Have you ever googled your hubpages penn name?

1. 59

   Brie Hoffmanposted 13 years ago

   I just did and found a bunch of places that have my articles...they all give me credit but I never knew that they existed before.  Are these considered backlinks?

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      WryLiltposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      A backlink is a link between any page and any other page. So yes.
      
      If they have copied and pasted your entire article then you can ask them to take it down.

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         Brie Hoffmanposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Well, they did but they put my name on it so I think it benefits me...right?

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            weblogposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            I think if they've copied completely, then it's not helpful even if it's linked to the source.

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            Lisa HWposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            It doesn't benefit you if your article shows up as duplicate content where duplicate content is frowned on or prohibited.   It also doesn't help you with getting viewers to your Hub.

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            relacheposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Are you familiar with the concept of plagiarism?  If not, you may want to read up on it, as it's less beneficial than you think.

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               Brie Hoffmanposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               But they gave me credit, my name is on it so that isn't plagiarism.

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                  relacheposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  Of course if you don't mind someone stealing your work and profiting from that, you can just ignore my advice.

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                  Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  No, but if they copied your article without your permission, it is copyright infringement.  Linking back to you doesn't change that.

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                     Brie Hoffmanposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                     Ok, thanks

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   TajSinghposted 13 years ago

   Hi Brie! It can be considered as a "backlink to your hub" if it has a live click-able link which points to your hub. If they didn't place a link to your hub, if you want to, you can ask the site owner to place a link to your hub or you can also ask them to take down the page.
   
   If your original article had a link to let's say your blog, and they copied the whole article including the links, then we can say that the page is a "backlink to your blog". If they stripped the links and only copied the text, you can ask the site owner to include the links or take down the page.
   
   It's nice that they republished your article. It's beneficial to you since your name is mentioned as the author. It would be more beneficial if it serves as a backlink. However they should have asked you first as it is stated in the Copyright Infringement guidelines of Hubpages here: http://hubpages.com/help/copyright_infringement

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3. 61

   Lisa HWposted 13 years ago

   I'v done it before, but when I saw this thread I just thought I'd google my name again.   Most of the time I pretty much "get" what I run into - whether it's "legitimate" or not.
   
   This time I ran into a really weird thing.  Maybe someone else knows how this kind of thing works, or what has gone on?
   
   I got a cooking dot com site when I Googled my name (as if something I've written is on it).  There I found a ton of links to my HubPages articles, but also profile.  REALLY - I never have anything to do with "anything cooking".   :rolleyes".   THEN, I found they added other links to a page on Amazon, but first they used my name in the link (like, "Lisa HW blah blah blah") (These links have nothing to do with anything I've written at all.)  (The Amazon page IS a page with cooking stuff being sold on it.)
   
   I'm not too thrilled with what I found.      Anyway, might anyone know what someone was doing with that?  Trying to get me in trouble, by any chance I wonder?  If nothing else, they're trying to sell Amazon stuff...

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      Lisa HWposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      And now I'm REALLY irked.  I looked at the search page again and saw that something about a handwriting analysis for Lisa HW come up.  I clicked, and there's a fake handwriting thing, with personality traits described!!!   
      
      Oh - I just went back and looked again.  It's actually a .org site!   I've NEVER given a handwriting sample.  I never use handwriting (except for my own grocery lists or to sign birthday cards).

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         ThomasEposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Hm. if it contains amazon.com links, complain to amazon.com asking them why their affiliates are stealing your work?

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            Lisa HWposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Thomas, the weird thing is they didn't steal my articles.  They included link after link to my different HubPages pages, including my profile - only the links aren't real.  They're working links that go to Amazon pages with products on them.
            
            I just looked more closely...  What they did was make a link with something like, "Lisa HW on HubPages".  Then they stole a few words from my profile, and added their own stuff.  They did it with some Hub titles or similar things too. 
            
            I do think Amazon may need to get an e.mail.   

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               Lisa HWposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               I just looked at it even more closely.  They have "tons" of things with my name in them, and it looks like what follows under the link is a bunch of spun stuff.   I copied the whole page, but I don't want to put it here because I don't know if it would look like I'm "promoting" the names of my Hubs in the forums.  Anyway, here's the one with my profile as a link (only to the Amazon page):
               
               Lisa HW On HubPages
               
               Residing in New England we write upon the freelance as well as stipulate basement In the prior hold up we worked in the corporate sourroundings during the tall tech
               
               -----------
               
               The first four words are what I've had on my profile until very recently.  The rest of it is spun-looking stuff.

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   wheelinalloverposted 13 years ago

   When I saw this I decided to try it. My nick was at the top of the page and it lead to Hub Pages but to an article I didn't write. I had to push the newest button to get to my articles. My ezine article didn't show up.

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5. 59

   Brie Hoffmanposted 13 years ago

   I had to look through several pages and the articles were on pages 1, 2 and I think 3.  So you have to go past the first couple of entries when you do it.  Thanks for all the advice...I will look at these articles again and see if I really want them to stay up.

