Why A Little Competition Is A Very Good Thing How many times have you had that perfect idea for a website; something you think will be revolutionary, never been done before, wanted by all. So you start to do your research… check domain names, google your keywords. You find out there are several sites that have already thought of the same thing! Competition on the web can be a very good thing. For starters it shows that there is a market for your concept, which is half the battle. It can save you months of market research in determining if there’s any demand out there. It also provides you with a great strategic advantage in that you can learn from others mistakes; you get to see what others are doing well and where there’s room to improve. So what you really want to know is can you compete? Do a little more research to find out. So what do you want to look for when deciding if it’s worth taking on your competition? Check the top-ten results on major search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc). Start with the content. Can you provide content that’s at least as good as that of the top ten? (Remember: Quality Over Quantity) How many back-links do they have? How’s the design of the site? What’s their page rank on Google? All of these things are not barriers to entry, but rather opportunities. You can see what these existing sites are currently doing and analyze where you can beat them. If, however, the competition is in a market that’s already been perfected (search engines) or the product/service has become a commodity (hosting) then you probably don’t want to compete as it will quickly become a pricing war, whether your revenue comes from sales or advertising. In these situations the market is saturated and even if you are the top player in the game, your margins are razor thin. In conclusion, look for a market where demand exists and there’s still room for improvement (not price based). Only pick fights you know you can win (getting to the top 10 search results). And most importantly, don’t be afraid of a little competition.
So what do you think about credit card sites, have they been perfected? are they a commodity? I have a credit card site and while im indexed, I have yet to see any organic traffic, considering the number of credit card sites im curious as to your opinion, do I have a shot without spending thousands?