Quick Online Tips » Blogging

13 Simple Tactics to Prevent, Detect Content Plagiarism

QuickOnlineTips — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:56:12 +0000

Guest post by Ramanujam
How can you prevent and detect Content Plagiarism? Plagiarism is a serious issue in the blog world and it is a prime duty for all bloggers to prevent their content from getting copied and also take the corrective action when needed. Every blogger gets annoyed when some one copies their content and ranks higher than them in the search engines.

While it is highly unlikely to stop blog scrappers and splogs from emerging there are some simple measures that a blogger can do to tackle this effectively. As we always know prevention is better than cure and hence the first step is to take preventive steps which will make it hard for the scrappers to copy your content.

Prevent Plagiarism

1. Copyright Banners
Let everyone know that the content on your blog is copyright protected. The best way to show it is by displaying a copyright banner at a highly visible location in your blog. Adding a copyright symbol in the blog footer is also a good practice.

2. License your content
Some bloggers will not mind if their content is used partially by third parties provided they give proper credit. Creative Commons is the most common and established method to license your content. The license should clearly state the type and this will let people know how accommodating or restrictive you are with respect to your blog content. Visit the Creative Commons licenses page and choose the right one and display it in your blog home page.

3. Protect your RSS feed
A good percentage of the blog scrappers use RSS feeds to automatically copy the content and publish it elsewhere with the help of robots. One good way to let the world know that the content came from your blog is to add a copyright message to your RSS/ATOM feed. This can be automatically done with the help of the simple feed copyright wordpress plugin. The good thing about this plugin is that it will link back to your blog.

4. Provide Partial Feeds
One of the best methods to prevent feed scrapping is by providing a partial feed and making the reader to visit your blog to read the rest of the content. While this move will annoy a good number of your subscribers and even some of them might unsubscribe but it is a matter of choice.

5. Watermark your content
It is very common to find your images being stolen and a good way to prevent this is by watermarking them. This also applies to all other content like code snippets, videos etc which you publish in your blog. Picmarkr is a free online service which will allow you to add custom watermarks.

6. Prevent Image Hotlinking
Hotlinking is the act of directly linking to an image in your blog. This is not only a copyright infringement but it will also use up your bandwidth. This can be avoided by creating a .htacess file which will display an alternative image when someone links directly to non-html objects on your site. Here is a nice step-by-step guide to prevent image hotlinking with .htaccess.

7. Use the CopyRight Pro Plugin
If you are very particular about people copying content from your blog directly, the best way is to prevent selecting and right clicking. With the help of the WP- CopyRight Pro plugin you can disable text selection and right clicking on your wordpress blog.

Detect Plagiarism

Even after taking these preventive measures, scrappers will manage to copy your content in one way or the other. It is better to stay alert and detect on a regular basis to see if some one is copying your content.

8. Google Search/Alerts
The best and easy way is to use Google Search and find replicas of your content. To automate this process you can set Google alerts for some unique terms related to your blog. A major part of this task can be automated with the help of the digital finger print wordpress plugin which will set unique finger prints at the end of each post and hence makes it easy for detection.

9. Detection Services
There are some services like CopyScape which will show copied destinations that don’t come up in Google search. Unfortunately the free version of CopyScape has very limited features. An alternative option is Tynt which is a complete copy detection and attribution service. Tynt will also aid in increasing the visibility for your content and increases your traffic and search rankings with the automatic attribution link.

Plagiarism Action

Once you find that your content has been copied the next step is to take steps to remove the copied content from the web or claim copyright infringement and make money out of it.

10. Contact the blogger/webmaster
If you see that someone is using your content without your permission or without providing credit, there is a good chance that they might have used it without knowing the implications. It is better to send a courtesy mail asking them to provide a link back to the source or remove the content.

Look for the contact form or a contact email where you send the email.
Type the domain name in a who is lookup tool and it will show the name of the registrar and the contact information. Sometimes this information might be protected but you will still be able to find a contact email address.
Alternatively you can also contact the hosting company which hosts the site and file a report with them.

