# Competitor Copied Site Content. What To Do?



## TahoeTomahawk (Apr 12, 2006)

Hi All, what do you do when a competitor clones your website and only changes the colors and a few of the words in each sentence?

If you look at teeburn.com and threadsafeinc.com you will notice that they (teeburn.com) copied our image concept and wording almost word-for word.
Also, you can find many of the other pages the same such as pricing, services, faq and client portfolios.

We are wondering if anyone has been through this before and how did you settle the dispute?


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## peteVA (Nov 11, 2007)

*Re: When a competitor clones your site*

I've seen all sorts of suggestions and replies on this. 

In many cases, it seems a simple email to the offender will settle it. Just make them aware you know what they did. That would be step one.

Second step would be a certified letter telling them that legal action will be forthcoming.

If it gets any further than you have to decide how much it really means to you to have a copycat site. As has been discussed here and on countless other forums, the main person a site design means anything to is the site owner. Your customers / prospects don't really care. 

And, what are the chances of them also visiting the other site?

Other than your feelings hurt, what real damage is being done? Can you prove loss of income or other negative affects of his actions?

Is it worth the hassle?

Not trying to give you, the good guy, a hard time. But set aside your personal feelings and evaluate the business aspects of what has happened and what your costs may be. 

Then, do what is best from a business standpoint.
.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

*Re: When a competitor clones your site*

Maybe I'm viewing the wrong site, but those two sites look nothing alike. The image concept is totally different.

Maybe they've since changed the site?


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## Comin'OutSwingin (Oct 28, 2005)

*Re: When a competitor clones your site*

I think he's talking more about content than actual design.

There's some content that is definitely copied by somebody. But, I personally don't think any customer would be able to decipher that.

With the designs being so different, I don't think anybody would notice.


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## hiGH (Jan 25, 2007)

*Re: When a competitor clones your site*

i agree with rodney. 

the only similarity that i see is the slogan at the bottom of each page.


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## Comin'OutSwingin (Oct 28, 2005)

*Re: When a competitor clones your site*




Threadsafe said:


> *Print-On-Demand Services*
> If you are a new or established designer looking to save money on initial inventory costs, this service is for you. Here is how our print-on-demand service works: Simply sell the item through your website (or elsewhere) and send us the order information. Threadsafe will print your design and ship it directly to your customer. If we have the garment in stock, this can ususally be done within 24 hours. We offer reasonable prices for this service based on your monthly volume.





TeeBurn said:


> Print on Demand Services
> If you are a new or established designer, or looking to start your own t-shirt business, we can save you money on initial inventory costs.
> *Here is how our print-on-demand service works:* Simply sell the item through your website (or elsewhere) and send us the order information. TeeBurn will print your design and ship it directly to your customer. If the garment is in stock, fulfillment is within 24 hrs. We offer reasonable prices for this service as compared to our competitors.



Definite copying by somebody.


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## peteVA (Nov 11, 2007)

*Re: When a competitor clones your site*

Well start comparing Terms of Service, various Policy Statements, etc. on the net. That sort of stuff is copied by the minute, probably second. Hardly the kind of thing to hire a lawyer over.


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## TahoeTomahawk (Apr 12, 2006)

*Re: When a competitor clones your site*

I hope you guys didn't take my frustration the wrong way, I really hate legal disputes and love being a part of the T-shirt community. But there is a major difference between making a similar website and re-branding and in our opinion, that's what they did.

Having worked in the tech field as a Software programmer, web designer and web programmer for over 10 years, I know the easy part is applying a template and layout to a static website. The majority of the work is in the content and we worked very hard for several months to get the site to where it is. Re-branding a website can be done in as little as a few hours, especially with only the minor changes Teeburn has made to our original content.

Here are some examples of the concepts and contents from the sites:
*
Homepage*


threadsafe said:


> Looking for a reliable printer to turn your design into a real product? Searching for a print-on-demand service with no setup fees and no minimum orders? Threadsafe is the digital printer for you!





teeburn said:


> Are you looking for a reliable printer to turn your design into reality? Do you need a print-on-demand service with no setup fees and no minimum orders? TeeBurn is your solution!


*Contact Us*


threadsafe said:


> For prompt email responses please use the following:
> Ready to Order? - [email protected]
> 
> Request a free sample - [email protected]
> ...





teeburn said:


> *For prompt email responses please use the following:*
> Ready to Order? - *[email protected]*
> 
> Request a free sample - *[email protected]*
> ...


