I feel that every year it gets harder and harder to earn a living online. I am wondering if I should just get a mindless full time job in a warehouse or something like I used to work when I was a teen. I just have a feeling some new technology or new website will come around and change the whole internet like social networking. I remember my directories bringing in over $100 per day without me even working. On another note, I believe SEO doesn't really matter anymore since you are competing with millions/billions of SEO friendly sites now. I used to have #1 rank for every keyword I wanted years ago before people knew what SEO is. Now the most amateur internet newbie understands the importance of SEO, so you are trying to compete with everyone.
Its getting harder but the worst thing you can do is do what you were doing 3 years ago and still expect to acheive the same results. You have to be one step ahead of what other people are doing by trying and testing different methods of SEO and promotion.
The times have changed. You can never expect anything to last forever. Even the people that are making a whole lot of money these days, will not be making the same money three, or four years from now, because online business changes quickly. To always have a good income in online business you have to be ahead of the curve. You have to go with what the media says. In 2005 blogs use to be HOT, burning hot. I was easily making $25, $30 per day on a personal blog, because there were not as many blogs. Now that we have millions and millions of blogs in one niche its tough, that same money has to be split between all the bloggers. Also forums, I could make the same money as in the above statement with basically not doing anything back in 2003, early 2004. There were so many people just spending lots of time online. Not anymore. Now people spend their time on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace.
Yup, but I must admit that I lost my motivation to completely undo all of the work I spent so many sleepless nights perfecting that used to work. That would be like building a skyscraper just to knock it down after completion.
Yes indeed i'm more effective than the past. When my competitor is effective,i will perform more better to fight with them. For example,last time i only manage to get my new site to get listed in google in 24 hour. But now,i can get my new domain get indexed by google within 5 hour.
It's a very good question. As mentioned above, things change very fast online so you have to be ahead of the curve. It also depends on what your core product or service is. I understand how you used to make a lot with directories - they were essential SEO tools a long time ago. Now, they are probably not even a top 10 marketing tactic. You have a lot of experience online and enjoyed success in the past - be a shame to turn your back on it - perhaps you need to figure out what the new in demand products and services are and try to build something that caters to it.
Haven't tried to determinate, how effective I was/am, however, I need to do twice amount of the job than it was a few years ago, to earn the same amount of money. The problem is that now we have thousands of people who are ready to do the job ( no matter in what niche ) for any price ( literally - even $1 per hour can be attractive enough ) - you'll always have 10 people waiting for someone to fail ( killing competition ).
The impression I get from your post is that you expect to make easy money. If that's the case, internet marketing and online business is not for you unfortunately. With such a low cost to entry the online space has become very competitive. This is not to say there are still not plenty of opportunitites out there, but you need to understand that you need to hard work if you want to make real money online.
That's the thing with the internet. Low barriers of entry allow any one go online and become a competitor. You just have to keep learning and testing. If you are determined, you should see some success.
You only have 10 competitors per keyword phrase.......no more than that..... The ones on the first page of Google ..... That is much better than 10 billion competitors. It can be a game of chess, how is one to compete against a billion dollar company with $0 funding? Your only chance is to out think your competition and look for areas that they may be lacking in or let slip through the cracks. There is more than one way to skin a cat after all.