Google Adwords Alternatives

When it comes to running a PPC campaign, the first name that comes to your mind is AdWords from Google. While this is a really good ad network, it is also a very expensive one. Even with careful keyword selection and targeting, it is not an exception to pay more for AdWords ads than you make in revenue. Cost is the main reason to look for alternatives to AdWords. Fortunately, such alternatives do exist and the best is that some of them could even outperform AdWords in terms of return on investment. Here are 12 great AdWords alternatives to consider.

Facebook paid ads are a great alternative, especially if you are targeting a younger audience. Facebook is the number one social network and (almost) the whole world has an account with it. Facebook ads offer lots of targeting options ? you can choose age, location, gender, hobbies of the audience to watch your ads. However, do have in mind that with Facebook generally the click through is lower, so don't get discouraged if on Facebook you get fewer clicks on your ads than on other networks ? this is pretty normal.

Bing and Yahoo are Google's competitors not only in the area of search engines but also in online ads. Yahoo!/Bing Ads, formerly known as Microsoft AdCenter appeared after the ad networks of Microsoft and Yahoo! joined forces in order to beat Google AdWords. Yahoo!/Bing ads isn't a cheap alternative to AdWords but you should also consider it because it is really good. Basically they offer search advertising (i.e. ads are placed in the search results of Bing search engine) and if you manage to correctly identify your keywords, you can see huge results.

The biggest online marketplace is also a huge ad board. Amazon Product Ads place your ads on product pages. This makes the positioning very targeted because if a user is reading about a product similar to yours, your ads are likely to catch his or her attention. Since Amazon sells everything but space ships, it is a good alternative for almost any niche because chances are there will be numerous products in your niche to publish your ads alongside.

In addition to the big three AdWords alternatives (i.e. Facebook, Yahoo!/Bing ads, and Amazon), there are many smaller ones that still serve millions of impressions a month. One of them is Clicksor. It isn't the cheapest alternative because it has $0.05 cents a click minimum but it is a good one because its conversions are known to be excellent. If clicks are expensive for you, check the other forms of ads offered by Clicksor, such as popunders and interstitials that are CPM or mixed CPM + clicks.

In terms of cost, 7Search is probably the most cost-effective ad network. It has low per click minimums, high conversions (though this depends on the niche) but also high numbers of fraudulent clicks, as some marketers complain. Nevertheless, even with these allegedly high numbers of fraudulent clicks, it is still a very good alternative to Google AdWords.

AdBrite is another big ad network and some marketers claim it works really well for them. Costs vary a lot depending on your keywords, so as an alternative it isn't necessarily very cheap (though the same keywords cost much less than on AdWords). AdBrite offers lots of flexibility in targeting, numerous ad sizes and types (text ads, banners, BritePic, which are cute photo ads), and decent conversions ? what more can you ask for?

Bidvertiser is very similar to Adsense and AdWords. It is another big network of publishers' sites. What is most distinguishing about Bidvertiser is its relatively low CPC with moderate to good conversions. It isn't an alternative for all niches but overall is a good choice.

Dynamic Oxygen is a relatively unknown ad network but with some good offers. Similarly to Clicksor and AdBrite, they offer many more types in addition to PPC. Its PPC division is not very expensive ($0.03 min bid per click) but conversions could be a problem because Dynamic Oxygen doesn't have that many sites to match your ad with, so your ad might end in sites that are not completely relevant to your niche.

Infolinks is great for intext ads. Its clicks are cheap, but targeting is a bit of a problem. It has a requirement that you spend at least $15 a month, which isn't much (many marketers spend ten times more a day on ads), especially compared to the $50,000 a month min at Chitika, for example.

BuySellAds is an ad marketplace. It's not a PPC network but you can buy ad space on sites of your choice. Prices vary a lot depending on the traffic of the site but it is possible to buy an above the fold spot on a relatively high-traffic site for $15 a month or less. Because of this, BuySellAds could turn more profitable than PPC. If you choose the sites well, you can do great because for a flat fee a month you might be getting targeted clicks at under 1 cent a click.

Adknowledge Miva is just one more ad network to consider. It offers cheap PPC with decent conversions, at least in most niches. They have a huge base of publishers, which means you stand a better chance for your ads to be run on relevant sites. Some webmasters have complained about fraudulent clicks but unfortunately these are present with any ad network.

If you are interested in ads on popular blogs rather than ads on search engines or other types of sites, BlogAds is the place for you. They specialize in ads on popular blogs, so you might want to check if the blogs you are looking for are listed there. They also do social media advertising, so if your audience is to be found on social media, you could consider this as an alternative to reach it.

