7 Tools for Smart Competitor Analysis

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They say you should know your enemy. The same is true for your competition. If you want to outsmart your rivals and leave them behind, you should apply the most efficient competitor research approaches and keep up-to-date on the latest trends.

Online marketing is constantly changing and developing. New competitor tools and features keep appearing here and there. You shouldn’t try every tool on the market. I highly recommend picking one or two all-in-one tools to automate daily tasks, track competition and pull extra insights.  But avoid being too conservative. When something really worth trying appears on the market, it’s not a bad idea check whether it’s the right time to switch to something more advanced.

Just to bring you up-to-date, let me guide through latest competition analysis trends. Below is a list of the newest tools and their pricing. They all are meant to help with the different tasks, so pick only what your business needs. [Read more…]

How Competition Actually Benefits Your Blog

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Competition

When it comes to competition, we often look at people or businesses in our respective niches as enemies, and those we must beat. No matter what you blog about, chances are there is more than a small handful of people writing about the same thing. And if you sell ebooks, courses, consulting, etc., you can be sure others are as well. Naturally, we are designed to compete because before the days of modern science and technology, if we lost, we died.

Quite frankly, looking at your competition as enemies or “the bad guys,” is an absolutely backwards line of thinking. It is perfectly normal to think that way, but you are doing yourself and your blog a total disservice by not using competition to your benefit.

Gain Valuable Insight

No matter how smart or “on top of things” you think you are, there are people out there who will prove you wrong. Sometimes, there might be areas that you have overlooked, or ways of interacting with your audience for example that you never thought about before. Also, there could be valuable tools you never heard of, and maybe even ways of crafting your content to keep readers more engaged. [Read more…]

What Is The Future Of SEO?

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future

In a society where the internet is an integral part of many of our lives, internet related industries are flourishing, including Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Without good SEO, website owners will have sites that are barely even noticed by people making searches online, which could make even the best sites all but useless.

With this in mind it is easy to see just why good SEO is in high demand. What’s more is that SEO looks like it will be around for some time yet as it is hard to see how it could become obsolete any time soon. As long as we have the internet there will be a demand for SEO and the internet looks as though it is here to stay, at least that is until something better comes along. [Read more…]

Hostel company seeking 2010 Winter Olympics video blogger

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We’ve seen a fair number of blogging competitions over the past couple of years, where one lucky entrant gets an all-expenses-paid trip somewhere to blog about an event or location.

The latest one to catch my eye is being run by Hosteling International Canada.

They’re looking for a video blogger to report from Vancouver during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games (12-28 February 2010).

To be in with a chance of winning, bloggers need to submit a one-minute video explaining why they would be the best person for the job. [Read more…]

One lucky blogger will get to write from Antarctica

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Antarctica: Another natural wonder is about to be blogged.

Following on from the lucky Brit who gets to blog about the Great Barrier Reef comes a new dream blogging job.

Quark Expeditions will be sending one couple on a $20,000 cruise to Antarctica in February next year, where they’ll blog about the experience for all to read. [Read more…]

Analyze And Track The Competition

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Collis Ta’eed, of Envato fame, has a great post up on The Netsetter, about analyzing and tracking the competition. This is something that is a lot easier today, with all the great services online, than it was five years ago. If you’re serious about knowing what your competitors are doing, you really should check this one out.

Tim Ferris Buys Twitter Reach For $3/Follower

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Tim Ferris obviously want more followers on Twitter, because he’s “bribing the world” with his $3/follower promise. Problem is, you won’t be getting the money, American public schools in need will, thought DonorChoose.org. Ferris donates $1/follower, and “an anonymous supporter” matches that with another $2/follower, which breaks down to $3/follower. So you’d be doing a good thing, following Tim Ferris on Twitter while this campaign is rolling, which is until 50,000 new followers have been gained. That’s $150,000 for a good cause. And you could always unfollow later down the line.

Should the extra money to the schools not be enough to convince you, Ferris is also doing a competition where you can win a MacBook Pro and some other stuff. Check out his post for more, and do follow him. I will.

Blogging competition to find next batch of AirAsia airline pilots

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It’s amazing where blogging can get you these days, but if blogging about computers or promoting the Great Barrier Reef is too tame, perhaps you’d like to enter a blogging competition that could jump start a new career as a pilot.

In reality, AirAsia’s “So You Wanna Be a Pilot?” blogging competition is really just another way of picking applicants for the first round of its pilot intake in August. Passengers can rest assured that no amount of passionate prose about why bloggers wish to become pilots will excuse them from the many tests required to even begin training. [Read more…]

Asus competition to Brits: blog about our computers

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Asus, manufacturer of a number of desktop, notebook and netbook PCs, is offering Brits the chance to blog about one of its products in a new competition.

In association with Mobile Computer, Asus will pick six bloggers who will each author a month-long blog about a particular machine. At the end of that time, the person whose blog has received the most visitors will win the machine they’ve been blogging about. [Read more…]

Put On Your Competition Blinders in 2009

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There are thousands of career-related Web sites out there, and my primary blog, Jobacle, is one of many. Every time I get reminded of that fact, I get a little dizzy, and then I look away. Because I know I can do it better. Or die trying.

The reality is many of these sites have more resources in terms of manpower and financing. But I can’t let that stop me from creating a product that I believe in.

That’s why I wear blinders 90% of the time.

I know that the shrewd MBA grads out there will remind me that monitoring and analyzing the competition is a key component to making your business a success. However I also believe there is something to be said for trying something different.

That’s why I don’t read your blogs, fellow career writers. And if you’re alos writing in an over-crowded niche, I recommend the same.

Sorry if the truth hurts. I hope you won’t unsubscribe. After all, I don’t think any good writer will hold reciprocity as a standard.

The Web is messy. Every now and then take a peek around, but stargazing is for people looking for an excuse not to write. It’s good to know who is writing in the same genre as you, and it’s nice to occasionally come around for inspiration, but i would not make monitoring part of your daily habits.

What say you?