11. Send a Cease & Desist Message
Wikipedia says that “Cease and Desist (also called C & D) is an order or request to halt an activity, or else face legal action”

If the blogger or the webmaster fails to respond to the previous request the next step is to send a C & D. You can use this cease and desist template and draft your own copy with ease.

12. Ask for a compensation
Plagiarism and copyright infringement are illegal and if you are the creator of the original content you have all rights to ask for a monetary compensation. FairShare is a service which will help you to do this. You can also hire copyright infringement agents like CopyByte who will take all the monitoring on your behalf and also take the necessary legal action.

13. File a DMCA
The biggest trouble which a blog can get is to get removed from the index of the search engines. If the blogger fails to respond even after sending a formal request and a cease & desist message, you can go ahead and file a DMCA with Google and other search engines. Most of the search engines have an online form where you can formally submit a DMCA complaint by furnishing the necessary information to prove that your content has been copied.

If you are serious about your blog then it is necessary to take these preventive measures and do the right action when your content gets copied.

This guest article was written by Ramanujam, a grad student in the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech. Ramanujam is the editor of SocialCouch.com where he writes about social media and web 2.0. You can also write a guest article and share your tips and tricks.

Must Read Related Articles

Second Best Job in the World: International Shopping Consultant

QuickOnlineTips — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:07:02 +0000

Have you heard about the Second Best Job in the World? Become an International Shopping Consultant – Fly around the world, stay in prestigious hotels, travelling business class and recording your adventure. Sound interesting?

LetsBuyIt.com, the online price comparison site, is hiring an International Shopping Consultant. The job benefits say you get €5,000 euro monthly gross salary, €10,000 euro shopping budget, Round-the-world travel in Business Class and presigious hotel stays with Accorhotels.com. If you missed the best job in the world, this is your chance to grab the second best job in the world.

What is the job profile? Complete shopping assignments in famous cities like Berlin, London, Milan, Paris, New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Find and visit the best shopping districts, Find products you can’t find anywhere else, Find products cheaper than other countries and present the latest trends. Loaded with a digital camera and camcorder to record your shopping experience, you have to blog and couple it with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr to share your insights!

Job applicant requirements – Age 18 years or older, must speak English, French, or German and be a passionate shopping expert., good communicator, and be comfortable speaking in front of a camera and good writer. Grab the 1 month job contract that will run between 1 January and 31 December 2010. Apply now.

Here are some popular video applications

Must Read Related Articles

7 Tips to Build a Successful Blogging Business

QuickOnlineTips — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:09:09 +0000

Guest post by ZK
How to build a successful blogging business? Starting a blog is easy but being a successful blogger and taking the blog to a higher level needs a lot of discipline. Below are some tips that will help you build a successful blogging business.

Stick to one niche: Successful blogs are blogs that have stuck to blogging on a particular niche. It is better to stick to a niche rather than wander everywhere searching for ideas for your blog. By writing on a single topic you make yourself easy on learning. You also define a purpose on your blog by putting in a lot of effort towards a single topic.
Make it interesting: Make your blog as interesting it can be and plan for the things in it. Choose the right theme for your blog and plan it more efficiently. Develop your blog writing skill and have your own style on writing. Readers prefer unique blogs mainly based on the writing style of the author.
Believe in yourself: Belief is the most important thing which one has to have in mind not only for blogging but also for other activities too. With all the billions of bloggers and blogs around you may find it difficult to make your blog special. But always believe that you are unique and you have something unique to offer to people. This will make you stand out from the rest of the people.
Run your blog as a business: Run your blog like a business enterprise, imagine it to be a multi million dollar annual business. Define a set of goals not only for yourself but also for your blog. This will be a very important motivating factor for your blog. If you have built your blog completely for making money then work on it, have a set of goals which you are going to work on for the sake your blog as well as yourself. You will only think like a millionaire when you consider your blog a million dollar business.
Promote, Promote, Promote: Starting a blog is very easy, promoting and generating traffic is difficult . One of the sure shot ways to promote your blog is to write quality content and submit it to directories. These directories are great place for readers and it will help in improving the popularity and traffic for your blog. A lot of blogs and small online publications pull RSS feeds from these directories; by being present on these directories, chances are high that your blog will article also be featured on smaller online publications
Encourage Interaction: It is not enough to simply write good content in your blog but it is also important to promote it and encourage participation in it from not only the community which you are a part of but also from every reader. In fact it is very important to encourage interaction from readers as it is to improve the number of readers sharing their views, thereby not only increasing the quality of your blog but also increasing the number of readers for your blog.
Commitment: Commit yourself to blogging and remember that though you may start off blogging as a fun or a hobby activity, it has the potential to be a multi million dollar business. And just like any business it requires serious action, hard work and disciple. You have to stick and think about success constantly if you want your blog to be successful.