It is not possible to say which of the AdWords alternative is best. In some cases one network might do brilliantly, in others it might be a complete failure. This is why you'd better test with a small budget how a network works for you. Try the same landing page with multiple ad networks and see which converts best. And never forget ? you must always measure performance because even if one ad network used to perform well in the past, things change and you wouldn't like to waste your money on expensive clicks that don't convert well.

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How to Use SlideShare for Driving Traffic

When we want to drive traffic to a site, we usually start with the free ways to do it. However, we frequently don't use the best free alternatives simply because we don't know about them. An example of a such great free alternative many marketers don't use to the fullest or at all is SlideShare. This is a huge miss because SlideShare can really bring good traffic (and more than this) ? for free.

SlideShare is a social media site ? one of the many but also one of the best. However, unlike Twitter or Facebook, you don't share (only) messages - you share presentations instead. Presentations have been used for business and personal needs for decades and they are a popular way to express yourself visually.

On SlideShare you can upload your presentation and if it gets popular, it can be viewed by millions of people. If you know how to make the presentation, you can not only get traffic to your site, but you can also improve your rankings with Google, expand your followship on sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc., attract more subscribers to your newsletter, or boost your brand/reputation online.

If used properly, SlideShare can really do a great job. Here are some tips how to make the most of SlideShare.

The rules for becoming popular on SlideShare are not that difficult to understand, though they certainly require lots of effort from you. Here is what you should and shouldn't do, if you want to harness the potential of SlideShare.

The most important rule for success on SlideShare is that your presentations must be of the highest quality only ? no exceptions here. This applies not only to content but also to design, so if you feel you lack the skills to create a rocking presentation, you'd better hire somebody else to do it for you, than upload presentations with poor quality.

As for content, usually the most popular presentations are either something sensational, or something incredibly useful, or something that plays with readers' emotions. Still, if your presentation falls in one of these three groups, this isn't a guarantee it will become popular.

When you prepare your presentation, you might want to make it a bit more sensational by exaggeration. Needless to say, this is a very wrong approach and it can turn against you. Your presentations need to be honest and true - don't exaggerate, don't overhype because this will only make users distrust you.

As for the form of the presentation, it is best to save it as PDF rather than .PPS because with so many devices you never know how a .PPS will look like. PDF looks always the same, so stick with it.

The overall quality of your presentation is very important but if the title and description are boring, users won't even bother to open the link and see all the greatness. This is why you need to write a memorable and informative title and an interesting description that will make users click on it instead of go away. In order to get maximum SEO effect, both the title and description must have your keywords ? but don't overstuff because this will have the adverse effect.

Remember, this is a presentation, not a novel, so you don't have enough space for complex structures and/or lengthy explanations. Keep your structure simple to follow and your points short ? this is the recipe for a successful presentation. Additionally, use large font sizes for the text and try not to include more than 7 lines of text per slide.

While SlideShare doesn't allow blatant self-promotion, you are allowed to include the URL to your site. Don't miss this opportunity! You can include the URL at the end of the presentation, so after users have finished viewing it, if they want more information, they can get it from your site.

SlideShare is a very high ranking site and it is great for long tail keywords in particular. Because of this, you should include some long tail keywords in the description, or even better - in the title of your presentation. This does miracles for ranking in Google, so think a lot exactly which long tail keywords you want to target.

We already mentioned that your presentation must be of supreme quality. Content is important but when it's not packaged in an attractive cover, users won't pay much attention to it. This is why you need to make your presentation visually attractive. Make a very attractive starting slide because this draws lots of attention.

However, be careful not to overdose. Your presentation must be not only attractive but it also must be stylish. To achieve this, don't overload it with effects because this will make it cluttered and/or heavy to open.

No matter how great your presentation is, if you don't promote it, it might not get good traffic. This is why, when you upload the presentation, share the link on Facebook, Twitter, social bookmarking sites, Pinterest, and on your blog to ensure it gets maximum exposure.

SlideShare is great when you are looking for more Twitter followers or Facebook friends. If you want to expand your social media following, include not only your site URL but also links to your social profiles to grow your following there.

Similarly, if you want to get more subscribers to your newsletter, mention it in your presentation and include the link where people can join.

With all the exposure you can get on SlideShare, it's an awesome way to build your brand and reputation. Of course, this will hardly happen after you upload a single presentation, even if it is the greatest of the greatest but if you have dozens of presentations with top quality, this will help to establish yourself and your brand online.

