The Softnik Blog

Competition Research Using Keyword Strategy Studio

There are a number of reasons why you would want to study your competition.

• To improve your products and services and make them better than that of your competition
• To find your competition's weak points and and exploit them
• To learn the way your competition operates so that you can always stay ahead of them.
• To generate your own ideas that are better.

Using Keyword Strategy Studio For Competition Research

When you do any keyword lookup using Keyword Strategy Studio, a list of top competing sites and top competing URLs are automatically generated. You can access these using the Competition and Top URLs tabs.

Right click on any of the URLs and select Open in Browser to view site in your default web browser.

Once you have your competition's site open, first check if it really is a competing site. Many top ranking web pages will be Made For Adsense (MFA) sites created using automated software.

If you think you have a found a competing site, it is time to dig a little more... Here are some of the things you can do...

• Use the web archive to learn more about the history of the site. When did they get started? How did the website look when they started?
• Use the Site Link Pop Meter or other on-line sites like Compete or Alexa to study their on line visibility
• Check their web pages. Do they make it easy for their customers? Is your website better? If not how can you improve?
• Do they have third party advertisements on their sites? What do that tell you?
• Do they have a blog? If yes, subscribe to their blog feeds. What do their blogs discuss? Do they allow blog comments? What do people comment on their blogs?  Do you have a business blog?
• Subscribe to their newsletters.
• Buy their products and study the way they handle the purchase process, post purchase handling, back end products, etc. How do you compare with them?
• Go to Google News and search for the competitors. Are they in the news?
• Do they have any recent press releases? Do you do PR?
• Are they hiring? What kind of Jobs are on offer? Job openings often reveal their future plans and directions.

Use any information you learn to make your own plans and improve your products.

Our upcoming Internet Strategy Studio software suite will help you organize and tabulate information such as the above.

Learn How To Instantly Create Powerful Headlines!

Your web page headline is the most important factor that determines if your site visitor stays or bounces away. A compelling headline will have him or her wanting to read more. An uninspiring headline will cause him or her to immediately go away!

How do you write good headlines?

The truth is, powerful headline creation ideas are all around you.  It is very easy to improve your existing headline to one that really works!

Before you decide to change your headline, you should

1. Determine the target market the headline is meant for.
2. Write down the most powerful benefit your product or service offers. Think your product has too many benefits? See the types of headlines below to decide which benefit should be highlighted in the headline.

Now use one of the following headline types.

Headlines that enumerate a list (People have an affinity to read lists!)

• Five ideas to improve your ----
• Top Ten Reasons To ...
• Four Things You Absolutely Must Know To ....
• Ten  Reasons Why ----

Headlines that ask about a problem the reader will identify with

• Do you suffer from ...?
• Are you threatened by ...
• Do you often find yourself struggling ...

Headlines that offer to teach you or make you an expert

• Learn How To ...
• Discover The Top ...
• A Guide To ...
• Every Thing You Wanted To Know About ...

Headlines that offer secrets

• They Tried To Ban This ...
• Secrets Uncovered ...
• Exposed For The First Time Ever ...
• The Real Secrets To ...
• The Ugly Truth Behind ...

Headlines offering instant gratification

• Instantly Transform ...
• Instant Strategies To Create ...
• You Can Do This In Five Minutes ...
• Get An Instant 35% Boost ...

Headlines offering to simplify things

• Simple Ideas To ...
• This is Not For The Experts ...
• ... For The Rest Of Us
• ... Any One Can Do In Their Spare Time!

Headlines announcing something

• Releasing Shortly...
• Announcing The...
• Now Available For The First Time ...
• Offer Closing Soon ...

Headlines that offer a guarantee

• .... 100% Money Back!
• Guaranteed To ...

Headlines that contain a testimonial

• I started using ... The results have been fantastic ...
• I could never believe ...
• ... Amazing! Thank You ....

Picture / Graphic Headline

Screen shot with a caption, Illustration etc. Use this if a picture is more likely to immediately grab the attention. However you will still need a compelling sub-heading or caption.

Headlines that shock

• No examples! Just read a tabloid!

More Headline Rules...

• Be specific and avoid generality. A headline that says some thing very general is not going to attract any one because they have seen it all before. There should always be a unique or specific benefit mentioned in the headline.
• A headline should make the reader want to continue. Create multiple headlines and do an A/B test to find the best one. Then create new ones and try to beat the old headline.

Coming Soon! Headline Generator and Swipe File Manager

We will be releasing a new software (stand alone, integrated into IM Toolpad and the upcoming Internet Strategy Studio) for creating good headlines. Watch this blog!

The 80-20 rule and the Not-To-Do list!

This post was inspired by a recent Bencivenga Bullet about the Pareto Principle (80-20 rule). We already talked about the 80-20 rule in an earlier post.

If 80% of the results come from 20% of your efforts, the secret to more productivity is simply doing more of the 20%. However to do that you probably need to identify and eliminate the unwanted 80% of the work.

Your Internet business strategy will be much more effective if you started thinking about your not to do list!

• Do you check your email every 5 minutes?
• Do you spend a lot of time at one or more Internet forums?
• Do you browse all over the net jumping from one site to next without completing the task you originally started out to do?
• Do you worry about things you just can't control and in the process not do the things you have full control over?

The best way to achieve full use of your resources is to create and implement a clear "time+effort strategy". Formulate an email strategy, a web browsing strategy, a forum involvement (social) strategy and so on.

Your email strategy

Checking your email every few minutes is one of the best ways to not get things done. If you are doing an important task, just shut down that email client or email alert software. There is nothing worse than getting distracted in the middle of an important task.

Make a decision on how you will handle your emails and then stick to it. For example, you can check and reply to your emails every 8 or 12 hours. If you have to respond to urgent customer queries install a help desk software and hire some one to respond to customers.

Do not Multi-Task

While multi-tasking is alright for computers, it is not a good idea for humans. Just take the task that need to be done and do it fully. Then move on to the next.  Scientific studies have shown that an average person will take much more time if he or she switched between multiple tasks during the course of the day. Apparently the brain takes four times longer to recognize and process the things when you switch from one task to another.

So avoid trying to reply to an email, modifying that web page and typing up a blog entry all at the same time. just do one job at a time!

Going walk-about on the net!

This happens to almost every one. You start with deciding to lookup some thing and do a Google search. Reach a site, see some thing that looks interesting. You then go read that. Then see some thing else that catches you eye and before long you no longer remember what you started with!

Allot a fixed time every day/week for the idle browsing. If you have to do research on the net stick to what you really want to lookup. Nothing more, nothing less!

Make Your Not-To-Do List Today!

These are probably a small sample of things in the NOT-TO-DO list. Think about it and start not doing things today!