“Tell me something I don’t know!”. The internet is jammed full of copycat advice. People are pitching the same stuff. And it’s going to get worse. That’s not a prediction, it’s been happening since we first learned to speak.
Most of us have heard of Udemy, but there are a hundred copycat sites out there and more springing up everyday (Udemy, founded in 2009, is itself just another copycat in this respect, Lynda [now LinkedIn Learning] being the first in 1995).
Courses are being recycled on multiple platforms (they’re also being copied by rogues and recycled too).
Good and bad advice is being touted everywhere. Ebooks are abundant (ghostwritten, plagiarised, and just plain stolen). Out of copyright and public domain books appear everywhere with new “authors”.
Quotes are misrepresented or anonymised (which is another way of using them without passing on kudos to competitors), memes are splashed around willy nilly (although thankfully, that is starting to be called out), some gurus I know are inventing their own “quotes” as though they are meaningful (the point of a quote being that it is for others to decide if something is quote worthy).
But that’s life. It’s how we are. We can choose to be bothered by it or ignore it and carry on. There is only one sensible (and affordable) approach to this, and it’s the latter.
When you do that, it frees up more time to do good stuff and spread your message. If others copy you, good luck to them. You’re still doing what you’re meant to do, and the satisfaction is all yours.
PS. 40 people are currently working their way through the ICA Getting Started mini-series. The feedback has been fantastic. If you’d like to join them starting this Monday 6th April 2020, go here: https://internationalcopywritersassociation.com