Internet marketing has some stiff competition and if you study your competition, you can get ahead. The great thing about online competition is that there are almost no secrets, really.
Sure, your competition might not be 100% transparent but there are a lot of things you can research and learn in order to improve your chances of increasing how much money you’re making on a constant basis. Here’s what you do:
Pick Your Top Three Competitors
Look at your targeted keywords and pick the top three competitors who seem to be getting the market you want. Study everything about them! Read all their website content, put Google Alerts out there about them and about your niche in general so you’ll learn about their businesses constantly (set a daily alert instead of on demand if you’re worried about inbox inundation), dissect their landing pages and sales letters to see what they’re doing and opt in to their mailing lists so you can see exactly what they’re up to!
Emulate But Don’t Copy
Emulating your mentors isn’t the same as copying them. You aren’t looking to plagiarize or rip off your competition; you’re gaining market intelligence and seeing what makes them so profitable. Learning about the competition’s techniques and strategies will help you and if you gather information about more than one, you’ll be well on your way to evolving and learning on a constant basis!
Have a most outstanding day.
Sean RasmussenAussie Internet Marketing
www.SeanSEO.com © 2008 - 2010
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
great article, i like it and i am using google alert to wat my competitor, great tools
Hi Sean,
I’ve really started to take more of an in-depth look at my competition. I read all of their content and I analyze everything they do. I also check out their backlinks. It’s really amazing the information you can gather when you know where to look.
I think analyzing the competition is a really smart move because you need to know what you can do better. After all, the name of the game is to beat the competition.
Like in the “real world” it is a smart way to check out what the competition is doing, take the good stuff on board and be better where they are not that good. And online you have very easy access to all the details.
I have started looking at my competition. I have taken on board tips elsewhere in this blog and will be implementing those ideas
Hi Gee,
Are you using MS primarily? Or how do you do it?
Jazz
I do a quick search of adwords, get a few interesting terms and then put them in MS. I turn on all the options. That way I get a lot more kws to choose from
Hi Sean
I like those words ‘market intelligence’. This is a great way to describe what we are learning about when we start following and studying our competition.
When we want to be as good as someone else, we model them in every way, but I don’t mean plagiarise their branding or use their content etc. We can learn a lot about getting to the top by watching our competition and taking action.
As in any type of business it’s always an excellent strategy to closely analyse the best of your competition. This is somewhat easier with Internet Marketing in that what they are doing is easily available online and with such tools as Google Alert you can stay abreast of all of their moves in the market.
Hi Don,
I find that Google Alerts is a great way to stay up to date with what your competition is up to. I love how all the information I need is just sent to my email account. I don’t have to waste time chasing it down and visiting all of the sites individually.
Analysing your competition shouldn’t be too hard – given that we can access their source page; Google shows numbers of competitors and so on, in addition to their other tools – including FoxySEO which allows you to ID the KW density on any competitors page.
Now, all I have to do is do it! I do like the point Sean makes above – emulate, but don’t copy. That will test folks use of synonyms
I have read about Google alerts a few time now, but havent gone in and checked it out properly as I was worried about being inundated with alerts – so I am glad that you have metioned that you can schedule them.
I have a great KW analysis tool as well which has been mentioned several times in previous posts too which is fantastic for sussing out your competition.