Wrapping This Up

After going through this quick task you now have a, hopefully, extensive list of your competitors (aka the authorities, people you'll network with, traffic sources, content to emulate etc).

Even though these websites are essentially your competition I wouldn't treat them like traditional competition. Instead I would focus on networking with them, getting to know them, helping them where possible so I can get mutual benefit from knowing them.

Your competitors can be a great source of traffic, inspiration, advice, and perfect for reverse engineering and seeing what they do well to emulate.

So reach out to each website on the list with a simple email or message on social media with 3 things:

1. Thanking them for everything they do for the market and audience.

2. Complementing them on something you like (content, a point they made, a product they sell, blog design).

3. Tell them if they ever need anything from you just to ask (pretty much no one will ever take you up on this offer but it's a nice touch as almost everyone else who contacts them just ASK's for something).

Hot Tip: One of the best ways to get their attention and a reply is to join their mailing list or social groups and reply to an email / message they've sent.

This proves you're actually an active member of their community and fan and not someone just reaching out as you want something like 99.9% of other people that contact them.

And that is how you find (and become friends with) all the popular websites and authorities in your niche.