In 1492, the Spain had one of the world’s greatest competitive advantages ever.

For you see, they were the first to discover, thanks to Mr. Christopher Columbus, that the world was not flat. In fact that it was round and that they could settle these fine lands for their own resources.

Yet, within three hundred years, the English, Dutch, and French all had large settlements on this new land and the Spanish found themselves primarily in Central America. What happened to their competitive advantage?

Well a couple of things.

• Word got out. You can’t keep good news quiet for long.
• Money. Had Columbus discovered Antartica would the response have been the same? No, the booty wasn’t enough to justify the challenge.
• Too Much To Control. Keeping the English and French out of the East Indies is one thing, but to protect and defend your claims across two continents isn’t practical or handily possible.

What does this history lesson have to do with today’s world?

The Americas are the World Wide Web, and each real agent, brokerage, and company is trying to create its own domination of this world.

When I joined Active Rain more than two years ago, there were a handful of people in Delaware County on the site – now its 81. Jump on Facebook and do a search you’ll be amazed to find how many agents there are on the site.

How do they make money from this service?

That’s a great question and to be honest, most don’t. Why not?

1. Focus. Do you talk about your dog? your kids? is that the focus of your blog? Teresa Boardman does an amazing job of staying on topic and it has paid of dividends for her. Do you?
2. Time. Recently I had an online rookie say "I want to make money off this spending a couple hours a week." He's since given up the "online focus" and gone back to his tried and true marketing efforts. Why? It takes time to build an online presence - both in work and months. Sarah Cooper is one that I love to read, she is everywhere on the Web -- why because she enjoys it!
3. Goals. That's right, many Web sites have the WRONG goal. What is the goal of your Web site? Is it to capture leads? Is it to SELL a house? Or is it to develop relationships with potential clients?

Good luck in this online world. It's getting smaller every day and that makes it even harder to defend your competitive advantage from the hundreds of other "online" agents.

Photograph by Svilen Mushkatov and used via permission of Stock.xchng