My friend called:
“This lady TOTALLY plagiarized you,” he said.
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He sent me a link…
I read it.
“Yehhh...” I said, “that’s a copy/paste swipe.”
“So shitty,” he said.
“It is,” I said, “but her loss.”
“Her loss?”
I’ll explain…
First of all, seeing someone take credit for your writing feels bad. Of course it does. Nobody likes being stolen from.
But I find solace knowing the person who lifted my copy — verbatim — is taking a big risk… because:
1) Karma.
2) Words alone don’t make your marketing successful!
Successful campaigns target a specific audience with a specific message during a specific moment in history. And when this moment inevitably passes, it takes the market — its perceptions, needs, desires — with it.
And since the market changed, then the messaging must change too. Brass tacks.
Hence the danger with swipe files:
Just because something worked THEN, doesn’t mean it’ll work now.
A swipe file is a repository of proven case studies. It's a tool for learning and inspiration, not a catalogue of headlines to casually pluck from! And yet so many use it this way, like a silver bullet.
But there is no silver bullet in copywriting, I’m afraid.
Success is the product of research, testing, and hard work.
LEARN TO PERSUADE
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Hey there, thanks for reading. :)If you want more “micro” content, feel free to explore 100s of articles, interviews, courses, and series — all free. Enjoy!Eddie Shleyner
VeryGoodCopy, founderP.S. If you like VGC, you’ll love VGC Plus. Instantly unlock every post right here. 