Blogging Plagiarists, You Better Watch Out!

by in Lifestyle on Jan 8th, 2024

For bloggers engaging in plagiarism, whether through directly copying others or utilizing AI to generate spun content, caution is advised. The recent publicized case of Claudine Gay facing plagiarism accusations has stirred a response from Bill Ackman. Ackman is mobilizing his considerable resources to scrutinize academics at MIT and other institutions for potential plagiarism, employing AI to streamline the investigative process.

Following Business Insider and MIT’s pursuit of plagiarism charges against his wife, Neri Osman, Ackman is adopting a vigorous approach. With vast financial resources at his disposal, he could potentially fund the development of the next successful AI plagiarism detection startup. This development puts bloggers who engage in plagiarism and rely on AI-generated content under increased scrutiny.


Fighting Plagiarists of Financial Samurai

Financial Samurai has encountered thousands of instances of plagiarism in the past, with scraper sites regularly stealing and republishing articles word-for-word. Fortunately, search engines like Google and Bing are adept at identifying the original source, ensuring proper attribution in the majority of cases.

It’s anticipated that search engines will continue to evolve, becoming even more proficient at identifying and penalizing sites that plagiarize content. As a result, creators of original content can look forward to enhanced visibility in search rankings due to reduced competition from plagiarists.


Using AI to Generate Content at Scale

Utilizing AI to generate hundreds or thousands of articles for websites lacking established brands or history is predicted to be unsustainable in the long term. While AI can certainly be a valuable tool in content creation, its effectiveness is most pronounced when coupled with an already strong brand.

The overarching strategy should prioritize the long game — writing content that resonates with human readers rather than solely catering to search engine algorithms. If you have a habit of plagiarizing, I suggest you stop. Not only is it wrong, the search engines could easily punish your work and your site.

It’s not worth plagiarizing other people if you are blogging. The internet is open and for all to see.

The Future Of Claudine Gay

As for whether Claudine Gay should get a severance package if she is eventually let go, she probably will. The Harvard Corporation has been behind her all the way, so the very least they will do is give her a severance if they have to part ways.

But the best solution they’ve found is to have Claudine Gay return to her $900,000+/year job as a political science professor. Not bad.

Good luck!

How To Get Articles Featured In Google News

by in Lifestyle on Feb 26th, 2023

Something interesting happened recently. Three consecutive articles on Financial Samurai got featured in Google News.

They are:

2023 Tax Brackets: Best Income To Live Your Best Life

Why You Won’t Regret Buying Treasury Bonds Yielding 5%+

Only The Rich Or Fools Buy New Cars

Google News helped boost traffic to Financial Samurai by over 100,000 pageviews during a 10-day time frame. This traffic boost is significant given Financial Samurai only generates about one million organic pageviews a month.

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2022 Blogging Year In Review

by in Lifestyle on Jan 1st, 2023

2022 was another good year for blogging. Yakezie continues to generate between $500 – $1,000 a month passively for over 10 years now. It’s not a ton of money, but it’s better than a poke in the eye!

After 13 years of blogging, I still think blogging is the wild Wild West. No expertise or authority is needed! So long as you can consistently write, your blog will grow and you will make money.

Despite Google talking about the importance of EAT, you can still game the search engines to generate more traffic. All you’ve got to do is a hire a bunch of SEO content writers, intralink your posts, and buy links.

OK, growing a blog isn’t as easy as I make it out to be. But it’s good to know that if I ever want to grow my sites, there’s a game plan for growth. It just costs money.

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Platform Size Is More Important Than Quality For Online Success

by in Lifestyle on Dec 10th, 2022

Quality is overrated when it comes to making money online or writing a bestselling book. Instead, growing your platform size (your website and social media presence) as large as possible is the most important criteria.

We all know that bloggers can make a lot of money online. But after blogging consistently since 2009, there’s been an overemphasis on quality and an underemphasis on marketing.

Sure, Google keeps telling us that Expertise Authority Trustworthiness (EAT) matters. But after all these years, if EAT really matters, how can there be so many successful personal finance websites written by people who do not have finance backgrounds?

How can there be so many large websites with posts predominantly written by freelance writers with no firsthand experience?

The reason why is because the quality of content and the EAT of the author doesn’t matter as much as marketing and branding.

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Are E-Courses A Scam? Be Careful Paying Lots Of Money For Online Courses

by in Lifestyle on Mar 10th, 2022

Given everything can now be learned online for free, are e-courses a scam? Depending on the price and the quality of the content, I say yes.

As content creators, one of the ways to make lots of money online is by offering an e-course. However, what if you are charging $1,000, $2,000, $3,000, $5,000 for an e-course? That amount of money seems usurious.

A lot of e-course creators have said they are creating these courses to help people make more money, save more money, and start their businesses. However, if they really wanted to help people, why not charge a more affordable price instead?

Here’s one perspective about e-courses and whether they are a scam by someone who paid $3,888 for one. He regrets purchasing the e-course.

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Make More Money Online By Making Things Easy For Your Readers

by in Lifestyle on Aug 20th, 2021

If you want to make more money online you need to focus more on the basics. Make things as simple to read as possible. Further, make things as easy to do as possible.

I know a personal finance blogger who makes over $500,000 a year. He’s been making multiple six figures for over seven years now. Not bad right?!

