How To Stand Out In A “Me Too” Society

This is a guest post by Robb Sutton.

If you have been around the web long enough, you have seen that everything has already been said, done and hashed out time and time again. There are a few light bulb style new ideas that hit every now and then, but for the most part…we are operating in a “me too” environment, and that makes it difficult to stand above the rest and realize success through this medium we call blogging. So there you sit…with your blog…looking for attention. Where do you start and how do you get it?

How To Stand Out In A “Me Too” Society

I have found the best way to explain this theory is to use my own personal experience with Bike198.com. For the longest time, I fought the need to report on the news of the industry. With multiple press releases hitting my email inbox a day, I didn’t want to be another cookie cutter site online that provided the same content as everyone else. I wanted my site to stay unique in its content and value as that is ultimately what grew my business.

However, these same news reports and press releases were generating a ton of pageviews and unique visitors for the other sites, so…unless I wanted to be left behind…I needed to find a way to capitalize on this highly searched for information while not stepping too far outside the ideals that had brought my corner of the web so much success over the years. Then I remembered the one key to blogging that most bloggers know, but often forget…

Blogging is successful because of the 1-on-1 relationship between blogger and reader.

That personalization and personal attention to each and every one of your readers is what makes a blog successful and profitable when backed with solid business foundations. I needed to bring that personal touch to bland content to see the best of both worlds.

So what did I do?

I started providing the same press releases and news information, but I started every single one of those articles with my thoughts, short reviews and general information before the press release or news story. I didn’t just copy, paste and publish. I brought my personal touch to the information that everyone else was just rehashing.

The result…

• Higher search engine visits.
• Higher pageviews from current visitors.
• More affiliate sales from product-centric articles.
• Increased exposure from companies looking for product reviews.
• Retained respect of my readership.

With those results…it is quite obvious I achieved my goal.

But How Does This Apply To Your Blogging?

In the blogging world, across all niches, we see bloggers who start off unique and then give into temptation and become just another “me too”. I started my blogging experience with the goal of becoming a blogger that others would want to become a “me too” instead of being seen as just another copycat.

By staying true to the unique qualities that you bring to the table and transforming content into that uniqueness, you can build a brand and a readership that begins to rely on your opinions, thoughts and guidance. That is a foundation and audience that not only generates revenue, but inspires growth over time.

The trick to successful blogging is to bring your own, unique, personal experience to your content. That is what people are going to connect with and that is ultimately what is going to grow your real estate online. If you are planning on being the next David Risley, Darren Rowse, or John Chow, you are going to be constantly living in a shadow. Wouldn’t you rather have other bloggers want to be the next you?

About the author: Robb Sutton blogs about blogging and how to make money online, through his experience with Bike198.com, at RobbSutton.com. He also teaches people how to get over $100,000 per year of free review products with blogs in Ramped Reviews.