Do the Thing That Content Thieves Don't

Sick of low-lives stealing your content? Prove it came from you…by commenting.

Nine times out of ten, I’m doing it on short form Notes that hit me right in the feels or brilliantly articulated long form articles on either Medium or Substack.

I also realized something incredibly obvious — its power is sorely underrated in the never-ending battle to make your work harder to steal.

It is one of those things that you come to accept or at least come to terms with.

Perhaps you’ve been around for awhile. You’re gaining traction and building substantial momentum in visibility, revenue, and impact as you build your audience. Maybe you’ve built your foundations and have a respectable body of work and are hovering around dozens to a few hundred followers or subscribers.

It’s likely your work has been scraped, repurposed, or outright ripped out by others.

Success attracts the less scrupulous masses, the bottom feeders who are in it purely for the monetary gain. These individuals could care less about the message or the effort it takes to express an idea from personal experience. They take what’s popular and pass it off as their own, and AI is just the latest tool in their shed to streamline that process.

Almost from the very beginning of my journey, I’ve been contemplating how to combat this problem. It’s only recently that I’ve had the courage to start tackling it, though.

I’ve decided to start a series (because I love writing this way) on how to fight it.

Let’s start with the easy stuff…

Over the years, I’ve occasionally scanned comments of people with larger followings (think thousands and up).

For every thoughtful, well-articulated one, there are dozens more that are devoid of meaning outside of begging for attention.

• Monosyllabic blurps of gratitude…

• Spammy links with a short “read mine” or “subscribe to me”…

• Sketchy blorts replete with emojis and AI-generated avatars attracting followers like they just learned leet speak for this purpose…

These examples are the slop, the nothing burgers, the pointless things that take up space.

As you can probably guess, most content thieves don’t waste their time here. They take the entire article and copy/paste it to a blank page and hit the “Publish” button like it owes them money. The claps, hearts, likes, or whatever other external metrics come flooding in just the same, but I’ve noticed something in these articles:

Not a single one of the comments have meaningful responses from the “author”.

And if there is a response (the gall), it’s just as bad or telling because it’s something similar to what I just described.

Writing is an art because genuine communication is something that can’t be faked for long. That’s where you (a real writer) can “talk the talk”.

Thieves can take the fruits of the labor, but they don’t know the first thing about the orchard.

True writing has an origin story. Authors can engage with comments that add to the conversation. As a minnow in this sea, I have the luxury of responding to every single one that comes along in mine. I do my best to acknowledge and thank individuals for taking time out of their day to add their two cents. I also strive to do one more thing:

I do my best to give that person a little peek into the thought process, a piece of the story that inspired me to create it.

It may be a small gesture, but it’s a powerful indicator of authenticity in your work. It’s the difference between putting a potted plant and a bouquet out on display. One is a living, breathing thing that thrives from attention and care. The other wilts, dries, and turns to dust over time no matter how hard you try.

A thief will never dare to offer any meaningful context to the work they steal because they have no idea how it came to be. They have no skin in the game. They see engagement without effort as a guarantee like one would in the produce aisle.

I can hear some of you right now: “What difference does it make? My writing speaks for itself!”

It’s not your skill as a writer that attracts people to you…

It’s your personality, your style, your ability to nurture small connections that may grow into a dialog over time.

What these small people will never understand is that a body of work reflects the author’s identity. There is continuity and a pattern that separates someone dedicated to a craft rather than a hodgepodge of articles with wildly different tones and contexts.

Comment thoughtfully and with care — not just on work that impacts and inspires you, but also on as many who respond to your own as well.

It’s the fine print that cannot be replicated.

I know. I know…there’s no foolproof way to prevent our content from being stolen.

It’s a war of attrition, and there are plenty of ways to get the juice. The thing I want to do is to make it as annoying and exhausting as possible for these idiots.

I’m just getting started.