According to pro football offensive tackle player, Andrew Whitworth, “If you’re a true warrior, competition doesn’t scare you. It makes you better.” This is a valid assessment both on the football field and in the world of online competition.
In truth, competition is a love-hate relationship. On the one hand, competition can guide you into staying relevant and maintaining the upper hand in your field. Alternatively, competition can turn the tables on your endeavors by taking your ideas and running with them. In this article, we’ll talk about the pros and cons of your online competition and discuss how you can protect your WordPress site from content theft.
The Pros of Competition
Whether you are a professional blogger, or running an e-commerce site, your competition is worthy of your attention. To explain, competition sets a benchmark. It’s important to observe what your adversaries are doing in order to get ahead.
In fact, there are useful tools such as competitive intelligence software applications that can help you stay on top of opponents in your field as well as gain advantages in order to excel in your given online market. To explain, scrutinizing your competition allows you to assess what others are doing so you can more effectively excel in your field.
This information can prompt you to make improvements to your own online endeavors. For example, you might notice that some of your competitors’ ad campaigns are doing exceedingly well. This can help you make adjustments to your own campaigns so you might experience the same positive results.
If you’re suffering a crisis of conscience about replicating or duplicating competitive strategies, think again. There’s nothing wrong with learning new strategies or making changes to your own projects based on what your competition is doing. It’s no secret that keeping your finger on the pulse of your competitors is one of the most effective ways to stay ahead of the game in your chosen industry.
After all, many mega businesses clone others in order to improve upon an existing service. For instance, the package-delivery company FedEx started mimicking almost exactly what UPS was doing – but they did it better and differently. In truth, competition is healthy. It provides consumers different options. It also guides entrepreneurs as to what existing services are lacking so that they may answer customers’ needs more effectively.
The Ugly Side of Competition and Protecting Your Online Content
On the flip side, it’s also crucial to acknowledge when your competitors are ripping off your content or ideas. Regrettably, copyright infringement suffers a huge gray area in the online world of blogging, e-commerce and website publishing. Here are a few strategies to dissuade your competitors from blatantly copying your efforts or content online.
Be Remarkable With Your Brand
Your competitors might copy your content. They might even steal some of your online strategies. But they cannot purloin an ironclad brand. Therefore, make every effort to build a solid, profoundly recognizable brand. From your logo, design, niche-specific coverage, customer service – ensure all aspects of your business result in an undeniably clear brand. This is about creating an online reputation and identity that your visitors or customers trust and instantly recognize – that’s something no competitor can steal.
Take Action
If the content from your website has been blatantly copied, there are actions you can take. You might start with a WordPress plugin that prohibits visitors from right-clicking and copying your content directly off your site or blog. You can also file a claim with Google to report another website who has copied your website content. This is possible through the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which is intended to protect copyrighted content from theft. Additionally, you can file trademarks for your brand, which provides legal protection for your content and goods.
The Highest Form of Flattery
While discovering your content has been absconded with can be incredibly frustrating, it also says something about the quality you’re putting out on the internet. To elaborate, if your competitors are copying your material or strategies that should tell you that you’re doing something right. It should also inform you that you’re the rule-maker and the leader of the pack. If you look at it this way, you’ll see that you’re in an enviable position in which competitors are trying to snatch a slice of your pie.
Furthermore, witnessing outright content theft should inspire and motivate you to create even more brilliantly unique content or explore more innovative online strategies. In this way, the competition can compel you to consistently change and improve, which can keep your online presence incredibly vibrant and relevant for years to come.
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