Hello all, I know that it's not possible to copyright an "business idea" that in my case is a website. But since I put up my site, all sort of similar sites are popping up and they even copy my entire menu and they write about the same stuff I do and ... It's really annoying and I don't know what I should do about it. They don't even have much creativity and do the same thing I do with a different arrangement. They even pick similar domain names to get my visitors form SE. There are at least 4 of them that I know of and I wrote to couple of them but I don't know what else I can do. Please help
maybe they didn't really steal it =/, you know most common ideas are done over and over again... BUT then again if they have the exact same text then you may be right..
They did steal it because they start advertising over 6 month after my site was up and because it's a local business everyone knows about it, even my client mentioned it to me several times. my site is for moms and moms to be , I provide information about what is available to them in the city from activities to products and articles. It was one of the kind in October 2006 but now there are several of them www.montrealmommy.com
web hosting is very generic compare to what i do in small scale in a small city it's more similar to opening a coffee shop right across another coffee shop
Lilyz, Welcome to the business world. What you are experiencing has a name, you may not like the name. It is called: competition. I don't mean to patronise, I am certain you understand all this already, but still, you are none the less frustrated because this not a desirable/enjoyable situation to be in. One immediate thing to take from this is, that it reflects well on your business. 'Immitation is the highest form of flattery' and all that, but it still is no fun to know that they are scalping your mkt share based on no more than 'lifting' your concepts. However competition is on the whole no bad thing. They have operating costs and will bring clients into the market themselves at a certain cost to them. You however can form relationships with their clients alot cheaper. Infact there are ways in which you can create profit more cheaply (greater ROI & more rapidly) by getting access to the customers/prospects they have found. Here is where biz-operational and strategic skills come to the fore. The successful companies understand that the real money lies in the relationship with your market but long-term. By merely copying, you can presume that the people running these sites do not have the savvy to operate at that level of sophistication, and are looking for the short term win, and are to their ignorance incapacitating their growth and and revenue by doing so. This gives you the operating space to outdo them. If this makes sense to you I could point you in the direction of some of the people who I know are some of the best minds on this stuff I have come across thus far. Regrettably I have no slots for consulations at this point in time myself.
It's easy & understandable that you would take it personally. However it is business, the other site owners are not factoring in who runs the firm they are competing with. That out of the way you do best to keep your 'enemies' (competitors really) close in this sense, because if you know how, your 'enemies' become your agents. Now how is that for a smile out of a frown? Do you know what the wealthy do (and some of them even do this brilliantly) that every other business owner and worker does not? OPM & OPT. 'Other People's Money' and 'Other People's Time'. Until you learn to harness those and set up systems so that they are automatically producing for your bottom line in some fashion every day... you will not be wealthy. You may have heard that the Chinese characters for 'strife' and 'opportunity' both feature the same glyph, well this bit of trivia illustrates the situation you have now. Remember also: what you resist persists. If you want to alter the current situation, and since you do not want the current situation then I presume that is a yes, then you must cease to put your efforts into resistance. Resistance in this case is futile, they are within the rules. You must assimilate for success.
Lilyz: I took a fast look and the site is simple to "copy". It look like a lot of the resources are public thus anyone can find on their own. Unfortunately for you, you are it. If they copied your whole design or copy articles, you could contact their ISP. If you take the coffee shop example, you can have competition but if the look of the second shop is the same then it's deceitful to clients. I know of a blogger that did that with some success. It may or may not work. Try it but don't waist to much time on it. P.S. The Girls/Bows Growth Chart [pdf] was made with a "Evaluation" version. You should redo them to be up to date. I did not find the "Evalution" on the few other PDF I checked. A guy from Quebec City
Jeez.. if you want I'll donate a domain to you to use for a new idea. SitterInAPinch.com Let me know if you want it.
If the site is truly unique. or has some kind of function that is unique you could always apply for a pat. and get copyrights. That takes investment i know.. but then again. any site that i am "serious" about or any "solution" that i want to put in a substantial amount of my time and money into.. I will always go that route. That way if they do steal it you have a recourse.
I still think the best recourse is to outdo them at the business level. That is what good business is inherently about anyhow. People cutting corners being devious, it will all have inescapeable ramifications down the line. It would do well for anyone going for the short term win to remember that we can all see everything you are doing online, the logs go back years, there is nowhere to hide and by being less than examplary you are hurting the value of your operation which is, in itself, an asset whose value should be growing. People in business, like people in power, understand the imperative value of reputation.
I think that topic was around long before 2000 buddy. Your clients and you might just be seing them around now because they've put up more advertising or something.
Hello, Sorry for that. But really I dont understand, there are many websites like your site. Or there are something that I can not see. Does Google stolen to Altavista or Yahoo? Best regards, Jakomo
Competition can sometimes be good, and people usually later get surprised at themselves at what they're able to achieve. Besides, there's a saying that goes like "ideas are a dime a dozen."
Here's an example of competition being good for business; There's a street in NYC called Delancey st. just before the winter comes around, lot's of people that are in the market for winter coats (mostly leather,furs..) head over to Delancey st. because they know that they are bound to find a coat at a good price. usually you can visit one store and cross over to another store and tell them the better price you got from the previous guy, more often than not, they'll match it or beat it. The fact is that when it's all said and done, that person left their money on Delancey st. It's up to you to be the one with his cash in your register.