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People tried to clone Bingo Card Creator because you meticulously documented it being capable of bringing in small profits, and because there are some particula

People tried to clone Bingo Card Creator because you meticulously documented it being capable of bringing in small profits, and because there are some particularly lazy and stupid people out there -- the type who would post a want ad to "Create a clone of bingocardcreator.com." They read your popular blog, and in their stupidity thought they could use it as a recipe to make $X/year. I agree that they represent some form of competition, but that it is the weakest kind imaginable. Like you said, BCC succeeded on the back of "health/focus/energy level/ability to continue executing on the businesses." Without those things it scarcely could've turned any profit, let alone year after year, which is what makes your story so compelling. But I'm not sure it's a useful lesson about the supposed small threat of competition.

cookiecaper 11y ago
I have a smallish site that brings in between 5k and 10k in revenue each month. I have not documented anything about it anywhere. AFAIK we were first of the kind. There are new direct clones popping up all the time, I know of at least four now, and one in particular has to be outspending our ad budget by at least 3x. People will "steal" your idea as soon as they believe that it will be profitable to do so, even if you don't write blog posts about it. You have to realize that it's not theft to compete, it's just competition. If you started a chicken restaurant, some guy who opened the first chicken restaurant wouldn't have any claim to shut you down. Competition is part of business, and there's no doubt it's made our offering much better and provided motivation that is hard to drum up without an externality. Competition is good, even if it's often unpleasant.
- sixtypoundhound 11y ago
  Some of that is a structural difference between sites which are built on paid traffic and sites that use SEO / brand. Paid traffic is live by the sword, die by the sword; you can spin up a large audience fairly quickly using your checkbook but the next guy (with a large checkbook) can go outbid you. Boom, traffic drops. Blogging about paid traffic or how to improve conversion rates is suicidal. The funny thing about SEO-based traffic models is Google is often very conservative about handing over the top spots if you're established in the niche. Established incumbents get the benefit of the doubt (from an algorithm perspective) in many major searches; I've seen old sites with very weak SEO and outdated offerings stand off new entrants (who execute better on the product & SEO fronts) for YEARS despite no content changes or link building. Given that blogging usually helps your site rankings by a) feeding Google fresh content and b) earning a few backlinks and the most interesting story about a boring site is often how you promote it.... the extra kick from blogging may be the edge you need to stay on top in an SEO-driven category. (obviously, if your initial SEO success was from buying 500 links from a black hat private blog network, you may want to keep your mouth shut....)
  - reagency 11y ago
    patio11's career was completely built on blogging about conversion rates and SEO. Of course, he sells that advice too, not just bingo cards.
- rustynails 11y ago
  Theft is a genuine option that some choose to take. However, it can also be attributable to a cross-roads of ideas that emerge at the same time. Often, A product (or products) enable another product. Other times, ideas are rediscovered (eg. Luck, influence through a TV show). As you said though, the competition is good for us all. If someone is asleep at the wheel, someone else will take over.
- reagency 11y ago
  Ezell's Chicken actually had a lawsuit about that. Ezell sold the company and then opened a new chicken joint.

cookiecaper 11y ago

I have a smallish site that brings in between 5k and 10k in revenue each month. I have not documented anything about it anywhere. AFAIK we were first of the kind. There are new direct clones popping up all the time, I know of at least four now, and one in particular has to be outspending our ad budget by at least 3x. People will "steal" your idea as soon as they believe that it will be profitable to do so, even if you don't write blog posts about it. You have to realize that it's not theft to compete, it's just competition. If you started a chicken restaurant, some guy who opened the first chicken restaurant wouldn't have any claim to shut you down. Competition is part of business, and there's no doubt it's made our offering much better and provided motivation that is hard to drum up without an externality. Competition is good, even if it's often unpleasant.

sixtypoundhound 11y ago
Some of that is a structural difference between sites which are built on paid traffic and sites that use SEO / brand. Paid traffic is live by the sword, die by the sword; you can spin up a large audience fairly quickly using your checkbook but the next guy (with a large checkbook) can go outbid you. Boom, traffic drops. Blogging about paid traffic or how to improve conversion rates is suicidal. The funny thing about SEO-based traffic models is Google is often very conservative about handing over the top spots if you're established in the niche. Established incumbents get the benefit of the doubt (from an algorithm perspective) in many major searches; I've seen old sites with very weak SEO and outdated offerings stand off new entrants (who execute better on the product & SEO fronts) for YEARS despite no content changes or link building. Given that blogging usually helps your site rankings by a) feeding Google fresh content and b) earning a few backlinks and the most interesting story about a boring site is often how you promote it.... the extra kick from blogging may be the edge you need to stay on top in an SEO-driven category. (obviously, if your initial SEO success was from buying 500 links from a black hat private blog network, you may want to keep your mouth shut....)
- reagency 11y ago
  patio11's career was completely built on blogging about conversion rates and SEO. Of course, he sells that advice too, not just bingo cards.
rustynails 11y ago
Theft is a genuine option that some choose to take. However, it can also be attributable to a cross-roads of ideas that emerge at the same time. Often, A product (or products) enable another product. Other times, ideas are rediscovered (eg. Luck, influence through a TV show). As you said though, the competition is good for us all. If someone is asleep at the wheel, someone else will take over.
reagency 11y ago
Ezell's Chicken actually had a lawsuit about that. Ezell sold the company and then opened a new chicken joint.