The internet is a lovely place. Here you can find collaborators, fans, writers, publishers, morons, bloggers, designers, silliness, and just about everything else. Everything is here, and the door is open for anyone who want to get started in online publishing, be it blogging or more traditional websites.

Problem is, it’s a very anonymous place, and it is full of people trying to make easy money by posing as freelancers, submitting content that are rip-offs or even straight copies on other people’s work.

PSDTUTS obviously experienced this, they removed a tutorial post, and wrote about it. That’s the right way to cover this kind of issue, be upfront and honest about that you’ve been fooled by some copycat lowlife wanting to earn easy $$$ on somebody else’s work. I feel sorry for Collis & Co., it’s an awkward and embarrassing situation.

I’ve been approached by a lot of writers for various projects. Most of them aren’t good enough, to be honest, but some submit great sample content, good post ideas, and seem promising. Problem is, they could have ripped that content from anywhere, and I wouldn’t know. The internet is full of good and not so good stuff, and there’s no possible way to keep up with it. You can google it, you can use services like Copyscape, but that’s about it.

Building an audience is hard, and building trust is even harder. Every time you do something that resonates badly, like publishing dupe content, that trust takes a beating, and the audience gets more cautious, no matter if it’s intentional or not. The only thing you can do is to be upfront about it, telling people you’ve been fooled. Still, the thought is planted in the reader’s mind, and the trust is bruised.

The internet is a lovely place, with millions of possibilities. Unfortunately, that goes for the shady people as well.