If you see that the free services on SlideShare are working well for you and you want to see if you can get more out of the site, you may want to consider paid services, for instance LeadShare. This paid service helps to get leads. The only problem is that it is very expensive but for the right audience it might be worth.

SlideShare is a top site where you can get many benefits for your site and business. It is true this isn't the easiest way ? preparing quality presentations is an effort for sure but since it is free and powerful, it makes sense to try it (if you haven't done it so far) to see if your site and business will benefit from it as well.

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How to Choose a SEM Company

If you have reached the point (and sooner or later we all do), when free SEO alone isn't bringing you the results you want, maybe it is time to move to paid SEM. If you can do it on your own, it's great but having in mind how much work is involved, it is quite possible that even though you have the skills, you won't have the time and effort required to run SEM campaigns on your own.

In this case, your best bet is to hire a SEM company. While the process isn't very different from the process of hiring a SEO company, there are some specifics you need to take into account. Here are some tips to help you choose a SEM company.

Results from past campaigns speak volumes about the skills of the company you want to pick. Obviously, if their previous campaigns were a failure, you wouldn't pick them. Ask what past campaigns they had, what the return on investment was, how these campaigns were executed (i.e. where did they publish PPC ads ? AdWords, or smaller networks), etc. It is true that you can't be given access to trade secrets, so some of the questions you want to ask might not be OK, but if a SEM company can't show results, this is a reason to move on to the next on your list.

Their past results might look gorgeous (or at least the set of campaigns they tell you about) but this alone isn't enough. It is quite possible that the campaigns you were told about aren't representative about their work, so it's pretty misleading. Therefore, you need more proof about their skills.

You can ask them for references and search with Google and in forums what their customers say. While this isn't a 100 percent evidence either, if there is a lot of negative feedback about a SEM company, this almost always means they are no good. Of course, it is possible that this negative feedback isn't authentic ? i.e. their competitors are bad-mouthing them ? but if you find genuine negative/positive opinions, do take them in earnest.

One point to consider is the assortment of services they offer. Do they have all the services you need? If they don't, you still could consider them but in this case you will have to look elsewhere for the services they don't offer. It is a bit of a burden for you to split the work but if the company you want to hire is very good at what it offers, it makes sense to hire them for part of the work only and search for the other services elsewhere.

With SEM, it is more than vital to have data about results as soon as possible. Real-time reporting is best because it allows to adjust your budget depending on the results but it could be very time consuming. Once a day is more or less acceptable, though still you could blow your whole budget in a single day without getting any results.

Because of this, it matters really a lot how (i.e. in a report, a spreadsheet, or any other way) and how frequently your SEM company reports you the results. Some companies might not report at all by the end of the campaign and if this is the case, just leave this SEM company ? you can lose a lot, if you hire them.

If you want quality, you won't find it in the 'department store' type of companies. Look for boutique companies ? i.e. small companies focused on quality that do only or mainly SEM. You might think that bigger is better but this certainly isn't the case, especially when you are a small client. Big companies won't have the time and motivation to serve you well, while boutique companies tend to provide better care (though don't take this for granted).

Many companies offer SEM services but not for all of them this is a core business. Web design/development companies offer SEM as a secondary service. As a result, frequently quality and expertise are huge problems when SEM/SEO isn't the core business of the company. If the company you are interested in seems to be a Jack of All Trades (and Master of None), it's way too risky to hire them.

No matter how great a SEM company looks according to the other criteria, one thing you must never forget is the contract. While sometimes you won't have to sign any contract at all, there are also cases when you are presented with a 10+ page legal gibberish that even an experienced lawyer won't understand completely.

The problem with contracts is that they might contain clauses that really hurt. For instance, the SEM company might want to tie you with huge penalties, if you leave them before the 5+ year contract expires, or they might have a door open to constant price increases while keeping you tied. Needless to say, if you see any similar unfair clauses in the contract, just move to the next company on the list.

Similarly to the process of choosing a SEO company, you would want to see how the SEM company you are about to choose is performing for their own site. Of course, the number of backlinks and their quality are more important for a SEO company than for a SEM one, so if their organic ranking isn't superb, this doesn't necessarily mean they are bad at SEM. However, in any case, if their site is not ranking well, this isn't a good sign. You may use some of the ranking services, not only PageRank, to get a better idea of how they are performing.

