The last few days we touched on the whys and the how tos of deal blogging.
Today let’s touch upon “what” to blog – specifically if you are deal blogging.
Something I have noticed since the start of Extreme Couponing is a lot of people that began to coupon and hunt deals in the last year are setting themselves up as “experts” and beginning to “teach” classes and online tips about how to coupon, how to shop to save, etc.
This is me after visiting one of those blogs: 
The misinformation is astounding. No, you are not an expert at anything after six months or a year. No field, nor hobby proclaims you an “expert” with so little experience. Now, if you are new to the hobby and want to share your hauls, what you have learned, how it works for you, GREAT! And I have to say at least you are shopping and really out there in the trenches as opposed to many other “deal bloggers” that do not shop themselves and wouldn’t know a great deal if it bit ‘em in the hiney. But professing to be an expert… wait a few years and just write helpful posts in the meantime. Your learning experiences, problems and mistakes will not only be more authentic, they will be of greater help to others too!
Another huge “what” in the world of blogging is to remember to write your own material! Do not take someone’s thoughts, ideas, pictures, write-ups, etc. If you did not write an article yourself, do not use it on your blog without permission.
I can’t tell you how often established bloggers need to chase down newbies, who truly just do not know any better, to take down the established blogger’s intellectual property. If you aren’t sure if you can use it – and no, you cannot copy someone’s entire match-up list, coupon page, rebate list or story and paste it to your blog – email the blogger and ask if you can exchange deals. Or perhaps use the top 3 deals and then link back to the original post (this is a very common practice).
Sometimes you see a deal spread all over the blogging world and you would like to post it too. You can chase down the original poster to credit if you like or not (there is a reason that can be tough to do when it has spread, how do you find the original person that started the deal?), but make sure you rewrite the deal into your own words. I can’t tell you how many times I see “And my husband and I took our three kids and …” copied and pasted onto a newbie’s blog when referring to the copied-deal, and the newbie-blogger is a neither married, nor has children! So reword, it isn’t that difficult to do.
And if you see a personal story? That is completely off limits to copy and paste or reword. Ask for permission to use the story, or better yet, explain what it is about and link directly to the story! If you were impressed, others will be too.
If you are ever in doubt about what is permissible to copy and what is not, my wonderful friend Sara writes a blog law series on her blog Saving For Someday. Sara also explains “common use” and what you can/cannot use on your blog via pictures, scans, etc., what must be paid for, and about leaving copyright marks on pictures.
Tomorrow we will discuss the “whens” of deal blogging.
