Ahh… competition.

In every industry, every market, and every location on earth, there is competition.  Hell, even Google has SOME kind of competition (sort of).

But, out of all mediums/industries/markets, no other has competition like the Internet.  As of February 2007, the Netcraft Web Survey found 108,810,358 distinct websites.  That’s a shitload of sites competing for your attention. Granted, most of the sites probably don’t see more that 5 uniques a month from Uncle Charlie, but it’s still there.

Plagiarism Gone Wild

One shitty thing (depending on your perspective) about the Web is the low barrier to entry in most markets.  Hell, you can get a site up and running with traffic for $40: for $5/month hosting, $10 domain, and $25 for some PPC traffic.

The other shitty thing about the Web is the ease of copying and pasting someone else’s work without much risk of repercussion.  The Web is still the Wild Wild West in many ways, and copyright enforcement is little more than wishful thinking unless you enforce it yourself.

These two primary factors create a “perfect storm” for some idiot to come in and rip-off your site, but it doesn’t matter anyways…

The Real 911 Turbo

If you find your site being knocked off by competitors, you know you’re doing something right.

Hell, my sites’ get images stolen, complete landing page layouts, color schemes, and everything else under the sun. Frankly, I find it amusing when this happens.

It’s like someone seeing a 911 Turbo and then thinking they can replicate it by slapping a 911 Turbo body on Ford Focus.

Why?

Because these idiots aren’t smart enough to realize that building a successful site is like building a Porsche 911 Turbo.  You need more than a pretty body style to go 180+ MPH:

1. High-Performance Engine: The real magic happens behind the scenes. You could copy my Web site down to the letter (yes, many have) and still not have the turbocharged power-plant of my site.  My marketing strategy and execution is where the horsepower comes from.

2. Aerodynamic-Driven Design: The gorgeous bodystyle (read: graphic and content layout) is just icing on the cake.  It’s design details (read: persuasive elements) are driven by the need for extreme aerodynamics to handle the tremendous power my engine (marketing strategy) produces.

Combining those two powerful factors creates a perfect symphony of power (flood of targeted prospects) and aerodynamics (persuasive elements driven by my marketing strategy).

Forget The Competition

When I was new to the game, I used to get pissed about this quite a bit.

Then I came to the conclusion that if you spend your time worrying about the competition, you’ll drive yourself crazy (for no reason) and distract you from your goals.

If you stay focused on YOUR customers, YOUR strategy, and building YOUR business the competition can’t touch you.  Keep innovating, refining your strategy, and reinventing your business perpetually, you will always stay ahead.  I know it’s hard, but hey, what isn’t?

BTW, I’m NOT advocating completely ignoring the competition.  You should always know your positioning relative to the competition.  But, if you are consistently pushing the envelope in your niche they won’t matter anyways…

…they’ll be safely in the rearview mirror.

Cheers,

J

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Econ 101

Non-renewable, natural resources are also the most valuable in this world because, well, they are non-renewable.  Oil, gold, platinum, precious stones, and numerous others are in limited supply.  Thus, it follows the basic economic principle of supply and demand.  The resources that are most in short supply are the most valuable.

So tell me this. What non-renewable resource do most of us severely waste and undervalue?

Time.

Wakeup Call

Luckily, I’m blessed to have friends who are much smarter than me.

While speaking with my closest friend tonight, he aptly pointed out that I am violating this important principle.  I was bitching about how many fires I put out today, and he cleverly said, “Why don’t you hire someone to do that?”

Good question.

Why am I wasting time doing operational, mundane tasks when I should be focusing more of my time on revenue-building activities?

Time Is Not On Our Side

I know what you’re thinking – “Yeah Jason, it’s easy for you to say, you don’t work for anyone else.”

Fortunately, that doesn’t matter, and it completely misses the point.

Think about how much time you waste doing laundry, getting groceries, or other low-return, low-value activities?  Wouldn’t you like to have those extra hours hanging out with your family?  Or simply just doing the things that you love?  How much is that worth to you?

How Much Is YOUR Time Worth?

Seriously, think about spending 8 hours a week doing laundry.  You could probably drop that laundry off and get it done for $32 (probably less).  Basically, if you’re doing your own laundry, you value your time at $4.00 an hour.  Damn, that’s little worse than minimum wage.

Sounds pretty pathetic, eh? Fortunately, not all hope is lost.

Outsource The Mundane

You work hard for your money. As a tradeoff you are giving up your free time.

“Buy” back some of that free time by outsourcing the activities that you hate doing, and spend more time doing the thing that you love. Seems like common sense to me and something I’m going to implement starting tomorrow (Peapod, anyone?).

Oh, and if any of you sharp readers figure out how to outsource your workouts, please let me know ASAP!

Stay Focused,

J

(Thanks to P for the idea)

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