*Clients*


threadsafe said:


> We have had the privilege to work with such a diverse group of designers and entrepreneurs. We've listed a few of them.. do check out their websites!





teeburn said:


> We have had the privilege to work with a variety of groups and individuals. Below is a list of just a few:


*FAQ*
Threadsafe - 13 items
Teeburn - 13 items all ordered with minor wording changes.

And below is the image concept from both of our homepages.


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## sunnydayz (Jun 22, 2007)

*Re: When a competitor clones your site*

I agree it does look like they copied alot of your content. Maybe send them an email and politely ask them to change it, if your site is copyrighted ask them to change it to avoid further action on your end.


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## hiGH (Jan 25, 2007)

*Re: When a competitor clones your site*

i should have looked around a bit more.. that sure does look like they copied your content.. shame on them.


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## saltybeachdianne (Oct 17, 2007)

*Re: When a competitor clones your site*

It is horrible. I definitely saw the content copy cat right away. They have very big 'ones' if ya know what I mean. 
Could it be they hired somebody to design the site, and 'those guys' ripped you off, and them? just a thought. Either way, they should know that you know. Send them an email. This is just not cool. 

I have a friend who just launched her invention and website- grillcharms.com. I am/was having a hard time figuring out how to word my return policy and some other shopping cart stuff. I love her verbiage. I emailed her, and asked her permission to copy some of her content! and she is a friend of mine! of course she said o.k. 

It is just a matter of ethics and politeness and having manners. Their mommy did not raise them right. 
good luck. 
Dianne


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## TripleT (Apr 29, 2007)

*Re: When a competitor clones your site*

I suppose the first thing to do would be to find out who owns the company - and then send them an email. There is the possibility that they don't even know that the person who built their site plagiarized yours.


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## thadeus (Dec 16, 2007)

*Re: When a competitor clones your site*

If I was going to profile, I'd say the guy I talked to on the phone was a druggie, which explains why he copied so much.


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## mtmob (Apr 21, 2007)

*Re: When a competitor clones your site*

I have a good question how did you even find out that they did that? I could understand if they did something stupid like use an image and forget to change url of the pic which would eventually use up your bandwidth and then you noticed but either than that were you just browsing one day and found there website? 

I mean how much of a coincidence is that?...lol

But all that aside they could of done a better job at hiding the fact that they copied your site........Damn pirates...LOL


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## TahoeTomahawk (Apr 12, 2006)

*Re: When a competitor clones your site*

I was checking our web rankings through the various search engines. On Google I found their link with the text "print on demand" which I rarely see on other links so I clicked it.


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## Comin'OutSwingin (Oct 28, 2005)

*Re: When a competitor clones your site*

Yeah, Adam, you definitely need to contact them. Your written content is copyrighted material. Let them know that they have infringed upon your copyrighted work.

My guess is that they already know this. They list a provider of the design and concept at the bottom of the pages, but even when you hire a designer, the content still normally comes from the site/business owner. It would be hard for a web designer to just "know" what content to put on the site.

Also, the likelihood that the web designer copied your content themselves seem slight, to me. Again, it's hard to envision someone hiring a company to design a site for them, and just expect that the company would know exactly what to say on the pages.

I'm guessing whoever owns the site went looking around for sites with businesses similar to theirs. They thought they would cut a few corners by using the content from another site.

Let them know that you know, request them to change it, and if they refuse threaten legal action. A nice cease and desist if they refuse could save some money, and just may do the trick.

Also, you need to decide how important of an issue it is to you. You could very well be loosing business to them, if they are using your content and ranking as high as you are on the search engines. On the other hand, it may not have any real impact on your business as all.

So, I say gauge the importance, and proceed accordingly.

It is a shame that people do such things, though.


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## TripleT (Apr 29, 2007)

*Re: When a competitor clones your site*



Comin'OutSwingin said:


> I'm guessing whoever owns the site went looking around for sites with businesses similar to theirs. They thought they would cut a few corners by using the content from another site.


 
Somebody at the company obviously did - right now, there's no way to know if it was the owner, an employee, or someone else. But the situation needs to be addressed.


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## karlking85 (Sep 26, 2007)

*Re: When a competitor clones your site*

Indeed it does. Give em hell, Hal!


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## SeasonEnds (Sep 9, 2007)

*Re: When a competitor clones your site*



TripleT said:


> Somebody at the company obviously did - right now, there's no way to know if it was the owner, an employee, or someone else. But the situation needs to be addressed.