Guest author ZK writes on web marketing and affiliate marketing at WebTrafficROI, a blog that helps you succeed in your web marketing business. You can also write a guest article and share your tips with our readers.

Must Read Related Articles

How to Unfollow All on Twitter?

QuickOnlineTips — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:05:42 +0000

Do you want to remove everyone you’re following on twitter? Now there is a powerful mass unfollow Twitter tool that promises to remove all people you are following in minutes.

So why would you want to unfollow all people Twitter? On Twitter, when someone follows you, you follow back to reciprocate the gesture. If you are in the Twitter followers number game, then you could end up following thousands of people, not knowing who they are. This will lead to hundreds of Direct messages, spam and this will not let you follow people you know, all the while filling your Twitter page with Tweets you do not want to read. So you just want to start anew… its better than deleting your Twitter account.

Want to make a fresh start? John Chow has launched his new tool called UnfollowAll – but remember, it is irreversible so be absolutely sure what you are doing.

Must Read Related Articles

3 Different Types of Keyword Research

QuickOnlineTips — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:26:29 +0000

Guest article by Pradeep.
All bloggers and web marketers know that keyword research is important for success of the blog or website. However many people new to internet marketing (even some veterans) make the mistake of assuming that process of keyword research is the same for all websites.

In this article I shall explain the different types of keyword research that can be used, the tools that may be utilized for the purpose, advantages and disadvntages of each method and how to select a method for your own website. I shall be explaining the concepts using examples from the second hand goods market as I have been working extensively on that domain for quite sometime now.

Based on my experience, keyword research is of 3 types viz
1. Finding keywords that have been popular for quite sometime
2. Finding keywords that are popular right now
3. Finding keywords that will become popular in future

1. Finding keywords that have been popular for quite sometime

This is the most popular way of doing keyword research and most of the time when people talk about keyword research, they are talking about this particular method. In this method we shall be looking for keywords that people have been using for quite sometime. Let us say, we want to figure out whether enough people are interested in second hand cars or not. We shall be using Google Adwords Keyword Tool for this purpose. We start with the keyword car. The tool will show popular keywords related to cars that are used by users. A quick glance at the result will tell us that people use keywords like “second hand cars”, “used cars” and “cars for sale” to search.

If people have been interested in these keywords for quite sometime, there is a really good chance that they will continue to be interested in them in future as well. Hence if I am planning to build a website about second hand cars, I can be fairly confident that there are enough people who are looking for it. However a quick search for “second hand cars” on google will reveal that websites that are present in the top 10 are quite strong ones and it is going to be extremely difficult for me to get into the top 10.

2. Finding keywords that are popular right now

Mostly these are keywords in the news. Result of some cricket or football match, any controversy, Oscar awards 2010 etc will fall into this category. These keywords get a lot of traffic for a short span of time which then dies down. Since the keyword did not exist till yesterday there are no existing web pages for it and the first ones to write about it can rank quite high on Google. Google Trends and Trending topics on Twitter are some of the best places to find recently popular keywords. Write them fast and write regularly and you shall be surprised by the result.

