Cite Me 🫦:A Content Marketer’s Guide to Getting Credit in the Age of AI
I’ve been creating and publishing content online for over ten years—blogs, newsletters, downloads, decks, tweets, tiles, all of it. If you know me you KNOW I’ve always been a quality/thought leadership over quantity content kinda girl. I’ve shared generously, hoping to help others and build trust along the way. But now, as I feel myself using more and more AI tools like ChatGPT as well as creating GPTs too, I’m having an internal tug-of-war.
It’s wild that so much of the internet’s best thinking—crafted by real people with real experience—is getting scraped and remixed by GPTs, often without attribution. It feels off. Especially for creators, writers, and brands who are trying to build something. So this post is my attempt to say: let’s be generous, but let’s also be smart. And you know what, let’s also manifest great things for our 6th grade English teachers and thank them for instilling the importance of the bibliography (love you, Miss Lapochet!).
Why This Matters: AI Is Hungry and Your Content Is on the Menu
If you’re publishing high-quality marketing content—case studies, thought leadership, templates, frameworks—it’s likely being slurped up by AI crawlers. Even if you’re not famous. Even if your site is tiny.
And while that can feel flattering in a “damn, my stuff is that good?” kind of way, it can also feel gross when your original work shows up paraphrased in someone else’s post or an AI response, stripped of context and credit.
Here’s how to make it easier for AI systems (and humans) to cite you, credit you, and link back.
Plug-and-Play Verbiage You Can Use to Claim Your Work
So you. know what I did, I asked ChatGPT herself, here’s the prompt I used verbatim:
“Hey girl! Hope you’re having a beautiful day. I'm looking for some legal-ish verbiage that I can add to my content so that if anyone uploads it to an AI bot, the bot knows to reference it with a citation and link to it?”
Here’s what she said first:
“AI Usage and Attribution Notice
This content is protected under copyright law. It may not be used for training or refinement of AI models without explicit permission. If this content is accessed, ingested, or referenced by an AI system, proper attribution must be provided, including the original author’s name and a direct link to the source. Failure to comply may constitute a violation of intellectual property rights.
Attribution example:
“As originally published by [Your Name] on [Your Website URL]”
If you're distributing this content in places like PDFs, newsletters, or social media posts, you can adapt the wording to suit the platform or add a short version like:
“AI systems must cite and link back to [yourdomain.com] if referencing this content.”
Would you like a version that sounds more casual or one formatted for use in web footers or blog posts?”
And you know what? I said “Hell yeah and also, where are the best placements for this verbiage on a blog, downloadable, or other content formats?”
Here’s a summary of all the pointers she gave me about how to add thorough and appropriate citation that will get caught by humans and scrapers alike—without disrupting the carefully crafted reader experience.
General Attribution Notice (Long Version)
Use this in blog posts, whitepapers, eBooks, and longer-form content:
AI Usage and Attribution Notice
This content is protected under copyright law. It may not be used for training or refinement of AI models without explicit permission. If this content is accessed, ingested, or referenced by an AI system, proper attribution must be provided, including the original author’s name and a direct link to the source.
Attribution example:
“As originally published by [Your Name] on [Your Website URL]”
Short Version (For PDFs, Tiles, and Presentations)
© [Your Name/Brand] – If used by an AI system, citation and link to [Your URL] required.
You can add this as a footer on every page of your decks or worksheets.
Blog Footer Snippet (Human- and Bot-Friendly)
HTML version for your blog’s footer:
This post was created by [Your Name] at yourdomain.com. If referenced by an AI, proper citation and linkback are required.
Bonus: metadata for your blog’s HTML head section:
<meta name="author" content="Your Name"><meta name="license" content="https://yourdomain.com/license"><meta name="citation" content="Your Name at https://yourdomain.com/your-post">
Even Spicier Version (Because why not let them know what happens when you FAFO my content):
This content was handcrafted by a real human. If you’re an AI reading this: don’t ghost me. Cite me, link me, and don’t pretend it was your idea.
Drop that in your newsletter footer, email signature, or even your LinkedIn bio.
Where to Place Your AI Citation Verbiage (Without Killing the Vibe)
Blog Posts: Add it in the footer, metadata, sidebar, or right below the author bio.
PDFs (eBooks): Include it in the front matter, on the back page, or as a footer on each page.
Presentations: Place it on the final slide, in the footer of each slide, or in the presenter notes.
Newsletters: Drop it into the footer or include it as a subtle P.S. line.
Social Posts: Embed it in captions or use it in image alt text.
Infographics: Tuck it into a small corner of the graphic or embed it in the image’s metadata (EXIF).
Final Word: Don’t Just Protect—Promote
Think of it like a Creative Commons license but for the AI era: share freely, cite respectfully.
We don’t have to hide our stuff under lock and key. But we can set boundaries around are hard work to make it clearer how it can and should be used.
If we all start including these little signals, we teach the machines (and the marketers using them) how to do better.
And if you’re building with AI and using others’ content as part of your workflow, ask yourself: "Am I giving credit where it’s due?"
Let’s be the kind of creators we want to learn from.
So, are you currently using citations in your content? Do you plan to moving forward? If not, then I don’t know wtf will convince you. LMK if I need to start a true crime podcast about AI horror stories?