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   rebekahELLEposted 13 years ago

   that's interesting. I just searched mine and found a blogger page with a similar title to my hub, with no article, only a video about the topic. Underneath there are comments posted with my name, twice, with a link to my hub. Underneath 'searches' on the page is my name. The name of the blogger page is a Chinese restaurant.. the link to the hub comes to my page, but the link with my name goes to his page.. I think he will get a message from me!
   
   this person is using people's names to post comments! I didn't post any comments on this page.

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      Brie Hoffmanposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      It's quite an eye opener isn't it!

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         rebekahELLEposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         well, I've done it before and found some interesting things, but this is the first time I've ever seen a page about Chinese restaurants in Tuscon with a video about the Louvre and comments posted with my name with two hyperlinks back to the same page and a link to my hub! I guess people will try anything.

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            Lisa HWposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Warning:  This post is obviously a rant/vent.  I just had to post it, though. 
            
            The blog I found looks like an otherwise perfectly normal one about cooking.   Everything looks perfectly normal (and even professional) about it, and there's the list of all kinds of cooking-related subjects.  It's that the the "links" (which aren't links to me or my stuff at all) with my name on the them is huge.
            
            There's not just "links" (which really go to Amazon) to HubPages or my Hubs.  It's - like - every ridiculous thing I have online - Yahoo answers, blogs I have or haven't done much with, sites that have my name somewhere (but mostly Hubs).  That list of "links" associated with my name makes the otherwise decent blog look stupid.  I actually wondered if some virus may be involved.
            
            There's another thread on here about how JC Penney was being found in searches about unrelated stuff...   This made me think of that - only, unlike them, I haven't hired anyone to do anything "funny" with search engines.  Having my name show up at that site if someone were to search for it (and I can't even imagine anyone would ever be searching for it anyway  ) looks like I'm the one who has done something questionable with the Amazon program.  That's the thing that irks/concerns me most. 
            
            The "blurbs" under the links with my name are obviously a matter of spun words, some of which were probably taken from my real pages.  The rest is spun nonsense.  I did note a couple of places (separate from the links) with the word, "Bangalore" (shocking!!  )
            
            Of course, I don't know a lot about this kind of thing; but I'm thinking "taking" any URL that includes a HubPages.com in it makes HubPages look as "iffy" as this could make me look.
            
            I wrote to the HP team, Amazon, etc. and sent this e.mail to the "blog person":
            
            EMAIL:
            
            "I don't really understand why my name and titles, and whatever else that relates to me, has shown up so substantially on your blog, which is supposedly dealing with cooking. 
            
            As you may or may not realize, each link that's supposed to go my writing or profile instead goes to an Amazon page that's selling stuff.  I suspect there's a strong possibility that if either Amazon or Google discovered this virus (or whatever "gliche" there may be in some feed, or something); you would lose your Amazon affiliate account if you have one.
            
            Because it is my responsibility to monitor anything "questionable" associated with my HubPages (and other) accounts, I'll handle inquiries on my end of things.  I thought it would be fair to mention this to you, in case some virus has made its way to your computer or this blog."
            
            It looks to me like the long row of stuff associated with my name is on at least two of their pages, because there's - like - 20 such entries on one page and another 20 or so on another.    This particular site is on the second page after searching.
            
            Of course, I don't want to post a link because I don't want to send it traffic.  I made copies of this thing, thinking about how I'd post it for all to see  (which, of course, would just be exercising my urge to try to shame someone who doesn't have any shame anyway - or else someone who could possibly, I suppose, be the victim of a virus or something similar).
            
            I thought about removing the identifying information, just to show people (for some reason) the kind of stuff that can go on; but then I realized posting pictures or copied words from the site would amount to my doing copyright infringement.   
            
            It isn't even really the thing, itself, that irks me; because I'm used to a lot of foolishness.  Some of it isn't just "foolishness", though.   I mean..   for all I know, someone could search my name (maybe even someone who's opinion of me, as a writer, mattered "work-wise"); see this baloney on this blog I have nothing to do with, and think I set up the blog and did the whole "baloney thing" as a way of trying to sell stuff on Amazon.
            
            A lot of this stuff I've always been able to mostly overlook.  If someone takes words or a name out of your profile and turns them into their own user name (or something like that), it's kind of irksome, but you can't even really be sure that's what they did (although in a some cases, let's face it, it's kind of obvious  )  This, though...   this one has the potential of making me look bad, and even possibly causing one problem or another for me. 
            
            I'm not thrilled (but, by the way, there have been quite a few things recently that have happened like this, so it isn't this one, thread, that "got me going".  If I weren't already in a "got-going" mood, I probably wouldn't haven't searched my name at the suggestion of it.   
            
            I don't really want to, or like to, be "all negative" on here; but - I don't know... - sometimes a person needs to do some venting.

