Why are you a Copycat?

Hah, I wonder if this thread is referring to me. =) In any case, I get called an asapSCIENCE copycat every single day. Let me share you a post I made on another topic a few weeks back when someone asked if he should stop his channel because someone else was already doing it:

"When I came up with the idea of my channel and shared it with my brother, he asked me if I had ever heard of asapSCIENCE. At the time I had not, so I went ahead and checked them out. They had millions of subscribers and were using that same concept that I wanted to use: whiteboard illustrations. And man they did it REALLY well. Immediately, I felt pessimistic, sad, and wanted to just scrap the idea. But I loved the idea so much and I wanted to use it because I've been running it through my mind far too long to just let it go. Fortunately, I at least had some uniqueness to my approach, a niche that would give me some sort of separation from asapSCIENCE, or so I believe. I wanted to do health and fitness videos. asapSCIENCE, on the other hand, did videos answering curious science questions, so I definitely had a space to fill, right?

I went ahead with my channel, pumped out the first wave of videos and then crossed my fingers that people would come and watch them. And they did! I was excited and everything was going well and then... I read the comments:
"YOU'RE JUST AN ASAPSCIENCE RIPOFF!"
"STOP COPYING OTHER PEOPLE! NO ONE IS GOING TO LIKE YOU."
"WHAT IS THIS? CHEAP ASAPSCIENCE?"

I was immediately struck with disdain. All that work I did only to get exactly what I feared. I wanted to stop because the last thing I wanted to be is some sort of ripoff. These comments, at the time, seem to be right. I felt like I AM a ripoff. I stopped making videos for a few weeks and contemplated my decisions. From time to time, I'll check on my videos to see how they're doing. The negative comments were still there. But then I realize... for every "bad" comment, I had at least 10 "good" comments in return. All awesome praises of "great job," "keep it up," "please make more videos," "wow, how do you only have a hundred subscribers!?" These comments made me feel good about my work. And I thought to myself, "Why should I let a handful of ugly comments deter me?" I moved forward with making more videos, and I never looked back since. I ignore the usual "ripoff" comments now and actually filter them out because it's no new news to me. There's no reason to give it any attention. I do, though, will give the "bad" comments credit for one thing: They made me strive to become even more unique. They made me improve and separate myself further from other whiteboard illustrators. Heck, they made me feel like I can be asapSCIENCE's equal rather than just a cheesy ripoff.

My channel is growing, and it's growing at a rate I couldn't imagine. Had I just scrapped the channel's concept just because it's similar to another, I wouldn't be in the position I am today. Hopefully, you can keep yours going as well. Best wishes!"
 
Hah, I wonder if this thread is referring to me. =) In any case, I get called an asapSCIENCE copycat every single day. Let me share you a post I made on another topic a few weeks back when someone asked if he should stop his channel because someone else was already doing it:

"When I came up with the idea of my channel and shared it with my brother, he asked me if I had ever heard of asapSCIENCE. At the time I had not, so I went ahead and checked them out. They had millions of subscribers and were using that same concept that I wanted to use: whiteboard illustrations. And man they did it REALLY well. Immediately, I felt pessimistic, sad, and wanted to just scrap the idea. But I loved the idea so much and I wanted to use it because I've been running it through my mind far too long to just let it go. Fortunately, I at least had some uniqueness to my approach, a niche that would give me some sort of separation from asapSCIENCE, or so I believe. I wanted to do health and fitness videos. asapSCIENCE, on the other hand, did videos answering curious science questions, so I definitely had a space to fill, right?

I went ahead with my channel, pumped out the first wave of videos and then crossed my fingers that people would come and watch them. And they did! I was excited and everything was going well and then... I read the comments:
"YOU'RE JUST AN ASAPSCIENCE RIPOFF!"
"STOP COPYING OTHER PEOPLE! NO ONE IS GOING TO LIKE YOU."
"WHAT IS THIS? CHEAP ASAPSCIENCE?"

I was immediately struck with disdain. All that work I did only to get exactly what I feared. I wanted to stop because the last thing I wanted to be is some sort of ripoff. These comments, at the time, seem to be right. I felt like I AM a ripoff. I stopped making videos for a few weeks and contemplated my decisions. From time to time, I'll check on my videos to see how they're doing. The negative comments were still there. But then I realize... for every "bad" comment, I had at least 10 "good" comments in return. All awesome praises of "great job," "keep it up," "please make more videos," "wow, how do you only have a hundred subscribers!?" These comments made me feel good about my work. And I thought to myself, "Why should I let a handful of ugly comments deter me?" I moved forward with making more videos, and I never looked back since. I ignore the usual "ripoff" comments now and actually filter them out because it's no new news to me. There's no reason to give it any attention. I do, though, will give the "bad" comments credit for one thing: They made me strive to become even more unique. They made me improve and separate myself further from other whiteboard illustrators. Heck, they made me feel like I can be asapSCIENCE's equal rather than just a cheesy ripoff.

My channel is growing, and it's growing at a rate I couldn't imagine. Had I just scrapped the channel's concept just because it's similar to another, I wouldn't be in the position I am today. Hopefully, you can keep yours going as well. Best wishes!"


LOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

It's not. But it could very well be. The person i was talking about has a smaller channel than yours but i don't really remember his username.

I understand your sentiment. I too have had ideas i thought were great only to find out there was already someone else doing it. That being said, i would never do something that could be easily mistaken by any other project. I have to say that just by looking at your thumbnails, i could easily mistake you for ASAP Science. I think there's a difference between creating something based on another person's work and simply being a rip off. I would most likely create something similar but at the same time very distinct. But that's me. If it's working for you and you don't mind looking like a rip off to some people, you should continue. At least you're making some money.
 
What if it's an "homage" and not a copy?

Side note: there's lots of words I've never heard of in this thread. I guess they are channels but I never heard of em. I guess one way to not copy is not watch anything so it can't subconsciously get in your brain
 
What if it's an "homage" and not a copy?

Side note: there's lots of words I've never heard of in this thread. I guess they are channels but I never heard of em. I guess one way to not copy is not watch anything so it can't subconsciously get in your brain
We're mostly just talking about people that intentionally duplicate a channel, as in, try to do what a channel does exactly how they do it. People keep thinking we're talking about being influenced or doing the same genera or style. But we mean clones in the exact sense. Well, as close as you can get without being a genetic clone.
 
We're mostly just talking about people that intentionally duplicate a channel, as in, try to do what a channel does exactly how they do it. People keep thinking we're talking about being influenced or doing the same genera or style. But we mean clones in the exact sense. Well, as close as you can get without being a genetic clone.


Yes I know that! Time to take a break now. Drink some mello yello eat some screaming yellow zonkers and watch Mac and me
 
What if it's an "homage" and not a copy?

Side note: there's lots of words I've never heard of in this thread. I guess they are channels but I never heard of em. I guess one way to not copy is not watch anything so it can't subconsciously get in your brain

If you, for some weird reason, wanna make an homage, make one video based on it. Don't create an entire channel based on it because that's certainly not an homage.
 
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