Updates to site

[jewel531]

Hey everyone - just wanted to do an update on my website!

Finally Mac and Firefox users can now view and use my website. Took a while to figure out but its working now.

All Carrier oil profiles are completed - well I still have walnut and vitamin E - but those will be done by the end of the day. If you see any carrier oils not listed - please let me know and I will add it!

Also ALL Butters profiles are completed - again if you don't see something - let me know!

And finally - my biggest accomplishment - my RSS feed. You can now subscribe to my RSS feed and get updates sent directly to you! I am pretty excited about this. I will be updated this part daily with new articles, new product updates, and new profile and other site updates! I will also be annoucing free products giveaways in the next few weeks - check back frequently - first come first serve is the motto, but I would like to give away as much as I can. Anything from free carrier oils to free lotions and other bath and body products!

Now there is still a lot of work to be done, but its coming together.

Let me know what you think! I am pretty excited - if you couldn't already tell

http://www.naturallybejeweled.com

 

[carebear]

Nice site but have a few suggestions - it's pH, not Ph. just thought you should know since you are putting up info that people will use as a reference of some sort.

Also, the aloe oil seems a bit confusing/misleading. you have it listed as a carrier oil, yet farther down on your site, and on the supplier page (do they know you are linking to them? they are your supplier, right?) is the information that it's really an infusion or extract of the plant in a carrier oil, but since you have cold press as the type of extraction on your site it seems you are saying aloe oil is extracted directly from the plant. also you don't indicate which oil YOUR aloe is in, just that soy is the most popular.

Hope this helps.

 

[Tabitha]

Do you make/sell bath & body or soap or supplies? Just curious what the connection was.

 

[jewel531]

Thanks

Carebear - thanks for letting me know, and anything helps, I appreciate you taking time to look at it. I see what you are saying about the Aloe section(s), I will have to update it, and clarify my products description as well.


Tabitha - I originally started this site to sell my products, but setting up the website how I want it is a huge task, so I started on that while I still tweek my products. Most of the things I want to sell are still in some sort of manufacturing process (packaging mostly - bottling, labeling). So they still need some work as well. The stuff that is currently on my site has all been done in the last few weeks - so its pretty new. It's coming together - slowly but surely. I see how you can get confused though - I was re-reading my home page, and thought that it was a little mis-leading - at least for the time being. I am working on revising it to meet the needs of the site at its current state - which is basically just information. You will see a lot of changes as I form out and revise sections of the site.

Thanks for your input!
Ruby

 

[jbarad]

Finally Mac and Firefox users can now view and use my website. Took a while to figure out but its working now.

I'm not so sure of that I'm using FF and having one heck of a time getting the pages to load. I keep seeing "googlead2syndication" at the bottom in my progress bar and it's just hanging up.

If I open up my IE browser it all loads fine, so I think you might still have some FF issues there.

 

[jewel531]

Uhh Ohh

Well thats a bummer - I had others tell me it was fine. I will look into it - thanks for letting me know.

Ruby

 

[Tabitha]

It is a bit confusing, esp since most of your verbage & photos are straight from other websites like From Nature With Love, Brambleberry and a few others. I was not sure if you were associated with them or if you had permission to use their copywritten info/photos, etc.

 

[jewel531]

update

Tabitha - I updated my home page - have not gotten to the Aloe yet, but will do so in the next few days.

A lot of my information has been taken from various websites and articles all over the web. I did rephrase and change most of the information - a few sentences here and there might be similiar. I do intend to go through and revise each article a couple more times. As for FNWL and others, I do plan on taking advantage of their affiliate programs or advertising programs, but have not do anything with it yet - and have barely even looked into it. Again I am still in the preliminary stages of forming out this site, so some things will definetly be changed. But compliling all this information takes a lot of work and a lot of time. So I am working on it - but I do appreciate your comments, even the littest things help a lot - especially to help me move forward in making a informative and correct site.

Thanks again
Ruby

 

[The Queen]

I think Tabitha was trying to be gentle. That is plagairism and plagairism will get you into big trouble. How long do you think it will take for the sites you have taken from to find out & contact your webhoster? The online soapmaking community may seem large, but it is close knit. To be point blank, plagairism is no way to make friends.

 

[jewel531]

ok then...

