I’m lucky, sort of.   

I write four blog posts a week for web design companies and a hosting company. No complaints here. However, because I’ve been undertaking these assignments for 18 months, that works out to over 200 articles on SEO/SEM topics.

At that rate, you have to slice the baloney pretty thin. So, a question (not an epiphany): Can you plagiarize yourself?

First, you can’t copyright an idea. An idea is just out there for easy pickins. However, if in February I write a piece on HTML tags and what they do, and then in July I write an article on the same topic, though with completely original copy, is there an ethical dilemma here?

The words are always fresh, but after a while, I find myself writing blog posts or articles that sound familiar. A quick check of my backed-up files reveals why. I wrote something like this a year ago for a different client! Ugh.

The question is this: at what point do I start plagiarizing myself? If I write two articles with the same POV but different words, is that plagiarism? Am I being fair to the second client who ends up with a recycled slant on the same idea?

The question doesn’t keep me up nights, and I’m still doing the weekly assignments so my conscience can’t be bothering me that much.

Still, I wonder. Thoughts from those in the know?

webwordslinger