My friend called: 

“This lady TOTALLY plagiarized you,” he said. 

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

✅ Join thousands of email subscribers
✅ Less than 0.4% of readers unsubscribe
✅ Never miss a Micro-Article or -Interview
✅ Get instant email access to VGC's founder
✅ Be first in line to get new, free Micro-Courses

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, founder

P.S. If you like VGC, you’ll love VGC Plus. Instantly unlock every post right here.