Personal Website Era Is Coming Close to Its End

You may have heard sayings similar to the title many times in the past. Nevertheless, indepenpent website owners are still making obsersable money all the way along. This is not the case any more, I'm afraid. Webmasters find it more and more difficult to make a penny from the internet. Why? Because more and more developments in the internet world indidate that, personal website era is coming close to its end, and this time, it's real.

Today's internet enters its consolidating phase. It's dominated by a few giants playing in such fields as social network service, search engine, e-commerce, online collaboration and on. Maybe independent webmasters are still addicted in the good days five to ten years ago, when everyone could start a website to publish some infomation, provide simple service, or sell something, and makes an attractive income from advertisements alone. Now, forget about it. Users are captured by Facebook, Twitter and so on. Web service becomes an indispensable part of enterprise IT system. E-shops represented by Amazon, Ebay, Bestbuy could offer nearly everything you want to buy. Personal website is just like a ugly duck, which provides nothing unique or special.

Today's internet is led by users. It's not a world of post 70 and post 80 anymore. It's a world of post 90 and post 00, whose interests are largely different than their 70 and 80 counterparts. They are social animals. They are more attracted by new things which are characterised by uncertainly. They like to show themselves in front of the others. To capture them as users, you need to approach to them,  sincerely hear what they say, provide what they really want and satisfy their self-realization need. This is a completely new kind of marketing. You need a lot of money, you need experises specialized in different functions, you need a mind-set that deeply understand what's going on in both real and virtual world. Basically, you need an entrepreneurial team and have angels or VCs on the back. Personal website? No way!

So, what opportunity is left for independent website owners? Frankly speaking, I don't know. What I know for sure is that, you have to either form an entrepreneurial team, or partner with big giants. If you could think of an idea that you can work alone during after-work hours, I suggest you think twice before you start to implement it.