TOC #175: She thought she could get away with copying ME? lol...
(April 30th, 2024) What To Do When Someone Steals Your Copy
And, I mean… why would Friday morning be any different?
Every single morning, I wake up to a nice lil ‘good morning’ text from the boy.
(He's cute for that.)
So, when I woke up on Friday, I expected to roll over and see his name on my phone, as usual.
Instead, I saw Nicole's.
No big deal — the boy just wasn't up yet.
And, actually, I was happy to hear from Nicole.
She's a student inside my group mentorship program for copywriters kicking off next week, and I love answering questions for my mentees, so I clicked on it right away.
(My mentees know they can ask me questions at any point of the day and I'll get back to them at my earliest convenience, so it's totally normal that I was reading her message with one eyeball open, still in bed, sun barely up. It's the blessing/curse of a yapper born with a ridiculous capacity for conversation.)
But Nicole wasn't asking me about how to raise her prices, or how to respond to a red flag inquiry, or what to ask on your sales page questionnaire for a client, or which name sounded better for her course, or how long it typically takes me to write a website…
Nope, she was just alerting me about — yet another — BTL website copycat.
🐱
WELP.
“Here we go again!” I thought, laughing to myself.
Like I said: this has happened so many times before.
Sometimes I do something about it, sometimes I don't.
But when it's my entire website copied, verbatim? Yeah, I'm doing something.
So, I got out of bed — it wasn't even 7am, but I was READY — went straight to my computer, and started my typical “deal with copycat” process.
And, you know what? I sort of felt bad for Kellie.
Imagine waking up to an email from me, with the subject line “Copyright Infringement Notice [Immediate Action Required]” to kick off your Friday. That sucks.
(No “good morning babe 🥰😘 I hope you have a good day beautiful” for her!)
…but, REALLY? 🤔
You're gonna decide to steal someone's content, and it's gonna be MINE?
The girl who has a history of publicly calling out copycats and tagging them?
The girl who sends cease and desists sub 20 minutes of finding out?
The girl from New England, who worked in law firms for six years, who doesn't care how sorry you are?
Lol.
I will be honest with you, though, I really DO get it. I understand why people take my copy.
For starters, it's good.
(One of the copycats I discovered after Nicole alerted me about the first one legit DMed me on Instagram and said “I just thought yours was good.” Like, yeah? Obviously? I'm a website copywriter? That's the point? That doesn't mean you can take it tho??? The fuck?)
(She changed her website & Instagram content immediately after I tagged her in my stories, though. This was her, if you're curious.)
(She deleted her Instagram, too. Probably because the only posts she had on it were just copied from my homepage.)
And, second, I rank pretty highly on Google for a lot of copywriting-related keywords.
I rank first for “website copywriting services” and 4th for “copywriting services” and 6th for “website copywriter” and on page one for a bunch of others.
So, yeah, it makes sense — maybe they think I'm a bigger brand than I am, and that I won't notice?
Buuuut I do notice. I'm just a girl.
…who happens to have followers who are like fucking vigilantes for this shit, because they tell me every single time. I've never found a copycat on my own, lol.
After last summer, when another copywriter stole this newsletter — a story told in first-person about my life, just like all 174 of my other newsletters — word for word and sent it to her list claiming it as her own, my audience started to pay attention.
(Probably because I was actually pissed about that one, given the girl had a similar following size and list size to me, and the “copy” was only obvious to people who were subscribed to both lists; it wasn't as “public” so it made me more mad, since her audience would have no idea it was stolen unless they also religiously read my emails.)
(And probably because I tagged her on my stories, and then she went on HER stories and cried, full-blown fake influencer apology vibes LOLLLL — except it was actually just her blaming her “assistant” who she then “fired” because of it, and she “felt bad” because that person had to “support a family” but she still “let her go.”)
(My ass, Haley.)
(You're still a copywriter sending your list a fake story that never happened to you. Who's gonna trust your client work after that?)
ANYWAY…
Point of the story? Friday was a funny little show on my IG stories, as I discovered Kellie, Nicole, and — the most wild one of them all, “Bianca” — in real time, and uncovered all the ways they stole my website, email, and blog content.
