Comments on: Your Fellow Blogger IS a Competitor

By: jblu

jblu — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 23:54:40 +0000

I liked the Iditarod example. It got your point through very clearly. But like you said American Idol is not life threatening, so I though that might lighten the mood a bit. =)

By: Gyutae Park

Gyutae Park — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 23:17:50 +0000

jblue,
American Idol is a great example. Probably better than my Iditarod example because it’s not really life threatening. Thanks for your thoughts!

By: jblu

jblu — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 22:34:28 +0000

I’ll add to the ‘coopertition thought using American Idol as a metaphor: The contestants all [seem to] get along and help each other out because they’re working together towards the same goal, but at the same time each contestant understands that the outcome is inevitable – there will be someone on the bottom and someone at the top. But it’s also the competition factor that keeps the whole show going. Hmm…this gives me an article idea.

By: Gyutae Park

Gyutae Park — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 02:24:51 +0000

Hey Martin,
Coopertition. I like it. I think that would be a better way to put it. Helping each other out, but competing in a way too. Nice!

By: Martin Buckland

Martin Buckland — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 02:22:14 +0000

I don’t see anyone as a competitor. Plenty of fish in the sea for all.

I like the word co-opertition. Warm and fuzzy word that says a lot!

By: Gyutae Park

Gyutae Park — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 01:42:10 +0000

Hi Scott,
Thanks for the feedback. I’d be interested in reading your article on competition.

I agree with what you say that it is better to network with other bloggers – despite the fact that they’re competitors. The point of the article was to refute Maki’s claim that other bloggers are not competitors at all. Competitors can still help each other and network – but in the end they’re still competing.

By: chipseo

chipseo — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 19:26:24 +0000

Funny, I just wrote a 3 part article on competition (not published yet) that talks about these issues.

I do think you are in competition with just about everything around you, but I think you can learn more from other bloggers that might be competing for traffic.

It is a huge network so one without the other may be far less valuable than just one single blog by itself with no competition. Scott

By: Maki

Maki — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 03:04:25 +0000

@Gyutae

I don’t think we are disagreeing with anything actually. I do agree with that attention scarcity is a problem that all bloggers have to face and eventually overcome by producing relevant content which differentiates them from others in the same topical niche.

There is competition for attention but this is an inevitable result of all forms of media, online and offline. I’m not writing about the intrinsic nature of media as much so much so as competitive perspectives and mindsets, which are factors within each blogger’s volition.

Free content is never a conflict of interest. Reading and consuming information from another blog doesn’t reduce the value of your content or its ability to fulfill the consumer’s needs/desires, i.e. a reader can easily subscribe and follow Dosh Dosh and Problogger, and many do.