=>Cory Rudl’s “Secrets to their success” site where customers pay for an online subscription to Cory’s in-depth interviews of webmasters who have made it. “Making it” is defined broadly to mean webmasters who have cracked search engines to those who make $300,000++ a year.

=>Neil Shearing’s private site that includes amongst other articles and tools his ad testing reports. These reports share vital information on where to advertise online and where not to put your money. Jim Daniels’ private members site that comes with his Make A Living Online package also has a section reporting on his web advertising results. See http://adhomebase.com/make-a-living.htm for more information.

=>The Affiliate Bootcamp, which covers extensively all angles related to how to earn a paycheck every month marketing other merchants’ products. For more information, visit: http://www.AffiliateBootcamp.com/g.o/valtay

Of course, e-commerce possibilities are only limited by boundaries of your imagination. And there is no rule saying that one or two or even all of above models cannot be combined. If you come across a model that I haven't mentioned, you are most welcome to email me at clientservices@adhomebase.com. I will share your insights with other readers together with a plug for your site too. ;-)

This site allows searching for e-commerce sites in specific industries in order to view status, link popularity, ranking, etc. For our company we began by selecting five companies that best fit our industry and were in top 500. We took a look at what they were doing, and they must be doing something right if they are in top 500.

We made a list of their strengths and weaknesses and compared our strengths and weaknesses to theirs. This was best free Competition Analysis tool we had come across. It provided information on our competition and allowed us to begin carving out what our special niche could be and how to compete. The only thing that it cost was time.

For a startup e-commerce site with a limited budget I recommend trying this approach for Competition Analysis. This approach does not have to be your only tool but it can be a beneficial tool to add to your marketing toolbox.