My friend texted me:

“This lady plagiarized you.”

He sent me the link…

I clicked it, read it.

“Yeh...” I said, “that’s a copy/paste swipe.”

“Thief,” he said. 

“Her loss,” I said.

“Her loss?”

I’ll explain:

Seeing someone take credit for your writing feels bad. Of course it does. Nobody likes being stolen from. But then the person who lifted my copy, verbatim, is ultimately on the losing side of things:  

One, because karma.

Two, because successful campaigns target a specific audience with a specific message during a specific moment in time. And when this moment inevitably passes, it takes the market—its perceptions, its needs and wants—with it.

Brass tacks: if the market changes, the message must change, too. 

This is why copywriting swipe files are dangerous:

Just because something worked for someone else’s prospects then, doesn’t mean it’ll work for your prospects now. 

And now—today, this moment—is everything.

A swipe file is a repository of once-well-timed approaches and angles. It's a tool for learning and inspiration, not a copy catalogue to casually pluck from. And yet so many people use it this way, like a silver bullet.

But there are no silver bullets in marketing, I’m afraid, no. 

Success, ultimately, is the product of a few key things:

One, creativity (i.e., doing your research and connecting disparate ideas and concepts in fresh, flush ways). 

Two, testing (i.e., taking chances on educated guesses). 

Three, hard work (i.e., consistently doing more than you think you’re capable of doing). 

Simple, not easy, yeh…

But then nobody can call you a thief.