Source: http://firsthandviews.com/5-lessons-every-blogger-can-learn-linda-ikejis-plagiarism-saga

The last time I wrote about Linda Ikeji here, it was when she had a web fight with the guy who set up . It was a fierce one which later died down. Now there's a new saga and I see there's a lot of lessons every blogger can learn from Linda Ikeji's Plagiarism Saga.

Recently the name Linda Ikeji started trending on twitter. For all the wrong reasons. The rumor was that a man with the twitter handle: @MrAyedee was accusing Linda Ikeji of plagiarism/copyright infringement of his works, and was threatening to report to Google (Linda's host) and also to sue. A lot of people thought the was never going to amount to anything but on October 8 2014, big brother Google pulled lindaikeji..com down!
The message was clear, Sorry this blog has been removed... Chikena!

LINDA-IKEJI-Blog-not-found

Google was able to do this to her because her site was running on Google's FREE platform, hence the ..com at the end of her web address (URL). The other option for her is to have a custom domain name e.g: lindaikeji.com or lindaikeji.net. Now the reasonable thing anyone would do in this situation would be to move over to the custom domain. But dear Linda had been running her blog on the free platform and had never secured her custom domain name.
It's painful that this lady's name which is now a brand does not been belong to her anymore but that the world we live in. She snoozed for too long and domain parkers and cyber squatters stole every possible variant of her name off the internet.
Think of any name bearing lindaikeji, it's gone. Here are a few I checked on that had been snatched:
lindaikeji.com, lindaikeji.net, lindaikeji.biz, lindaikeji.ng, lindaikeji.com.ng, lindaikejing.com, ikejilinda.com, linda-ikeji.com.

They are now offering her these names for sale and according to Linda's post on her blog on October 8 before the shutdown,

Anyway, I will find one weird LindaIkeji name and let y'all know soon where I am moving to. I don't want to give any of these guys the pleasure of buying those names from them.

Last year When she had that small impersonation beef with the owner of , I thought she would take the hint and buy off all variants of her name but apparently Linda carried on with her show like there was no problem at all.
What or Who is Linda Ikeji?

This needs to be answered because, if you don't care about daily gossip in Nigeria then you need the explanation.
Briefly, Linda Ikeji is an ex-beauty queen, turned successful blogger in Nigeria. Her blog is ranked No. 10 on alexa and No. 1925 globally. She acquired a range rover 2014 edition recently and caused a lot of stir, which could have pissed off this dude suing for plagiarism... or not.

Many Nigerian bloggers live for copy and paste style of blogging, so much that they don't know even know it's plagiarism. This guy (Ayedee) just knew who to hit and it would hurt though.


5 Lessons Every Blogger Can Learn From Linda Ikeji's Plagiarism Saga

1. Get a Custom Domain

I think she should have bought a custom domain and kept it aside for times like this.
I used to have a .com for this blog but when I started taking my blog seriously, I bought the domain name fast before someone else did. Linda looks like she didn't realise when her hobby turned into a big business

2. Get professionals to handle your business when it grows.

Your blog has the ability to grow and become big business. Linda probably didn't realize when her hobby turned into a big business so she kept running things by herself. If she had pros around her, they wouldn't have let her roam free without securing a custom domain name.

3. Register your business offline

Register your business offline with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) in case of any litigation such as this. That way the company can represent itself. You can save some of your money for yourself while the company can file for bankruptcy depending on your books... And how smart your accountant and lawyer are.

4. Stop plagiarism

Some Nigerian bloggers choose to call it copy and paste as if that makes it a lesser crime. In court, it will be called plagiarism and you will have to pay for doing it. Plagiarism has taken down a lot of creative people even though they rose again, ask Fareed Zakari of CNN.
Linda can rise above this too. Maybe if she apologizes and becomes an activist against plagiarism. Before you know it, she could be celebrated again.

5. WordPress Won't Save You

If you are a copy and paste king or queen, moving your blog to WordPress from Google will not save you especially if you intend to carry on with the copy and paste nature. What happened to Linda can happen to any blogger, no matter what platform you are on. In Linda's case, Google is her host and they pulled her site from their server. If you go over to WordPress and use Hostgator as your host, if you plagiarize, and you are reported, they will suspend your site.

What will save you ultimately is, when you copy and paste, also copy the name of the website you took content from plus their URL, then link back to that site stating that the story is not originally yours. That way when the dog bites, your butt will be in tact.

Now those are the two things you can learn from Linda Ikeji's Plagiarism Saga.

You can still read Linda Ikeji's posts on lindaikeji.mobi or lindaikejionline.com

Source: http://firsthandviews.com/5-lessons-every-blogger-can-learn-linda-ikejis-plagiarism-saga