Price shouldn't be your most important criterion when making any choice but still it is not something to neglect. If the price is not right (i.e. it's either too low or too high), this should ring a bell. When it is too low, you must have concerns about quality ? good quality comes at a price. On the other hand, if the price is too high, this isn't a guarantee for quality ? it smells much like a ripoff.

There are many factors to consider when choosing a SEM company. While it isn't rocket science, there are many things to watch for. If you don't choose a good SEM company, this could do you more harm than good, not to mention how much money you can lose. This is why it makes sense to exercise caution ? it's better to be safe than sorry.

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How to Use Guest Posts for Backlinks and Promotion

Guest posts are a great SEO and marketing tool ? if used correctly, of course. After the demise of article directories and changes in the search ranking algorithms that made many other ways of getting backlinks obsolete, guest posting on reputable sites remains one of the best ways to make your site visible to the world (and search engines).

Basically, the benefits from guest posts are two. First, you get free exposure in front of a new audience (i.e. the audience of the blog you are guest posting to) and second, you get a backlink or two to your site. If you post on a really popular blog, you can get substantial amounts of direct traffic to your site and in the ideal case, when your product is of interest to the visitors from the other blog, you can make sales.

The second advantage ? the backlink ? is the main reason why guest posters submit content for free to other blogs. If the site is a high ranking one and it is in your niche, then this backlink is especially valuable.

One of the reasons why some people are skeptical to the power of guest posts is that they believe this is just the good old article marketing. While there are some similarities between the two, guest posting is very different from article marketing. When you are guest posting, you are submitting to blogs in a niche, while when you submit to article directories that generally cover all topics, the links and traffic you get are less relevant.

With guest posts, you can't submit hundreds of posts a month simply because there aren't that many good blogs where you could submit content, so article spamming is harder to do with guest posting, if you are doing it right. You pick only relevant, high quality blogs for submission and as a result, the backlinks you get are valuable even after the Google Panda update.

With article directories you can have automated submissions that blast your article with dozens of directories at once but with guest posting this doesn't happen ? you write an article exclusively for one blog, contact each blog owner in advance and only after he or she approves your post, it goes live. Very often you can publish only 5 or even fewer posts a month simply because not all suitable blogs in your niche are interested in publishing stuff from other bloggers.

One of the key moments for the successful use of guest posts is to find good blogs to post on. The first you can do is search with Google for ?guest post? ?your keyword? to find blogs in your niche that accept guest posts.

After you find a couple of blogs in your niche that accept guest posts, the next step is to filter the good ones only. You do this with the help of the various ranking services. After the blog passes this test ? i.e. it has good parameters according to the criteria of ranking services, you still need to browse through the blog to see if it is a quality one or full or crap because it is quite possible that a site has good metrics but its content isn't something you would like to be affiliated with.

Alternatively, you may search for lists of sites that accept guest posts or join MyBlogGuest.com (a site where bloggers looking for guest posts and authors of guest posts get together) but still the ranking check and the manual content check is to be done by you. You may also want to check if a site is blacklisted by guest posters because there are many dishonest Web masters, who simply steal your content ? remove your links or change the byline, which virtually renders your guest post useless for SEO and promotion purposes.

After you have found some good blogs you'd like to guest post to, the next step is to write the post. Usually blogs that accept guest posts have their guidelines, so make sure you check them before you submit the post. When you write the post, don't forget to include the allowed amount of backlinks in the byline, or even better ? in the post itself.

When the article is ready, don't submit it right away even if their guidelines say so. Many blogs that say they accept guest posts don't answer at all, so when you submit the article with them, it is practically blocked from submitting elsewhere (because if you do, you risk having it published on two or more sites, and this will make bloggers furious because of the duplicate content penalty). This is why it is best if you first pitch and only if you get an answer that the blogger is interested in your post, submit the article itself.

After submission, check the site daily till the article gets published because bloggers not always email you when the article is live and if you don't check regularly, you might miss it. If there are readers' comments, answer them.

If you decide to guest post on a regular basis, it is best to keep a file with all the links to your guest posts and check them at least once a month for new comments or simply to make sure the post hasn't been deleted. Sometimes bloggers will delete guest posts for one reason or another and if this happens to you, you will hardly be happy. However, the good news is that after some time, when the deleted post is cleared from the indexes of search engines, you can submit it elsewhere and still make a good use of it.

Guest posting is a very powerful tool, so if you haven't used it so far to promote your blog and to get backlinks, consider giving it a try. And remember, as with many things in life, it is quality, not quantity that matters, so don't aim to publish dozens of guest posts a month on crappy blogs. Focus on high quality blogs and only then you will see good results.

