Recently I had an incident when someone cloned my site. I, of course, freaked out and acted straight away. Here what to do when some cloned your site.

At first, I thought my stats were playing tricks but after doing some initial investigations the realization that no my stats weren’t playing up, and it was in fact that someone has indeed cloned my site. I immediately have a deep washing machine churning feeling in my stomach.

I know my little blog isn’t the best thing within the blogosphere, and I do realize that I’m not the best writer in the world, but I love my little corner of the internet. If you know me, you will know that I put my blood, sweats, and tears into this little space. So, the thought that someone could take it away from me made me feel ill.

My first thought was, how the hell do I fix this? Seriously, this has never happened to me before, and I was clueless.

I went onto Twitter and asked for help as I needed help with this as I wanted to get it sorted asap. This is one of the reasons why I love Twitter as there will always be someone who will be willing to help you, or at least put you in touch with someone who can help you.

And that precisely what happened, I tweeted for help and I was put in touch with someone who was able to guide me.

We came up with action plan, and this action plan is what I’m going to talk about as it not only helped me, but I figure that it would help you as well If you ever find yourself where someone has cloned your site.

Here what to do when someone cloned your site.

Find out as much information on the cloned site.

You can do this by looking at Whois and find out background information on this site.

Whois should tell you who host the cloned site and how to contact the hosting company, if it isn’t hidden, perhaps even get details on the person.

Once you have contact details, start emailing. 

If you are feeling brave and have the contact details of the person cloning your site, then contact them directly. But I must say that this route must only be taken down as a last resort. If everything else failed, then do this. But most web hosting now has their details hidden.

It would be helpful if you had info on who is hosting the alleged site, so contact them if you don’t have an email address, Google or find them on Twitter.

What to say when you are emailing.

I found that be as open and frank was the best route as you are the victim and of course, you want it to be solved as quickly as possible.

Just say:

Hi there. My name is Anna Nuttall, and I owned a small blog, www.annanuttall.com. I have recently discovered that this site, ‘so and so’ have cloned my site and are using copyright materials.’

Don’t be afraid to do a lot of complaining.

If you don’t hear from anyone within 24-48 hours, then do keep on nagging them. Send a follow-up email or even a tweet asking if they got your email. Don’t be afraid to make a lot of noise if you feel like you are being ignored.

The web host for the allege cloned site might have some useful advice or steps.

After contacting the web host, they might come back on some advice or steps you can take. Use this advice and takes all the necessary steps. I found that when I contacted the web host for the allege cloned site, they were accommodating and was willing to help; despite me not being a customer of them.

File a DMCA Notice with Google.

This is a simple and vital step to do. Follow this link and fill out the form with as much information as possible and then send it off. From what I read, it takes a week for Google to respond, so do be patient. Its a notice from Google in which they can act on copyright infringement and remove the site from their service; Especially if it breaks the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Protect yourself by contacting your own web host.

To prevent this happening again, contact your own site web host as they might have security measure or advice in which you can take. There might be a fee, but I think it worth it to keep your site and data safe.

Those were my advice on what to do when someone cloned your site. I was lucky as actions were taken straight away and I was able to stop this site cloning mine.

Let me know if this has happened to you and what steps you took.