How to Steal Great Ideas From Other Bloggers

One of the best ways to find great new content is to steal it from other bloggers. And, with digital content it’s so easy to steal things.

Let me clear… I’m not talking about piracy here. Piracy is when you take something that is not yours and you use it or re-distribute it without permission. Creative Commons is when you do this with permission and I’m not talking about that either.

When I say steal, I’m referring to the idea in my earlier blog post How To Create Almost Anything. In that article I said the best way to learn anything was to model or learn from others. And, that’s what I mean by steal. You literally make your version of their idea.

There’s a rich tradition of doing this. And, it’s summed up by one of my heroes, Pablo Picasso who famously said:

Good Artists Borrow, Great Artists Steal

Etiquette For Stealing

And I want to outline four etiquette points for stealing other people’s ideas online.

1. Be transparent. Let people know what you’re doing. Someone always knows so be up front about it.
2. Add something back to the Creator. At the least, show a credit with a link. Alternatively, send them a thank you email, post a comment on their blog or share their stuff on social media.
3. Make Your Own Version. The goal is not to copy literally. It’s to take what they did well and apply it to your situation.
4. Make it better. Do a stunning job to make yourself and the originator proud. Maybe even spend a little more time than usual to ensure it’s hot!

What I Stole Today

Let me give you an example…

I was on a webinar with Internet Coach Gihan Perera last week. I loved what he did and thought to myself: “I need to do exactly that. I need to steal this idea!”

Gihan’s webinar was called: Seven Internet Trends You Can’t Ignore in 2012. You can view a recording of his webinar on his Facebook page. Click on Free Webinars and scroll down the list of 19 previous webinars. And, whilst you’re there register for his next one. I recommend his work!

Header image on this page stolen from Gihan’s Book Website: Fast, Flat and Free

My Stolen Version

So here’s my version…

Next week I’m running a similar webinar: Seven Big Ideas You Can’t Ignore in 2012. It’ll cover seven books that I’m considering rapping in the re-launch of Book Rapper. You can register for this webinar here.

Love to hear your thoughts on how to go about stealing content from other bloggers. What would you add to this list?