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Best Affiliate Programs

Almost always, affiliate programs are the most profitable way to monetize a site. While PPC ads can bring you money, it's affiliate ads that can bring you real money. However, it matters a lot which affiliate networks you choose. There are thousands of affiliate networks but needless to say, not all of them are equal. If you pick a bad affiliate network, you are simply wasting your time. This is why we compiled a list of the best affiliate programs for you to start with.

Commission Junction is one of the first affiliate networks, but it still is going more than well. It has a huge selection of offers, including numerous exclusive offers you won't find anywhere else. Most of the brands that have an affiliate program can be found on CJ but the problem is that for popular brands you need to be approved by the advertiser. Very often when the advertiser isn't accepting new affiliates, you get rejected even if your site and promotion skills are out of this world but still there are many other brands to try on CJ. The commission rates there aren't the highest in the industry but still it is possible to find products that pay 50% or more in commissions.

ShareASale is another huge affiliate network with offers in many niches. It has both leads, sales, and even clicks, so the choice is really overwhelming. As a whole, the commissions there are generous, though this certainly depends on the advertiser and the product. SAS has a huge pool of advertisers and thousands of products to choose from. The downside is that many sites are rejected, so if your site isn't a good one, it is quite possible you won't be admitted at all.

Amazon is another very well known affiliate network. In terms of choice of offers it beats every other network - you are free to promote almost any product sold on Amazon. The commissions aren't very generous but you can use it to monetize almost any niche. Amazon is one of the best choices for books and CDs but it also converts well for health products, household appliances and other stuff, food, etc.

EBay is also a great choice for almost any niche, though its selection of offers isn't as huge as Amazon's. Admission to the program itself could be a problem because they have many affiliates and are very picky when new affiliates want to join. In terms of commissions, this isn't the highest paying network but if you can reach good sales volumes, you can make decent money with it.

Clickbank is the best choice for eBooks and other digital products. Its user interface and logic isn't the best you can find and very often you will miss great products simply because you can't find them but as a whole, this is one of the best networks with really generous commissions. Due to their payment terms, Clickbank is kind of hard for a beginner because if you don't make sales you are charged for this but nevertheless, it is still very worthy, especially if you have lots of traffic to your site and are serious in your affiliate efforts.

Max Bounty doesn't have the thousands of offers the bigger networks have but it is a really good network. It has many leads and many exclusive offers. It also has some of the easiest type of offers ? email submits, which don't pay much but convert much more easily than sales and other types of leads. Many offers allow search traffic, so you can start promoting them right away, even without the need to create a landing page for them.

Peer Fly is similar to Max Bounty but they offer more products to promote. They also have many leads and many exclusive offers, as well as a good selection of email submits, so if you are looking for some easy affiliate products to start with, give it a try.

LinkShare is somehow similar to CJ and Amazon because they offer products in many niches, though the selection is certainly not that huge. One of the best things about them is that if you are from the US, the $1 payout makes it easy to get your money soon, rather than have to wait till you reach $100, as the threshold for most other networks is. One of the biggest advertisers here is Buy.com, where you can find products in many niches. Their commissions are kind of low but still there are products that pay 50% or more. The offers are mainly sales - leads, if any, are very rare, so if you are looking for leads, this isn't you network.

Compared to the others, Never Blue Ads isn't the best network but if you didn't have success with the other networks on the list, give them a try. They are picky about the affiliates they accept but it isn't that difficult to join them. They do have exclusive offers, so it won't hurt, if you try them.

PepperJam is also a good affiliate network, though it isn't as big as the others on the list. It has good retail offers, so if you are looking for an Amazon-like site to promote, it is possible to find it on PepperJam.

More Niche is last on the list not because it is worse than the others but because it is a niche network that won't be of interest to the majority of Web masters, who don't have sites in the niches it covers. More Niche is great for weight loss, health and beauty, especially if you have UK traffic because all its advertisers are in these niches and there are many top UK brands. Of course, you can sell these products to a global audience but for UK they are the best fit. Their commissions are very generous and they offer tons of affiliate materials, not only the standard banners and text ads.

There is a lot of money in affiliate ads. It is true that while you learn the ropes you might be making next to nothing but this isn't a reason to give up. If you have good, targeted traffic, affiliate offers are your best bet. Join the networks on the list, find suitable offers, start promoting them, and chances are you will make decent money with this.

