New muse - Advice needed

[JBandit]

I have a new muse and I'm desperate to get some feedback from you guys but I need advice. My muse isn't patentable and while I'm an authorised dealer for the manufacturer, I'm worried from the audio bartender incident :eek: that someone may try and copy it.
It's not the same in that I do hold stock and don't use a a drop-shipper, the product is not information based either but someone could still technically try and steal the idea as it's an open market.

Should I post it up or is it best to just leave it a secret, at least for now until I'm more established. (I'm leaning toward the second option).

[blackhatontherocks]

Choose 3 or 4 guys from the forums you trust and mail them with this directly. Should work way better. And give you less of an headache.

[sub8hr]

You can't prevent your idea from being stolen and copied. Even if it doesn't happen now, if it's a good idea the day after you put it up there will be a competitor doing the same thing... If there isn't one already. If you're an authorized dealer for the manufacturer to sell someone else's products, you can count on there being other distribution channels.

[blackhatontherocks]

Yeah, but there IS a point to this.

This forum is

a) completely indexed by google (and very well so, or was at least was last time I checked, may have changed in the past 6 months) and
b) probably known by now in certain circles of people who go for idea-stealing.
If it's not something that takes considerable effort in terms of time in order to be recreated (and effort in such nature that the necessary time can't be compensated for by throwing lot's of money at it), I wouldn't recommend posting anything you're sure about before you aren't at least ready to test within the week, with a possible "ready to sell" milestone within a realistic 4-6-weeks timeframe.

[Live Free]

Yeah, but there IS a point to this.

This forum is

a) completely indexed by google (and very well so, or was at least was last time I checked, may have changed in the past 6 months) and
b) probably known by now in certain circles of people who go for idea-stealing.
If it's not something that takes considerable effort in terms of time in order to be recreated (and effort in such nature that the necessary time can't be compensated for by throwing lot's of money at it), I wouldn't recommend posting anything you're sure about before you aren't at least ready to test within the week, with a possible "ready to sell" milestone within a realistic 4-6-weeks timeframe.

I also saw the audio bartender incident and have decided not to post my MUSE details here. The program I have developed took over a year, and is based on my own experience - I am a genuine expert in the field - but there is nothing to stop someone buying my product and then copying it. Of course, not posting it here won't mean my product will not be copied. However, the people who cruise this forum are generally in the business of Muse Creation, and as such, is a fertile ground for thieves who lack the ability to create their own product/muse.

My google adwords campaign goes live tomorrow (testing phase), the website is up, E-junkie is my BUY NOW partner, and I am also using Clickbank for affiliate marketing purposes. I will post here after the first few weeks and let people know how it is going. But like the original poster, I will not (for now anyway), post my MUSE here. I like the idea of posting private messages to those who seem trustworthy. Come on, who are you, put your hand up please :)

[sub8hr]

95% of people will fail at creating a muse. Maybe more like 99%. Even if you tell someone your entire business plan, the odds they will actually be able to execute it are virtually nill. In the 6 months I've been following this board, there has only been one single documented instance of a muse ripoff, and the person who did it did a horrible hack job. Even if they had done a good job, whoopdy doo, that's one competitor. The fear of ripoffs is greatly over exaggerated.

[JBandit]

I think the point is that there probably are people watching this forum like blackhat says, with the purpose of ripping ideas. Whether they succeed or not is moot, it still throws up another competitor and could be avoided if you choose to share it with just a few board members.

Thnaks for the advice guys, sage as always. I agree on the whole and will post to just a few members within the week. :)

[Matthew Connors]

I would PM a few people after you cross check plenty of their posts. Its pretty easy to read 20 posts on someones profile and see if they are a moral type person or not.

Dont post it for the world to see.

[dvdwlsh]

JBandit, feel free to PM/email me directly if you'd like to go over you're approach.. I'd be happy to see where you're headed and how we can push the muse forward. As for getting your idea ripped off, I'd agree with blackhatontherocks and others - you can likely get all the feedback you need with a few private conversations and minimize your exposure. Don't get me wrong - your decision to share/not share should not be fear-based, but if more focused, private discussions will give you the same benefit, that's certainly fine.

As a sidenote, people ripping off my Audio Mixologist product is proving to be one of the best things that could have happened. More on this later, I'll be releasing a video on it via my blog in the near future.

My direct email is dw[at]muselife[dot]com.

David