She’s the opposite of me in that sense – and is happy to throw out old things and keep clutter and storage to a minimum. Nothing wrong with that. And I have to admit that she has a good point. I do tend to keep a lot of crap in boxes and drawers that I probably should just get shredded.But in my defense – I am glad I have a hoarder mentality when it comes to the digital world. Storing files and data doesn’t really take up more room, and storage is cheap. And over the years, since I started using the internet in 1992 – I have gathered quite a collection of all kinds of stuff I’ve found around the ‘net; Pictures, videos, articles, website designs, audio files, fonts, logos, clipart, vector images, you name it.
Being an internet marketer, this collection has become very valuable. Because not only have I collected tons of media type files, but also actual content and IDEAS for content, such as ad banners, headlines, selling copy, cool design ideas (like the one below), and more. All of this info encompasses my swipe file.
What on earth is a swipe file? It’s not one actual file, but rather a term used for a collection of stuff you have “swiped” (collected) – that you intend to use for creative inspiration in the future. Whenever I enter a new niche and need to capture the attention of a new audience, I turn to my swipe file. In there, I often find cool ideas for banners or some funny headline that would probably work good for my new ad group. Or I can dig up some old ads I had found and saved ages ago that was of no use then – but now is JUST what the doctor ordered!
So I encourage you to start your own swipe file today. Organize it into a folder with subfolders on your computer. Like, “Banners_DiethHealth”, “Banners_BizOp”, “Headlines.txt”, etc.
And – make a habit of quickly saving stuff you come across while surfing. Install the Firefox Screengrab addon, and start saving the ads you see. You will be glad you did later.