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Why copywriting swipe files can be dangerous


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.


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Hey there, thanks for reading. :)
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Eddie Shleyner 
VeryGoodCopy, founder
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