Well I do appreciate your concern, and plagarism has been taken into account. I have done my research on plagarism, and what is acceptable and what is not, and I do take it very seriously. I have seen plenty of sites that take word for word the description of their products from other companies - and I am not in any way trying to run a business that does that. I am in no way trying to step on any toes here, my goal is to make an informative site with relevant and helpful information for other cosmetic makers and customers.

To create a site of this magnitude takes time - it takes a lot of effort on my part to research each and every ingredient used for Natural and Organic skin and body care. I have barely covered 20% of the ingredients that I would like on my site. But each and every profile I have created took quite a while to compile and research, as well as rephrase and format. Like I have said in the previous post - most of these profiles will be editted and changed a few times over before they are complete and in the format I like.

As for being contacted by the various companies that provide profiles on the products I have outlined, well, I hope they would contact me if they had a problem with anything I am doing/writing. I don't want to upset anyone, and I will do everything to ensure that doesn't happen, and if any company has a problem I will have no problem revising parts of my site to meet their requests.

Thank you though
Ruby

 

[jewel531]

Mrs. Jones

Mrs Jones - can you please let me know where I have copied word for word the descriptions of each product? I personally created each profile, and personally took all the content that I learned and put it into the format I have on my site. Besides the Aloe Oil - which is in the works of re-wording (this profile is a lot trickier than most because each manufacturer has a different end product - with different preservatives and other mixers).

I do understand about the pictures - and I do see how people will take offense to this - I will go through and put in no pictures where I have other peoples photos. I am in the works of getting professional pictures done, and I didn't want to change every picture until I got this done (it will take about a month - things get a little pricey so I'm spacing it out)- but if people have a problem with it, I will definitely go through and delete them.

Thanks again
Ruby

 

[Harlow]

Words can be minced but photos don't tell lies. IMHO the photos with (or without) artist marks are a far larger problem. They can not be used or reproduced without permission. It is obvious those photos are not yours.

IMHO the site should be taken offline untill you have done the work yourself, both verbage & photos. You can not just piggy back on other peoples hardwork and then charge for ads on the page to top it off.

It's both distateful and illegal.

 

[jbarad]

I have to agree with everything that's all ready been stated. Having been on the "other end" in the past I know how frustrating and angering it is to see work you've spent months, sometimes years putting together being copied, even in part, by another person and claimed as their own.

The very LEAST you could do is put a link to the source of your articles and information, which still isn't really acceptable unless you've received permission from the original site to reproduce their content.

Take the site offline, do the work, the research, write YOUR OWN articles from word one, then after you have it all together then launch your site. Unless you do this you'll find it very difficult to have anyone take you, your site, or your products seriously.

If you don't care enough to write your own work, how much care do you put into your products ? Are your bath and body products thrown together so willy nilly as well with so little attention to the important stuff ?

 

[jbarad]

There's this great little site out there called copyscape, you can enter in a URL and it will scan the web for COPIES of it, matching phrases, etc. All the things you would look for to see if someone is copying your work. Not necessarily word for word, but taken your overall content switched out a couple words here and there and relabeled it as their own.

YOUR site comes up in copyscape as a copy of mountainroseherbs

http://copyscape.com/view.php?o=85276&u ... &i=10&r=10

it also highlights the duplicate material, and what's highlighted on your site certainly doesn't look like you did much "rewriting" you just took paragraphs and copied them, and then just pasted it together with other content. It's still plagarism no matter how you slice it.

 

[carebear]

Re: ok then...

plagarism has been taken into account. I have done my research on plagarism, and what is acceptable and what is not, and I do take it very seriously.

really? did your homework tell you it was ok to copy content without permission? it needn't be copywrited to belong to the author.

To create a site of this magnitude takes time

yep

As for being contacted by the various companies that provide profiles on the products I have outlined, well, I hope they would contact me if they had a problem with anything I am doing/writing.

you are kidding - right??? so you, like a 6 year old, are under the impression that it's not wrong until you get caught? wonderful. very responsible - just the kind of supplier I look forward to doing business with - NOT.

 

[JuBean]

There's this great little site out there called copyscape, you can enter in a URL and it will scan the web for COPIES of it, matching phrases, etc. All the things you would look for to see if someone is copying your work. Not necessarily word for word, but taken your overall content switched out a couple words here and there and relabeled it as their own.

