SPYING ONLINE ... OR HOW TO OUT-PROMOTE YOUR COMPETITION ONLINE

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Are you ...
loosing ground to your online ... they win all the sales, get all the great reviews ...
ooze success? Well now it is time to fight back.Now it is time to really Are you constantly loosing ground to your online competitors?Do they win all the sales, get all the great reviews andgenerally ooze success? Well now it is time to fight back.Now it is time to really start competing online.The funny thing not many businesses are actively competingonline. Sure the big boys will always be in activecompetition.But take it down a few levels and you'll find that smaller webventures just do not compete.The first business in your industry to start activelycompeting online is going to come out a big winner.Before you can effectively compete online, you need to knoweverything about competitors.
Only by knowing exactly whatyour competitors are up are you able to compete.Each of the search engines can tell you who is linked to yourcompetitors' web site. This should give you an idea about howthey are advertising, and where they have mentions such asreviews, articles and links.
Make a note of this…these arethe places where you should be too.Different search engines require certain information in theirsearch box to list links going into a site: * Altavista: In the search box type "link:competitor.com" where your competitor's domain is competitor.com. * Northern Light: In the search box type "competitor.com" without the "www".
* Excite: In the search box type "www.competitor.com". * Infoseek: In the search box type "link:www.competitor.com".
* Hotbot: In the search box type "http://www.competitor.com", then change the pull-down menu to "links to this URL".You need to make the effort to be at least everywhere yourcompetition is. If your competitor is featured on aparticular site there is no reason why you shouldn't’t befeatured too.If a web site features a competitor's product, write to thewebmaster to see if they would like to try your product.
Bribeyour way onto the site with free samples if you have to.Search, infiltrate and destroy your competitions promotionalterritory.Go to Dejanews (http://www.deja.com) and search for theircompany or product names through the newsgroups. This willgive you a great idea about what people actually think abouttheir products and of any problems or success they haveexperienced with your competitors.You should also be able to find out where they areadvertising…this can be tricky as there are a lot ofpossibilities.
Check out the archives of e-zines and e-maillists to see if you can spot them. A good place to finde-mail lists is at: http://www.topica.com/http://www.liszt.comYou might even be able to find out what books your competitorshave been buying.
Take a look in at Amazon.com's purchaselists and see if your competitors company name is listed. Fromhere you will be able to track what popular book titles havebeen purchased through your competitors.
Check it out at:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/community/community.html/If your competitors have affiliate sales programs, assume anew internet identity and join up as a sales agent. From hereyou should have access to a range of their marketing andpromotional material.
As an affiliate you might also be sentregular e-mail from your competitor offering information suchsales details and future directions.Remember, before you even start to action an online marketingcampaign ensure you know how, where and why your competitionis marketing online. Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com .