Give credit where credit is due

Many surveys have been done to determine what motivates people to work, and, while money is one of them, surprisingly, it is not one of the highest-ranking factors that motivate a person to work. It has been shown that recognition for work done is one of the top factors. A simple thing as recognition. Simple to you maybe, but to others, it is the world! Recognition is acknowledging the time and effort someone put into a task, job, or activity. Now, recognition can be rewarded with payment, a tap on the shoulder, an announcement, or a gift certificate - to name a few.

When it comes to publishing, recognition, or what we term 'giving credit', takes the form of acknowledging the source of the information. This information can be in the form of the title of a book, an excerpt from the book, a quote, an image, or even sound. I mention those things because when using cyberspace, you have to give credit to anything and everything that you didn't create yourself or is not owned by you. In other words, recognise and give credit to others if you don't own the intellectual property.

 

Suitable images

 

I am sure you are one of those who, when you wish to find an image, you just grab one of those from Google.com. That's always the easy route, but it is a no-no. Many of those images, if you look carefully, take you to a site that is used by someone else, which means that you are borrowing someone else's property - but you don't care. The image looks good and it fits exactly what you want. While all that is good, you may one day get in trouble for it either from the owner or Google itself.

It is best to either purchase stock photo images or to find images that you can use that are creative commons or are royalty free. A quick Google search under those keywords can provide a wide selection of results, and I will provide a few here for you:

-Morguefile.com

- Flickr: creative commons

-Unsplash.com.

Here's a blog that lists 15 sites for free stock photos: https://bootstrapbay.com/blog/free-stock-photos/

 

Royalty-free content

 

Some sites such as Creative Commons may give you permission to use the images for non-commercial uses like blogs, your website, or PowerPoint presentations, but you may still have to state or give credit to the owner of the images either through a link (url) or name. So read all the fine print when you visit these sites. In other words, you don't have to pay to use the images, but you still need to give credit where credit is due. I don't think that is much to ask for.

Then you may want the use of audio or royalty-free music. One of my favourites that I still go back to is this link: http://www.bensound.com. It has a wide array of selected music and it is free. There is the option for a subscription and licence for those who wish to upgrade to gain all access. The choice is yours. Of course, if you want to get some really great tracks for a good price, I would suggest audiojungle.net and envato.com. While they are both related, envato.com goes into website template design and graphics as well.

Once you have made a decision to be on the web, you have made a decision to be public, and being public means you open yourself and your work to be used by someone else you never met or even your products being resold under another name.

 

Watermarks

 

To avoid this, it is recommended that you place a watermark or logo, no matter how subtle, on your images or any written material. It doesn't have to be big or centred. It can be something like a logo in the bottom left or right corner so that you can identify the material as yours once questioned.

Of course, if you are offering something for free, you can still use the watermark, but you are open to people trying all sorts of devices to remove it and claim it as their own, but here's the bright side. If you use an opt in, you will be able to capture their names and email addresses in exchange for what you are offering and build relationships with others you would have never met before. It's a catch 22 if you ask me.

More important, we just have to trust and believe that there is good in people first before thinking otherwise and making judgements. Remember those days?

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- Corine La Font is a speaker, author, coach, and self-publishing consultant. She is also an award-winning publishing resource in the 2013 Small Business Book Awards. Get a copy of her book at http://amzn.to/TFHQka, subscribe to her magazine at http://bit.ly/1IDj7pQ, tune in to her radio programme at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/helpdeskja, and check out her website at http://www.helpdeskja.com. She can be reached at corinelaf@gmail.com.