It’s true. Bloggers make a lot more money than many people think. It’s incredible how much money so many people are making online these days.

The reason why he’s able to make so much money online is because his advice is easy to follow.

Make More Money Online With Simplicity

If you want to make more money online like my friend, focus on simplicity.

For example, he talks about frugal living and “living intentionally.” He focuses on all the easy stuff his readers can do to save money. Examples include:

  • Riding a bicycle, taking the bus, or walking
  • Clipping coupons
  • Increasing savings rate
  • Moving to a lower-cost area of the country
  • Living in a studio
  • Planting your own food and cooking your own meals
  • DIY home improvement work

All these things are easy to understand and easy to do. As a result, he’s been able to attract a much larger reader base. The reader base then act as evangelists by sharing his easy recommendations with their friends.

Even though he makes over $500,000 a year and lives a luxurious life, he keeps things stealth wealth. He stays on brand and presents an image of ultra frugality so as to not alienate his readers.

How To Not Make More Money Online

Conversely, if you don’t want to make more money online, focus on hard things. The harder the subject, the less people will read and share your work.

There’s a reason why it’s important to write in clear and concise language. Going above 8th grade reading with fancy SAT words is not recommended.

Here are some examples of harder subjects that do not resonate well with readers. The posts are long and the logic can be hard to follow.

If a reader can’t understand what you are saying, there’s also a greater chance they will get angry at you.

I’ve gotten mud slung at me with these posts. You can’t read the worst comments because they simply were not approved.

People trying to retire early hate my first post, despite all the logic. Renters in the U.S. and Canada hate my second post because it argues real estate prices will likely continue going up.

Strategically, I need to write more posts about how people don’t have to worry about their retirement. Saving less money is OK. This will help reduce anxiety and make them feel better about their progress.

I also need to write more posts about why renting is great and how the housing market could potentially crash and burn. People seem to enjoy the suffering of others to get ahead.

Write What People Want To Hear

Not only do you need to write more simply if you want to make more money online, you also need to write more of what people want to hear.

Instead of writing how $10 million is the ideal net worth for retirement, I should lower the bar so more people feel included. After all, more people can save $500,000 to live a Lean FIRE lifestyle versus $5+ million to live a Fat FIRE lifestyle.

Do the math if you want to make more money online.

My problem is that I just can’t help but speak my mind and tell the truth. I’ve already got enough passive retirement income to take care of my family. Therefore, I don’t have an intense craving to make more money online.

I like making money online. Don’t get me wrong. But I’m not obsessed with it to the point where I’m writing affiliate posts all day long. I just enjoy writing and thinking through interesting topics.

Think Long Term

But if I’m going to keep Financial Samurai going for another 20 years, I’ve got to think more strategically about the content I write.

I need to write more about what people want to hear, not an uncomfortable truth. My $500,000+ a year blogger friend who tells his readers not to worry about making more money is a genius.

If you want to make more money online, focus on the basics. Simple writing. Easy recommendations. Words that make readers feel good. People dislike hard and people who are doing things they can’t.

Does Expertise, Authority, And Trustworthiness (E-A-T) Really Matter For Google SEO?

by in Lifestyle on Jun 23rd, 2021

As I go through my pre-retirement checklist for life post-pandemic, the one thing I keep wondering is whether expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (E-A-T) really matters for Google SEO.

One of my goals after re-retiring is to stop writing 3X a week on Financial Samurai. Maybe’ll I’ll go down to publishing once a week instead.

I want to get out of the house more as economies open up. I might even be so bold as to fly somewhere with my young children! Nah, probably not.

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When Guest Posting, The One Big Media Pitfall Bloggers Need To Know

The Cons Of Guest Posting On Big Media Sites

by in Lifestyle on May 2nd, 2020

After more than 10 years of writing on Financial Samurai, I’ve been lucky to get a lot of opportunities to contribute to big media stories. My first opportunity came in 2010 with the LA Times and it has gradually continued from there.

Some stories will feature a FS quote while other stories will do a FS feature. Sometimes, I’ve been asked to write a guest post as well. If the media outlet is a reputable one, I usually oblige and so should you, even if you aren’t getting paid.

Despite the benefits of getting featured in big media, there is a pitfall as well. Let me share with you what they are when it comes to guest posting on big media sites.

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  • Untemplater: Congrats on getting so many consecutive features on Google News! That’s phenomenal! Writing on...
  • Untemplater: You nailed it. I also believe great marketing is very helpful in the beginning but it’s really...
  • Jamie: Awesome insights thanks! I’ve been a big fan of Sam’s for years. Really exciting that he’s...
  • Untemplater: There are so many overpriced ecourses online it’s crazy. They use very aggressive marketing tactics to...
  • Andy: Thousand-dollar e-courses are a total scam. You can learn everything online for free. Shame on people who sell...
  • Untemplater: There are a lot of bloggers out there who focus on small stuff like should you or should you not spend...
  • Derek: It’s fascinating how some bloggers continue to just mindlessly pump out affiliate content. It’s clear they are...
  • Untemplater: Lots of valid points! So true that bloggers are a minority of overall readership, so blogging to much...
  • Bingo: You are spot on. Most of our bloggers are white people living on the coasts, where half the population of...
  • Financial Samurai: Hi Jim – Nice to hear from you. It was too much work running Yakezie. Too many people wanted...

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