The Concept ~ Go Shop the Competition
“I thought we were going to go eat, Dad.”
“We are. We are.”
“Then why are we here?”
“I just wanna see something.”
My dad always worked even when he wasn’t working. We were supposed to be on our way to dinner, and we were. It’s just that Dad was taking the opportunity to check out his business competition. My Dad owned a truck and trailer company with a service and sales.
“Huh.”
“What?” I asked.
“What are they doing getting that fixed here? Why are they on their lot? Did we lose that deal? And look at that. The company is adding on. Hm. Okay, you ready for dinner?”
I cannot tell you how many times that scenario played out while I was growing up. From dinner in another town to vacations, we always, always shopped the competition. At times, Dad was able to salvage a deal that he had lost to the competition, or sometimes he was able to get ideas for marketing his business. It’s a common practice in business. And it’s an excellent practice to exercise whether you are in business or not.
It’s important to find out what people like you are doing out there. Are they doing it well? Or are they not doing it well? You can learn a lot from what others are doing on their blogs that will benefit your blog. You’re never going to share what you think about the blogs you shop, but you definitely should be very thorough when looking at their sites. And you can shop the competition as often as you like [my Dad certainly did], but I’d say it should be an activity done at least once-a-month.
The Breakdown
Cousin Hunters ~ While you’re not in competition with other geneabloggers, it doesn’t mean you can’t learn from taking a look around at other Cousin Hunters’ blogs. So go seek out some blogs that are just like yours and then some that aren’t just like yours. A good place to look for some other genealogy blogs would be on the Geneabloggers.com site. Just make sure you look at about 5 different sites and honestly and thoroughly analyze them. Here’s just some of the questions to ask yourself while perusing:
Genealogical Societies ~ Yes, you are a non-profit organization, and you really don’t have competitors, but your society’s blog can only benefit by taking a look at what other societies are doing on their blogs. Find some genealogical society blogs on Geneabloggers.com. And here are just some of the questions to ask yourself while analyzing:
Professional Genealogists ~ You are in business. And you have competitors. What your competition does can directly and indirectly affect your business. Therefore, it is extremely important to shop the competition. When deciding what blogs to shop, you need to be a little more purposeful. Yes, you want to take a look at blogs of other professionals who are just like you ~ same size, same specialty, same geographical location, etc. However, you must expand beyond those parameters. You must look at professionals who have businesses larger than your business as well as those who are smaller than your business. With the internet, you can’t assume your clients will be those surrounding you geographically. They could come from anywhere. Thus, your competitors could come from anywhere. Remember that. Find some of your competition from Geneabloggers.com, from the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) Directory List, and from Google Search. When Googling, use search terms like, “professional genealogist” and your specialty, your geographical location, etc. Try it many different ways and take a look at page 5 of your Google search results to get a good sampling. Once you find a good sampling of competitors to shop, here are some questions to ask yourself while analyzing:
The Takeaway
While I could go on and on with the analysis questions [and I will in an ebook], one thing is very clear. Everyone needs to look at their blogging “competition”. How do you know how well you’re doing if you don’t measure yourself against someone else? Plus, you can get some fantastic ideas for your blog just by looking at the competition.
Find out who your competition is and shop them.
Your blog depends on it.
~Caroline
“I thought we were going to go eat, Dad.”
“We are. We are.”
“Then why are we here?”
“I just wanna see something.”
My dad always worked even when he wasn’t working. We were supposed to be on our way to dinner, and we were. It’s just that Dad was taking the opportunity to check out his business competition. My Dad owned a truck and trailer company with a service and sales.
“Huh.”
“What?” I asked.
“What are they doing getting that fixed here? Why are they on their lot? Did we lose that deal? And look at that. The company is adding on. Hm. Okay, you ready for dinner?”
I cannot tell you how many times that scenario played out while I was growing up. From dinner in another town to vacations, we always, always shopped the competition. At times, Dad was able to salvage a deal that he had lost to the competition, or sometimes he was able to get ideas for marketing his business. It’s a common practice in business. And it’s an excellent practice to exercise whether you are in business or not.
It’s important to find out what people like you are doing out there. Are they doing it well? Or are they not doing it well? You can learn a lot from what others are doing on their blogs that will benefit your blog. You’re never going to share what you think about the blogs you shop, but you definitely should be very thorough when looking at their sites. And you can shop the competition as often as you like [my Dad certainly did], but I’d say it should be an activity done at least once-a-month.
The Breakdown
Cousin Hunters ~ While you’re not in competition with other geneabloggers, it doesn’t mean you can’t learn from taking a look around at other Cousin Hunters’ blogs. So go seek out some blogs that are just like yours and then some that aren’t just like yours. A good place to look for some other genealogy blogs would be on the Geneabloggers.com site. Just make sure you look at about 5 different sites and honestly and thoroughly analyze them. Here’s just some of the questions to ask yourself while perusing:
- What do you like about their sites?
- What do you not like?
- Do they have a surname listing?
- Is it a pretty blog? Or does it give you a headache just looking at it?