Only problem with this method is you need to keep writing regularly to keep getting traffic. And since the keyword did not exist till yesterday, it is unlikely that anyone has setup an Adsense campaign for it. So monetizing the traffic is difficult.

3. Finding keywords that will become popular in future

I think this is one of the best methods to use for anyone who is serious about building an e-business. For example there are lot less people looking for second hand bikes on Google right now. However I am confident that the number will go up in future. That is why I am working on developing a website for second hand bikes in India. The traffic will take time to buildup. But by the time it does, my website will be an authority website for this term.

The trick lies in finding keywords that are popular right now, using tools mentioned in 1 above. Then apply your knowledge to find out keywords that are going to be popular in near future. Let us say keyword research shows that browser extensions are popular for Firefox. When the discussion about Google Chrome started, using this method you could have created content about Google Chrome extensions. As soon as Chrome got released, your site would have become exceptionally popular.

To conclude …

Use method 1 i.e finding already popular keywords if you have a really strong website say like QOT.
Use method 2 if you have a website that is at least 1 year old with some backlinks. It is going to be really easy to rank for news items if you do on-page optimization right.
The last method is my favorite one. This is how businesses were supposed to be built and this is your best chance at becoming really successful.

Let me know your views in the comments below.

Guest author Pradeep is a blogger with more than 4 years of experience of developing web businesses in India and advises other bloggers about increasing traffic and earning from their blogs. You can also write a guest article and share your tips and tricks.

Must Read Related Articles

Blogger Alert: Official US Daylight Saving Time Change

QuickOnlineTips — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:24:47 +0000

US Daylight Savings Time changed today! Official Time changed across New York to San Francisco, and bloggers need to be aware and modify the time they send out their blog articles … the clock rolls back an hour for daylight savings at 2 a.m.

Image by Samantha

Daylight Savings Time Change

So what is Daylight Savings time? Daylight Saving Time (or summertime) helps get more light out of the day by advancing clocks by one hour during the summer. Well the Daylight saving time in most of the United States ends at 2 a.m., local time, on Sunday, November 1 (every year on first Sunday in November).

In the U.S., clocks change at 2:00 a.m. local time. In spring, clocks spring forward from 1:59 a.m. to 3:00 a.m.; in fall, clocks fall back from 1:59 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. In the U.S., each time zone switches at a different time. Read more about how the clock changes. Europe has changed time already on October 25. See the Daylight Saving Time changes across the world.

How does DST affect bloggers? US web traffic accounts for a major source of traffic and readership for many blogs. I know several top Indian and international bloggers publish their articles (or future post it) accurately on time in early US morning to get on top of the RSS readers of US readers, which will drive more attention and better article response. Now they need to account for the Daylight Saving Time, and if majority of their readers are starting the day early, they might need to press the publish button an hour earlier!

Must Read Related Articles

5 Out-of-the-Box Keyword List Strategies That Work

QuickOnlineTips — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:33:01 +0000

Guest Article by Edward Khoo
There are dozens of keyword selection “strategies.” All you have to do is Google keyword strategies to get 50,100,000 search results the day of this writing. That is over 50 million hits on a very narrow, industry-specific subject, but it makes a good point.

Anybody – everybody – working in the web space, from site owners to W3 marketing gurus, has a theory about keyword selection. The diversity of opinions offers up another point: there is no one way to select the perfect set of keywords.

The fact is, keyword optimization is more art than science. However, by using several helpful tools you can gather empirical data, test the results for your site and tweak your keyword list to increase site traffic and, simultaneously, deliver a more highly-qualified buyer – knowledgeable, motivated to find a solution and willing to pay for that solution.

The solution you sell.

