Do You Copy Other People's Techniques Or Do You Make Your Own?

In some instances, my material that I have created has been inspired by others that have come before me, and I have added my own touch and creativity to make it very unique

I think it's really important to not recreate the wheel.

With that being said it's more important to add your own twist, and keep track of what's working. Make your own experiments and keep track of what's working and what's not. Then focus most of your efforts on what is working. It's the 80/20 rule.

By focusing most of your efforts only on what's working, it will really make such a huge difference. Just remember, if you can measure it you can manage it.

I think it's impossible not to add our own twist onto whatever we learn from others. That's just human nature to add our own nuance to things.

The rule in general is to do what produces results. Period.

So if that means copying a method to the very last detail, then that's what needs to happen. But if thriving off a method means to add your own twist, then that's what you'll have to do.

I personally find it impossible not to add my own twist to different methods. I always try to take ideas or methods and enhance them so they're better than what i originally learned/heard about.

I do this a lot when i reverse engineer other marketer's funnels, products etc. You keep whatever works, fix the stuff that's lacking, and now you have something you can call yours.

It's a bit iffy to say that any single technique, no matter how unique, is only being used by one person or group. Selling is selling, and you'll see common patterns of what works throughout the entire marketing world.

Just take a look in the WSO section to answer that question. How many of the pitches scream "original" and how many look like carbon copies with different text?

I just was saying this in another post too, but most people are not going to share their exact techniques because they're going to become over-saturated. So most people that are making a good income online don't bother sharing.

Then you have some people that share fake information but in reality it's only because they want people to sign up through their affiliate ID on whatever website they're on. But then there are other who actually sharing valuable information and it's not long before it's not working. I seen someone do this on another forum where they were making scripts to scrape and upload tens of thousands of Youtube videos, but so many people started doing it that Youtube did a major upgrade to their API so it would not work anymore.

Anyways.. copying methods is not going to work most of the time. I find it can still be helpful to learn them though. I typically try to learn as much about all sorts of different methods and then come up with new ideas based around those same ideas.

I often find many of my original ideas "are or have" already been stolen, right after I think of them, lol.

In a recent training video (forget who it was- maybe CB university webinar) it was mentioned; when you pursue a particular interest in any specific subject matter, you'll often receive a flood of acknowledgement relative to that particular subject.

Too many times, I'll have literally laid out an entire plan (thinking it's unique) and then without effort - find someone else has just released or seemingly copied my ideas... before I ever saw their product, lol.

In a way, it confirms that I am on the right track, but it gets really frustrating if you are trying to be unique and creative. Happens a lot with my writings as well... I think I'm being haunted (or possessed) by a universal IM mind...lol.

The first time I actually noticed (or experienced this) I showed my wife writings I had in a notebook, and that were nearly word-for-word what Napoleon Hill wrote (before I was even born) - in his book "The 16 Laws of Success" circa 1958 version.

Note: I hadn't read any of his books prior to those writings...so, I think it's strange, yet all relative that 'we' really never fully escape the influences before us, whether we actually ever acknowledge it or not.

Yah man, I try to be as original as possible, but in the end, you do have to realize that most of the ideas and strategies online are recycled.

you can get ideas from others but but build something of your own which is unique..

if it works, why break it

Even if you copy someone's technique to the letter, it might not work for you.
There are a lot of variables in it.
Adding your own twist is inevitable, because you are unique, one of a kind, and so does the one you learn from.
When copying someone, you might find something that's not work for you, you have to decide whether you want to improvise or you want to stop doing it.
I shared my technique with a group of people. My technique might not work anymore tomorrow, so I might as well share it with this awesome people who also share their technique.
Give and Take.

When i first started out, i would go to work, and then come home and spend about 6 hours a day on the internet - trying to sell ebooks.

5 of those 6 hours i would be on Clickbank looking at everybody's sales letter page to try and find the "SECRET". That last hour i would submit to classified ad sites.

To answer your question, i do what the hell i want to do. There are only 4 things that i do everyday to market my site. They all take less than 1 hour to do. My time means more than a "$500,231" secret.

The key is generating targeted traffic, be creative.