Nowadays, most of us have got a little paranoid about the whole competition thing.
- We need to know what our competition is writing about.
- What platforms they’re writing their guest posts on.
- How they’re marketing their books.
- What genre they’re writing in.
- What their Facebook ad campaign looks like.
- What they’re doing to build an email list.
- And on and on it goes.
And like one of those nosy neighbors, we’re constantly running from one fence to another trying to see what our competition is getting up to. – You can read a little more about my thoughts on that topic here.
Not only is this activity a total waste of time, because it distracts you from your own work, which you should be focused on, but you also don’t know why your competition is taking the actions that they are. – You can read more about that problem here.
The problem with copying your competition is that you’re always on the back foot. You’re never making anything unique. And if they do hit that vein of gold, you’re late to the party and left fighting off the other vultures that have shown up.
But should you fear your competition?
Should you buy that software that’s going to hunt down every little thing your competition is doing?
Or should you just stick to your own lane and just have one goal – Make your customer or reader happy with what you’re creating.
Once you focus on making them happy, there’s only one thing you need to do every day. – Make them happy.
- Write the type of books your readers have told you that they adore.
- Write more of those blog posts that are the most popular on your blog.
- Give away more of the stuff that’s downloaded.
Once you make your end user happy, a funny thing happens. They come back for more. – The same as you do in the real world.
Take any town in any part of the world, and you’ll find at least two coffee shops there.
On the surface you could say that they’re competing for the same customers, which they are, but having this competition means that customers now have something to compare against.
If there’s only been one coffee shop in town, you don’t know how good that shop is until a new one opens. Once it does, now you’ve got something to compare it against.
Whether it’s how the coffee beans are ground, the music that plays in the shop, or whether the staff give a damn about you and your coffee break, you now have a choice.
If the older coffee shop has been doing it’s work right, they’ll find their old customers coming back, because that’s where the coffee and service were the best. If not, then it won’t be long until you see a closed sign in the window.
And so it is with your blog, your books, your articles, courses, it doesn’t matter. Having competition may seem like the worse thing that can happen to you, but it’s not. If you’re giving your visitors, readers, and customers what they want and delivering on what you say you’re going to do, they’ll be back.
And when they do, they’ll hold you in a higher esteem. You’re the guy/gal who cares that they’re there, that gives the best training courses, and that writes the most gripping fiction.
However, if that line that’s been coming to your door starts to dwindle, then it’s time to take a look at what you’ve been offering and do a better job.
