You Know You've Made It When They Go Gunning For You

Evolve. Constantly.

Hi Steven,

Very interesting post I must add. Putting all your eggs in one basket is a bad idea.

I don't have much to say so that's about it.

Tal

option 4?

-market your product better and cheaper than the competitor

People see things do well and it starts a trend...I've seen it with a couple of things that I have done as well.

Only thing you can do is fight for your market share or evolve into something better.

Reminds me of the hairdresser that
was selling $20 haircuts.

A hairdresser setup across the road
and started selling haircuts for $10

The first hairdresser put up a sign:



"We fix $10 haircuts"


John Ruskin said:

"It is unwise to pay too little"

In other words, Don't deal with the lowest bidder.

Cheaper is rarely a winning strategic advantage.

Theres more than 3 choices. Don't limit yourself inside the box

Cutting prices works (sometimes) but can be suicide.

Its called Creativity. I can create a product that already exists, with a different spin and angle and charge the same, more , or less...

But ONLY lowing your prices is suicide...

You'll be out of business eventually!

Darwin at it's best. thats why i have numerous different ventures, from ebay, to google, to JV's, etc. the list goes on, just incase something happens to one of those ventures, i have something to fall back on. it's a crappy lesson to learn the hard way i will tell you that much!

This is true most of the time... but there are people that can put out low quality stuff and slap a huge price tag on it and sell like crazy simply b/c of their marketing and who they are.

Sometimes it doesn't matter how much better or worse your product is... but it usually does for us "Regular Joe's"

It's this way on EBay, too - hubby found his own unique suppliers- which were then located by other sellers on EBay. Bob did drop his prices for awhile (among other 'creative' ideas) but finally got to the point that it was too much time for too little money.

Fortunately - like you - we have many different things going on. The internet is a very competitive and fast paced place to do business - if you live in the US - your cost of DOING BUSINESS is much different than if you lived in many other parts of the world - and a lot of the strongest competition is coming from those places.....so they can sell at a much lower price because their cost basis is so much lower.

And by cost basis - I am not just talking about the production cost of the product - but rather the value we MUST put on our time.

So - I am in total agreement about cutting your losses and switching to another track.

You lose more in the long run by NOT recognizing when it's time to 'let go' - anyone here read Seth Godin's The Dip?

A must read for every entrepreneur!

Boy are you so right.

It is frustrating, for you when you just starting out with a good taste of success.

Last spring, I was going awesome with sales on my review writer software.

Then someone I had kindly offered a customized version too to give as a bonus, kept rerunning a wso with that product in it. Over and Over, even after I politely asked him to stop.

Now it is sitting on one of those, sites that steals software and gives it away, and my sales have literally dried up.

I have two lessons from that,

1-- like you said, you need more than one successful product and income stream,

2-- be careful which products you give resell rights to, especially if they are lucriative sellers for you.

3-- I didn't build a forced way to make them register or subscribe to use that software and that was a big mistake on my part.

Laurie

We live and learn.

Laurie

Steven,

After yesterday's http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...-me-crook.html post, I thought sure it would be your wife gunning for you.

Being first can help you retain market share. Copycats often just remind people of the product they were copying. You might have to come up with ways to stay innovative, but you do have an advantage copycats don't... being first.

For an example of someone who's been completely undercut but still keeps market share... look at Microsoft Office. www: OpenOffice.org - The Free and Open Productivity Suite is free, has all the same programs and is compatible with microsoft docs... but Microsoft is still the leader.

Stephen

I actualy look to charge more than my competitors and for every flashy dollar graphic they use I'll show a solid testimonial from ordinary people just like you!

I love the competition and never fail to dominate but if I do I'll just come up with another USP that will again blow the comp out of the water.

You never need a different product, just a different market.

A can of Coke can be sold for $600 in the desert

Louis

This is also a reason why you should be very secretive about new or innovative products before you launch them.

It's also a compelling reason to use the "product launch formula" and go for a big initial launch in a short period of time (for example, one week). That way, you can make a good chunk of income before the copycats have a chance to cheapen your product.

Great post Steven thanks. The question is "how to" make others gunning you.

Great post.

This is why I'm always working on new sites and new products. :-)

Walt Disney was once asked about his competition. He'd bring out a new product and he'd have copiers within a couple of months. His response was that he never worried about those who copied him, because: "I can create faster than they can steal."

Copiers aren't a problem, as long as you keep developing, learning, and moving forward.

Once you get into the mindset of "onward!" and enjoying yourself and what you can create (sites, blogs, products, sales campaigns for affiliate products) you're too busy to worry about others.

Re cutting prices -- if you priced the product well, and it's great value for money, then rather than cutting the price, withdraw it from the market. Create a better product with more information based on the original, or use the product as a bonus for a completely new product which complements it.

If you keep creating you never have to worry about what others are doing.

What will YOU create today? :-)

Cheers

Angela

bad thinking IMO.... its scarcity mindset.... and decisions based on fear (which are never good ones).

if you can sell and have a good product it doesn't matter what others are doing....

for ex. ebens dating stuff.... theres TONS of people in that market now, some with much better material than his.... even when he was just getting started.

but he was able to sell and market much better than the others so guess what? he made much much more than anyone else and blew up.

and there's tons more examples.

That's the reason why I wrote a report and posted in my blog.

The answer is to keep your sales and marketing in stealth mode.


Hardi

Actually NOT putting your eggs in one basket is suicide and here's why...

If you spread yourself "thin" with a bunch of front-end products over several niches, what you just described will eventually happen... to ALL of them by different people.

But, if you have a strong sales funnel and backend system (something that 99% of online marketer's don't have) you don't have to worry about competitors ripping you off and undercutting you.

Why?

You can go NEGATIVE on the first sale and it won't matter if you have a high LCV.

David D. was mentioned in this thread and he's a great example of what I'm talking about. He's built a pretty good sized company because his marketing is fantastic:

$20 front end w/ a 7 day free trial - his offer is a no-brainer. He also pays 200% commissions to affiliates because he knows what his sale is worth in the long run.

How many of his copy-cat competitors do that? NONE that I'm aware of. So people can keep coming into that niche all day long and it won't affect him in the least - because after they create their dating product their marketing ADD kicks in and they run off to do weight loss, make money online, and everything else you can think of.

In the end, put all your eggs in one basket when it comes to your market but have a strong sales funnel. On the contrary, never put all your eggs in one basket when it comes to lead generation (i.e. traffic sources).