It seems that every way new and hopeful Web marketer turns, way is blocked almost straight away. So what's a poor marketer to do? (And many WILL become or stay poor, if they don't adapt to these changes!)

Well bad news is that 'bar to entry' to formerly quite simple world of web marketing is being progressively raised higher, and it's not going to go back down again.

It is simply no longer enough to buy a domain and put up your sales sites, regardless of how 'search engine friendly' they are. No amount of 'reciprocal linking' will now have much effect on your traffic, unless you can get links from major 'authority' sites - which is VERY unlikely!

How about paying for traffic? Well, if you sell fishing lures or model ship kits - go for it! Niche markets are a perfect fit for PPC, 'Adwords' and like, provided that you can identify key words and phrases that will be searched on by your target market, but not by others.

But what if you are trying (like all others) to sell ebooks about web marketing or related topics? The short answer is - forget it! Thanks to 'unlimited resale rights' and ready-made sales web sites, this market is now so unbelievably over-saturated that bid prices for heavily-searched PPC keywords used in this business are so high it is almost impossible to make a profit on low ticket products.

OK, so follow advice of already-successful 'big name' web marketers - "Build your lists!" (compile 'opt-in' lists of interested visitors who sign up for a freebie).

Setting up autoresponder systems necessary to do this has already added a 'technical' hurdle that keeps out many. But even if you are one of those who can get an email capture system working, how are you going to get your visitors to come? After all, no traffic = no list.

So is it time to pack up your web site and go back to posting out your mailers? Well, a little earlier I said 'the bad news is....'. So does that imply that 'midst all this gloom there is some GOOD news?

There is..... but only for some.

For those who believe that 'web marketing' is just a matter of cloning someone else's sales web page and maybe doing a bit of 'promotion' by submitting cloned page to 500 FFA sites and search engines, dream is now over.

The sheer level of competition, thousands of others using exactly same web site to try to sell exactly same ebooks, and new hostility of search engines to 'me too' web sites, mean that this approach can now be pronounced clinically dead.

BUT for those who are prepared to do their own thing, even if this means some hard work, prospects are good.

Even though from now on, hard fact is that making useful money from Web will become more of an effort than before, this actually represents a real opportunity for genuine 'netpreneurs' - those who are prepared to take a few chances and innovate.

The 'raised bar' will have effect of beginning to thin out hordes of copycat 'web marketers' who just endlessly recycle same old sales web pages. And this in turn will open way for those who go beyond this kind of mechanical 'wannabe' effort by adding something NEW to Internet.

So if you want to join relatively small band of those who are succeeding on Web, start thinking out of box. Watch what all others are doing.... then do something different!

By becoming a 'contrarian' you will be expressing your individuality, rather than just following herd.

And it pays!

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Article copyright 2004, Peter Roe, Abacus TP Email: peter@abacus-tp.co.uk

Peter Roe is author of The WebProfits home study course and webmaster of The Ebook Discount Warehouse at http://web-profits.co.uk/warehouse. For some practical ideas on how to join new wave of successful web marketers, read more articles by Peter and others at http://web-profits.co.uk/warehouse/articles.htm _________________________________________________________

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