Are we really having this conversation?

This post is a great example of what happens when you are under the pressure to blog a dozen times a day. What should have been a one-line post that said “stop whining and get back to work” Has turned into a big “controversy” and a long-winded discussion about how to protect your “intellectual property rights.”

Wake up people. The world of online marketing is no different than any other industry. There are no original ideas. Everything “new” is really just a collage of other great ideas that came from other people. And quite often, the people who come up with the newest “great ideas” (as well as their followers who worship their originality) are completely clueless about who they have borrowed from. (I can still remember how devastated I was when my mother told me Van Halen didn’t write the song Pretty Woman).

Now that doesn’t mean I don’t think Chris has a valid point, because I think he does. Using the name HatBait was clearly a direct ripoff of his idea, and he should have gotten some credit for it. However, if you are going to bitch about people not giving credit where credit is due, you should first make sure you’ve properly credited all the people that helped shaped your idea.

Here’s the shortlist:

1. Jim Boykin – Jim invented PhotoBait. He was the very first person to show up at a conference with the goal of getting his picture taken with every single person wearing a speaker’s badge. To be honest, many of us thought he was a little nuts. But he leveraged the shit out of all those photos, and the fact that he spent the time to take them made sure that all of the people in the photos got to know him on a personal level much quicker than they ever would normally. And I’d argue that the relationships he developed out of being the weird photo guy played a significant role in the amount of success he has had since.

2. Nathaniel Broughton – He came up with the “PubCon drinking game.” There probably wouldn’t be DrinkBait if Nathaniel hadn’t come up with the contest.

3. RC Jordan – RC came up with the name PubCon. And PubCons are really where the whole “buy smart people drinks and pick their brains” strategy was perfected.

4. Brett Tabke – There was a time when the word PubCon was taboo. If Brett hadn’t come to his senses and reinstated the name, Nathaniel would have had to call his contest something like:

"The WebmasterWorld World of Search Publishers Conference and Online Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan drinking contest."

Somehow, that just doesn’t role off the tongue. I can’t imagine the contest would have received any buzz with that name.

I could go on and on…..

In the end, the true measure of a great online marketer isn’t who can come up with the most completely original idea. It’s who can consistently expand upon and add to the clever ideas that came before them. From that standpoint, guys like Rand have proven they are players. (Yes, I’m saying to all you newbies that Rand didn’t invent linkbait).

And I also think that Chris is going to be a player as well. Not only did he add a ton of originality to the original drinking game idea, (unlike the HatBait version), he has also been hard at work on other ideas like his post outing my life as a member of a Boy Band.

Now Chris feels that post was a complete flop, but both myself and my kids thought it was funny as shit. (There was even talk in my house about blowing up the group photo into a poster).

If Chris can get over the fact that there will always be people who will borrow your ideas without contributing anything to make us all better marketers, and get his ass back to work, I’m confident that he will ultimately take his proper place as one of the “smart guys” that everyone wants to buy a drink for. And when that happens, we’ll probably all be sitting around a table in a bar trying to remember the name of that Hat Chick.