PureBlogging

The theory of invisible competition essentially says that the globalization of the world (assisted by Internet development) has led to a situation in which each individual is facing a much greater level of competition from people who can’t be seen or known. This world connects us to a great number of different opportunities; but because it connects so many others to them as well, we face greater competition from strangers in every area of life from dating to employment. The bad news is that this can create fear resulting from the fact that the “enemy” is unseen and therefore harder to compete against. The good news is that bloggers may have the skills necessary to fare well in a society based on invisible competition.

The theory, as laid out by Tyler Cowen over at The Wilson Quarterly, touches upon every aspect of our lives. Basically, anything that you can do online is something that millions of other people can do as well. In employment, for example, you used to have to go to a local shopkeeper to get materials made and can now go to the global marketplace. This means that the local shopkeeper is competing against the entire global market rather than just the store owners in his hometown. A point that Cowen makes is that this type of market favors certain personality traits, personality traits which may be held by many bloggers.

Cowen identifies four types of individuals that may do well in this “new world”:

1. People with advanced planning skills. These are people who are able to strategize their competitive approach in advance. What’s interesting is that these may not be particularly competitive people but rather people who think and organize well on their own and so have little regard for the competition. Their ability to order their thinking without attention to the greater world can come across as innovative.
2. Web 2.0 addicts. Anyone who is willing to be the first to test out new ideas and technologies will have an edge up over the competition. People with imagination and innovation will be able to get an edge up on the competition by identifying what the future holds and getting to it first.
3. People who can seek out and manage their own feedback. A main problem with “invisible competition” is that you don’t know what you’re up against. People who can seek out feedback from their employers, clients and fans and then act on that to regularly improve themselves will fare better than those people who need external stimulation to do better than their average.
4. Smart folks who don’t do well in real life situations. Anyone who has a temper, is socially awkward or is painfully shy may be doing poorly in the business world. Being able to be one of the faceless competitors can help them do well on the Internet where social skills are entirely different.

Cowen points out that a number of bloggers have these exact traits required in the new market. A good blogger can plan out an approach to blogging and modify that approach based on reader feedback and user tracking. The forward-thinking blogger uses Web 2.0 technologies to identify and partake of new trends that boost the blog’s traffic (such as the currently-popular Entrecard). And while it’s not necessarily true that us bloggers are geeks who don’t socialize well in the real world, we do tend to be people who thrive particularly well in self-directed environments created on the Internet.

As the marketplace changes, certain people are going to have trouble adapting. Those individuals who are used to competing in small business circles in their own towns will have trouble finding solid work when competition goes global. Luckily, those people who are already making their business (part-time or full-time) in Internet work like blogging will have an edge up over the others who are coming to join the hordes of invisible competition. To maintain this edge, bloggers must remain forward-thinking, self-motivated and organized. The key is to always push yourself to your own limits in order to be able to edge out those people who are only doing the bare minimum to compete in this new landscape.