COPY CAT? IF SO , YOU'RE IN FOR A SHORT LIFE!!
Yes! That's true! More and more, everyday, new dealers are entering mail
order and copying the work of others. Some of them are not even aware they
are doing anything wrong. Besides, they are trying to learn from others so
why not copy them?
You have to make a distinction here between "copying" in order to improve
upon someone else's idea OR "copying" in order to make a lot of money for
yourself. Let me give you an example - A business associate of mine created
a rotating-type adsheet. You know the kind. A person pays $20 to be placed
in Position No. 1. All other ads are rotated to the right until they move
off the sheet. If done properly _ the person who paid $20 to be on the
rotating adsheet should NEVER come off. However, people take this idea -
try to copy it, and turn it into a scam. They intentionally take a good
concept and make it into a rip-off where all the profit is made by the prime
source. How unfortunate!
In fact, this is exactly HOW rotating adsheets got a bad name. Here's how
it really is supposed to work:
Gail pays Max $20 to have her 2" C/R ad placed in Position No. 1. She
receives a camera-ready copy of the rotating adsheet back in the mail with
her ad in Position No. 1 and 8 other 2" ads from other dealers. Gail is
responsible for printing and mailing copies of her particular rotating
adsheet to generate advertising for 9 people (including herself.)
Gail mails Shawn a copy of her rotating adsheet. Shawn wants to take part
in the promotion so he sends Max $20 with his 2" ad and a copy of Gail's
rotating adsheet. Max places Shawn's 2" ad in Position No. 1 and moves Gail's
2" ad to Position No. 2. This way, Shawn is mailing copies of Gail's ad
along with his own. Now Shawn mails a copy of his rotating adsheet to Gary.
Gary wants to get involved so he sends Max $20 along with his 2" C/R ad and
a copy of the rotating adsheet Shawn mailed him. Max places Gary's 2" ad in
Position No. 1, Shawn's 2" ad gets moved to Position No. 2 and Gail's 2" ad
is now in Position No. 3.
Technically, Gail will NEVER reach Position No. 9 because the chance of this
generation factually happening is 1 in a million. So essentially, Gail's ad
should never go off the sheet.
Unfortunately though, some people have taken the concept of helping people
like Gail and turned it into a money-hungry game for themselves. Instead of
moving the ads in the proper positions, they might place Gary's ad in
Position No. 1 and Gail's in Position No. 9 (instead of 3 where she actually
belongs.) And then maybe Shawn won't be on Gary's rotating adsheet at all.
The rip-off artist doesn't realize that Gary might be personal friends with
Shawn and they might compare adsheets. The scam artist is only interested
in their gain and in not paying commissions due their hard-working people.
Eventually NOBODY ends up making any money and the idea goes down the tubes!
What happens is that these unaware "copy cats" eventually mail their ad
to the mail order dealer who originally designed the material; or,even worse, mail to
someone who knows the dealer personally that has been conveniently "left off".
There's no way around it.
And when your "copy cat" material is discovered you can be in for some
BIG TROUBLE! When you commit perjury of prime source-designed materials your
name will be mud within a matter of weeks. Your act will be reported in
almost every tabloid and adsheet and you will be exposed through rip-off
columns circulated to 1,000's of people.
But not only that! A good mail order attorney can sue you and repossess any
assets you may have. Most small businesses start out as sole-proprietorships
(not incorporated.) Because of this, your personal assets can become the
possession of the attorney filing suit.
The best way to avoid all this hassle is NOT to copy the materials of other
people. Sure, you can look at the work of other designers and get an idea as
to how you would like to present your materials; but, taking the actual copy,
cutting out pieces of it and inserting your own info is downright criminal
and uncalled for! The word "design" means to create from scratch!
Good mail order dealers work very hard and put in a lot of hours for a
meager salary. When they have put all their efforts into designing a program
or an advertisement it's very demeaning to our industry as a whole if someone
was selfish enough to "steal" and "forge" it only to destroy its original intent!!
