Put on Your Spy Hat

It's time to start spying on your competitors. There's no need to chain your briefcase to your wrist or snap a Walther PPK semi-automatic pistol in your shoulder holster. You won't need an Aston Martin DB5 sports car with built-in machine guns or oil slick spray nozzles. Unfortunately, you're also unlikely to meet any incredibly sexy women in slinky, low-cut gowns or fabulously handsome men in tuxedos. You're just going to be sitting in front of your computer.

Your 20 Minute Task

Pull out the paper or open the spreadsheet you created in the Prepare to Spy on Your Competition task so you can enter information on it.

Think of your key words and phrases. Pick the one that you suspect is most likely to result in people finding your site. For example, if you're doing a site about collecting stamps from Peru, you might choose a phrase like "Peru stamp collecting."

Go to Google.com or your other favorite search engine and type in the key word or phrase you selected. If you type in a phrase, enclose it in quotation marks.

Click on the first link that the search engine shows you. Look over the site and fill in the information under each of the nine columns on your paper or spreadsheet.

• Keyword. Write the keyword you used to search for the site.
• Site URL. Write the address of the site.
• Features. Note major features of the site. In particular, write down anything the site offers that you hadn't already thought of.
• Strengths. What is the site particularly good at doing? Does it have terrific graphics, for instance?
• Weaknesses. What's missing? What doesn't the site have that it ought to? Is the spelling awful? Does it look unprofessional? Does it take too long to load? What other problems do you see with the site?
• Target Niche. Is the site aimed at the same people your site is? If not, who is it for?
• Products Sold. List each product or service sold on the site. (You may want to sell the same products or similar ones.)
• Affiliate Program. Check the site map or the links at the bottom of the page to see if the site offers an affiliate program. If it does, write "Yes" in this column, otherwise, write "No."
• Notes. Write down anything else that occurs to you as you look at the site.

Try to work quickly. When you're done with the first site, go to the second one in the search results. You only have 20 minutes and you'd like to analyze two or three sites. When you're done, save your work or put the sheet in the "Competitor Intelligence" file folder.