Most often than not, we come across a powerful or significant line that we want to add to our blog post. However, getting a line from another blogger isn’t just an easy copy and paste work. You have to mind the intellectual property because if you don’t, you may get into some legal trouble.
It is very important that you quote other bloggers properly. They do own the copyright to what they’ve written – every word of it. Here’s a quick guide on how do get your head around this.
1. How do I use the quote?
So, you’ve read a line that made an impact and you want to use it in your post. How do you use the quote?
- Beginning – A technique often used in books, you can also use this in your blog post to elicit attention and entice readers to read through your post. Quotes used at the beginning of the post should be powerful and interesting enough to grab reader attention from the get-go.
- Backbone – You can use the quote as the backbone of your entire post. This quote may just be your inspiration for writing the whole thing.
- Support – A common way to use quotes from other bloggers is to use it as support for your argument. If the blogger is considered an expert in the niche you’re writing about, this will be a good support to the point you are making.
2. How do I format the quote?
Why is formatting your quote properly important anyway? Simple. It’s because you want that quote to stand out from the rest of the content.
Formatting the quote can be done through the HTML tag <blockquote> manually. But there are blog editors today that can already format the quote for you just by pressing on a button.
For example, here’s a quote published through the <blockquote>tag:
“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” – Henry Ford
A blockquote, depending on the blog theme you are using, varies in style. It can be formatted in a different color, size or extra quotation mark graphics. Using this format is best for long quotes, but for short ones, you might as well just include them within a sentence.
3. How do I cite my source?
Now that you’ve used a line from another blogger or author, it’s just right that you credit them for it. This is where trouble in blogging paradise starts – when a blogger fails to attribute the quote from another blogger the right way.
In simpler words, attributing is citing your source. Whom did you get the quote from? When attributing, there should always be the name of the author and the blog site it is from. Adding the link to the source is also good.
If you’re always quoting other bloggers, you have to start coming up with a standard way of attributing or citing your source. You can try this format:
“quote’
– Name of author, Title of Post, Name of Blog
For example,
“Love is like drinking ice water on a scorching day.”
– Azalea Pena, What Love Is, Memoirs of the Broken Hearted
These three steps should be enough to help you quote other bloggers properly, so just stay inspired and write on until you build you blog to be a success.
If you want more, here are some additional tips:
Cutting the quote
When cutting part of a quote, replace the words you’ve opted out with an ellipsis in brackets […] For example, “Love is like drinking ice water on a scorching day […] it’s like healing the soul.”
When you do this though, make sure that you don’t change the meaning of the entire quote. And given that this is a long quote since you cut it out, it would be best to add the link to the source so that your reader can read the entire quote there.
Changing a word
If the first word in your quote is connected to the previous sentence which you are not quoting like “he” or “this,” you can replace that with another word but place it inside square brackets and then proceed with the line you are quoting.
I hope that from here on out, you won’t get into any copyright trouble with other bloggers you are quoting. Just attribute accordingly, they deserve the credit anyway. You don’t want other people using your lines and not giving you credit too, right?
- How To Quote Other Bloggers Properly - August 24, 2014
- 7 Ways To Improve Your Brand’s Social Media Engagement - February 28, 2014
Great points about quoting bloggers! What has everyone else experienced? I feel my readers like to use a link, too. Even though many of us-writers WERE dependent on links to improve our article’s SEO — our readers may like links to validate, and qualify the source of the quote. When working with technical subjects, or management blogs, I like to:
• Embed a quote with … (ellipsis) starting and ending the quote
• Lead into the quote with the author’s name, and the website name
• End quote with a URL to the full article (maybe even say see the full article)
• Put spaces in between quotes and text, or punctuation for faster readability
Example:
Isla McKetta makes a great point about headlines in the Moz blog:
” … take advantage of psychological trigger words like, “weird,” “free,” “incredible,” and “secret” to create a sense of urgency … ”
She also makes half-a-dozen other great observations. I’d recommend reading her full article to get a handle on how to write impactful headlines. ( http://moz.com/blog/are-mind-blowing-titles-credible )