During the creation and expansion process of our blog we tend to focus on what our competition is doing or not doing. When it comes to creating a blog you have a set mission or vision that fits your inner thoughts and voice. Instead of solely focusing on your competition, focus on and compare with their talents, skills, and perspectives.
When you think of the content that is present on Blogussion what other blogs do you think of? This is what Alex and I have been thinking about when working on the redesign for all of you.
When looking at the competition of blogs about topics related to the practice of what bloggers do the obvious few competitors are ProBlogger, CopyBlogger, Daily Blog Tips, How to Make My Blog, and Blogging Tips.
I’ll be focusing on what we truly need to look at when it comes to our competition. We can compete with or against them by doing something better or just making slight changes. Instead, let’s just look at the overall feel and movement our competition is going or has been going. As I said before, “focus on and compare with their [competitors] talents, skills, and perspectives.
To do this we will analyze our own blog, then the competitors, and bring it back to our blog for improvement and a better overall continued focus.
I’ll be using Blogussion as a case study, but please think about your blog of course.
Find the True Differences
When looking at your competition begin to find the true differences. These true differences are not just your voice and unique community but deeper. Why is your voice (content) and community unique?
Asking and Reading What Others Think
Surfing the web I found the following words on Blogussion:
- Blogussion is run by 16 year old Alex Fraiser and his blog serves differently to most “make money online blogs”. He offers great how to advise to customise and improve your blog as well as offering a great insight into how other blogs make it big. -Michael Dunlop
- I’ve always been a huge fan of blogs, namely up and coming stars. Blogussion caught my eye a few months ago, and I’ve been following their articles ever since. Jam-packed with blogging and internet traffic-related SEO articles, Blogussion is one of the top blogging resources on the web today.- Jake Rocheleau
- For a beginning blogger trying to figure out where to start, there is probably no better blog to read than Blogussion. -Blake Waddill
- I strongly suggest that you go and have a look because it really is great and gives loads of fantastic tips on blogging.-Genevieve
Additionally, you should ask your readers via Twitter or Facebook what they think of your blog’s content and overall feel.
Taking a Quick Glance at Your Competition
Now that we know what others think about us and why we stand out we can look more into why our competitors are standing out.
The following thoughts are of Michael Dunlop and will be used to get a general sense of the difference Blogussion has from competitors mentioned at the beginning of this article.
- Problogger: Problogger offers all the advice new bloggers will need to improve their newly created blog. With subjects covering almost everything anyone would ever need to know about, there is little reason to use Google to find it.
- CopyBlogger: Copyblogger offers some great tips, tricks and advise on how to write better blog posts, create better blog copy and all in all, a better blog. A definite recommendation for the more advanced blogger taking it up a notch.
- How to Make My Blog: They teach everything you need to know about starting your own blog (if my eCourse wasn’t enough) – a great resource for anyone wanting to set up, customize and launch there blog.
- Daily Blog Tips: Daily blog tips to creating a better blog, covering all the new blogging guidelines, updates and tricks as they come out.
Doing a Compare, Not to Just Contrast Yourself
What does that mean? Compare your blog with the competing blogs with the intent on not just being different or better than them.
Reflecting on Your About Page
Know that we know what readers and other views think about our blog and our competitors’ blogs we can see if that matches up with the about pages when looking at the story and/or overall mission. This is usually when we have to make improvements to our blog to either make it more known to the readers what your blog is truly about or to improve your content, design, and community interaction.
First look at the chunk of your about page that would strive to sell you blog over your competition.
This is what is currently written in our about page:
We are a blog about blogging that provides outstanding tips for excelling your blog in a variety of topics. Whether or not you are someone who earns an income from blogging, or someone who wishes they were – we will teach you how to create a blog that truly stands out from the crowd.
Established on the turn of the New Year of 2009, Blogussion has proven to be one of the top blogs in the whole “blogging tips” niche. With a consistently updated blog, a rapidly expanding community and much will to continue on and expand – Blogussion is a blog that should be in any bloggers feed reader.
After looking at your about page and what people say about your blog you can start to compare with your competition. Remember we are not comparing to just contrast ourselves. We are trying to establish the better thought of what to focus on when it comes to our blogs and our competition.
Also think about visiting your competitors’ about pages and see how their message is either working or suffering. Also consider looking at these about pages.
Adjust & Improve to Compete Better
Yes we can all have different stories, prove to be better than our competitors, or establish different overall missions. What we need to do on a constant basis and will be more beneficial to our blogs in both the short and long run.
- Focus on continually matching with your reader’s thoughts and growing those same thoughts.
- If your reader’s thoughts are missing your true importance or distinction this is your fault. You cannot benefit from your community helping you out against your competition if they are misguided.
- Don’t just make changes to be different. Make the changes that you want to make that go in favor of your strengths and your passion.
The Beneficial & Continual Focus
Don’t compare and contrast with your competition to be better
Building our blogs is put on our own time schedule. This usually correlates with the purpose of your blog and how bad you really want it.
