I felt like an independent entrepreneur. People around me said I was smart and curious. I wasn't afraid of new technologies. So, I started a web business that was supposed to be lucrative. But after 2 years, my websites took up most of my time and brought in nothing. Comfortingly, I learned there are thousands of webmasters in the same boat!
Tired of investing without any profit, US webmasters are taking the same turn as they did a year earlier. This will lead to fewer free things on the web and a significant drop in content quality. In the US, searches no longer return a list of sites with information interspersed with ads, but ad sites interspersed with nonsensical keywords. The term "free" typically leads to a credit card payment form. And the superlative "absolutely free" doesn't work any better. The root of this movement is the dismal profitability of the web, which stifles all good initiatives. This wouldn't be possible without the consent of the two major advertisers, who also provide 95% of search results.
The web revolution began about 13 years ago, just before the widespread use of Pentium processors. Can we still talk about a new economy? Certainly not, as it's just another tech sector with diminishing growth each year in the West. The spectacular results everyone hoped for never came.
Who's making money on the web? Actually, very few: Google, Amazon, Yahoo, and eBay. That's about it. Some, like Netflix, claim to as well, but there's reason to doubt. Their alleged profits are more due to creative accounting and fixed costs borne by other company divisions than actual website operations.
(*Names reversed to avoid any issues)
How Do They Make Money?
Webmasters have two methods to generate revenue: get sponsored or sell. In the first case, they earn by displaying their sponsors' ads. In the second, the goal is to sell as much as possible at the lowest cost. Neither method seems to yield results. Later in this article, we'll discuss two specific groups: ad networks and website designers, optimizers, and hosts. Ad networks, acting as intermediaries between sponsors and site owners, take a whopping 70 to 90% of ad revenue. Designers, optimizers, and hosts, which we'll call "dream merchants," have every interest in making people believe the web is full of lucrative opportunities to attract clients.
In sponsorship, website owners are paid per click, sign-up bonus, or commission. There are also rarer cases where webmasters just need to display a banner on their main page to receive a monthly fee. This option is generally reserved for very popular sites with a PR (page rank) of 4 or higher.
In all cases, it's the sponsor who counts visitors, clicks, sign-ups, sales... everything! They also decide on arbitrary changes to percentages, payment thresholds, and commission tiers. Webmasters have no control or right to dispute. They can only remain silent. But without trust, the gap between sponsors' and webmasters' visitor statistics typically varies by a factor of two. Carefree and with complete impunity, the sponsor, located thousands of miles away in a country with different laws and customs, reports "thoughtful" figures to its affiliates to promote its own interests.
For sales, the situation is even worse. The webmaster is paid a commission on sales made by visitors from their site. But the sponsor, who manages the sales, can easily claim that the sale was made by another affiliate or that the product was returned. The webmaster has no way of verifying this information. They can only trust the sponsor's word.
Operating Costs
Operating costs are high. The webmaster must pay for hosting, domain name, software, and advertising. They also need to invest time in site design, optimization, and promotion. All these costs are borne by the webmaster, who often ends up with a negative balance at the end of the month. This is especially true for small and medium-sized sites, which represent the vast majority of the web. Large sites, with their significant traffic, can negotiate better rates with sponsors and advertisers. But even they are not immune to the challenges of profitability.
Conclusion
The web is not a gold mine. It's a challenging environment where only a few giants thrive. The vast majority of webmasters struggle to break even, let alone make a profit. The dream of easy money on the web is just that - a dream. Those who venture into this world must be prepared for hard work, significant investment, and the very real possibility of failure.
(*Names reversed to avoid any issues)