8 Video Ideas From Your Competition

Written by Doreen Dilger, The Home Based Business Coach
 
If you’re running out of video ideas, look to your competition to find out what’s working and what’s not working in terms of content for videos. It’s not cheating to get an idea from someone else, and it's not plagiarism. As long as you don’t copy it directly, there is nothing wrong with that. Think about how many brands of soap exists or how many different romantic novels (with the same basic theme) have been written, and you know they get their ideas from each other or from what already exists. And, that is perfectly ok.
 

1. Subscribe to Other Channels – If you’re on YouTube putting videos up, subscribe to your competition so that you can watch what they’re doing and find out if what they are doing works. You can go to SocialBlade.com to find out which YouTube channels are making money, and you can also look at their video list to find out which videos get the most views and likes.

 

1. Read Their Books – If your competition puts out books, read their books, or at least look at their table of contents. You can get a lot of ideas from books and their tables of contents, because it explains what the topics are and what answers the reader can look forward to as they read it. You can make videos about any of the chapter topics but in your own words and with your own opinion.

 

1. Join Their Lists – If your competition has an email list, join it. You can find out how they deliver messages and tell their audience about their new videos, and you’ll also be less likely to miss something if you’re on the list.

 

1. Buy Their Products – Go so far as to buy their products, especially if they are very popular. In this way you can see where the gaps are, and seek to fill those gaps with your own videos and information.

 

1. Participate in Their Groups – If they have a message board or a Facebook group or other group on social media, join and participate in their groups. Don’t market yourself but do be a voice of knowledge and reason within the group.

 

1. Follow Them on Social Media – No matter which social media your competition is on, you should be following them. You’ll not only get to observe how they use social media, but you’ll observe what questions the audience has. You can make a video on any question asked.

 

1. Know Their Audiences - You need to be sure that the audience of your competition matches up with your own. If not, how are they different? This is important because you don’t want to duplicate something that won’t work with your own audience.

 

1. Don’t Plagiarize – There is a difference between emulating something and downright plagiarizing it. For example, if someone is doing a video about making videos, just because you do one doesn’t mean you’re plagiarizing. However, if you take their script word-for-word and then deliver it in your own voice, that’s stealing.

 
Your audience follows many different people offering them similar information. Find out where they go, and follow them there. Learn what they’re learning. Learn about their complaints about what they’re learning as well as their compliments.
 
 
Did you like this post?  Was it helpful?  If you have a question or a comment please let me know.   You can put them in the feed with my blog post or email them directly to me at doreen@doreendilger.com.   You’re feedback would be greatly appreciated!