A lesson from the mafia

If you're starting a website or creating a new product, chances are that you'll find several other sites competing with you. You might even find yourself having not only fans, but critics as well.

Now is the time to learn a lesson from the mafia. No, I'm not talking about beating your competition into submission or doing a drive-by. Essentially, you can put your competition on your payroll.

You can do this one of several ways. You can hire them for their own services that they offer, work out deals where you can both benefit each other, advertise on their site if you can (or even through Adsense), and so forth.

If you're hiring them for some work, they're far less likely to bash your site or try to compete as much against you. In essence, it's all about turning your enemies/competition into your business partners or friends.