Not long ago, we told you about Rohit Bhargava's clever pitch to fellow bloggers: Send me five questions about my new book Personality Not Included and I'll give you customized responses to post at your blog. They embraced Bhargava's offer of exclusive interviews with gusto, and his inventive approach generated lots of well-deserved buzz.

Undoubtedly, this success is the reason that other new authors thought they'd try the same strategy. Bhargava applauded efforts by Jonny Goldstein and Bruce Reyes-Chow, each of which put a unique spin on his original idea. He wasn't as pleased, however, by another author who did more than borrow the concept for a promotion at her blog. "That post originally was a word for word pasting of my interview contest language," says Bhargava in a post entitled The Right and Wrong Way to Steal My Stuff.

This author apparently altered the cut-and-paste text in response to critical comments, but things got heated when she continued to insist that she had always given proper attribution; a cached version of the original demonstrates, however, that—while she quoted Bhargava in her introduction—she clearly presented the content as her own and did not link to his Influential Marketing Blog. A big no-no, and something any reasonable person would find troubling.

It's fine to "borrow" another blogger's ideas, but to avoid a world of online hurt, be sure to follow Bhargava's advice: Give credit where it's due; put it in your own words; make it better; and let the blogger know you've riffed on his or her work. We'd call that Marketing Inspiration.

More Inspiration:
Sean Howard: Apple TV Not Ready for Primetime
Ted Mininni: Functional Candy?
Valeria Maltoni: Trust is Most Important Measure for Reputation

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