There's nothing I detest more than plagiarism. 

As an author of five unfinished books, seven defunct blogs, and a sporadically updated Steemit account, I know what goes into producing creative work.

It doesn't matter whether you're a writer, painter, videographer, animator, or photographer (actually photography is just pressing a button – what a joke), producing creative work is like digging deep into your soul and pulling a little bit out to share with the world.

The creative process isn't glamorous. Creative people battle their inner demons every day to produce their work. And most do this for little, if any, pay.

Steemit has opened up a door for creatives to monetize their work. Unfortunately, an army of plagiarist has followed through. The problem is so grave that groups attempting to combat plagiarism on the platform are completely overwhelmed.

If you are a plagiarist and you happen to be reading this, there's something you should know: You're wasting your time.

There's no money in plagiarism and I'll tell you why ...

The Writer's Voice

When a novelist submits a book to a publisher, the publisher will edit the work. This editing can be brutal. Huge chunks of the book are removed, paragraphs rearranged, and a whole host of grammar and formatting edits made. However, there is one thing the editor will never change: The writer's voice.

The writer's voice is where the money is. This is because the writer's voice conveys personality, values, beliefs, insecurities, and heart. It's through this that readers connect with the writer and the writer builds a readership.

When you copy and paste other peoples articles, you have no writers voice. One post your a CNN financial journalist, the next your world renown food blogger, then you're a crypto tech expert, and then a whole host of other personalities that are not you.

Who are you? I can't connect with you when you plagiarise. If I can't connect with you I'm not going to follow, upvote, or resteem.

At best with this strategy, you may be able to fool the odd person out of an upvote. However, that person is never coming back. If you want to make money, you need people to keep coming back. To do this you have no choice but to develop a writer's voice.

It's a Crowded Market

If you want to get into the plagiarism business on Steemit, I have some bad news: There's too much competition. The industry is flooded.

When a market is saturated with product, the only way to be successful is to produce a product that is better than everyone else’s.

But how do you plagiarise better than someone else?

It's literally copy and paste. It's not figure skating, it's highlighting text and pressing the right mouse button. Any idiot can do it, and every idiot will. This is bad for you because now you're competing for scarce random upvotes with the thousands of other copy and paste jobs on the platform.

However, if you write in your own voice, the competition disappears. You're experiences, knowledge, and personality are completely unique. Instead of wasting time copy and pasting, you could be writing your own posts and making a lot more money. 

Google is not Your Freind

Yesterday I saw an entry into one of those black white photo competitions where people press a button and win SBD. The photos this person submitted where landscapes of Iceland. The only problem was this person wasn't from Iceland, had no other posts about Iceland, and could not speak the language of Iceland (Icelandish?).

I thought this was amazing, so I reversed Google searched the images. Turns out, another person on Steemit had submitted the same photos. This person was from Iceland, posted often about Iceland, and could speak Viking.

If you post plagiarism other people will hate you, run a Google search, confirm you're a plagiarist,  and flag you.

If you're plagiarising, it's a safe bet you don't have much Steem Power or upvotes. Any kind of flagging campaign against you is going to destroy the earnings you were able to gather for that week.

Any dolphin or established minnow can wreck you. It's only a matter of time before you're found out, and all your copy and pasting will amount to nothing. 

Here's a black and white photo I definitely took myself whilst on a trip to New York, a city I totally visited, and is not a crappy stock photo from pixabay.com

Conclusion

I understand that most people who copy other peoples work and publish it on Steemit are just trying to earn some cash. But, out every account I've seen doing this, not one is making a success of it.

There's no money in Plagiarism. You're wasting your time.

It's always going to be more profitable to post original content here. 

Take the time to develop your voice, hone your craft, and build your followers.

Remember, when you plagiarise, you are not only stealing from people, but you're also stealing from yourself. The plagiarism cheapens the platform, which means fewer upvotes for you.

All images copy and pasted from pixabay.com