Cross linking

I just thought that I'd post some technical information while I'm thinking about it. A few weeks ago the tatting community banded together to help get some purloined pictures removed from a web site. The web site owner had copied pictures from other people's blogs to promote the sales of their merchandise.

I copy pictures from other people's blogs to post in my own blogs all the time. So what's the difference? Doesn't that mean that I am infringing on copyright too?

NO. For 2 reasons. First of all, when I began copying pictures from people's blogs for the 25 Motif Challenge blog, it was because people offered me the pictures. Later on I asked new participants for their permission. When it became too cumbersome to contact each person individually, I wrote an explanation on the blog advising people that when they joined the challenge it was with the understanding that their pictures WOULD be copied.

Each picture that is copied is identified as to where it came from and each entry includes a link back to the blog where it originated.

Secondly, posting the pictures of your tatting on the challenge blog is not promoting any merchandise I have for sale. Those 2 things make a huge difference.

Something that you may not realize, is that by participating in the 25 Motif Challenge, or in the latest Design Challenge, your blog is becoming more visible and more popular. One of the things that causes a web site to appear close to the top of the list in a search engine is the number of hits the web site receives. When another blog or web site links to your blog or website, you become more visible. More people find your blog, more people visit your blog, and you move up in the ratings.

As the search engine robots work through the internet following all of the links to their final destination, your page comes up more often, with each new link there is another robot finding you and adding you to their list of places to visit.

The cross linking of people to one another and to the 25 Motif Challenge page is making you and tatting more visible on the internet. We are becoming easier and easier to find. Tatting really is alive and well on the internet and these challenges are not only helping us to improve our tatting skills, they are also making us more noticeable.