I’m focusing on the bloggers that want it really bad and want to really stand out from the crowd in their niche and their competition. To do this you need to obtain that beneficial and continual focus with your competition.
In this article we looked at the importance of the relationship between your readers and the mission you are actively pursuing which is shown through your community interaction, content, and design. This relationship is the focus we need to have and observe how our own personal talents and skills will strengthen our blog’s mission and community to compete.
Our competition did not just create their blog to compete or be different. They created because they knew what they were good at and just strived to only get better. If I were you I would give this focus a shot otherwise you could be running into a passive failure. But, you are not alone we all make mistakes. Having a better focus always helps though.
Photo by Adrian Boliston
The Discussion
Leave a Comment Read Again?derek,
great article here! i love how you focused on a bit of doing research and finding differences between oneself and your competition… very valuable practice!
Too many bloggers just compete to do something better or make more money. That is not a focus that is really going to be beneficial to you are your blog. Glad you loved it, John!
Very good, well documented article Derek. I think everyone should study their competitors on a certain niche before they even start
Great post very helpful and inspirational at the same time great work Derek.
Thanks man! Take the advice and execute
Very good article indeed Derek. I’m learning a lot from your blog
Great tips for distinguishing your blog’s brand from the rest of the web!
The business term is referred to as conducting a SWOT analysis. Recognize your Strengths, find a Weakness in the market that is under served, look at Opportunities for growth and expansion, and determine Threats you can perceive to your continued success.
If you treat your blog like the business it can be you’re headed in the right direction =)
More and more people are talking about treating your blog like a business. Even then it has to be a business with a good business plan and a good mission.
Hey Derek, thanks for the advice regarding the About page on a blog. It’s often overlooked as something to set and forget, when really it should be the basis for everything you do on your blog. Really great stuff!
You’re welcome! Your about page could even be improved.
whew……a long article but worth reading
coming to the point of About Page, i think you are spot on…
it is the mos important page but often ignored
Yeah it was a long one, huh?!
There are also many poor about pages that don’t help your readers and more importantly it doesn’t help you.
you are expert at analyzing relationship between blogger and visitors.i follow many blogs but your blog differ form the others
Focusing and consistence. Thanks for share Derek.
You’re welcome Vatih.
I like the idea of performing an audit of what is being said. You have to first look internally at your own site (What is it saying to others? About me? etc.) and then to what others are saying about you.
Finding out how you fit within your niche is essential to proper branding.
“Performing an audit” pretty much sums it up!
Looking at other blogger’s “about” pages can really teach us a lot about what type of message and mission to convey to our audiences. This page is often neglected by bloggers and oftentimes it’s actually the one big chance you have to hook your reader on your blog. We cannot assume our readers don’t visit this page; many of them do to find out who your are and what you are about.
Exactly Sandra!
Hey Derek,
You are right, just focusing on competition alone won’t do anything for the betterment of our blogs. Like you said we need to take a deep look on how our readers sees us as compared to other blogs of our niche. Also it is really very important to have a good about page and certainly looking at other bloggers about page can help us a lot in framing our own page
Exactly Shiva! once you find and establish the connection of what your readers think and what you think and get them aligned your blog will only be better.
Your content is good, but the problem is you aren’t the first who makes a blog like this.
It doesn’t matter if you’re first. It matters if you strive to lead and be the best that you can be.
This is something out of the box.
Sometimes we can see competitors as close allies which can help us to gain strength and potential through networking. I believe that being competitive in giving information and offering useful solutions for the readers/followers is something good to be happened. You win, I win.
More “out of the box” content coming!
… we could be going on the extreme side sometimes but it gets us all thinking.
After reading what you said, I have some thoughts about it — whether you are working with the established blog or the new one. In your article, you take Blogussion as an example. Well, I think Blogussion has been established for a long time and therefore, you have some good feedback on how well you are doing. However, with new blogs, they won’t find these kind of feedbacks. However, I still agree that it’s a good practice to look up to pro blogs and see what they do to reflect on your blog and do better. Sometimes, I also feel look at peer blogs, blogs that are relative to your blog’s age and income, too. That’s also a good practice.
Mike, you bring up a really good point. There are many levels to which all the content on here may be perceived and then adjusted. What I would strongly suggest is to see what others are doing but when you are starting out its very important to listen to your inner self and passions. You may adjust overtime and when you get bigger to improve as a whole, but it’s very important to do what you want to do without having the “big guys” influencing you (they don’t want you to do this) by “copying” them.
Hey Derek,
Interesting post you have here. It’s good to have contrast. It’s good to have competition though, it forces us to constantly increase the bar of quality to stand out. On another light, our competitors can be very well our allies.
Also diversity is good. Blogging as a subject and concept can be taught a hundred and one ways. There will be a particular audience that will resonate with a particular author because of his style, wit or humor. So given that the information are basically the same at the core, the “box” is what makes it attractive
Love what you said Jeedo!
I think many of us rarely look at our competition being our allies and really everyone can help everyone out if they are willing.
