I'm about to launch 'the big one' I'm excited but frustrated. I don't want people to copycat me, but there is nothing I can do to stop it. Lucky for me it isn't something that will cause massive-copycats like the pixel site. When that launched, there were 20 pages on google with copycats trying to do the same thing. There is nothing I can do to stop it or prevent it. No matter how hard I try others will still take my new and creative, profitable, awesome idea and imitate it in their own way. Copyrights and patents would be a waste of time and money. All they have to do is change the name and design + do it their own way and it makes them legally legit. It could be worse though. It could be something that would cause massive copycats and hundreds of people attempting the same thing. I'm preparing myself as if that will happen though. The first myspace friend adder bot got overwhelmed with competition. I'm going to handle this like that will happen and try to stay a couple steps ahead. I'm adding a "copycats" section that will list all of the copycats and make a "comparison" chart to show why we are the best. Everything they have I'm adding to my site but better. That way everyone who visits my site will be able to see who is the copycat wannabe and also be able to see how my site is better in every way by looking at the comparison charts that compare the real thing (my site) to the wannabe's. I'm hoping this will help me battle the competition and prevent them from taking my business while earning me the reputation as "the best" It won't get over 100,000-200,000 uniques a month within the first year but it will make a lot of money each month (thousands) big to me might be small to others
I'm just trying to figure out what exactly it is I don't like copying other people though: people have done it to me and since then I'm completely against it.
What you worried? If your idea is good,i'm sure other can get all of your visitor to their "copycated" website. Look at youtube,there a lot of video sharing website when you search at google,but youtube is still is the preferable choice of many people.