copycats don’t know why

Writing website copy from scratch is hard. It’s the kind of job that makes me want to close my laptop and go do anything other than write about my product.

Ever felt that way?

And did you also go and spy on every “successful” business’s website you could think of? To see how they structure it? How they write it?

The danger in that is assuming success.

Copying any piece of another business is like rolling dice — better analogy still, it’s like betting on someone else rolling the dice. It’s craps and you’re hoping someone else has a hot hand.

Unless you know for damn sure that the reason this company is making money is the thing you’re copying, you’re making a bet that it is.

This kind of bet can go wrong.

As I finish a week of rewriting our home page (and combing through plenty of websites for inspiration), I’m reminded that it’s easy to copy. It is not, however, easy to replicate the reason for another company’s success.

Yes, it’s cool to take inspiration from others. But we have to trust that deep down we can do this too.

(Or we can hire someone who knows what the F they’re doing and can take the random things I say and make them into something unique and meaningful)

Copycats don’t know why the original work was done, so they can’t ever replicate the success of it.

Peter

(239 / 500)