Image via davidkjelkerud

1. Start with your own industry / business knowledge.

First, trust your instincts. What keywords would you enter into a search box? You know the insider jargon, you know your target market, you know your products or services so start with a list of the search words you’d use.

But don’t stop there. Remember, you bring a bias to the search. You already know the lingo. So, your intuitive keyword list brings with it a bias. Same with lists developed by other knowledgeable executives in your company. Even so, these keyword lists provide a foundation for finessing a keyword list over time.

2. Test your list of intuitive keywords.

I like Google’s keyword generator for a couple of reasons.

First, Google controls the largest share of the search market so why not go with the 600-lb gorilla. Second, Google’s keyword generator delivers empirical data – the actual usage figures of Google users over the past 30 days.

Enter your URL and intuitive keywords into Google’s keyword tool and click check. One of three results will be immediately evident:

- Your intuition is correct. Keywords you selected are popular search words.

- Your intuition is incorrect. Your search terms are too sector- or B2B-specific and, as a result, the search terms don’t drive much traffic.

- Or, the most likely result – the affirmation that some of your keywords are on target with SE users, some aren’t and, happily, you’ll discover additional keywords used by searchers. Happy surprises that you might not have considered.

3. Test the strength of each keyword.

If you operate in a commercial sector that crosses numerous business and industries, Google will hand you a list of a few thousand keywords used by its patrons. Narrowing the list down is a crucial part of the development of an effective list of 10-15 keywords.

There are a couple of ways I test the strength of a keyword to deliver good SERPs for my client. First, I use a term extractor, available for use (free) on SEOmoz.org. This tool identifies strong keywords on an existing site that’s been indexed properly by search engines. A quick examination of the results of term extraction always reveals some interesting data.

Example: I had a client that provides hearing aid advice online. The site offered a free consumer download, articles, product reviews and other helpful information for people conducting research on an upcoming hearing aid purchase.

The site owner, intuitively, selected hearing aids as his primary keyword but couldn’t understand why his bounce rate was over 80%. Well, hearing aids, when extracted, proved to be a strong keyword. The problem was, the site didn’t sell hearing aids – the objective of a SE user querying “hearing aids.” No hearing aids for sale? Bounce to the next site.

A simple adjustment to this client’s keyword list in the site’s meta, alt and title tags and playing down the keyword hearing aids in the site’s corpus did the trick. The client’s bounce rate dropped to 40% in a matter of weeks.

Use a term extraction tool to identify which keywords and phrases are strong with search engines. You’re almost certain to be surprised at the results.

4. Calculate the “pull” of a given keyword.

I use SpyFu, a very useful tool in determining the effectiveness of any keyword.

The software is actually an AdWords metrics tool that identifies bidding ranges of given keywords for AdWords placement. Of course, I use SpyFu to help my clients get a bigger bang for their AdWords buck, but it’s also a great tool for determining the effectiveness of a keyword – even if you don’t use PPC advertising.

AdWords functions much like a stock market with investors bidding up the price of keywords, just as investors bid up the price of stocks. SpyFu shows me the range of bids for a keyword. And if AdWords users keep that keyword at $1.27 a click, well, I know that’s a keyword that pulls and more than pays for itself at $1.27 per click.

Conversely, when SpyFu identifies a low cost AdWords keyword – six cents per click (see chart), for instance, I know it’s not popular, I know it doesn’t pull but I don’t necessarily cross it off the list. Here’s why.

5. Use lower-ranking keywords to beat higher ranking competition.

If you’re just launching a new site, if you’ve just added several sub-domains that don’t show up on SERPs, or if you’ve made significant changes to your business or revenue model, you can often upend deep pockets competitors by using lower-ranking keywords.

Let’s say you own a small site that sells digital cameras and accessories. You’re in a highly-competitive market sector up against the likes of Amazon, Best Buy, J&R and other well-known, branded names. So, a search of “digital cameras” reveals that your little site is on page 34 of SERPs, and when was the last time you drilled down 34 pages searching for anything?

