I submitted a story to Reddit the other day, and while I do this a few times a month, there is usually nothing special involving these submissions.
However, this particular story which I submitted, 5 Ways to Save Money without much thought, recieved several comments, some positive, some negative. The comment which struck me the most, was one of the more constructive ones:
I think these are taken off of the 75 other “save money” sites.
I want to learn something new that isn’t too obvious.
My first reaction was to go right ahead and flame this user back, but instead, I was hit in the face by the big book of reality.
Take a look at your site.
Is it really as unique and different as you think it is, or is it another John Chow clone, or “money saving” site as BizStudent was refered to?
Do you write lists because you have something useful to put in them, or do you post them because Copyblogger said that people love lists?
It is such a stupidly obvious problem that most blogs suffer from, but it is hardly realized until someone brings it to your attention.
What does this mean to me? The answer is simple:
Something must be done to stand out.
I will return when I have thought about this more.
