By Rita Santamaria
We all use articles from other sources to help achieve good material for our blogs, website, or articles. Be careful about violating copyright laws. One must have express written permission from the author or creator of the work to be within the law. Whether the article is from software, photos, music, or a printed magazine, just giving credit to the name of the source is not enough. You must have written permission from the author.
If you are giving your opinion about a news item in your blog, you may refer to the article by date and source. Do not include the entire article.
Many times music is copyright protected. Photographs can be copyright protected too, so read the fine print on the internet source prior to reproducing it on your website or blog.
Lawsuits have been filed against people over copyright infringement. Generally, most people are naive about using such articles for their own use with their website articles but this does not protect them in a lawsuit.
Blogs are the name of the game for marketing purposes. To be efficient in connecting with all ages and interests, writing a blog and posting the blog along with short, interesting features, will attract a potential customer who might have no interest in your magazine articles, billboards, or trade newspapers.
Blogs should be written in the first person and should be no more than 500 words. Be sure to put hot links to other sources in your blog so Google can pick up extra search engine material. SEO is also enhanced through blogs.
Just remember, get written permission to quote someone else or another article, and keep the permission in an e-file for future reference.
All sales persons need blogs and all sales persons need to be aware of the law in this area. All rules are available at www.copyright.gov.
Rita Santamaria is the owner and founder of Champions School of Real Estate and the Champions School of Professional Development. For more information, visit her company website at www.ChampionsSchool.com.