I'm on the same page with Tom. It is likely that the company that designed their website had nothing to do with the content. It is their job to design, not explain how the company works.


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## TahoeTomahawk (Apr 12, 2006)

*Re: When a competitor clones your site*

Good point, when I said "site" I should have put "content". Adding a new template / theme to a site will always change the "source code" due to style sheets, etc.


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## TahoeTomahawk (Apr 12, 2006)

Now the thread title has been updated to reflect a more accurate statement.
The content of our site was copied.


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## jiarby (Feb 8, 2007)

It's a Joomla CMS site... At least they modified the text and did not copy it verbatim/


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## TripleT (Apr 29, 2007)

*Re: When a competitor clones your site*



ImageIt said:


> While it might be true that the competitor copied the site. I looked at the source code for both sites and it is untrue that they "cloned" the site.
> 
> Be careful of what you accuse people of doing. The difference of a word can have you on the loosing side.
> 
> fred


 
Very good point!

Adam, I still think if you want to address this situation it's up to you to do it. I would find out the name of the owner and send him an email marked: Personal and Confidential.

Tell him that the content of his site appears to be copied off of your website and ask him if he knows anything about it. His answer (or non-answer) will let you know which way to go if you choose to pursue this further.


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## rrc62 (Jun 2, 2007)

*Re: When a competitor clones your site*



TahoeTomahawk said:


> I hope you guys didn't take my frustration the wrong way, I really hate legal disputes and love being a part of the T-shirt community. But there is a major difference between making a similar website and re-branding and in our opinion, that's what they did.
> 
> Having worked in the tech field as a Software programmer, web designer and web programmer for over 10 years, I know the easy part is applying a template and layout to a static website. The majority of the work is in the content and we worked very hard for several months to get the site to where it is. Re-branding a website can be done in as little as a few hours, especially with only the minor changes Teeburn has made to our original content.
> 
> ...



The examples of "copied" content are not copy and paste identical. The term "print on demand" is something you'll probably see on a few websites in this business. While the concept of both sites might be the same, the images are different and having similar concepts one would expect similar descriptions of services.

It is legal to use ideas from existing works to create your own. To win this you'll have to show examples of blatant plagiarism. from what I see, the sites have a very different look with some similar wording here and there. The only thing I see that is identical is the business model, but you can't copywrite that.


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## rrc62 (Jun 2, 2007)

Another thing to consider is creation date. Their domain was registered December, 2006. Yours would have had to been registered before that to claim that they copied.


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## TahoeTomahawk (Apr 12, 2006)

rrc62 said:


> Another thing to consider is creation date. Their domain was registered December, 2006. Yours would have had to been registered before that to claim that they copied.


A domain name is in no way tied to content on your website, or even a website for that matter. Many people register domains and never have hosting for a website. Also you can modify the content of the site at any time, so I'm not sure what you're getting at?


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## TahoeTomahawk (Apr 12, 2006)

*Re: When a competitor clones your site*



TripleT said:


> Very good point!
> 
> Adam, I still think if you want to address this situation it's up to you to do it. I would find out the name of the owner and send him an email marked: Personal and Confidential.
> 
> Tell him that the content of his site appears to be copied off of your website and ask him if he knows anything about it. His answer (or non-answer) will let you know which way to go if you choose to pursue this further.


We are working on a letter that will address the situation and allow both Threadsafe and Teeburn to continue doing business in a professional manner.


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## rrc62 (Jun 2, 2007)

TahoeTomahawk said:


> A domain name is in no way tied to content on your website, or even a website for that matter.


It just makes it easier if you were registered before they were. That is a documented date. Other wise you'll have to prove that your content was there before theirs.


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## TahoeTomahawk (Apr 12, 2006)

*Re: When a competitor clones your site*



rrc62 said:


> The examples of "copied" content are not copy and paste identical. The term "print on demand" is something you'll probably see on a few websites in this business. While the concept of both sites might be the same, the images are different and having similar concepts one would expect similar descriptions of services.
> 
> It is legal to use ideas from existing works to create your own. To win this you'll have to show examples of blatant plagiarism. from what I see, the sites have a very different look with some similar wording here and there. The only thing I see that is identical is the business model, but you can't copywrite that.


Ross, if you look at some of my previous quotes and the few examples that I posted. I never said they copied the content exactly, I said they copied the content and in some cases changed a word or 2, or just added their name. It's not one paragraph, it's just about ALL of our pages which describe our business and services. That being said, even our print on demand image concept has been copied.