WOW! That is so cool! There is also a program you can use to find your images on the web to see if someone has stolen them.

As for being contacted by the various companies that provide profiles on the products I have outlined, well, I hope they would contact me if they had a problem with anything I am doing/writing.

I'm sure they will, unfortunately, it will most likely be via their lawyers. I think you are only allowed 4 words together until it is plagiarism.

It might be a bit different if you weren't their future competitors.

I know you might be a little overwhelmed but please take the time to think this through.

 

[jewel531]

Let me see if I can alleiviate some of this tension

Harlow - Per my above response - I completely agree with everyone about the pictures and will be taking them off my site in the next couple of days. I had actually brought this up with my husband a couple nights ago because I was concerned with the copyrights on them - and his advise was that it was alright for the time being, especially since I wasn't competing against them, and plan to advertise for them on my site. I guess that was bad advise - at least until I am able to sign up for their affiliate programs or promote their products. Which I am far from ready at the moment.

JBarad - Thanks for the link - I will check out other parts of my site and use that as a "guideline" - I can't say that I won't use any information from other sites - some of these sites have wonderful information that is beautifully phrased and incredibly relevant. But it looks as if I should change up my format dramatically. Which I was thinking about anyway - becasue their is some informatino in the profiles that I wanted to add - but doesn't flow well with the current format. But you seem pretty angry - and I really am not trying to upset you or anyone else. I will take your advise constructivly and use the link you provided to improve my site.

Carebear - No need for the 6 year old comment. My response was in no way at all saying that its ok to steal if you don't get caught, and I apologize if you thought that was what I was saying. It is not! But what I was saying was that I do not believe these companies will have a problem with what I have done. (I could be wrong - I have been wrong many times before). I am not trying to take their customers, or be anyones supplier or vendor.

JuBean - I do not want to be anyones competition - the products that I intend to sell are premade products, made by me. And no I don't just throw them together willy nilly - that is one of the reasons why I only have one product that I have made listed. I do have some oils on my page - but that is all items that I have purchased in bulk that I would like to get rid of - which I didn't think would be a problem. But a supplier is NOT what I intend to be. Actually it is quite the opposite. The end result of my site is still TBD as I form things out and move along - but at the moment my goal is to provide information in one place that is easy to read and easy to find. In the future I do intend to promote suppliers, not compete against them. That is quite a way away though.

I know this thread got a little heated, and I am truly sorry if anyone is angry at me or my site. That is far from my goals. But you all have helped - whether that was your intention or not. Please be patient - and if you check back by end of day Friday I am sure you will be happy with what you see. I can't revise every profile by then - but I will deactivate some links that I feel need a lot of work.

Please remember that this site has only been up for 15 days and has gone through quite a bit of change in these 15 days, and will continue to be changed and updated daily. I send updates on the site on this forum because I value all your opinions - most of you have been doing this longer than me, and I really do appreciate and look forward to all your input and suggestion, or criticism. Even though its a little harder to hear the bad stuff - I am doing this to hopefully help everyone - not upset you guys, and if you are not happy with my site then I am failing to accomplish the goals I set out to do.

 

[The Queen]

You have angered us. Many of us. What you might not understand is that this is a close knit community. Many of us have had long standing buisness and personal relationships with some of the very suppliers you have stolen from. It is personal and it's just not fair. You did your reaserch, you had your debates, you knew it was wrong when you did it. I can only imagine that you did not think you would get caught. You can spin the story any way you like, but no one is buying it.

 

[Harlow]

I think it is pretty clear looking back at your posts what your intentions here are as well. I did not see 1 single post from you where you were offering support to anyone else. All of your posts were question, no doubt research for your website. This forum is about give & take and so far I have only seen what you have taken.

 

[carebear]

Just a little FYI - all this doesn't bode well for finding future customers among us. Trust is an enormous issue when *I* choose a vendor, supplier, or even a regular old person to purchase from, and I know I'm not alone.



And since you admit you are still going to use the "beautifully phrased" text off other sites you clearly don't get it. Which stuns me. Holy cow - how can you miss that lifting the work of others is clearly theft of intellectual property?? It's not yours.
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