I Saw My Competitors' Websites...Now I'm Depressed

[kentheriot]

Has this happened to any of you? I knew by the numbers that my niche was quite competitive, but I forged ahead, researching and finding keyword phrases in Market Samurai that had lower competition and decent traffic. I started tracking my ranking for some of these keywords after posting articles and blog posts optimizing for them.

I was feeling like I was moving in the right direction. I could even see the effect of my efforts in keyword rankings. But today, while I was using Comment Kahuna to post comments on relevant blogs, I saw several of my direct competitors and it scared the heck out of me. I don't know why, exactly. But I just automatically assume their stuff is better than mine. It's probably because I'm so new at this, I don't know. But suddenly it feels like the wind has gone out of my sails, like I'll never be able to compete with these other slick-looking sites.

I'm sure this will pass. Any advice until then?

Thanks.

Ken

[Satu]

I don't know if this helps you, but yes, it happens to me from time to time. I think my site looks amateurish, my wordpress theme sucks and my writing is boring. ;-)

After some time I just get over that feeling and go on doing whatever I was doing. What also seems to help is that I try to focus on my "brand", i.e. what is unique about my site and my approach.

[MikeF421]

Whether their sites are better than yours or not is irrelevant.

If you outrank them, few people will ever see their site.

[Engage]

But suddenly it feels like the wind has gone out of my sails, like I'll never be able to compete with these other slick-looking sites.

Please recall that two of the most popular sites on the Net are Google and Facebook. Go look at their site designs. Very plain jane simple, no frills or fancy design stuff, eh?

Assuming that your site is tidy, organized and easy to use (this is important) I wouldn't worry about aesthetic design issues.

Unless you want to. And of course, we all want to! :-)

But do it for fun, not out of desperation etc. Bottom line, nobody really cares about your aesthetics, except you. It's the same for all of us.

Getting back to Google and Facebook, here's something to worry about perhaps. Both those sites very effectively leverage the work of others, it's the key to their great success.

If your site is "Web 1.0", that is, if it's growth is entirely dependent on you personally making pages one by one, that's something to look at. No need to panic, but start thinking about how your site will evolve in to a "Web 2.0" site, where much of the content is generated by users.

They say two heads are better than one. 500 writers is better than one too. If you can engineer a transition from a Web 1.0 site to a Web 2.0 site over time, your content production can skyrocket. Which means of course, lots and lots more pages on your site for the search engines to eat.

More pages equals more search engine traffic, equals more visitors, equals more contributors, equals more search engine traffic etc etc. If you wish to worry, worry about how to get this snowball rolling down the hill.

But wait, I'm getting distracted, and ignoring the most important part of your great post.

You have correctly identified the most important battlefield in this business.

Your own mind.

The truth is, the vast majority of webmasters fail, for one very simple reason. They give up, and quit.

Seeing this obvious fact, it becomes clear that managing our motivation levels is a key issue. We should probably spend half our time on forums like this discussing it.

Everybody has their own unique personality, so it's hard to give a stranger on the Net specific advice in this regard.

It is however easy to make the case that managing motivation is where the game is usually won or lost, so it's important to keep our eyes on this ball, and develop management techniques that work for us. This is not a challenge to be dismissed with quips and cliches.

Whether their sites are better than yours or not is irrelevant. If you outrank them, few people will ever see their site.

I understand what you're saying, and there's some truth there.

But please let us recall, links are key to rankings, and having a quality site is key to getting links. If we don't have a quality site, we're going to have to fight for each and every link all by ourselves, which isn't a great ranking strategy.

[MikeF421]

But please let us recall, links are key to rankings, and having a quality site is key to getting links. If we don't have a quality site, we're going to have to fight for each and every link all by ourselves, which isn't a great ranking strategy.

I agree with everything you are saying.

However, it depends on the site owner's plans and goals.

What I mean by that, some people are out to develope one GI-NORMOUS site that will be their baby and their main money-making machine.

Others are looking to build an army of small sites that generate a few bucks a day through AdSense or ClickBank. For those type of sites, it is rare that they are going to have people link to it on a regular basis.

You are also usually trying to target someone with a problem and offer a solution. They usually are not going to come back and visit the site again and again. They were looking for where to buy "pink bananas". They saw my site ranked #1 in Google for "buying pink bananas". They visited it. I showed them where they could find "pink bananas". Now unless they really, really like "pink bananas", they probably aren't going to come back again.

For sites like this, I'm building my own backlinks. I'm too impatient to wait for people to link to it. These days with software to automate a lot of it or people to outsource to, it really doesn't take that much time.

[Engage]

Others are looking to build an army of small sites that generate a few bucks a day through AdSense or ClickBank.

Ok, I hear you, and this raises an interesting question.

One site, or many?

I enjoy creating new sites, but found I just couldn't keep up with getting links to all of them. Instead of getting links to site A, I would get distracted creating site B.

My outlook now is to have one main site which is broad enough to keep me busy for years, and focus on getting links to that one site. This results in one big site with plenty of links, instead of dozens of little sites with few links each.

I dunno. I'm not claiming this is the "one true way" and am open to hearing your thoughts.

[David Jackson]

I saw several of my direct competitors and it scared the heck out of me. I don't know why, exactly. But I just automatically assume their stuff is better than mine. Suddenly it feels like the wind has gone out of my sails, like I'll never be able to compete with these other slick-looking sites.

It sounds like you lack confidence, or a strong belief in your abiltities. Believe it or not, it happens to us all, at some point in our lives. However, that needs to change before you can move forward. In other words, you need to get your mind right. In that regard, I'm going to recommend you pick up a copy of The Magic of Believing by Claude Bristol.

Read it, apply the principles and get out there and start kicking some butt!

David Jackson

[MikeF421]

Engage,

You're right. There is no one true way.

I like the many sites thing only because what is in demand today may not be in demand tomorrow.

These sites are generally pretty simple. I never spend more than 1-2 hours putting the actual site up. I will spend longer than that doing the keyword research, finding products, setting up my autoresponder, etc. Still, all in all, maybe 5-6 hours for a site. Often, 3 or less.

As far as backlinking... I rarely do it manually, unless I am going to a PR 8 or 9 site and want to be absolutely certain that the link stinks. Other than that, I do most of it using tools to automate a lot of the process.

For example, last night while watching the Phillies drop another game in pathetic fashion (), I built about 400-500 backlinks to each of 6 different sites. It was a mix of social bookmarking, blog commenting, profile backlinks, and creating web2.0 sites. It took about 2 and a half hours of work and 2 beers. I did about 30 minutes of work. The rest of the time was just monitoring to make sure everything was running the way it was supposed to.

[HarryJackson]

I just believe on one thing that don't try to beat others just try to win. No one can defeat you in this field except you your self. They are better stuff but you can do better marketing effort.

[kentheriot]

Wow! Once again I have learned amazing things here. This time I have to ask about the Web 2.0 thing.

Mike, when you say you created web 2.0 sites, what things did you do to accomplish that? I understand that "web 2.0" means creating a more interactive, user-driven site. But I'm unclear as to, say, what applications you use to created a web 2.0 site.

I am a pretty "big-picture" kinda guy. I get the main concepts, but get a little stuck on the "hows" in this new (to me) and wondrous land of internet marketing.

Thanks again!

Ken