Blogs and Competition
April 8, 2005 by Mary Jo Manzanares
Filed under Business
Not too long ago I talked about competing with Weblogs, Inc. and Gawker (forgot to mention the empire that Corante has built) has setup as well and noted that there is always room for one more blog in any market. Just because there is an Engadget and Gizmodo dominating the gadget blog scene, it doesn’t mean that another one can’t step in and become just as successful (I think we might have a REAL good one for the 9rules network).
When I speak of blog competition I really only think of two types and to me one of them isn’t even competition:
- For audience
- For sponsors
Now I don’t think competing for audience is a big deal at all simply because RSS feeds allow readers to keep track of an almost unlimited number of blogs. Just because someone reads Endgadget it doesn’t mean that they don’t read Gizmodo as well. If they don’t then it’s probably for personal reasons and not the fact that they don’t wish to read two gadget blogs.
Same goes with this site and ProBlogger (my new arch-nemesis). Darren blogs and I link to him and people visit and vice-versa. Essentially we are talking about the same things, but we do so with our own opinion and hopefully that is valued by the audience that comes to visit us. In all honesty, you need “competition” to stay healthy. I love watching Gizmodo and Engadget go head-to-head to see who will post what news first or who will post the most that day.
Now when you compete for sponsors that is something different because they only have so much money to throw around. Then it usually comes down to either the best salesman or who can provide the best value. That’s good competition as well.
Basically what I am saying is that you shouldn’t look at any other blogs as competition, but as partners. Hopefully they will see it the same way, but egos can easily cloud the mind.
This entry was inspired by an entry that my competition wrote here.
It’s thanks to Darren that I first found 9rules and WorkBoxers, so I think there’s a lot to be said about that kind of partnership.
Yeah, Darren and I have a secret plot to corner the market. He is a good person and I am glad he finds some of my content link-worthy.
Or you could always attempt to monopolize the industry. Seemed to work for Microsoft for a long time. If you could make sure that your competition was out of work quicker than a factory worker on a hot Friday in July, then you have nothing to worry about.
But this never happens, and when it does, anti-trust suits happen. So you have to be wise, and just feel out the whole thing.
There’s two approaches I see in competition. The first is the asshole route, deny any existence of competition to protect the corporate entity. And on the lighter side is the good faith methodology.
Scrivs has obviously taken the lesser evil of the two, which more times than not benefits. Was the iPod so successful because it denied any existence of other operating systems, making a proprietary device? In the nicest way I can say it, “hell fucking no.”
And with the whole Scrivs and Darren thing, that is good faith. And I see the 9rules network blowing up faster than a virgins inflatable doll on prom night when his date stands him up (Scrivs I am looking in your direction).
All joking aside I think Scrivs, you are a good person, and a smart person. I think you are more concerned about competing with yourself than anyone else. You don’t come off as that “protect the corporate entity” type person, yet you are very motivated. I think your only main competition is yourself. You want to push yourself to a level in the future that you haven’t reached in the past or present.
There is always room for another player, however as time goes on it become harder and harder to compete. So, at this point anyone could create a blog about gadgets, sure, but you would need to fund five editors for a year or two to just reach the same level at Engadget and Gizmodo in terms of traffic.
Now, certainly a 3rd gadget blog can *exist*, but compete to me means getting similar traffic/advertising.
Regardless, the great thing about the blogosphere is that you could create–and there are dozens–a knock off of Engadget or Gizmodo and make enough money to pay the rent… and for some folks that is success, so more power to them… gives us something to link to when they get a scoop!
Well as long as you got most of the blogging conections I think you can overpass some of the best blogs at this hour… But still is hard. My blog is about health and I even don’t care about the css style as long as I can post. But also the looking of a site has an unique aproach to the visitor and also the quality content. I just don’t love lots and lots of ads in a page, I feel that I want to close that page…
This was me…