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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