Update (26 Sept, 2011)

A new version of this Extension (2.0) has been released and is available for download here. New features have been added.

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I recently wrote about how to double cross copycats of your blog articles by adding an original article link of your own website at the end of RSS feeds. Copy of content is a big issue faced by bloggers these days and there are no easy ways to tackle it.

Most of the bloggers/forums use some third party service like FeedBurner to distribute RSS feeds. I also use Feedburner to deliver my new articles here to subscribed users. Now, what people with determined mind of copying do is simple read out the RSS feed using an automated tool and paste it on their own blog.

What do the original writer get in return? Nothing. And it is pretty difficult to catch these copiers and even more difficult to force them to bring down the copied content.

So, I thought that the best way out is to add a link back to my own website within the RSS feed so that i can at least gain a link when somebody blindly copies it!!

Since, there is no setting available in FeedBurner to achieve this, there are plug-ins available for adding this "original article" footer in RSS feeds for different blog platform like wordpress, DotNet BlogEngine etc on internet. I use < a href="http://www.dotnetblogengine.net/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">DotNet BlogEngine to power my blog and hence wrote the plug-in (known as Extension in BlogEngine Terminology) myself.

If you would like to use it on your Dot Net BlogEngine implmentation, then download this extension and start using it for free!!

Option 1: Download and Install (For BE V 1.6)

1. Download BlogEngine Original Signature Extension.zip (3.34 kb).
2. Extract the zip file in any folder on your computer.
3. The package contains two files, AM22_BE_Extension.dll and AM22_RSSFeedSignature.cs.
4. Copy and paste AM22_BE_Extension.dll in your blog's Bin folder. Must be at <Root>\Bin
5. Copy and paste AM22_RSSFeedSignature.cs in your blog's Bin folder. Must be at <Root>\App_Code\Extensions
6. Run your blog, Log in with admin user and go to control panel->Extensions. Enable the extension if disabled.
7. Thats it! You are done. Now whenever you will write a new article, your feed items will automatically insert the original article footer with links.

Option 2: Download and Install (For BE any version including 2.0)

1. Download BlogEngine RSSFeedSignature.zip (1.12 kb).
2. Extract the zip file in any folder on your computer.
3. The package contains one file, AM22_RSSFeedSignature.cs.
4. Copy and paste AM22_RSSFeedSignature.cs in your blog's App_Code folder. Must be at <Root>\App_Code\Extensions
5. Run your blog, Log in with admin user and go to control panel->Extensions. Enable the extension if disabled.
6. Thats it! You are done. Now whenever you will write a new article, your feed items will automatically insert the original article footer with links.

Option 3: Download and Install Using a NuGet package.

FeedSignature is available on BlogEngine gallery as a NuGet package download. BlogEngine Gallery is managed by Rtur who is well known for his work on BlogEngine. You can read more about installing extensions using NuGet package here.

What does this extension Do?

This extension adds the text(highlighted in image) along with the links of your original article.

What is the benefit of using this extension?

1. It is not sure if Google or any other search engine can identify that a particular blog entry is copied on the basis of this 'original' article footer or not but it certainly helps readers/users find out the original source. May be Google's algorithm is also tracking these kind of text to find copied content.
2. If the copier is simply using an automated tool to copy your RSS feeds, you will get a link back to your article automatically. More links means better Google ranking. So, you are building your links without any extra effort.
3. The original article text and link should NOT be visible on your blog article as it will signal that you have also copied the content. Hence, the extension only adds it to your RSS/Atom feeds.

Can I customize the message which is added to RSS feed footer?

No, It cannot be modified at this point. But we may add the functionality to add custom text in signature in future.

Have any questions about this extension? Write in to comments and I will try to answer ASAP.
New feature addition/extension ideas are most welcome :)