rcjordan - 6:06 pm on May 1, 2001 (gmt 0)

In another thread [webmasterworld.com], paynt made the following post that I believe gives a good thumbnail view of what it takes to compete on the web today:

>>…Some sites are all image and style... Others are all bells and whistles... Some are plain vanilla content, but with no thought to search... and others give evidence that their builders wanted them to rank well on search engines. These aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, by the way... but they're different directions site builders might go…>> Even more that that; I recently put out an ad both here on the forums and in I-Design and was blown away by the response from nearly 100 designers. It was incredible, the work levels and variety of talent and ability. It was interesting because the ad was picked up by a news list for independent designers looking for work. Interesting because I was looking for a designer who could work hand-in-hand with an optimizer, in developing a site and what that ad requested was a Designer/SEO combined. I went through and then spoke with such a variety of people, across the board in what they knew or thought they knew about SEO. What I did discover is the perfect marriage of services would combine an array of talents. That you really need to be looking at first SEO, then a great designer who can work with that, you need terrific copywriting talent, media talent, technical support that can do anything and everything and you bring them donuts because you can’t imagine life in your world without them, and of course e-commerce support. Can the single home Webmaster keep up? Wow, I’d really like to meet the single person that can offer all of that. A single home Webmaster can find a nitch though and build from there into who knows how far they can take it. This is a tough and competitive playground. Depending on what market or industry you’re working in, ties into all those variables I’ve tried to point out here, and that’s where your going to make it or not. We don’t know what’s going to happen day to day with the engines and the search marketplace. When Yahoo dropped Inktomi for Google the landscape completely changed. It could happen again. When I look back and see who made it through that time and the companies that took a big hit and have ridden it out until now but are piling up in dot morgue, I see the cream beginning to rise to the top.

Yes, you can still make money on the web. Several here ARE making excellent money even in the current environment. But make no mistake, it's dog-eat-dog and anyone entering it now is likely to have to make a substantial investment of time and/or money before they are successful.