For the past month or so I’ve been combing the internet for ‘life hack websites’. These are sites that purport to offer all kinds of advice about anything and everything to help make your life better. Advice almost any conceivable subject from health and fitness to finances to relationship advice. I’ve visited about 50 different websites and although there is some great content out there, I’ve noticed that most sites contain content that seems to be regurgitated for similar sources. It reminds me of copying a friend’s term paper in high school, but changing a few words so the teacher doesn’t noticed that you copied it.
I’m not saying there is anything wrong with this. Quite the opposite. What has intrigued me so much is the fact that there are so many websites that seem to offer roughly the same content and that many of them seem to be making some kind of money. Of course this is an assumption based on advertising that I see on the pages as well as affiliate links and the like.
Why does this intrigue me? I have approached blogging and setting up websites thinking that I had to provide the best, most original content to stand out. Seeing all these life hack sites forces me to question my assumption. Clearly there are many people chasing the same niche. Undoubtedly they are experiencing various levels of success, but I am starting to think that being number 1 is a worthy goal, but not necessarily the only goal. There may be value in being number 50.
Again I don’t know if number 50 is really making any money, or if they are just doing it for fun. Either way, looking at this niche has made me question how and why websites (or blogs) are successful. Perhaps there is as much art as science involved here.
As a side note, my favorite site remains lifehacker.com. It’s pretty simple and straightforward but I find that many of the items are different than I see on other sites. In addition, the topics are much more diverse ranging. For example, right now on lifehacker.com there is an article about LED lighting on your deck and there is one about managing your finances (in addition to many others). Not all the articles are relevant to my life, but I like the diversity and while I know there articles that can be found on other sites, there seems to be less regurgitation on lifehacker than on other sites.
