So What's Ahead of Us?
Posted On: 2008-12-25
We're just about at the end of the year so perhaps it's time to take a little look ahead and see what we should be preparing for. There's no doubt that it's going to be one very interesting year and things could be a little rough and tough but that doesn't mean we should pack up and run away. Instead it's a time to consolidate and even do a little growing because it's during the tough times that real opportunities arise.
Have a fall back plan
It's been obvious over the last year or so that big business has really been out there pushing to make the biggest profits they possibly can. What we haven't seen though is some of the ways that they've gone about trying to achieve those big profit numbers.
One of those ways has been to work their infrastructure to the max ... every bit of plant and equipment has been pushed to the limit and maintenance has been cut to the bone. Here in Australia that's resulted in some very spectacular failures ... earlier this year a gas plant that was working to capacity but existing on very limited maintenance suffered a major failure and gas production in one state all but stopped for several months ... in the middle of winter. A state of emergency was declared by the state government.
The same thing is happening in other parts of the world and in industries that affect us. Recently a major Internet Service Provider on the west coast of the US seemed to go down for almost a week if complaints from a number of SEOs on Twitter were anything to go by. Suddenly these guys were stuck with no connection to the Web and their businesses were suffering.
As times get even harder in the months ahead you can expect even more failures like that and while they may not affect you they just might so it pays to be prepared for them. Have a fall back plan for when your ISP goes offline for several days. For our home office we're currently running two accounts with different ISPs just in case a problem should arise.
Sure it costs extra but we're still going to be able to go on working if one of them has problems. Will you be able to go on working if your current ISP suffers a major failure?
Spread your eggs around
Yahoo has been laying off staff in recent weeks. As I write this there are some solid rumours that Microsoft will start laying off people come January 15. Analysts are suggesting that digital media will not be exempt from the collapse in advertising revenue and if that happens they say that Google will be hit hard.
A few are even suggesting that the big three search companies are going to sink to the same level that the big three auto makers are at right now. If that happens what is going to happen to the search engine traffic that many webmasters rely so heavily on?
Obviously in adult many of us pull in traffic from other sources besides the search engines but if you're playing in mainstream the tendency there is to rely on search to the exclusion of everything else. Perhaps now is the time to start looking at other ways of attracting traffic because, while it's unlikely that search will ever disappear, it could just be that getting good traffic from the search engines will become much harder to do in the months ahead.
Will it be THE year for mobile?
It seems that the Internet on mobile devices is a time that has been coming forever. I can remember Steve and Voltar talking about it something like five years ago and still it's not taken off in the way that many people have suggested.
However the coming year just could be the time for Internet on mobile phones and here in Australia there are several big companies planning on making the Internet more appealing and more accessible for mobile phone users.
And Australia isn't the only country where that's happening. Ever since mobile marketing began the United States has been playing catch up but now it seems that they have caught up and 2009 could be a big year for mobile web browsing in America. So what are you doing to get your marketing efforts into a form that is easily accessible for people using a mobile phone or other handheld device?
If you're not doing something about it right now you could just be missing out.
Are you putting too much effort into Web 2.0 projects?
Times such as we're facing right now are interesting because they weed out the rubbish from the genuine business models that really do make money. Sadly so many of the Web 2.0 projects that are around at the moment seem to fall into the rubbish category because they just don't seem able to make the money that will keep them going.
So are you putting too much effort into marketing in Web 2.0 sites that look so good on paper but are destined to fold up and disappear taking your hard work with them? We've already seen a couple of those Web 2.0 start-ups disappear and there are sure to be even more.
So look carefully at where you're spending your marketing dollar and time and don't be swayed by the hype. Look at what the figures are really telling you and plan your marketing strategy accordingly.
Yes, the year ahead is definitely going to be challenging and interesting but you can last until the good times return if only you plan carefully, prepare for the worst and keep on working hard.