The last question our personal branding panel got at Affiliate Summit West was, to me, curious, “What would you do if someone hijacked your brand?” Being an overly trusting person, I never thought about the possibility of someone intentionally hijacking your brand – or your work. Yet, it’s happened to me before. Recently I discovered that it’s happened again. Can people really be that clueless? After dashing off a quick email with links to the sites to a few peers and getting their advice, I’m coming out with a warning: take it down or I’m coming after you. And, I’m also telling you how we can work together. Here’s why . . .

That’s My Work, Not Yours, So Take it Down – Now!!!

Let’s be clear, if you ask permission, I’m really easy to work with and would, most likely, be happy to grant you an interview. But, if you take/borrow/steal my work, any of it, without permission, it’s not only unfair, it’s illegal. Copyright law protects your work to uses with your permission.

Wanna collaborate? Watch this Wanna Work Together from Creative Commons video where collaboration rules.

Need an emotional litmus test? Ask yourself: How would I feel if someone used my work in their blog or video without my permission?

In my first creative hijacking, an author’s ghostwriter called to ask where to send a book that included my post, How to Quickly Become a Subject Matter Expert Using LinkedIn. When I told another author, one with over 60 books to their credit, they told me that legally I had the power to pull every one of these books off of the shelf. I did not. But, I did write this post Book to Blog 12 Keys to Go From Publishing to Posting.

In the latest instance, someone used my image, quoted almost an entire chapter, and mentioned me briefly with no link to my site. I was shocked to listen to them reading the exact words I wrote on the video.

Where was the link to Wired PR Works? Nowhere. Link to Barbara Rozgonyi on LinkedIn? None. Link to twitter? Nada. You get the idea.

When Leveraging Someone Else’s Image, Words and Brand is Not Okay – Is It Ever Okay?

1. No connection – on any social network  or in person -  says that the person has no interest in communicating.

2. No request for permission, just blatant and overt reuse, goes beyond the boundaries of copyright, not to mention plagiarism.

3. Publishing an image without approval or a link within a blog post gives no credit at all.

4. Using the author’s name as a keyword or tag to pick up traffic to your site, not theirs.

How to Get Any Author’s Attention, and Most Likely, Approval for Limited Usage

If you absolutely, truly love someone’s work, tell them. Getting their attention is the first step to approval.

1. Get personal and get in touch. Authors and bloggers love love notes and we’re almost all easy to find thanks to social media.

2. Write a LinkedIn recommendation telling everyone why their work inspires you.

3. Post an Amazon review that points out the lessons you learned in their book and why everyone should read it.

4. Send them a message or post to their Facebook wall telling them how their work is changing your life.

5. Start a fan club – only half-way kidding about this one, but you can connect with them and their fans via social networks.

6. Leave comments on their blog that add to the community’s conversation.

7. Go to see them when they’re speaking and get that book signed.

8. Interview them on your blog or radio show.

9. Ask permission to post images. I know, I know, they’re free and everywhere, but maybe they have a preferred image they’d like you to use. And, if you’re looking at an image that they created, then be certain to check for usage rights before you post or use the image anywhere.

10. Find a reason to introduce them to your audience that gives them exposure and links them to your network.

11. Link back to their blog, site and social networks in your coverage and promote your coverage within your social network to theirs.

12. Include a bio that describes how you met them and know them. Don’t know them – what do you think you should do?

13. Need more guidance?

When using others’ images, video, or other creative content, a link may not be enough to properly cite the work. You may be violating copyrights. We recommend that you always cite your source material, and heed takedown requests you may receive. When looking for source material to include in your blog posts (e.g., images, video, audio, etc), look for hints about attribution requests by the original poster. The copyright owner may have posted a Creative Commons license agreement for you to use, or may indicate how s/he wants her or his work cited on the web. Source: Center for Digital Ethics and Policy

Image: Thanks to Shutterstock.com for allowing me to use this image, which is one of the least threatening in their hijacker category. I selected this one because I believe that most people really want to do good, but they may not be aware of the discomfort, frustration and damage, they’re causing until someone points it out. And, it should be fairly easy to fix, right?

How about you? How do you protect your work or your brand from being hijacked?

Almost two years ago, I shared my book group’s reading list. This post attracted lots of traffic from people searching for book group suggestions. If you’re one of those folks, browse this list and also check out Kathleen’s Parker’s new blog, Marian’s Library for reading recommendations for all ages.

Before you dig into the lengthy book group list below, check out a great book that came out last month.

Photo caption: Kathleen Parker, Barbara Rozgonyi [me!] and Melanie Benjamin, author of Alice I Have Been, a book Publisher’s Weekly calls book group gold. [Disclosure: I've know Melanie and her family for many years. I was thrilled to be invited to her book publishing party and share in the celebration with complimentary refreshments for all. Thanks Melanie and Dennis and to Kathleen for driving in for the event!]

