Dear Entrepreneurs,
Today I want to tell you about two resources that will help you with competition (and THIEVES).
The first resource, I’ll preface with a story:
I was recently made aware that someone copied nearly EVERY aspect of my association, including a shockingly similar association name. I went on to find out that this person is actually a member of my association (what a great way to find content!)
As I handle this mildly annoying situation, I want to show you a very easy way to stop people from blatantly copying text from your website and pasting it on their own (it’s unfortunate that such a resource needs to exist, but I’m glad it does!).
Check out www.copyscape.com - Just enter your URL into the search box and click Go. You’ll immediately see results if any websites have word-for-word copied your content.
The second resource is extremely helpful, especially if you’re in a highly competitive niche. It’s called SpyFu.
If you’re wondering what your competition is up to, who your top keyword competitors are, what keywords they are paying for, and a slew of other information that will help you get to know them better, then check out www.spyfu.com
Here’s a screenshot of a new feature called KOMBAT on SpyFu.
It shows the Ad Keyword Overlap between BassPro.com and Cabelas.com. You can see how your keywords stack up against the competition by choosing the SpyFu KOMBAT button in the upper right corner.
SpyFu is great when you are starting or running PPC campaigns and you want to know what your competitors are up to. It’s a great resource just for finding out who your competitors are too!
Now go dominate your competition!
All the best!
Tim Schmidt
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:01 am
Hey Tim - great post! Some of my copy, graphics, formats, etc are lovingly ‘hijacked’ - but always with permission from the site owner.
I guess imitation IS the best form of flattery - means you’re in an awesome niche with great potential and someone else wants a piece of that.
The important thing (that you do so well) is NOT TO LET THAT FREEZE you or freak you out. You cannot be paralyzed by competition or paralyzed (or bitter) about what ‘others’ are doing.
You be YOU.
Do your best stuff.
Give your great content.
And your core audience will know you. like you. and trust you all the more
Carrie Wilkerson
The Barefoot Executive
http://BlogBarefoot.com
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:51 am
Don’t forget to mention Hexatrack. You can only spy on 4 markets at one time…..but real time spying is cool.
November 4th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Well, I sure jumped the gun on this one. I finally talked on the phone with the fellow who I thought was “ripping me off”. As it turns out, it was an innocent misunderstanding. No harm intended by them whatsoever.
I rarely act in a reactionary manner and I’m embarrassed to admit that I DID over-react on this one.
I’m happy to say that the entire situation is “water under the bridge” and I look forward to helping these guys out when they’re ready.
Tim