Don’t re-invent the wheel!

One of the most important lessons I have learned in life is “Don’t re-invent the wheel.”

The idea is simple: Don’t work really hard figuring something out when you could look at someone else who is really successful at this thing and do what they do.

If you want to play basketball like an NBA star then look to NBA Stars and figure out what they have done to be so successful. What do they eat & drink? How much sleep do they get? How do they workout and how often?

Sounds simple enough, right?

This same principle applies to Internet Marketing but is often overlooked.

If you want to write killer ad copy for your Google AdWords ads on Poodle Manicures then go search for Poodle Manicures on Google and see which ads come up top.

A large component of an ad’s placement is how often it is clicked on; more clicks means higher ad placement. Search for Poodle Manicures everyday for a week. There will be be some changes in placement and yet it won’t take long to notice that some ads will keep showing up somewhere near the top. Most likely these ads are getting lots of clicks. Pay close attention to what these ads do or don’t do in their ad copy.

If you want to have a top ten rank on Google for the search term Poodle Manicures then search Google for Poodle Manicures and take a close look at the sites that come up in the top ten. These are your competition.

It doesn’t matter that 50,000 other sites also come up for that search phrase. These other sites are examples of what not to do, examples of how not to get to the top, examples of failure. Don’t waste your time on them. What matters are the ones that made it to top ten. They are your case studies.

How many pages do they have?
How often do they update their content?
How many incoming links do they have?
How long do they have their domain registered for? Etc.

Figure out exactly what they do and do the same!

Hopefully you get the idea here.

It’s so simple and yet so often overlooked and under utilized.

The gurus of marketing out there will give you all sorts of advice.

Just never forget your (successful) competition and what you can learn from them.

Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.
- Sun-tzu: Chinese general & military strategist (~400 BC)

I would change one word in the quote so it reads:
Keep your friends close, and your competition closer.