wheel - 6:35 pm on May 13, 2011 (gmt 0)

To compete with bigger sites I take my competitors weaknesses and make those my strengths. What are those sites missing? What opportunities are they missing?

This is one of those things newbs gloss over. It's a very general statement.It's also very profound. I'm slowly working on a very specific application of that general statement. And just when I think I'm clever and ahead of the curve, MB posts it here publicly :).

In other words, IMO that advice in that quote, if you think about it and can apply it specifically, is the type of thing that can lead to techniques that you won't want to share because no one else is doing it.

Dude here recently was asking about an online shoe store. I would imagine that sizing would be a problem. Probably everyone selling shoes has the same tired sizing charts (competitor weakness). But I know that I am extremely fussy about my shoe sizing because an incorrect fit can actually cause me to limp.

I know wide Reeboks in my size fit me. Outside of that, I have to try, because not all other wide's are comfortable. If everyone's got the same non-answer to my sizing problems, could something be developed that would let me size properly, or compare my reebok fit to other brands?

Public link building right now says to do that, then ask for links. If that works in your sector, then that's what to do. It's what I used to do.

In my niche, nobody would link to that calculator, at least nobody I haven't already asked. So what I now do is use that calculator as leverage to get links. If I sell men's shoes, call a women's shoe website and offer them the calculator in exchange for a real hand built link.