Hi Gang,

Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness around the world.

Carol’s Corner

Nov 26, 2006

The special Treat from Me! will now be replaced by my column called Carol’s Corner, where I will talk about anything and everything under the sun.

Carol Roach

I received permission from Beth to republish her article, at gather, ryze, pearlsoup, and my own newsletter Storytime tapestry.

I think it is very important for all writers and would be writers of all genres to take heed to this sage advice.

The Fine Art of Swiping
By Beth Ann Erickson
 
Copywriters write advertising materials. Often, to get their creative
juices flowing, they'll review successful ads and "swipe" it.
 
Article writers will often engage in a similar activity. They'll read
everything they can on a subject, then apply their personal twist on
the information while they form it into an article.
 
Either way, every author needs to be very wary of not crossing that
 
fine line between "swiping" and plagiarism.
 
Here's a perfect illustration. I recently spoke with a potential
client. Very important project... one that could easily net him at

least 20k per month.
 
He led me to his web page and I burst into laughter.
 
What was so funny?  

~~~~~~~~~~~~ Feature Article ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Fine Art of Swiping

By Beth Ann Erickson

Copywriters write advertising materials. Often, to get their creative juices flowing, they’ll review successful ads and “swipe” it.

Article writers will often engage in a similar activity. They’ll read everything they can on a subject, then apply their personal twist on the information while they form it into an article.

Either way, every author needs to be very wary of not crossing that fine line between “swiping” and plagiarism.

Here’s a perfect illustration. I recently spoke with a potential client. Very important project… one that could easily net him at least 20k per month.

He led me to his web page and I started laughing. “You so totally stole (writer’s name omitted) sales page,” I said.

“I swiped it,” he replied.

“I see that,” I answered. “That’s one heck of a swipe.”

And his version wasn’t pretty.

First, let’s talk a bit about swiping.

It’s fairly routine for copywriters to turn to successful sales pitches and model new ones after them. After all, if a particular website generated a huge profit in one field, the general sales structure will often work again.

However, what this guy had done was copy and paste the entire web page into a document and simply changed the product name, revised a couple bullets, and slipped his name at the end.

That, my friend, wasn’t a swipe. It’s called plagiarism.

Worse yet, it resulted in a really bad sales pitch.

You see, every product, service, whatever you’re selling has what’s called a USP, Unique Selling Proposition. This USP represents everything that’s unique, different, awesome about your product.

When you plagiarize a sales pitch, you run the very real risk of not illustrating your USP in a compelling, dynamic way.

And this is exactly what this marketer did.

His copy ran flat. It didn’t sell. No zing. No magic. Nothing.

Plus, by stealing a highly recognizable website, he lost all credibility with me… someone he was hoping to hire to help him sell more product.

So, how do you go about elegantly swiping a successful sales piece?

Well, you don’t plagiarize or blatantly steal the content.

You analyze why the piece worked, who the audience was, what the state of world was, the date the piece ran, what patterns response followed… there’s far more than cutting and pasting involved.

You also have to analyze you own business. What is your USP? Who is your audience? What kind of tone do they respond to? What are their price points and why? How have you pitched them in the past and how does this fit in with the puzzle that is your marketing plan? What have you done to lead up this pitch?

See… there’s an art to successful swiping.

An elegant swipe slips into your business plan like a hand into a velvet glove.

A great swipe is utterly unrecognizable from the original. Your customers shouldn’t look at it and gasp, “I’ve read that before.” You certainly don’t want them to laugh at your ad and think it’s a joke.

Somewhere along the line, you want your swipe to glide away from the original and become something utterly unique… a web page that’ll work for a very long time. A sales message that’ll bring in mucho profits without any controversy. (And if you plagiarize, believe me, you’ll face controversy.)

I mention all this because many newbie writers are just now drafting their own websites. Be very careful when you craft your webpage that you don’t blatantly swipe someone else’s style.

After all, if you write your own web copy and have been told that all you need to do is “swipe” a successful letter and you’re on your way to huge readerships… well I think you know the answer to this outlandish claim.

As for my potential client, he’s still running his swiped web page. Lucky for him, the person he swiped from is very kind and doesn’t intend on contacting his lawyer. The client says he’s planning on re-writing the page on his own.

I wonder who he’ll “swipe” next.

It’s really too bad because if he simply invested a fair amount of thought into the project he could really make a dent in his unique niche, easily netting tens upon thousands of dollars every month.

As is, unfortunately, he’s not even breaking a few hundred a month.

But I guess that’s what happens when you try to swipe without understanding even a few of the complexities of the persuasive process…

Perhaps I’ll expand more on that next time!

~~~

Want a ton more ultra-effective techniques that’ll give you an incredible edge in the over-crowded freelance world? Click this link. http://filbertpublishing.com/e101.html

Pssssst… you can even instantly download this incredible information! 

P.S. You can use this article free of charge on your own website or zine. Just don’t make any changes and be sure to include the entire byline. Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 
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