Automatically tracking competitors

[jmjhokie]

Are there any limits to the free services of tracking competitors that would encourage a business to use a paid vendor

Paid services are going to allow more in depth tracking and could potentially supply you with more specific information, some of these services are much more customizable then say Google alerts.

[jmjhokie]

What separates Google alerts from the other competitors/vendors?

Mainly its ease of use, Google Alerts is very simple but because of this you will get very generic information so it is important that you carefully consider what you want to track specifically to make it a valuable tool.

[jmjhokie]

If I were willing to pay for these features, how much would you recommend I budget for these concerns? Is it worthwhile to pay for these services?

This would depend entirely on how in-depth information you wanted returned. There are several pay options that differ in price on a variety of levels. Generally speaking you get more capabilities when you start paying more but this is definitely something that needs to be considered based on your specific case.

[rchan26]

Q.) What are some ways I can monitor my competition online?
A.) There are several ways to monitor them. One that I recommend is the use of Google Alerts. It is a free service where you can enter key words related to your business and they will send you email alerts of the mentioned key words with their corresponding website/link. This is a simply way to keep track of the latest news in your specified industry and can potentially provide an advantage to stay ahead of your competition.