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7. 59

   Brie Hoffmanposted 13 years ago

   OK, there were 2 articles that just references 2 articles but did not re-post the entire article but one had the entire article with amazon ads.  It did have my name but it did not refer back to the hub-pages article, so I just wrote to the website author and asked them to take it down.

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      Lisa HWposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      One problem can be that people with things like blogs, and in some other countries, pretty much post whatever they want.  That person is using your work to try to make Amazon sales.   There's someone in another country who has an article of mine on his blog, and he says, "I found this article on....." and makes no effort to pretend he wrote it.    He doesn't have Google ads on the article, but he's trying to sell the product (and I'm guessing, earn from doing that in ways whoever earns whatever in his country).
      
      It irks me, because the article can be found in search engines.  This guy isn't bound by things that govern US Internet writers, though; and since he doesn't have Google ads, there's no threat of losing an Ad Sense account either.  So this clown gets to just use my article to sell stuff from his site, and there's not much anyone can do about it.  It really irks me that these people can be so blatant; but there's a point where I can't be bothered trying to further "follow up" or hope to get anything done about it.  (I sure would like to slap the heck out of this kid, though - just because he has the gall.  )

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         Brie Hoffmanposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Yeah, there is only so much I can worry about.

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8. 59

   dandan594posted 13 years ago

   I Googled my name and got 24,600 results ..... Wow I have been busy.

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9. 75

   wheelinalloverposted 13 years ago

   I remembered from last night and tried a google search again. I now have one link that leads to one of my articles. I haven't found any links that lead anywhere other than hub pages, one does lead to an article I didn't write.

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10. 71

    Cagsilposted 13 years ago

    I just Googled mine and there are 36,000 associated references listed. Google said about that.

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       Lisa HWposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Time to start clickin', Cagsil.       Second thought:  Don't.  You never know how soon into it you'll find someone that aggravates the heck out of you.   

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          Cagsilposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          Hey Lisa, I've done that before, clicking on links to see where they go. It's odd the way Google search engine works as well as many other types of search engines.
          
          However, I no intention on tracking down any of the links. Many of them are caused by myself, either through Twitter, RSS feeds and Shared by others on their own sites. I've a few articles that people have asked if they could share with others from their own site and I've checked on those. Those only have the title of my hub and a link, with a suggestion for reading.

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11. 61

    Lisa HWposted 13 years ago

    Less than 24 hours from the time I sent Amazon an e.mail (quite a bit less), I received an reply from Amazon, and it was satisfying to me that it wasn't just the usual, automated, kind of e.mail businesses send out to let people know their e.mails were received.  The e.mail they sent back made it clear that my complaint "registered", and it said they sent the info to whoever handles such things.  As a lot of others on here may already know, they included links to indicate whether the reply "did it" or not.  Clicking the "yes, did it" link gets you to a "thanks", and that's the end of it. 
    
    It was a satisfying way to be able to put an end to that "state of irked-ness" that I had after seeing questionable stuff associated with my name.  I like a company that helps people to not feel helpless.  What they do or don't do from here isn't my business.  At least I have my "electronic paper trail" to deal with any of the potential problems I was envisioning/imagining.

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       ThomasEposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Well, it is scary. Even as a relative newbie, I have had my words stolen... but to have your name attached to something that you didn't even write... that is really weird.

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    Pearldiverposted 13 years ago

    Take it VERY Seriously Lisa...
    
    Effectively Your Identity had been stolen!
    
    There is No Mistake made by some 'nice' blogger who may have unwittingly got your stuff!!!
    They have basically diverted a percentage of your links to their own sites Intentionally!! I have had to do some of this 'recovery' work also after finding that both my hub traffic to those 'hijacked' hubs and all of my Amazon traffic had virtually disappeared!
    
    Amazon are well aware of this problem but neglect to close down the ability of the thieves to act on the stolen IDs. I found that Indonesia was a place that many of them came from.  You Collect their IP Addresses and provide Amazon with it in AN ASSERTIVE Report to them... and they then will act. Go Check your traffic and Amazon sales records from those diverted URLs.. I think you may then see the intent of your Nice Blogger who probably runs 100 + sites with your 'Rich Content!'
    
    The Big Question is: How are they able to Steal from this site.. huh?
    IDs, hubs, the lot!
    
    Kick Their Damn Butts!

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    Don Simkovichposted 13 years ago

    I've Googled my Hubpages pen name ... and up came a warrant for my arrest!
    
    (Kidding)

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    Aficionadaposted 13 years ago

    One of the hits I got led to what I assume is an article directory. It had lists of articles from articlebase, about.com, HubPages, brighthub, and article basement.  All of the articles had one word in common.  The titles were linked to their original articles, and they were all correctly attributed.  They did not include the entire article, but just a brief blurb for each, and the only way to get to the articles was through the linked titles.  I assumed this was an okay backlink, but I admit I have so much to learn that I'm not sure.  Any comments, anyone?

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