Using the identical keywords that deep-pockets, well-known competitors use will bury you. BUT, if you deploy lesser-used keywords, for example “digital cameras real cheap,” you won’t see as many SE users entering those particular keywords, but those who do will see your site at the top of page one of Google’s SERPs. Why? Because the heavy hitters aren’t using those long-tail keywords. Once again, before you opt for a long-tail, test it on all major search engines: Google, Yahoo!, Bing and Inktomi.

Also, run that long-tail through an AdWords metrics generator. This will enable you to uncover strong terms that aren’t being used, even by stronger sites. Look for keywords that haven’t been bid up in price but still pull a good quantity of traffic each day. This eliminates the stronger competitors.

Check out the spread sheet showing keywords and prices for digital cameras. I’ve highlighted popular search terms that haven’t been “discovered” by the competition because the AdWords bid price is comparatively low. Consider :

1. Using these less popular keywords as your primary search terms or

2. Add the most promising candidates to your existing list and incorporate them in your site’s meta data, description tag, alt tags and title tags where appropriate.

One last piece of advice: keyword list refinement is an ongoing process. It’s not something you do once and forget about it. Use tools like Google’s keyword generator, SpyFu and other AdWords metrics analyzers to determine the best list for your site – a list of keywords that pulls, but also isn’t used by more powerful competitors.

Then, as your business grows, you can add more of the most-used keywords and go head-to-head with the cost-cutting big box stores. That day will come a lot sooner if you select the strongest keywords for your site.

This guest article was written by Edward Khoo, a full time blogger from Malaysia. You can also write a guest article and share your tips and tricks with our readers.

Must Read Related Articles

Miley Cyrus Quits Twitter, Sings Rap Song!

QuickOnlineTips — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:30:14 +0000

As more celebrities join Twitter everyday, Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus decided to quit Twitter, but she did it in style and made a rap song to tell her fans why!

If you hear the Miley Cyrus rap song, some reasons she suggests are she wants her private life private, and wants to put a stop on gossip sites buzzing news of every tweet she makes. She wants to stop pleasing people and admits she is too busy. Naturally Tweeple are tweeting our loud which gets the topic trending at #mileycomeback.

Celeb sites are analyzing if Miley Cyrus boyfriend provoked her to quit

And many Miley Goodbye videos are emerging all over the web

Did you know that the top 10% Twitter users accounted for over 90% of tweets and its not surprising that 60% twitter users quit within first month! Did you quit Twitter?

Must Read Related Articles

How To Backup and Restore WordPress Database

QuickOnlineTips — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:36:07 +0000

Guest Post by Udegbunam Chukwudi.
How can you backup and restore your WordPress blog database? If you’ve been blogging long enough, you might have heard the words “Backup Your WordPress Database Regularly!” Well, this is quite true. Don’t take it with a pinch of salt! A healthy backup of your database could one day be THE ONLY means of restoring your blog should something go wrong such as a bad plug-in installation or an attack by blog hackers.

For a second time since I started blogging, this database backup of a thing, as some would call it, has saved me a lot of headache. Recently I messed up my blog’s permalink structure and my saving grace was the day before’s database backup.

DISCLAIMER: This tutorial is provided as it is. I shall not be held responsible in any way should you encounter problems like loss of database and entire blog/website along the way. Use this at your own discretion. It worked EXCELLENTLY well for me and should do the same for you hopefully!

How to Backup Wordpress Database.

1. Download, install and activate Wordpress Database Backup

2. Go to Tools in the sidebar of your dashboard and click on Backup

Under Backup options as shown below, select “Download to your computer” and click on “Backup Now”. When the backup is done you’ll be given an option to choose where to save the backup. Save the backup and you’re done.

Note: I strongly advice you schedule a daily backup of your database as issues could arise at ANY TIME. Simply navigate down the Backup option page to Scheduled backup. Select the once daily option and select which tables you’d like included in the backup. Type in your email address, click the schedule backup button and all is well. Check to see if your first backup gets delivered successfully the next day.

