Dealing with competition

Mostly everyone in any business has competition. Whether it’s another business, individual or personal, competition will always surround you. The thing you have to keep in mind is how to best handle competition.

Business competition- In any industry there’s always business competition. Microsoft/Apple, Dell/HP, Sony/Samsung etc. One thing I like to do with my ‘business competition’ is research. Whose got what and how much are they giving it out for. Now as an affiliate manager, it’s my job to know who’s giving the best campaign for the top payout. There might be other networks out there that don’t have a clue on what payout they need to give an affiliate to make the offer back-out. There are also networks out there that give the highest payout possible in order to draw in affiliates. The key is finding the medium that keeps everyone afloat. If everyone’s happy, then there’s progression. If not, you’ll find that relationship doesn’t last long.

Individual competition- This relates more to our industry and our affiliates. Affiliates are always competing with one another. Whether it’s a keyword, a keyword list, a specific niche or if the competition is just simply trying to earn more money than the other. What you have to think in this case is that there’s more money out there than anything. There’s ways to get better keyword structure. And there’s always a niche that’s hardly touched that no one knows about. Keep these things in mind when, if at all, worried about your individual competition. You know you’re the best at what you do, that’s why you do it. Don’t second guess yourself, it will only help your competition get ahead.

Personal competition- This is going to be your worst nightmare if not handled properly. Some things that might be personal competition would be time investment. What should you put time into versus what do you put your time into. Everyone has things they want to do, but they also have things the need to do. In order to stay off tangent in completing things try a little to-do list. Check things off as you complete them and rest assure, when time comes to launch that campaign, so long as your check boxes are marked, you’ll be ready to go, and you’ll have the confidence in knowing that you’ve won over your own personal competition.

Although some may see this as business competition as well the best way I can describe having individual competition is to think of selling your car. How the mileage, interior, exterior, does it drive well, are there any dings in the body, etc? Basically, is the next person who looks at your car going to want to buy it? Relating to our industry; Does your landing page look proper, how’s your keyword list (is it cleaned up/related), Is your ad copy sharp, how’s the ‘mileage’ for your site, etc? Is the next person that comes to your site going to buy whatever it is you’re putting in the window?

In the internet industry, it’s a little different in the sense that most of the competition is fairly negotiable. Sure there might be four affiliate networks that have the same offer, but ask yourself; what makes this network different than the others. How’s their response time, payout terms, communication. These are all things I pride myself on and they’re what make me different and better than most others.