When In Doubt, Rip Off Somebody Else

One of the most important things I ever learned (or more accurately – realized for myself) was that there was a lot about the internet marketing game I didn’t know and needed to learn.

Now, I could learn this stuff several ways. I could go to the Warrior Forum and wade through all the threads (not recommended for a noob – the noise:good info ratio there sucks). I could buy guru courses. I could pay through the nose for mentorship. Or I could save some $$ and buy stuff on the WSO forum.

All these things have their good points and, at some level, should be a part of your gameplan.

But then it hit me – I could cut to the chase and just rip off somebody else.

Now hold on – don’t get your panties knotted up. I’m not saying you should “literally” rip somebody off, copy them, or plagiarize. The furthest thing from it.

Rather, study your competition. Unless you’re a handful of people in the world (and trust me – you’re ain’t one of them…I know I’m not), there are already other people in your niche making a bunch more money than you, and a ton more successful than you.

Well…if that person is doing what you wanna do…in the niche you wanna do it in…and is making more money than you…that infers they’re better at it than you…so why not figure out what they’re doing and how you can apply it to your own business?

Personally, some of the best stuff I’ve ever done was to just look at others in the same game I was in and take a hard look at what they were doing:

What kind of products did they offer? (DVDs? ebooks? Courses? Membership programs?)

How did they offer them? (Physical goods? All electronic? WordPress? Email?)

What kinda price points did they use?

How did they advertise?

What was their email sequence like?

How do they write their sales letters? Do they use video?

What kind of hook(s) do they use? What emotional and psychological triggers do they use?

See what I mean? Analyze what others do, and try to figure out why it works. In fact, one of the best things you can do (I do this quite often) is to get other people’s opinions, and when I do, I do it from two types of sources – IM-specific and niche specific.

For example, I have several products in various areas of the fitness niche. If I see somebody that’s being successful, and wanna try something that they seem to be doing, first, I’ll run the idea (the basic theory/principle of it) by my fellow peeps in the internet marketing world. After that, I’ll to buddies in the fitness world, and then send them to the product, pitch, or whatever I want to borrow ideas from. I flat out ask them if they would buy that product, and if so, why? What would be the main thing(s) that would convince them to buy it?

Then, with input from both sides like that, coupled with my own ideas and opinions, I generally have a pretty good basis for moving forward.

For instance, a couple years ago, I knew I wanted to enter a certain segment of the fitness niche that I wasn’t in at the time. But I wasn’t sure exactly what kind of product (in this case specifically, what kind of workout) I should design.

I mulled it over for a couple weeks, then I was flipping the channels one night and saw an infomercial for a HUGELY successful fitness gadget / product / workout. I knew there was a market for this kinda product, as these guys were making a KILLING with it. But the thing was, was that with my knowledge of strength training, conditioning, and fitness, I knew I could put together a better and more effective product.

So I took the basic idea of what this product did, and created my own version of it, so-to-speak – the way it *should* have been designed in the first place. And the product has been one of my best sellers. The feedback and testimonials I’ve gotten over the years have been awesome.

When you’re stuck on how to do something – take a look at what somebody else more successful than you is doing, figure out how to apply it to your own business, then do it better.

Tags: internet marketing, product creation