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How to Protect Your Content

Your content is your most precious asset. It takes efforts and time not only to create it but also to protect it from thieves. Unfortunately, content theft is way too common and there is hardly a site that hasn't been affected.

On the other hand, as my experience shows, when there are thousands of articles to be looked after, this process takes too much time and in practice makes sense to do only for important articles. Anyway, you can't let thieves go with your content ? you must know what to do when you encounter theft. Here are the steps how to protect your content.

Unless you are new to SEO, the answer to this question is obvious. As we say, ?Content Is King?. You need original content in order to rank well in Google and this is why you chunk articles, images, videos, etc. to publish on your site. However, it is so easy to copy+paste content and this is why content theft is so common.

If it weren't bad enough that you feed somebody else's site for free, the duplicate content penalty adds insult to injury. Google is trying really hard to deal with duplicates but it is way too common to see stolen articles rank higher than your original. This is why it is so important to protect your content in any way you can.

As na?ve as it might sound, sometimes thieves aren't aware they are stealing. There are many articles, images, videos, etc. in the public domain that are free to use even commercially. In order to avoid confusion your content isn't in the public domain, be sure to place a Copyright notice in the footer of your site, or even better ? under the copyrighted piece of content itself.

It also makes sense to add physical barriers to theft. For instance, you can add watermarks for images and videos ? these aren't 100% secure but they will stop some of the thieves because with your watermark it will be awkward to use the stuff elsewhere.

For articles, you may want to disable text selection. This will make it harder to copy content directly and will stop many thieves because now copying your content involves more efforts. Unfortunately, there are other ways to copy your content (though they do require more effort), so if somebody really wants your content, disabled copying won't stop them but it's more than nothing.

Google Authorship is a very useful tool when it comes to content protection and building your online reputation. Basically, the idea is simple ? you enter your online stuff and claim authorship about it.

The only issue is that you must use your real name ? this is a problem, if you write under a pseudonym, or ghost write, or simply don't want to disclose your authorship because of privacy concerns. If your site has multiple writers, you still can use Google Authorship but each of them must claim his or her articles separately.

Once your content is entered in Google Authorship, Google knows it's you who created it, so even if it gets copied somewhere else, you won't get the duplicate content punishment.

Protecting your content from theft is one thing, catching thieves is another. Even if you do a good job in guarding your content, there will always be thieves. The easiest way to catch them is with the help of Google Alerts.

Google Alerts is another useful service from Google. Without going into too much detail, the logic is this:

You copy sentences from your text and create alerts to be notified when they appear online. You need to make them a direct match (i.e. use quotations), so that when your words get discovered somewhere else, you get an alert. It's best if you create 2 or 3 alerts per article ? one for the first paragraph and some more from random places in the text.

Your first paragraph might be copied more ? for instance as an intro to your article, followed by a link to your site. This isn't theft but you still might want to be aware of it. Also, if your content is published and you are quoted as the author, this technically isn't theft either, though you certainly might not like it.

After you get an alert and discover that content of yours has been stolen, here is what you can do next.

The first step is to gather your evidence. This means to make screenshots and prepare the original files. Of course, it's hard to prove you were the first to publish this particular piece because having the drafts for an article doesn't mean much ? they could have been created afterwards in attempt to frame the original author. For images and videos, if you have the source files, this could be more of a proof.

If your content is indexed in Google and it has a date (and of course this date is prior to the date the copy was indexed), you can use this as well as an evidence the content was stolen from you, not vice versa.

After you have your evidence, now it's time to take real steps. You might be tempted to but don't start biting right away. First, send a friendly email to the infringing party. Even if the probability isn't high, it's possible the theft wasn't on deliberately. It's possible that after your friendly email the blog owner removes your content and the problem is solved.

If the friendly email to the blog owner doesn't help, contact their hosting provider. Attach the evidence you have and if the infringement is blatant, it's quite possible their hosting provider might even close their account, if they don't want to remove the stolen content on their own.

Very often the steps in the previous sections suffice to deal with thieves but if they don't do the job for you, you will have to use the heavy artillery ? i.e. file a DMCA complaint with Google.

You submit a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) complaint with Google to tell them to deindex content stolen from you. In this case 'stolen' means used without your permission or without crediting you. Google is usually quick in removing stolen content, so you can expect that shortly after you submit the complaint, it will be removed from Google's index.

Dealing with content theft is very time-consuming but if you want to protect your rights (and your SEO rankings), you need to do it. It's a never ending battle but with the right tools, as described in this article, your chance of success is good.

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