Websites are DEAD, What’s Replacing it? Websites aren’t dead, but the purpose they once had is.
Having a website is the worst way to make money online if that’s the Purpose. Actually our expectations from website has completely shifted from serving as our Information Brochure to Money Basket. We are becoming more money-minded and we want to reap mangoes from a Tree that was originally planted for giving us Shade.
I started making websites as early as 2003 and had to make lot of arguments to convince a client about importance of making a website. People realized its importance and approached me to create a place for them in a vast ocean of World Wide Web. It was a time when having a personalized email and Information Brochure was a Big Deal.
We pitched for Search Engine Optimization which I used to offer Free with our Premium Web Development Plan. All too often, I meet business owners with simple business objectives (Showcase a Company, Travel Website with detailed Itineraries and destination details, NGO to showcase their missions and appeal for donations and Companies to Describe themselves to the World). Now the Situation is entirely different People want to make websites to Earn Money, steal market shares, augment sales, augment profitability who believed that building a new website is the base of their entire digital strategy.
However, this approach is wrong. Take a minute to think about how many times you visited a website as the final decision in establishing a business relationship. It’s likely that before establishing a relationship with a business, the website does have a part in your decision.
But while it does have a part in your decision, it isn’t your be-all and end-all channel of information. Consumers, businesses and pretty much everyone will probably also investigate future product or service providers on a number of channels. They’re going to look at your team on LinkedIn or other social media platforms. They are going to read articles and reviews about your company’s products and services. They are going to search for you everywhere online, even inquiring about you on discussion forums and on other platforms of social media.
Today things are totally different from times when I used to make a website and look at it with an Awe and feel jubilant when it won Best Design and Recognition Awards.
Few days back I just read somewhere a YouTuber say “I Earn $10K a month from a tiny niche market” I was amazed at how things have changed.
Some TikTok Guy went further ahead claiming that YouTube is dead as well. I make more money than what I used to make on YouTube
This fact got me thinking:
- Which was the last website I won an Award or Appreciation.
- When was my client satisfied with website ‘earnings’
- When was the last time I visited a proper website? (Answer: I don’t know)
- Why do I not know whether my favorite star, company or friend have a website? (Answer: Because I’m mostly on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram & Twitter)
- Are websites going extinct? (Answer: Everything seems to suggest that … if we want them to perform like TripAdvisor, Amazon, Facebook etc)
Cause Of Death 1: Centralized Networks
90% of all internet activities happen on the big boy’s stage — YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Google. And this trend is just increasing.
Twitter- and Medium-founder Ev Williams puts it like this:
“Over the next few years, there is no doubt content and attention will continue to shift from tens of millions of web sites to a few centralized networks that people access via apps on their phones.” — Ev Williams.
In such a brutal environment, how much time do people have left to spend on your little website?
Let’s be honest — having a small website feels like living in a lonely house at the edge of the forest, while everybody else is having a big party in the city nearby.
The amount of data in the world doubles every two years. Naturally, people are simplifying their thinking patterns to master this massive info-overload:
- If you want entertainment, visit YouTube.
- If you have problems, visit Google.
- If you’re ready to spend money, visit Amazon.
To stand a chance in today’s online world, you better make your point quickly. Research indicates that you have only three seconds to make a good first impression, be it offline or online. Websites are DEAD, What’s Replacing it? Keep reading..
Cause Of Death 2: Specialization
Websites are DEAD, What’s Replacing it? If you’re a little older, you know that homepages used to be a thing in the late 90s and early 2000s. People built websites to be cool.
The secret formula to success?
A little text about yourself, a picture of your dog, some blinky banners, and you’re ready to roll.
To get my point, have a look at this masterpiece:
Back then, the motto was simple:
“Let’s build a website, and find out along the way how to make money from it”.
Websites used to be the Suisse Army Knives of the internet. They did a lot of things, but nothing particularly well — and that’s where the problem begins.
Suisse Army Knives may be helpful in nature, but not in the most crowded market of human history.
Today, even the biggest websites on the planet serve a very specific purpose. And even then it takes hundreds of extremely talented engineers to make that software look simple and intuitive.
How is it possible to succeed in such a competitive market? Websites are DEAD, What’s Replacing it
A New Paradigm: The Minimal Web ‘Single Page Website’
Websites are DEAD, What’s Replacing it? In the age of the cloud, smart online entrepreneurs think differently.
There’s no need to build an expensive website from scratch without having a clear goal in mind. It’s also extremely inefficient to learn all the necessary skills and technologies to build a website.
Instead, modern entrepreneurs ask themselves only one question:
How can I use existing tools and platforms to achieve my goals in the most efficient way?
Online business is similar to playing Lego, and APIs, SaaS software, and free online tools are the Lego building blocks.
To prove my point, let’s have a look at the success strategies of the most successful online entrepreneurs:
Daniel Vassallo, a former Amazon engineer, sells a portfolio of info products to his 70 k Twitter followers. By doing that, he has made $346,768 in 18 months. I have no idea if he has a website.
Zat Rana, one of my favorite online writers, has built a big audience on Medium. Last year, he started a Substack-newsletter and now makes around 40.000 dollars a month. I visited his website once.
Ali Abdaal, my favorite YouTuber, is a former doctor who started his YouTube channel as a side-project. Ali now has over 1.3m subscribers on YouTube. He earns over $30,000 per month by selling courses on Skillshare. I don’t know if he has a website (nor do I care).
Being a Website Developer my words may Sound like “Axe on Knees”, but one thing is obvious, all the social media and the likes of these platforms are not “Your Propitiatory”. I made a Page on Facebook sometime in early 2010 and gradually it grew, it grew to a capacity of 1.2 M fans and one fine morning I got a notification from Facebook that “your page or a post from the group associated with it has some content that goes Facebook Policies and as such the Page has been removed“. Alas! Down the drain went everything, my hard work, time and energy that was put into it for 12 years.
Now if we introspect we have to see what’s working. The minimal Web or a Single Page Website is what still works and works effectively. You don’t need a thousand page Encyclopedia Website nor the unreliable Social Media Fan Page but your Own Web Page that has minimum links unless it’s a Shopping website. You can have an App instead or more importantly Mobile Web Page that serves the purpose of showcasing your cause without cluttering the user’s phone.
Conclusion : Websites are DEAD, What’s Replacing it – Single Page website that’s got links to your social media handles and other necessary information on it.
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