rosella - 1:33 am on Oct 6, 2012 (gmt 0)

I don't know if it's worth making informational websites anymore. Not everyone has a product to sell. Not everyone has a brand, or wants a brand. I enjoyed a couple of years making, what I would consider, an amazing income from informational based websites that I created 100% myself from design to content to marketing. I do very little link building, and these days I do none. My sites generated natural links. Some still rank well, others are gone. My income this year dropped to 1/5th of what it was when times were good. My sites mostly receive traffic from the few links they naturally received from other authority sites (worth their weight in gold). But, after making a full time living online for the past 6 years, it's at the point where I'm thinking "will I have to find a job?".
I'm not saying we have some sort of right to rank well in Google or to stay there for an indefinite period, or that relying on their rankings to make an income is wise (sometimes it just falls in your lap and you make the most of it), but they very clearly have zero concern with livelihoods that are being ruined at the push of a button.

I don't want to give up and say "you win" to G, but like others here I'm struggling to know where to turn next.