How To Restore Wordpress Database

The guide below will help you restore your database in no time using the backups that have been made in the past. I’m assuming that your current database has been damaged or is behaving erratically.

1. Log into your FTP account and Delete everything in the /wp-content/cache directory.

2. Log into PHP MyAdmin and select your wordpress database. It’s mandatory you remember clearly well the name of your wordpress database especially if you auto-installed it using Fantastico.

A list of all of the tables contained in the database will be shown. As shown below, click on Check all to select all the tables then select the Drop option to delete them PERMANENTLY.

You’ll be prompted to confirm the Drop action

Choose Yes and all tables will be DELETED with this result displayed on your computer screen

Now that the database for wordpress is empty, let’s proceed to uploading our database backup file

Click on the Import menu as shown above and then browse to the location of the backup file as shown below. Once you’ve done that, click on go and wait for the upload process to finish.

A successfully database restoration will show you something similar to the message below

Once the whole restoration process is done, log into your dashboard and make sure everything is working okay. Don’t forget to browse your site to see if it’s functioning as expected.

This guest post was written by Udegbunam Chukwudi who shares make money online and blogging tips @ his PR 2 dofollow blog. You can also write a guest article and share your WordPress tips.

Must Read Related Articles

5 Free Programs to Manage Windows Clipboard

QuickOnlineTips — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:52:44 +0000

Guest post by Aseem Kishore.
Looking for free Windows Clipboard mangers? The Windows clipboard is probably the most under-recognized feature of the entire Windows family, yet it’s probably used the most often. In this post, I will give you my list of the 5 most useful clipboard manager tools that will help you increase productivity.

Best Free Clipboard Managers for Windows

1. Ditto – Ditto is an open source extension to the standard Windows Clipboard. You can store text, images, HTML, or any custom formatted content onto the clipboard. It has a simple and easy to use interface and a lot of cool features. For example, you can search previous copy entries and you can also keep multiple clipboards from multiple computers in sync with each other! And the data is encrypted when sent over the network. Even better! It also uses a database backend, so accessing and storing clipped content is super fast. Overall, it’s one of my favorites.

2. xNeat – This little program is really tiny! It weighs in at only 644KB! If you want something that will let you store more items in your clipboard and not eat up very much RAM, then xNeat is the clipboard manager for you. Of course, it’s not as fancy as Ditto, basically allowing you to bring up a menu with a list of all the items you have copied to the clipboard. You can setup hotkey also to make the copying and pasting very efficient.

3. Clipboard Manager – If you love using the Sidebar in Windows Vista and Windows 7, then you’re going to like clipboard manager. It’s actually a Windows Live Gallery gadget. Since it’s a gadget, it runs in the Windows Sidebar and lets you manage your clips from the sidebar itself, which is pretty neat. The copied items show up in a nice list that is also styled just like your sidebar.

4. Ten Clips – Another lightweight and easy to use clipboard manager is Ten Clips. Everything can be controlled by hotkeys, so you never have to use the mouse. If you work with any kind of data where you are always copying and pasting between programs, Ten Clips will make it much easier. It’s main standout feature is that you can quickly paste “purified” text, which means it removes all formatting and paste in uppercase or lowercase.

5. PasteCopy.NET – Though this program requires the .NET Framework to be installed, it works really well on Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2003/2008. It also is the only clipboard manager in the list to support multiple languages. It has some cool features like auto convert of HTML to RTF or TXT and auto convert of RTF to TXT. What’s really cool, though, is that you can mouse over and see a preview of the actual clipped item. It also has an export and print function built in.

Are you using another clipboard manager that I didn’t mention here? If so, post in the comments! Enjoy!

Aseem Kishore is a blogger and Internet entrepreneur who blogs at Online Tech Tips and Help Desk Geek about technology, software, and computers. You can also write a guest article on QOT and share your tips and tools.