Help... what does "swipe copy" mean?

Hi Melanie,

I think what this guy is talking about is "swipe files" - the basic gist of this is that rather than write your own copy, you check out various websites in the same niche you are looking at, read the copy (details) on their website and "swipe" ideas - ie you take what you consider to be their best bits and either re-write or send him ideas of what you want....

Confused ? Ok Let me give you an example. I was recently looking through a internet letter when I noticed the headline "Who's looking at your bank account now..." I thought that this was a killer headline and will probably use it in the future but re-write it. So I am "swiping" the headline idea....

Hope this helps.

Ok, that's giving me a head start on what he means. Thanks.

So my next question I guess would be - is he asking me for the websites to take ideas from? Or for me to give him the info (headlines, and such)?

What's happening here is called "tunneling."

Whenever most people give an estimate, they assume they are going to sit down and do the work, and the only things that will happen are the things they know will happen.

Life isn't like that. You say "it will take me twelve hours of thinking to come up with the main idea for the copy, and then about eight hours of writing to product a first draft, and then about another twelve hours of editing, and then eight hours of going back and forth with the client... so I'll be done in a week."

And then all kinds of other stuff happens, and you don't get to put in the hours you expected, and you get interrupted and prevented and you have to wait for people and it's just a pain in the arse. Meanwhile, you're trying to get the work done, and the client's contacting you, and you have three problems.

1. You've not done as much as you thought you would, but you don't have a good reason for it because the last thing you want to do is whinge to your clients about your personal life.

2. You're still honestly trying to get it all done for the client as quickly as you can, because you're honestly embarrassed and upset that you didn't deliver as promised.

3. Even though you're trying to get it all done, life hasn't stopped, and you're still being interrupted and held up by all sorts of stuff that keeps pushing the delivery more and more.

Now, it's entirely possible your service provider is cheating you... but "tunneling" is far more likely. He simply didn't estimate with all the things going on in his life taken into consideration, because he honestly doesn't know how.

As far as swipe copy goes, he wants to see some copy that you like, so he can build similar copy - which you'll then be more likely to approve. He's trying to improve performance and make sure you're happy with the results, because all the time he thought would be available to edit and discuss is used up.

While I'd like to think the guy is 'tunneling', my faith in that dropped off over the past 8 months after hearing the same "soon" responses. That is, when I got a response at all. I can't post links yet, so can't link to my other thread, but it's under the Off Topic section titled "Feedback sought - Partnering with a 'Guru' and getting screwed..."

Seems like you've already made the decision about this "guru" but at least you now know about swipe files and tunnelling ! :-)

Yeah sorry. I find it really hard to give this guy any more leeway after nearly an entire year of frustration after frustration.

Melani - you've heard the expression 'there's nothing new under the sun', right? Same thing applies to internet marketing. The "swipe file" is a way of generating great ideas for copywriting (or anything else marketing related) that you've basically "stolen" from other marketers.

Once you start building your own file you'll see how similar the techniques and approaches of all the elite marketers out there really is.....

Now your job is to "steal" from them and put your own original twist on it if you can. In effect, you won't actually be swiping or stealing since you'll always be revamping the material for your own uses. It's just the procedure, the methods, the structure, and the techniques that stays the same.

Hope that helps.

Richard