- Is it easy to navigate? Or do you get lost and frustrated while using their site?
- What about their writing? Do you like it? What do you like about it?
- If you’re not partial to their writing, why?
- Do they blog with purpose?
- Can you tell what blogging platform they’re using? Do you like it? Why or why not?
- Do they handle content copyright? How?
- Do they use an image with each post?
- Can you tell if other forms of social media are being utilized?
Genealogical Societies ~ Yes, you are a non-profit organization, and you really don’t have competitors, but your society’s blog can only benefit by taking a look at what other societies are doing on their blogs. Find some genealogical society blogs on Geneabloggers.com. And here are just some of the questions to ask yourself while analyzing:
- Do they even have a blog?
- What are they doing for their members with their blog?
- What are they doing to attract new members with their blog?
- Does their blog welcome new members? Is it inviting?
- What are they blogging about?
- Do their blog posts invite/encourage readers to take a closer look at other parts of their blog and/or website?
- Do they utilize affiliate advertising on their blog? If they do, what kind of ads? Which companies?
- Is the design of the blog attractive, utilitarian, or busy?
- Do you like the color scheme? Why or why not?
- Do they have a logo?
- If they also have a website, is the blog a part of the website, or is it hosted on a separate blogging platform?
- If it is hosted on a separate blogging platform, does it still match their website with their branding [logo, color scheme, etc.]?
- Do they clearly state the society’s calendar of events?
- Do they promote the events in blog posts as well?
- Do they cross-promote other societies?
- Can you tell if other forms of social media are being utilized?
- Is there just one person doing the blogging or are their numerous contributors?
- When was the last time they posted on their blog?
- How often do they post on their blog?
- Do they use images in their posts?
- Do they make it easy for their readers to contact them with inquiries?
- Do they blog with purpose?
- Do they have an online newsletter? Sign up for it and analyze their newsletter.
Professional Genealogists ~ You are in business. And you have competitors. What your competition does can directly and indirectly affect your business. Therefore, it is extremely important to shop the competition. When deciding what blogs to shop, you need to be a little more purposeful. Yes, you want to take a look at blogs of other professionals who are just like you ~ same size, same specialty, same geographical location, etc. However, you must expand beyond those parameters. You must look at professionals who have businesses larger than your business as well as those who are smaller than your business. With the internet, you can’t assume your clients will be those surrounding you geographically. They could come from anywhere. Thus, your competitors could come from anywhere. Remember that. Find some of your competition from Geneabloggers.com, from the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) Directory List, and from Google Search. When Googling, use search terms like, “professional genealogist” and your specialty, your geographical location, etc. Try it many different ways and take a look at page 5 of your Google search results to get a good sampling. Once you find a good sampling of competitors to shop, here are some questions to ask yourself while analyzing:
- Do they even have a blog?
- If you found them through Google, did they show up on page 1 of the Google search results?
- If you found them through the APG Directory List, does their blog match their APG listing [specialty]?
- Is the design of their blog attractive, utilitarian (boring), or busy?
- Is the navigation of the site easy and intuitive or does it make you want to leave their site?
- Do they have a logo? Is their color scheme attractive?
- If their blog is separate from their website, is the branding consistent?
- Do they have pages? What are those pages being used for?
- What blogging platform are they using? Can you tell?
- Is their blog their business website? Do you like that concept?
- Are they utilizing affiliate advertising? Google ads? Text or image advertising? How many different ones? Only on main page or throughout other pages? Where are the ads placed within the page? Do they ever advertise through a blog post? Too many? Too little?
- How often are they blogging? Do they blog consistently?
- What subjects are they blogging about? Research methods, case studies, book reviews, local repositories, etc.?
- Do their blog posts ever lead the reader/potential client to their services? Do they ever issue a call to action [to buy their services]?
- Do they utilize video blogging [vlogging]?
- If they use their blog as their business website, are their services clearly stated and priced? Or do they just say, “Contact me for more information.” Is their pricing in line with their services?
- Is it easy to contact them on their blog? Is there a separate “Contact me” button or just a text link?
- Do they clearly state their specialty somewhere on their blog?
- Do their blog posts support their specialty, or are they all over the place? In other words, are they blogging with purpose?
- Is their education listed?
- Can you tell if other forms of social media are being utilized?
- Do they use images for their posts?
- Do they have a search feature for their site?
- Do they have a Terms of Service and Privacy Policy?
- Do they state copyright terms for the content of their blog?
- From your overall analysis can you tell what their business model is?
- Are they a member of the Association of Professional Genealogy (APG)? What other professional organizations do they belong to? Any non-professional organizations?
The Takeaway
While I could go on and on with the analysis questions [and I will in an ebook], one thing is very clear. Everyone needs to look at their blogging “competition”. How do you know how well you’re doing if you don’t measure yourself against someone else? Plus, you can get some fantastic ideas for your blog just by looking at the competition.
Find out who your competition is and shop them.
Your blog depends on it.
~Caroline
Note: If you are interested in republishing all or part of this blog post in a genealogical society's or genealogy organization's newsletter or journal, please contact me to make arrangements.
