[ Yeah I know, competing with other webmasters can be a bit personal. Since we really are a small group and likely to know each other ( at least online ) this can be perceived in poor light. If your not ready to compete or are squeamish about stepping on toes you might want to skip this advice. ]
Some things I have done…
- See dissension in a competitors forums ? Make it plainly obvious yours are better because you don’t do what ever they do.
- Look for log files in the open. If you can find logs or log analysis you can target their keywords or even determine if they are a competitor
- Offer to buy a competitors site, the offer can be used as a ruse to get them to share their earnings and other important data.
- If your a programmer, competitors might use canned scripts that plainly suck. I make better versions after they deploy theirs and their users complain. That gives me the benefit of their experience and feedback.
- Write about their website if your site has strong rankings. You don’t have to be snotty or negative, just be honest, the goal is to rank high for their domain name. This is especially effective if they are poor at creating content. ( ie. forum only sites )
- Write about new businesses if you have a local website. Most small businesses have no clue about SEO so you can easily out rank them on their name.
- Offer a potential competitor a service from your site. The goal is to get them hooked on your service.
- Look for a websites owners and find out if they post elsewhere on the web. Many times you can find them in a webmaster forum talking about their next feature or next idea.
- Look for the lucky newbie with a successful site bragging about it on Webmasterworld. Find the site look for ideas and improve on them. [ for good karma tell the new webmaster to stop sharing too much info ]
- Offer your competitors program or service for free. Sort of a scorched earth approach to competition
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