Great article! I think that it is a must read for newbie bloggers like myself. Sometimes I feel bad for studying so closely what others in my niche are doing. However, I guess I have to realize that in order for me to become successful I have to know what my competition is doing at all times.
Know what your competition is doing but then work out where their points of failure are and try and do something better. For example if your competitors are using a spam comment blocker like Akismet, find a better one that won’t piss off your legitimate commenters.
Thanks Sabrina! Actually you don’t have to constantly monitor what your competition is doing at all! Sure get a general sense so you don’t make the beginning mistakes but just go out and execute without doing any additional or preconceived monitoring. Try this and you will find yourself standing out more.
I wish you the best!
I’m always comparing and contrasting my blog to others, and pinching any ideas that work well. The aspect I have missed out however, is what do my readers want? Thanks for identifying this issue for me. I’m not sure how I can get my readers opinion though, it’s hard enough to get their comments.
John
Leamington Spa, England
This is something I’ve considered as well. My blog is similar to some other ones, but I have a few signature forms of content that are popular and unique to my niche. I always consider these when making comparisons.
It’s best to look at the whole picture and an overall kind of view when doing a side-by-side comparison with your competition. This will be much more beneficial and will allow for you to focus on your true mission and message and not just want you need to adjust or fix to be better than them.
John, I would then strongly focus on what you want and just get that message out to as many people as possible in a very personal way. Comments and further suggestions will come on in.
Hey Derek,
You conked me right there on the head. You just made me take a second look at my about page. To be honest it was done in half-haste (if there ever is a term), just added the “improve my about page” on my to do list ^_^
Jeedo,
AWESOME!
So many people think the about page is the last thing to think about when creating something. But really its your thesis and reasoning why you started what you started and why others should visit and listen to you. Makes no sense to ignore or not make the about page a masterpiece.
I am a new blogger, the article was really helping and amazing, it helped me a lot.
thanks for sharing, sometimes it is necessary to know about the neighboring competiton
Welcome to the blogosphere Rajan!
Be sure to check out some previous articles such as “the essential code for aspiring bloggers”. 
superb post.. this is really inspired me
thanks bro derek jensen
you’re welcome
Good tips dude, This will be so much more beneficial and will allow you to focus on your true mission.
one should always learn from others . implement what one lacks in their blog and improve it with continued progress … practically i learned more from startup blogs than old established blogs …
Thanks man!For example if your competitors are using a spam comment blocker ..
Hello,
Focusing on the competition is one of the most essential and extremely smart things to do. A lot of webmasters just don’t think about anything similar to competition, they don’t care about the competition and that another fact.
Best wishes,
Cristian
Sometimes it can also be your writing style that people like, and also your personality/character. These two will always be different with the other “competitors” even if you are talking about the same thing
I’ve certainly seen many bloggers try to be someone they aren’t and you can really notice this in their writing style / a personality they aren’t.
You nailed it Derek. Finding a true UPS is what you’ll need to attract a loyal following.
My issue in directly competing with bloggers is that you tend to focus on what others are doing instead of happily minding your own blog. I cannot understand the need for competition, especially when you own your ideas about the same subject. If you really wish to stand out from the crowd, the first thing you need to do is to create a loyal following. Try to visit other people’s blogs and leave a comment to build connections. Second is to find a way to write blog posts that have personal touch. Instructions are easily digested with a little backstory. Finally, don’t take things too seriously; don’t focus too closely. A blogger that caters to a very focused niche will eventually run out of things to write.
Took me time to read all the comments Derek, but I really loved the article. It proved to be really useful to me and I’m positive to all of the commenters right here as well!
Glad you liked the article! I’m glad it was really useful for you
In blogging and seo field competion is very high so your blog posts should be very clear which benefits to its readers. If you just post what you think or your thoughts which may not be intertested to your readers then your competitor will win in that case !
Great article (first time on blogussion – seems like a great site).
I think you do have to always know what you’re competion are up to. It can really inspire you to do something different / better – making sure you always stand out from the crowd, offering your visitors something noone else does. Thanks.
Welcome to Blogussion Nick!
We are launching a new design and awesome newsletter very soon!
Excellent post about competitive contents of the post. I want to thank you for this informative read, I really appreciate sharing this great post. Keep up your work.
You’re welcome Anjela!
do your work like this i like this post very much… thanks
Hi Derek,
I am your fan, you always write awesome.
Well i think you are right, continuous focus on your competitors is must to compete them.
Thank you! What’s your name?
I wanted to create you a very little note to finally thank you over again regarding the nice advice you’ve discussed on this page. ………..The smart ideas also worked as a fantastic way to know that other people online have the same keenness the same as my own to learn a good deal more in terms of this problem!
Nice and valuable guidance about competitive blogging……..Thanks Derek!
Really very interesting and effective post about a grip on our blogging task. Thanks for so nice informatics stuff.
I’m impressed, I must say. Really rarely do I encounter a blog thats both educative and entertaining, and let me tell you, you have hit the nail on the head. Your idea is outstanding for good blogging; the issue is something that not enough people are speaking intelligently about.Thanks.
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