Why You Should Know Who Your Competitors Are

When you're blogging as a hobby or just starting out as a freelancer, you might not want to go down the seemingly negative path of competitors. The word competitor naturally makes us think of aggression and battling against each other, but that isn't always the case.

A competitor is someone in your field that is offering the same or similar services/content you are. Thy aren't your mortal enemy, they are not solely there to bring you down and laugh at you as you lie in the smouldering rubble that was your business or blog (maybe a tad dramatic). If anything, competitors can be the driving force behind your business, they can push you to reach goals you never even dreamed of. 

There's nothing wrong with some healthy competition and if you've got a firm list of your main competitors, it could greatly improve your business. You can keep track of their social activities, offers, business decisions etc to really get a feel of what direction you want your own business to go.

Really do your research and pay attention to there comings and goings, make notes of what you feel they could do to improve their business and then see if you're doing it for your own. Sometimes analysing someone else's work can shed some light on things that are missing from our own projects.

Once you've written down your competitors, the positives and the negatives of their businesses/blogs and have a firm list of what aspects you want to include in your own, you can set yourself some goals. Maybe one of your competitors has 10,000+ followers on their blog and you want to be able to get to that point as well, you can use your findings to develop your own path. 

Finding your competitors doesn't have to be a negative thing, use them as your goal setters and inspiration and you could see a massive improvement in your business.

Have you identified your competitors yet? Does the word competitors scare you a little?