Ryan Leland

I think the web is on the verge of another bubble. An explosion of new money into the industry by existing leaders, and investors trying to ride the next wave. The reason I’m thinking this will happen soon, is the sudden influx of internet aware spenders. The mid-20 somethings that are both net savvy, and have credit cards.

During the last bubble, a lot of the money made was fed off of peoples ignorance of what the internet was. Countless web firms cashed in on business owners fear of being left behind, and ignorance with regards to what developing, and hosting a static web page actually cost. And that was only client services. Many big sites sold for multi-million dollars, and investors eagerly fronted cash for super bowl ads, for the chance to be the next Amazon. Consumers were aware of the web, because it was forced down their throats, but in the end, users spent time only on a few trust worthy sites (ie. Yahoo).

Here is the reason I think the web, and I hesitate to use the term, but web 2.0, is taking off. I already mentioned the influx of tech savvy spenders, but it is also that people are far more willing to experience more. Where it was Yahoo and Amazon, it is now, Digg, Facebook, You Tube, Twitter, Google (not just search), and more. One problem here is that this new generation of web users are seemingly less likely to be ad clickers. So while a new site could likely get new traffic really quick, the potential to find advertisers, and sustainable revenue seem less likely.

The cost of building a site has never been lower, and the cost of attracting profitable traffic has never been higher. This is why it is common to see sites with high traffic being sold for insane amounts, and it is why I think we are on the verge of seeing investors putting up big money to anything that looks like it could get huge traffic. The reason I think it’s still going to be a bubble is that right now the common idea is that traffic equals money, but I think that that business model is severely flawed, and deep down investors know it.

I just found this amazing blog about blogging, and various other web 2.0 marketing techniques. There’s a lot of great info on broadband video, viral marketing through social networks, and more great buzzwords. It has nothing to do with content quality, and it will blow you away with how much cutting edge, next gen, ajax, and web 2.0 buzzwords, ???, profit. Go here to find out more.

So, I still live at home. I rent out most of the basement. A large room, bathroom, and access to laundry, and enough room in a spare fridge to store my own food. Sometimes I can go a whole day without seeing my parents, and I can do so for a laughable $400 a month. Obviously still not an ideal situation for someone of my age, but the economics of the area I live in, and my career choices have nearly made it necessary for now. But anyhow, I’m getting really off track of my main point. That being that the biggest price I pay at times is being the household I.T. guy.

My parents both have a PC laptop each, and my sister has a brand new iMac, and an old PC laptop I sold her. All of them have basic computer knowledge. But none of them are willing to read, or do anything that would require effort should something go wrong. Add to that the fact that I have a desktop running vista, a MacBook, and 2 gaming consoles, and suddenly simple things like changing the wireless network key becomes a real pain in the ass. That’s 8 machines I need to get onto and type in a 24+ character network key, and that’s just if things go as expected.

Last week I had to re-install XP on my Mothers laptop, and get all Her apps installed. Later on that day, I hear the complaint that Facebook is gone. I come upstairs expecting to see that the network is down, or she had typed in the wrong address. Nope. Facebook merely wasn’t in Her bookmarks any longer. I bookmark it, and restored the glory of Facebook to all of mankind (you can all thank me later).