How to spot a copywriting fraud
Published: Mon, 05/13/19
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I’ve read so much of Ben’s stuff, that I can spot his lingo, his cadence, his Midwest charm, from the other end of this flat Earth.
But I didn’t realize how much I knew Ben’s sound until I joined the lists of lesser-known copy ‘experts.’
Then something strange happened…
I started hearing Ben’s voice EVERYWHERE.
Not just his principles, his style: from the way he spells bid’nis (instead of business), shyt (instead of shit), or ho’ (instead of whole)… way down to the granular stuff like the exact time he sends his emails in the morning (6:30am PST). I even see guys ripping off the look of his landing pages (you know who you are).
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Mr. Rizvi is, unfortunately, correct about all of this.
I say "unfortunately" for two reasons:
1. I have nothing but contempt for copycats incapable of thinking for themselves.
2. These cats are only hurting themselves, and I have seen many get viciously mocked in the very circles they probably want to be invited in to some day.
For these blokes, I leave them with two bits to think about.
The first thought is something the late, great Stan Lee said about how he constantly toyed with and stayed far-ahead of DC Comics.
Read what he said very carefully below.
If you’re a seedy little copycat thinking you are "getting away" with something, take heed:
“When we started outselling [DC Comics]...they used to have meetings wondering 'why is Marvel outselling us?' And some genius would get up and say, 'I think it's because Stan uses a lot of dialogue balloons on the covers.' So the minute I would hear that for the next few months I'd take all the dialogue balloons off the cover. Or they'd say it's because we use a lot of red on our covers. So the next few months no red on the covers. It must have driven them crazy. And I never could understand why it didn't occur to them that we were trying to talk to the readers instead of just doing stories. And I think that was the main thing.”
Imagine that.
Trying to build a *relationship* with readers, and not just copying & swiping.
And the second bit to think about?
Is from the great Ken McCarthy’s “System Club Letters” book:
“Copycats don’t get far in jazz. In fact, they don't exist. Unless you can figure out how to bring something new to the table, there's no seat for you. Business is a little more tolerant of ‘knock off’ artists, but in the long run the prize goes to businesses that develop a unique personality. The ‘me too’ business makes for slim pickings.”
Maybe, just maybe… these industry leaders are on to something.
In fact, want to excel at what you do?
Get the best customers and clients?
Make the max amount of the green stuff?
Then it’s really quite simple:
Think and solve problems, instead of reactively swiping & copying. Every ad/email is a unique problem you can’t solve by mindlessly swiping someone else’s personality, writing style, ways of talking, etc.
Do that and, yes, you may be copied.
But, you’ll never be duplicated.
Why?
Because you’ll be an original you.
And, not a fax of a copy of a scan of a screenshot of some mindless copycat's selfie that's photo bombing whoever they are trying to be like.
"Email Players" teaches business owners how to write emails with their own brains.
If that interests you, go here next:
http://www.EmailPlayers.com
Ben Settle