Melanie tells the story of Alice Liddell Hargreaves, who was the inspiration for “Alice in Wonderland,” and her relationship with Charles Dodgson, who wrote the book under the pen name Lewis Carroll. Read the reviews of Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin. Where is my review? My book went out on loan to friends before I had a chance to read it. Now I’m ordering a back up copy for me and as a second loaner. Judging from the reviews and knowing Melanie, this is a book that you’ll be happy to read, recommend and give to friends who love historical fiction.

Looking for more good reads? Here’s the list from my book group. What books would you add?

Update February 28, 2008
A few qualifiers: credit for the title selections goes to the book group; members collectively recommend titles and make final selections. Our leader is a very organized and dedicated person. She gets credit for keeping track of the list.

2002 Book Group Selections

All Over But the Shoutin’ Bragg
Palace Walk
Barefoot Contessa Cookbook
Five Quarters of the Orange Harris
Bel Canto Patchett
Nickel and Dimed Enrenhreich
Things Fall Apart Achebe

2003 Book Group Selections

Niagara Falls all Over Again McCracken
The Secret History Tartt
The Hatbox Baby C. Brown
The Secret Life of Bees Kidd
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress Sijie Dai
Atonement
The Life of Pi
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

2004 Book Group Selections

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
A High Wind in Jamaica Richard Hughes
Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert
Year of Wonders: a novel of the Plague Geraldine Brookes
The Nine Parts of Desire Geraldine Brookes
Cry the Beloved Country Paton
Patron Saint of Liars Ann Patchett
The Devil in the White City Eric Larson
The Other Boleyn Girl Philippa Gregory
The Rich Part of Life Jim Kokoris

2005 Book Group Selections

The Kite Runner by Hosseini
The Four Spirits by Sena Jeter Naslund
Dubliners by James Joyce
Interpreter of the Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Purple Hibiscus by Adichie
Daisy Miller by Henry James
Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett
Wings of the Dove by Henry James
Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris

2006 Book Group Selections

Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia
Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
A Curious Incident of A Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon
Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
The Dress Lodger by Shari Holman
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
March by Geraldine Brooks
Prairie Nocturne by Ivan Doig
The Wild Girl: the Notebooks of Ned Giles by Jim Fergus

2007 Book Group Selections

The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh
Retrospective of Jon Cleary books
The World Below by Sue Miller
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Poetry ideas from Marion
Them: a Memior of Parents by Francine du Plessix Gray
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
The Painted Veil by Somerset Maugham
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
The Female of the Species (short stories) by Joyce Carol Oates

2008 Book Group Selections

Saving the World by Julia Alvarez
Echomaker by Richard Powers
The March by E.L. Doctorow
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
Miss Lonelyhearts by
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan
Street of a Thousand Blossoms by Gail Tsukiyama
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

2009 Book Group Selections

Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
Seeing by Jose Saramago
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Rabbit Angstrom: A Tetralogy by John Updike
The Girl Who Loved Anne Frank
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Hosseini
The Ha Ha: a novel by Dave King
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Commoner by John Burnham Schwartz

2010 Book Group Selections

The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester
The Nineteenth Wife by David Ebershoff
Little Bee by Chris Cleve

You could call this a high-click post. It gets more traffic than some blogs will ever get. It won a trip to BlogWorld. A national association just asked for republishing rights. More sites link into “Becoming a Subject Matter Expert on LinkedIn: The Top Ten Ways” than any other post on my blog. And, now it’s in a book.
In the video [I still can't believe I had the courage to make this with NO makeup - at all!], you’ll see how and where the post appears in Larry Weber’s new book “Stick & Stones: How Digital Reputations Are Won Over Time and Lost in a Click.”

Although Wired PR Works is mentioned in David Meerman Scott’s book “The New Rules of Marketing & PR” this is the first time my words are in someone else’s book. Thanks to Mr. Weber’s editor who emailed me to let me know this was post was selected after the book was published. It’s an honor to be listed along with Reid Hoffman the founder of LinkedIn. I’ve read the book and if you’d like to, too, you can click on this [affiliate] link to order directly from this post.

When I wrote this post, I had no idea it would be published and linked to so much. Here’s why I think that happened . . .

Blog to Book – 12 Keys to Posting for Publishing

1. List: Top 10 anything gets noticed
2. Topic: LinkedIn is a popular social media platform
3. Keywords: Become a Subject Matter Expert is a desirable goal for many entrepreneurs
4. Search: Good search ranking; easy to find
5. Links: Referenced elsewhere with lots of inbound links
6. Author: Credibility with a deep body of work
7. Blog: Established and listed on Alltop and AdAge Power 150
8. Coverage: Referenced within the post about the amount of coverage
9. Winning: Contest winner
10. Content: Well-written
11. Book-friendly: Fits style and format
12. YOUR IDEA HERE

Interested in what happened at BlogWorld? During the sessions, I sent out enough twitter updates to fill a 15 page Word document, which added up to over 300 updates. This post covers Book Deals, Digital Assets And Corporate Sponsorships with Prince Campbell, Jonathan Fields and Geoff Nelson.

You’ll find all of my BlogWorld08 twoverage [tweet +coverage] here.

Thanks to those of you who asked me to share these updates.

