Mind Reader

If you’re reading this post there’s a good chance that you are a true innovator and at the forefront of whatever field you are working in (a little reader flattery never hurts). But it can be a little exhausting trying to come up with new, world-shattering ideas every day. So sometimes it’s a good strategy to steal borrow some ideas from your competition by reading their mind. Here’s how:

  1. Compete.com Search Analytics: Use Compete.com’s new search analytics keyword referral tool to see what keywords people are using to find your competition’s site (i.e. what keywords they are using on their site for SEO). It’s pretty cheap. You can get the top 50 keywords for a site for $2 a pop.
  2. MyBlogLog Reverse Engineering: If your competition has a blog and is using MyBlogLog, find their MyBlogLog profile. Then set up MyBlogLog on your own blog (if you have one) and track which posts attract your competitor to your site. This might give you an idea of what is on their mind.
  3. De.Licio.us Mind Reading: This one’s my favorite. I noticed in my referral logs that I was getting a lot of referrals from someone’s page on de.licio.us. It turned out to be another “local” blogger. By checking out the various pages this blogger had bookmarked I could get a sense of what subjects were of interest to him.

Any other ideas from all of you creative geniuses out there?

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5 Response Comments

  • BeachBum  October 16, 2007 at 7:51 pm

    I use a tool on Wealthy Affiliate to track competition.

    BeachBum

  • Sylvain Carle  October 19, 2007 at 6:59 am

    About your #3… “By checking out the various pages this blogger had bookmarked I could get a sense of what subjects were of interest to him”…

    I do that all the time, I see it as a way to find “like minded” individuals and people that I will want to have great conversations with.

    That’s also why I am also fairly generous with my own del.icio.us “stream of thought”, I want to be discovered likewise.

    (commenting on interesting blog posts is obviously another great way to do that!)

  • Robin Allenson  January 19, 2009 at 5:55 am

    Hi Andrew

    Great post! Where can I get keyword referrer analysis from Compete.com for $2 a go? The search analytics keyword referral tool seems to be a Compete Pro feature, which costs a few hundred $$ a month.

    Cheers
    Robin

  • Andrew Shotland  January 19, 2009 at 10:59 am

    Hi Robin,

    This post was written before Compete switched its pricing model. I think the only way to get the few bucks a go is to work with someone who already subscribes.