Are you using Google Alerts for your blog or small business? It’s a useful tool to find out who is talking about you, who may be copying you, and what’s being written about specific topics you are interested in. I set-up my first Google Alert for the name of my blog “Freebies 4 Mom” so that I receive one email each day with a summary of blogs who are blogging about me. I’m considering setting-up other Google Alerts for specific topics I am interested in, to find out what other bloggers are saying about them and perhaps link to them for future posts. My challenge is finding terms that are specific enough that I actually get useful results from the alert.

Usually my Google Alert email leads me to visit blogs each day to thank them for the link and find out what they want to share from my blog with their readers. But sometimes I find blogs that are copying my posts, and then I follow this advice on BlogCoach. I’m just not cool enough to take the radical “do nothing” approach to dealing with copied content that some bloggers are taking. I like to get credit for my work. There are other ways to help you find your stolen content, Lorelle on WordPress has a great list here.

I wanted to take the time to focus on Google Alerts this week because it’s an easy tool to use, but many may not know about it. I didn’t learn about it until my friends on Twitter brought me up-to-speed on what they use it for. Another reason why I am on Twitter, it’s a great way to learn new things.

The “Money 4 Mom” weekly series focuses on blogging as a potential source of income. It’s where I share tips and resources with bloggers every Monday.

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