To put it this way, I'm assuming you sell T-shirts? Do you have a website to do so? What if I bought a $35 website template, then copied all of your content and image concepts, but changed your company name to ours, and put in very little effort to re-word all of the content YOU wrote, would you still feel the same?
My bet is you would fee the same way I do, like it took a long time to write the content only to have someone copy it and change a few words and slap a new color template around it.


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## rrc62 (Jun 2, 2007)

I understand how you feel, but that doesn't mean you'll win in court. I'd be curious to see how they respond. I would be aware of the domain registration dates though. They could turn the tables and claim they you copied them if they were registered first. You'll have to prove otherwise, which is just a matter of throwing lots of money at it in court.

I'm not saying you're right or wrong, just that you need to consider their side of it as well. You need to determine if the legal fees spent will be worth whatever you get out of it, which at most will be getting them to change some text on their website.


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## jiarby (Feb 8, 2007)

the date a domain was registered has NO BEARING on the date the content was copied, changed, or modified.


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## rrc62 (Jun 2, 2007)

But it won't make proving his case any easier. Throw some lawyer money at it and see what happens. That's all you can do.


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## TahoeTomahawk (Apr 12, 2006)

I spoke with them, they are in the process of making changes and will be over the weekend.


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## TripleT (Apr 29, 2007)

Maybe I missed something, but I didn't see anything about going to Court on this - and I agree that going to Court will not resolve anything. 

Adam might even prove his case in Court and still not win the case. That's just the way it works as anybody who has been there knows. But at this point, it's worth the effort to give the other owner a chance to do some explaining. It's obvious that the content was plagiarized. 

Who knows? Maybe the owner's red-headed step child did it the owner knows nothing about it.


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## TripleT (Apr 29, 2007)

TahoeTomahawk said:


> I spoke with them, they are in the process of making changes and will be over the weekend.


Oops! I didn't see your post until after I posted my last remarks. Congrats! Let us know if they follow through on their promise.


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## rrc62 (Jun 2, 2007)

Wow, you got lucky. I didn't see any real similarity other than some coincidental similarity in text content. I figured you would have had to take it to court to get anything done.


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## Comin'OutSwingin (Oct 28, 2005)

Adam, I'm glad everything seems to be working out!

It reminds of a kid in school that would look in the encyclopedia for his report, change a couple of words here and there, then turn it in as his masterpiece.

It was obviously copied, and I'm glad that they readily admitted as much. And please keep us updated.


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## TahoeTomahawk (Apr 12, 2006)

rrc62 said:


> Wow, you got lucky. I didn't see any real similarity other than some coincidental similarity in text content. I figured you would have had to take it to court to get anything done.


Sorry for being so defensive in earlier posts, when I talked to them today they said they've been making changes over the past few days to change the content. 

Last week if you looked at both of our sites and click corresponding links you would see that most of the content was pretty much the same and the only real difference was they added their company name, etc.


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## Comin'OutSwingin (Oct 28, 2005)

Yeah, I can definitely understand.

The example I posted of the 2 sites 4 days ago, shows it perfectly. It's almost word-for-word. 

There is no doubt that it was copied. That day I looked at it, almost EVERY section was like the example that I posted. Almost word-for-word from your site.

It's good that they're changing it.

Did they happen to give any explanation?


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

TahoeTomahawk said:


> I spoke with them, they are in the process of making changes and will be over the weekend.


I'm glad this was able to be worked out between the two parties involved!

With my initial post, I didn't realize you were talking about the "content" and no the "layout". After reading the rest of the thread, I can now see what the issue was.

I've had the same thing happen to me with one of my sites. It's VERY frustrating and time consuming to have to go through and contact every one of the sites (and their webhosts if necessary) to get it fixed.

A good website for finding out if your website has been copied is: Copyscape - Website Plagiarism Search - Web Site Content Copyright Protection


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## TahoeTomahawk (Apr 12, 2006)

Thanks Rodney,

That site found a hit on our services page and it happened to be TeeBurn.com.

Also another good tool to see who had what content first is "Way Back Machine"

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.threadsafeinc.com

You can use it to see website's progression or to compare 2 websites at a certain point in time.