Reader’s Guide: Each line represents a live update made on @wiredprworks on twitter.com. Reporting is in reverse order; so start at the end and read your way up. Note that this is exactly what I typed during the session, misspellings and all. When you see @name, this means that the person who was talking may be found on twitter.com/name. Apologies in advance for any inaccuracies. 

Did you go to BlogWorld? Please share your takeaways and resources in the comments section.

I walked in late to this session – too many people to talk to in the hallways. Other places to find more detail

Glenda’s recap of day two sessions covers major points from several sessions, including book deals, digital assets and corporate sponsorships

Ducksnorts, a sports blogger, summed up blog and book marketability highlights: “The panelists focused on the importance of marketability, with the two big lessons here being that price is all about perceived value and that you always want to keep your end game in mind, ensuring that everything you’re doing is pulling you in that direction.”

Book Deals, Digital Assets and Corporate Sponsorships for Bloggers Session Transcription by Barbara Rozgonyi @wiredprworks on twitter.com

retheauditors: Will work on that. RT @wiredprworks @lizstrauss to get published need a marketable manuscript and be someone who’s easy to work with #bwe08

@lizstrauss to get published need a marketable manuscript and have to be someone who’s easy to work with #deals, #bwe08

how big of a platform do you need? depends, smaller pubs, smaller platform #deals, #bwe08

you need to know what your endgame is, make sure everything you are doing is headed in that direction #deals #bwe08

RT thanks DaveTaylor @wiredprworks psssst Peter Shankman’s Twitter Id is @skydiver #bwe08

RETWEET @suziecheel 2pm Launch of my book “emergings- a meditation on the emotions of change” by @lizstrauss @photrade booth 510 at #BWE08

ShannonRenee: Retweeting @wiredprworks: follow session updates http://tinyurl.com/3emc8m (expand) #bwe08

if you want to speak at a conference, propose the whole package, not just a session @lizstrauss #deals, #bwe08

might take 6-7 tries to get past gatekeeper to get corporate sponsorships #deals #bwe08

people talk about corporate stuff, but it’s really all about relationships #deals, #bwe08

follow session updates http://tinyurl.com/3emc8m (expand) #bwe08

couple of ways to approach radio, radio and tv internet report rtir.com?, HARO @petershankman, set up sattelite radio tour #deals #bwe08

ShannonRenee: Retweeting @wiredprworks: we leave a footprint that lasts forever online – get it out there and comment on company blogs #bwe08

we leave a footprint that lasts forever online – get it out there and comment on company blogs #bwe08

@jetblue has a dedicate community manager, his job is to check out twitter, use the places that you use to reach out #bwe08

if you have an audience and what you’re saying is what people are interested in, they/companies will come to you #bwe08

call companies and say I blog alot about this – how can we work together? #bwe08

in digital assets sessions, this is where real $ is, facebook session too full to get into s/b in here #bwe08

Book Deals Panelists

Liz Strauss, @lizstrauss

Prince Campbell

Jonathon Fields, @jonathonfields

Geoff Nelson

Writing an Amazon.com best-seller is one way to be perceived as a subject matter expert. People visit your page, they buy your book – and they read the reviews.

When I met Brad Shorr, blogger at WordSell, Inc. his Amazon review success intrigued me. Listed as the first reviewer for at least one best-selling Amazon.com business book, Brad says writing book reviews is worth the time it takes to collect your thoughts and submit a review to run on the same page as a best-seller.

We chatted for about 25 minutes and recorded an MP3 for you. Next time I’ll test my headset first.

Listen to Barbara Rozgonyi interview Brad Shorr about how to be a top Amazon reviewer.

Don’t have that much time? Glance over these notes . . . and  study Brad Shorr’s Amazon Profile. Ranked in the top 1000 Amazon.com reviewers, Brad’s 232 reviews garnered 3,036 helpful votes.

Before you start, you have to have a reason to write reviews.

Here’s what Brad has to say about that on his Amazon review profile: 

Hi there!
I’m a sales coach, copywriter, and blog/marketing consultant. Not not surprisingly, I love to READ! Several years ago I started writing reviews on Amazon to help me remember what I just read, and because, more that anything, other reviewers helped me figure out what to read next.

What books would you like to review?

In our interview, Brad explains his process for writing reviews, including

- take notes as you read so you’ll remember later

- be honest and say what you think, keeping in mind that you’ll want to back up strong opinions

- reference passages you like in your review

- think about what the reader would want to know and answer their questions

- focus on one or two subjects that relate to your area of expertise or diversify if you like, a niche approach works better for business

Benefits to You as an Amazon Reviewer

1. Enhanced Google results – I found 6890 results for “Brad Shorr” + Amazon

2. Qualified referral traffic – people who come to your site after reading your review already know something about you

3. Offers from authors to review books before publication – while this might not happen right away, Brad’s been contacted to preview final editions

What other benefits would you realize?

About Brad Shorr

Brad Shorr is a marketing consultant and writer who lives near Chicago, Illinois. His company, Word Sell, Inc., specializes in business blog development, Web content strategy, and Web copywriting services. He has an extensive background in B2B sales, marketing, and executive management.

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