Internet Marketing is a cut-throat niche…
The following post may sound a bit negative to you, but the feeling has crept up in me over the years and now it’s come to the point whereby I cannot ignore it any longer.
What am I talking about?
Well, as an idea person I share ideas freely with people, especially other marketers, but those ideas get copied/implemented based on what I told them.
If I am using a certain blog theme, they might use the same one to emulate the look and feel of my sites.
If I am promoting a certain product in a certain way, they will copy that, then do it better usually…
If I express an idea for a certain home business product, they will invariably come out with one of their own based on what I told them (home study course, information product, even a certain niche).
It makes me rather suspicious when I see others copying me, but should I be flattered, “get over” myself, or get ticked off that these other allegedly successful marketers are probably glomming on to me for ideas on what to do next in their business promotions?
This kind of stuff makes me want to take a shower to wash the “fleas” off…
You know like… when you lie down with dogs you come up with fleas…type of thing?
This makes me want to “go niche” under a pen name and turn off my Skype.
How my stuff gets copied the most:
Stolen content:
Whenever there is a product launch I am interested in, I will write a review or article about the product… Then, if the review or article was good enough, it will get scraped and put on a squidoo lens or a blog and whover scrapes tht content will pass it off as their own. The most prevalent violation is done when people republish the EzineArticles.com articles without linking back to the article or leaving hyperlinks intact.
I understand that a sure fire way to success with business is to take something that works and make it better and can appreciate it when it’s done well and honorably…
Case in point:
I heard on talk radio the other day that Japanese steak houses in my area of New England are making a better product and putting it on the table for less money, much like they did for the automobile industry. As a result of that Japanese Steak houses are gaining in popularity and success in this region (so says the Phantom Gourmet brothers).
But still, when you see your marketing buddies from Skype or wherever copying what you do and watching you, it is kind of creepy. I mean, they’re successful people too, allegedly so why the need to copy me? I’m as humble as they come, and deservedly so…. so I can’t really understand why people are so lacking in ideas for business promotion.
One thing I will admit to though, is that when it comes to double-checking my SEO knowledge or theories, I head on over to Matt Garrett’s blog to see what he’s doing, and how he has things set up.
No content or marketing methods are copied, but a couple of things are clear when you look at any of Matt’s blogs…
1- They get a lot of traffic
2- Therefore must be configured properly
I won’t scrape and copy Matt’s stuff, or re-word it to make it my own, or grab his blog theme and create a look-a-like site. He’s a Skype buddy, and I’m no copycat and can think for myself, lol.
BTW, Matt rocks in just about everything, from SEO (true SEO knowledge, no untested theories) list-building, blogging (has an authority site on just this topic), domaining etc…
So why did my ADD kick in on an already rambling blog post to spin off to talk about Matt?
Because Matt has experienced the same things, too.
Matt, like all internet marketers, sends out promo emails and someone was copying his promotional and putting it on a blog as content.
Matt got irritated by this so he did the same thing, but his SEO expertise pretty much made what that other person was doing ineffective, or at least less effective.
If you stick around this niche long enough you will get copied, one way or another. The copycats are looking for shortcuts or just temporarily out of ideas. I honestly have no problem with someone taking an idea and running with it by making it better, but cannot condone stealing of content and passing it off as your own. I just find it weird that these alleged entrepreneurs are actually out of ideas and need to emulate little ole me…
This rant and rambling post is done, hope you learned someting from it, I know I feel better now for having written it and getting this off my chest. I promise you that more suitable ORIGINAL content is soon to follow :)
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