According to Wikipedia, a core competency is a specific factor that a business sees as being central to the way it, or its employees work. It fulfills three key criteria:

1. It provides consumer benefits
2. It is not easy for competitors to imitate
3. It can be leveraged widely to many products and markets.

Whether you’re online an online business, doing affiliate marketing or just run some fan sites as a hobby you need to define your core competencies to be successful.

What do you do better than your competitors? What do you deliver to your customers (site visitors) that makes them choose you over the competition? Do you have breaking news, the best pictures or technology on your site that can’t be found elsewhere? Those are core competencies.

If you ever find yourself straying from your core competencies, then you need to step back and evaluate what you’re doing and what you’re trying to accomplish with this project. How will it help you in the long-run? How does it fit your goals?

I suggest coming up with 3-4 core competencies that you can easily define and memorize. Write them down on a post-it note and slap it on your monitor. Don’t forget them and don’t stray from them.