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## DontBeStupid (Nov 20, 2007)

TahoeTomahawk said:


> Hi All, what do you do when a competitor clones your website and only changes the colors and a few of the words in each sentence?
> 
> If you look at teeburn.com and threadsafeinc.com you will notice that they (teeburn.com) copied our image concept and wording almost word-for word.
> Also, you can find many of the other pages the same such as pricing, services, faq and client portfolios.
> ...


You may check with your lawyer, BUT I don't think under those circumstances there is anything you can do, unless they were using your images or logos, etc. Spend the effort on making your thing work and not worrying about someone who may or may not have thought your site was so great they wanted the same look. Just my opinion Have a great Holiday and Merry Christmas


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## rrc62 (Jun 2, 2007)

TahoeTomahawk said:


> Last week if you looked at both of our sites and click corresponding links you would see that most of the content was pretty much the same and the only real difference was they added their company name, etc.


I see. I didn't realize they had been making changes right along. I'm glad you got it worked out peacefully.


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## TripleT (Apr 29, 2007)

TahoeTomahawk said:


> Thanks Rodney,
> 
> That site found a hit on our services page and it happened to be TeeBurn.com.
> 
> ...


 
Thanks, Adam - I've been trying to remember the name of that site (thanks also to Rodney for posting the other site - great tools!)


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## jh41 (Dec 2, 2007)

I didn't see the original wording of the site a few days ago, but the content still sounds like it was copied. On this pseudo-holiday weekend I am curious to see how long it will actually take them to change the wording around.

Its not that hard.... grab a fricken thesaurus and change some fricken words around! Hasn't anyone else written a last minute paper for college?

-jh


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## HANGARSIXCO (Dec 28, 2007)

Here is a great article that may help.

*Avoid image and text theft: It's harder than you might think *

By MonsterCommerce Staff | August, 2004

There is only one surefire way to protect your images online... don't put them online at all. 
Its no secret that if you press your 'print screen' button you can take a screen shot of what you're looking at and paste it into a document for editing. Even better, 'alt' + 'print screen' will only take a screen shot of the active window. 
The best you can do is create an absolute hell of a chaos to worm away those pixel hungry punks. Here's how:
1. For starters, Internet Explorer comes with this nifty thing called the image toolbar that automatically pops up when a user's cursor hovers over the image. Lets get rid of that. Paste the following code into the head tag of all your pages:
 <meta http-equiv="imagetoolbar" content="no"> ​2. Ok, then there's that nasty right click ability. Sure, you can change it with DHTML, but what about the browers that don't support Javascript? So lets disable this baby altogether. Put the following code in your body tag:
<body onContextMenu="return false"> ​Keep in mind people can still try to steal your code by using their menu and clicking on 'view source'... but this isn't about stealing source, its about stealing images. 
3. Now open your image in your image editor and put your logo or a some sort of watermark on it designating the photo as the property of your site. 
4. Now open flash and import your image and export into an swf file. That swf file is now the image your going to post. 
5. And lastly, in place of the image, put a link that says "click here". The link must then call a javascript popup menu that you will define so it has no toolbars, menus or navigation. In that popup will be your swf file. 
6. Lastly, don't forget to make sure the directory on the server isn't viewable publicly so, should anyone find your image directory, no one can sit there and take your files one by one. 
This way, you can safely ensure the only method someone is going to use to take your photos is the 'print screen' button, and you've already ruined the image by branding your logo on it anyhow.

I have used both of these codes on one of my mail order sites, works very well. This cannot perminetly stop them from copying it; however it makes it much harder and most will just leave the page and go somewhere else.

<meta http-equiv="imagetoolbar" content="no">

<body onContextMenu="return false">

You can have your web designed add these or you can add them to your HTML your self.

Any questions let me know.
Chris.




TRENZZA said:


> could be one or the other or both.





TahoeTomahawk said:


> Hi All, what do you do when a competitor clones your website and only changes the colors and a few of the words in each sentence?
> 
> If you look at teeburn.com and threadsafeinc.com you will notice that they (teeburn.com) copied our image concept and wording almost word-for word.
> Also, you can find many of the other pages the same such as pricing, services, faq and client portfolios.
> ...


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## SeasonEnds (Sep 9, 2007)

Good post, Chris.


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## suzette70 (Dec 19, 2007)

I know it doesn't help, but imitation is the hightest form of flattery. You've put a lot of hours in on your site and I'm sure you're not worried about being flattered.

Suzette70


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## jh41 (Dec 2, 2007)

SeasonEnds said:


> Good post, Chris.


+1.... can I screen shot the post so I can reference it later?

-jh


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