allowed to write about domains… same principle as yahoo news, cnn, google news, etc… all publishing articles about the same topic, news is news.
Interesting you bring this up. I was thinking about this the other day. As a marketer and in this case, timing could and does mean a lot! … Many times, I will read a story in a feed (domaining or twitter) and find out that this blogger was “late” when further down the feed there are 6 others who broke it earlier. Do I care as a reader – no, not at all. But as a marketer, I thought it was interesting that he (the late comer) got my view simply because of the timing of me coming in and checking the feed and/or story.
Reminds me of all the stats we have on email marketing, what time of day to have it delievered, .etc. By the time, I get down to the first 5 or 6 who broke the story. I have already read about it.
I am not sure if “breaking” the story first is always a good thing if traffic is what you want. Being last may make you first!
Me parece que cada medio debe publicar las noticias que son relevantes independientemente si ya fue publicado en otro medio. Primeramente los blogs o medios prestan un servicio a los lectores que consiste en la mayor cantidad de información posible, yo como usuario al leer el blog espero encontrar al menos las noticias mas importante del sector y no verme en la necesidad de salir a buscar información en otros medios.
Saludos.
It seems ridiculous for anyone to send you a message like that. That would be the same as the local CBS news not reporting on a story because ABC news had broken it earlier in the day. It’s even more ridiculous because people come to this blog seeking your thoughts on these issues. I recently read an article on another blog that was an opinion piece that was nearly identical to what I had posted three days before.
The thought never crossed my mind to email the blogger and say “Hey that’s my idea, get your own!” We all write about this stuff because it’s interesting and part of our lives. Why would we want to restrict ideas and opinions?
Michael – Your blog is the only one I follow and read daily! Don’t even go to Domaining.com anymore. Please keep it up…
when i see lot of buzz about a single story from many domainers in my google reader, it make me more interesting to read that story.
As both a reader and a blogger I have thought about this. When I started reading domaining.com sometime there would be a story written about by six blogs. Usually it was reporting a big sale.
When I started blogging last year, I figured that if six blogs wrote about it, I would skip the story. But there are other factors that you have to look at which could make it still worth blogging about.
Everyone has readers that are not domainers who did not come from domaining.com.
Then there is what you mentioned about the blocked blogs.
If you have xyzblog blocked and they wrote about Demand Media, well you would not know about that.
I think writing about any big sale or conference the first person who does has got to expect others blogging about the topic.
If something is not mainstream and its copied, hopefully their is a nod. You and Andrew did that with the post I did on Go Daddy raising auction fees. Class move and I appreciate it, but if you just wrote it, I would have never said yo Mike, I wrote that first, and you and I email from time to time. It makes sense everyone knows Go Daddy so I don’t own that.
Now If I interviewed Bob Parsons and it was just copy and pasted that should have a note to the original post.
Some people think because they wrote about stuff first they own it. The truth is they do not. For the most part domain blogs are mentioning a lot of stuff we already know, I have Google alerts and daily changes.com. They are not breaking news, they are running their blog and there is a lot of competition for readers.
Best of luck to all.
I don’t read many domain blogs but I read yours, Michael. Write about whatever interests you. You have a unique voice and you always seem to cover important stories. I wouldn’t give a toss what the other bloggers do.
Does not matter to me. Some sites are feeds, some educate you with the authors articles and other blog posts. I think the opinion of the author or take on something is more important than anything.
If you write original content you will get credit for your story so if bloggers want to get credit do original content. I am not even sure if the term blogger would be correct for this site. To me it’s like getting free professional advice from a pro.
Some much to learn from this site and other people’s response to the original post. Just amazing.
Don
I made the first post and everyone is saying basically the same thing as me.
Please give me credit for the original response.
“I agree with Meyer.”
🙂
Keep on doing what you are doing Michael.
Michael,
Sorry but I think I’ve covered this topic already :).
I think that it’s foolish for anyone to tell you to check somewhere before you write a story that you want to write about. Imagine if one newspaper told another not to print something because they already have written an article on the topic.
enjoy your trip.
larry
TheDomains.com is the only one I read and post
…99.9999% of the rest are full of self-serving time-waster useless-BS,redundant, attention -w*hore sites.
“…99.9999% of the rest are full of self-serving time-waster useless-BS,redundant, attention -w*hore sites.”
Sounds like most of the comments you leave on my blog 😉
JP covered my perspective.
no problem, just don’t add “Breaking News” in the title 🙂
There are a two or three other domain blogs I look in on but if all domain blogs went away, the only real ‘loss’ would be this one. Too bad FS isn’t blogging much anymore. That one was meaningful too.
@Elliot…
Repeat repeat repeat “99.9999% ”
Addendum… TheDomains.com, Elliot, DotWeekly, Domain Shepard, and…..you can send a check to me.
If your blog does not have the “BullS” signature, it means your sites/Blogs is “BullS”
Michael you are one of the top bloggers in the industry. It would be silly if only one person got to cover one topic. The beauty of freedom of the press, you can state your own opinion. To the other bolggers that feel it’s unfair, grow up.
being the first to break a story is becoming less relevant. it’s instantly copied everywhere.
it’s the commentary that draws the audience. commentary from the blogger and from the readers. it’s the interaction.
it’s been this way since before the web and before blogs (e.g. mailing lists, usenet). people like to comment on news. look at a long-running site like slashdot. their model has been replicated many times. it’s chaos but it works. many people don’t even read the stories. it’s not the stories. you can choose totally ridiculous stories. as long as you are within your chosen subject area and have lots of commentary, it still works.
if this blog is getting better traffic than the others (surely that must be the real issue here?), then it’s not because of the stories.
some of the other blogs have great story selection but, by comparison, no meaningful commentary.
keep on, mhb.
The easy answer is just be vary diligent about including a credit to the orginal source. Give them credit for being first.
e.g.
Blah, blah, blah, domains.
Source: someotherblog.com
When I see this I usually go check out the original source, I guess out of habit of trying to verify authenticity. Often the original source will have less, not more, useful information attached to the story. So in the case of blogs, getting things from the original source doesn’t always mean we’ll be more/better informed.
“being the first to break a story is becoming less relevant. it’s instantly copied everywhere.
it’s the commentary that draws the audience. commentary from the blogger and from the readers. it’s the interaction.”
Yeah, what he said 🙂
…keep on keeping on.
Just keep doing what you’re doing Mike.
Your site has more traffic than most and from what I hear is used daily by many people out there. Who care’s about those emails you get from others!
– Richard
If there are multiple stories on the same topic on domaining.com, I’ll go to this blog first and very rarely read another. Keep on trucking, you’ll get the readership anyway.
Multiple stories is a good thing for you, after readers check out other blogs they will see that thedomains.com is superior in both detail and insight. Keep up the good work, emails from other bloggers proves your success!
Since TheDomains isn’t scraping for content, who fricken cares?