& as promised, I'm going to share with you how I deal with copycats in a sec, but first:
I'm not upset or threatened. It's very, very obvious (and VERY easy to prove) that the copy was stolen from me, and I don't believe that I lost out on any clients or opportunities or money due to these specific instances of copyright infringement.
It's easy to find out if someone's copying your copy. There's an entire website dedicated to helping you do it, actually. It's called copyscape.com. Try it.
Inspiration is not a reason to steal. You can be “inspired” by someone's content without straight up jacking it word for word. Copyright infringement is illegal.
Now, let me tell you what I do when someone takes my shit. 🥰
What To Do When Someone Steals Your Copy
Now, obviously, I am not an attorney, so if you're looking for actual legal advise, make sure you consult one. I recommend contacting Nina or Chandler or Paige.
I also want to mention that this is what to do when you are positive the content is yours. Not a little bit inspired by you, not loosely mirrored off of your content — but straight up stolen from you and your brain, like Kellie and Nicole and “Bianca” did from me this week.
Here’s what to do when someone copies you:
#1 — Take a Loom video / screen recording / screenshot of the entire website (or whatever the stolen piece(s) of content are).
#2 — Make sure to check other potential copycat instances by them:
Their blog
Their newsletter
Their opt-in copy
Their Instagram
Other social media accounts / guest posts
THEIR CLIENT WORK! (if they’re stealing your copy, who’s to say they aren’t also stealing the copy you write for your clients?!)
#3 — Email them a copyright infringement notice. Do your best to find their direct email; it's usually in their footer or on their Contact page.
Do not post about them copying you before contacting them about the infringement first, because you'd be tipping them off about it & giving them a chance to change things before you get the chance to do something about it.
If they don’t respond, you can take further legal action. (Like suing; requesting monetary compensation, etc.)
[NOTE: if your copycat is an Instagram / Pinterest situation, there's a feature on those apps that lets you report it (by submitting evidence) so you can easily handle it yourself.]
Here’s how to protect your brand legally:
Have a solid contract.
Add Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy to your website.
Trademark your brand name, and the name of anything you want to sell that you plan to make considerable money from or want your intellectual property protected on. (Ex: you bet your ass Site Series® proudly boasts that little circled "R" because ain't no WAYYYY someone is taking that from me, despite them trying.)
AND, MOST IMPORTANTLY…
If you don't know how to properly market yourself, please, for the love of God, don't take someone else's content to combat that!
Figuring out how to write your website copy is not difficult.
Actually, I have made it my own personal mission to make it ridiculously EASY for you, with hundreds of blog posts about it, hundreds of newsletters about it, AND a website copy template that walks you through step-by-step, page-by-page how to write your website.
& if you really want to learn how to write the best website copy — and also how to get the right people *to* your website using free, easy, organic marketing strategies — I've built an entire course (trusted by almost 200 students!) dedicated to teaching you how to do that.
If we haven’t had the chance to *virtually* meet yet, hi! I’m Sara Noel—website copywriter and marketing mentor for creatives, copywriters, and all-around cool people. If you like my content and you want even more BTL in your life, here are a few ways you can connect with me:
Subscribe to my newsletter! I send one marketing tip, once a week - and, according to my subscribers, it's "the best marketing newsletter on the Internet" and "the only reason to wake up on Tuesday mornings." So... yeah. You'll love 'er. 😏 Click here to subscribe!
Check out my services. I write website copy, sales pages, email sequences, blog posts, and brand messaging guides for entrepreneurs of all kinds! Maybe you’re my next favorite client.
Read my blog. It’s home to everything from copywriting tips, to marketing education, to freelance advice, to portfolio-worthy projects… if you like this post, you’ll love the blog. Here’s a quick roundup of my most popular posts.
Sign up for my email marketing course. Learn how to grow your email list full of loyal, ready-to-buy readers with this self-paced course teaching you how to write the best lead magnets, opt-in copy, welcome sequences, and newsletters.
Enlist me as your mentor. I have an entire in-depth blog post about my one-on-one consulting process for new and aspiring copywriters, if you’re interested in having a big-sis-style mentor to help you grow your freelance copywriting business & get results.
To get in touch with me directly, send me a DM or email sara@betweenthelinescopy.com. Have a great day!