In the film “The Graduate” set in the 1960′s there is a famous scene where Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman) is told the future is in Plastics. Now some 50 years later the future is in Information. Our daily lives have become so filled with digital information that we don’t even realize how much we depend upon technology and the exchange of information to do the most basic of tasks. When you send an email that’s digital info, when you send a text message that’s digital info, when you photograph your kid’s birthday party that’s digital info and ever increasingly when you read or learn something it’s by means of digital info.
Digital info has become the medium by which we run our lives. So what does this mean to you and me? It means that just like food, shelter and clothing; fuel, electricity and now digital info have become staples of our daily lives and our global economy. Just like the economies based on our fuel supply and our financial markets there is a new economy that is based upon digital info and for our purposes, information products. Never before has there been such a mass consumption of content as there is now. In July of 2010 Amazon was selling 180 kindle books for every 100 hardcover books. In December 2010 YouTube alone had surpassed 2 Billion video views per day and that number is only going to increase.
All this to say that those who can provide quality content to the masses are in a position to write their own checks. People are consuming video content like never before on their iPhone’s, iPad’s, Laptop’s, Tablet’s and good ol’ PC’s and if you can get in front of their eyes and provide them with something of value they will open their wallets and happily hand you their cash.
As an online business owner this is fantastic news because “where there is competition, there is profit”. Most people take the position that if there are a lot of individuals doing something it’s not worth doing, and they are right sort of.. There is never a good time for a mediocre business to launch. Warren Buffett puts it this way “There are no bad businesses, just bad managers”. So if your plan is to be a half baked business owner or internet marketer then you’re probably better off not bothering. However, if you know that you are truely passionate about what you do then the internet and doing business online is your proverbial oyster.
With some basic understanding of how marketing and sales on the web work, you can be well on your way to making a very nice living. The days of large corporations having all the advantages are practically a thing of the past. The internet has pretty much made doing business a level playing field for everybody and the winners are those who can out think, out strategize and execute better than the next man. Deep pockets are always a helpful thing to have but even money couldn’t save Myspace and a nobody created Facebook and made it into the Giant it is today. The web made that possible and if you can dream big then you can achieve the stuff that dreams are made of.
Image by: caseydavid
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