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SOB Business Cafe 06-30-2006

Filed Under Branding, Content, Marketing, SOB Business, Successful Blog | 8 Comments

SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the title shots to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Benjamin Yoskovitz guest hosts at Steve Remington’s blog to ask us if we’re sure we know what our blogs are about.

What's Your Blog About Again?

Mike Sigers lets us in on secrets we need to know about selling.

Fraser talks about and offers video on the influence of effective communication.

Fraser on influence -effective communication

Marianne Ricmond returns from WOMMA with a message that is as old as the fifties wbout how we should see our customers.

Message from WOMMA: Open, Honest Communication

Easton lets us know why Business Blogwire is so popular. (All of this time I thought it was Yoda.)

Best of Business Blogwire

Related ala carte selections include

I was listening to Christine Kane while I was typing this and drinking coffee from a beautiful golden coffee mug from Tom Vander Well. Thanks, Tom!

Tom reminds us that upselling can be a way of helping out.

Upselling Doesn't Have to Be Hard Selling

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

Have a great weekend!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Using Your Competition As A Means To Growth

Filed Under Tips | 1 Comment

I find it quite amazing that much of the advice given to people looking to start a new business (or blog for that matter) with the intention of making money is to look for niches where there is no competition. I think that this may be the worst thing in the world to do because if there is no competition how do you measure your success?

Although the 9rules Network has a different model from both Gawker and WIN we still had to look at them as competition for a couple of reasons.

  1. It allowed us to measure our own success. If our Network couldn’t enter the same discussions as those two then where did that leave us? There are more than enough blog networks out there, but if we couldn’t stand out in the crowd what good does that do to the blogs within our Network?
  2. Learn from their mistakes and profit from the successes. If you don’t consider someone as competition then you will ignore the mistakes they have made and could quite possibly make the same ones yourself.
  3. Competition keeps you focused and motivated. Pick a site that’s in your niche or close to it and compare the quantity, quality and frequency of your entries to see how you stack up. Look at how they market themselves then you should be able to answer why they are more popular than you. If you are #1 in your niche, look for other sites that are starting to get mentions and links. Competition can be friendly, but you also must stay ahead of the pack.

Embrace your competition as it can only help you in the long run.

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