IM Trends for 2011. Should we worry?

80+ Sites!!!!! That is almost half of the Internet gone.

This is a heavily debated topic. I actually did a research paper about this last year. I do not think there is going to be a concrete decision anytime soon.


Well, since our 80 websites are gone, it's only a matter of time.......


Seriously, I don't think that any of this is going to affect us. It's a lot of "possibilities". No one can predict the future

The biggest threat in my opinion is the big corporations taking over the main advertising channels. The second biggest threat are sites like Facebook that close off parts of the internet. So a combination of a closed net plus corporations taking over large swaths of available advertising would be the biggest threat in my opinion. Those threats will go on long past 2011.

That is the only one I am concerned about, from an IMer perspective AND a just as a normal internet user. It is something that I have an extremely serous problem with and do hope the ISP's do not get their way.

I'm not sure many quite understand what the ISP's want to do, which is why there has not been a bigger uproar about it. Essentially they want to turn the internet into a cable like system, where if you want to access certain websites you will have to pay a premium access fee.

There will be tiers of service, which means that if you want to be able to have access to Amazon.com you will need to pay for the tier that allows access to that website. At this point Amazon.com stops being a website and more like a web-channel.

The ISP's feel they should be able to do this because they paid big dollars to build out all of networks for us to access the internet, thus they feel they should own it.

I have a big problem with this and have written to all of my states legislators, always receiving a form letter in response. This IS a big deal and could literally crush the internet as we know it if the ISP's get what they want.

I don't want to come in here and shout "the sky is falling" because at the end of the day this hasn't passed yet and may never pass, but the fact that this is even being proposed should be cause enough for concern.

I wouldn't worry excessively about the site shutdowns. Those are unlikely to affect many sites that aren't committing or assisting piracy.

The transitioning of web space to IPv6 can happen pretty quickly. Most hosts could turn it on in an hour or less. They've got to deal with the range allocations sooner rather than later, but that's coming.

IPv4 is where email will stay, for a long time. IPv6 blocklists would be a nightmare to manage and use.

Net neutrality... More of an issue than the others.


Paul

this happens every year....and gets a bit annoying to honest with you.

The internet changes every year. Think about the dot com bubble i remember every man and his dog saying the internet was doomed when the meltdown came and the bubble burst...but more people are making more money with launches than ever. Big gurus that make 1 million dollars online with a new launch is said to be mediocre nowadays! LOL.

So chill out, and dont panic, there are more people without work and more people looking for jobs. So stop whining get infront of these people with a good product and help them make money online that makes you = WINNNNNERRR!!!

I have a friend who runs a trends / economic website and said there has never been a better time to make money from the things he sees coming. He is very accurate too.

Ipv6 is not really an issue as hosting providers will just tunnel all sites to resolve to an ipv4 address. You will be able to create sites no problem and, they will be viewable also.

The problem with the Ipv6 transition is for seo folks who will no longer be able to have multiple sites resolving to separate IP addresses.

So even though some one might have 10000 sites all on different IPv6 addresses until every one and everything is compatible with the IPv6 protocol all those sites will resolve on top of a single IPv4 address and that is what the search engines will see.

any time spent worrying is time wasted in my opinion.

From every appearing disaster always opens up an opportunity for those with creativity and imagination and the ability to take action.

At the end of every year we hear that the coming year is going to be hard on IMers for this reason or that. If there is some scary legislation on the table, do your part by voicing your opinion to your elected officials. If there is some fee that is going to come about for streaming video, then find a loophole or adjust your pricing and adapt. If the sky rains dog poop, then get an umbrella.

Do all of those things, but don't sit around stewing in what ifs.

80 websies really isn't that much

I hardly pay attention to the pessimistic. I wish I could get a dollar everytime I heard "The IM game is over"...because by this time I'd be a millonaire!

These two things are part of the biggest risk going forward that I see and that's increased government control of the Internet, often in collusion with big corporations that contribute freely to political campaigns (example: Google). This control will manifest itself as exorbitant fees and taxes, excessive and contradictory laws and regulations and, in some cases, outright seizures and take downs. This will impact smaller online operations of all types ranging from Internet marketers to small businesses.

To me, the problem isn't is government going to do this but where and when. I don't think that it will make much difference which political party is in charge either since almost all politicians seek to increase their power.

Hopefully, elected officials will end up bickering so much that nothing devastating will be done but it's the unelected bureaucrats that concern me most.

It will mean more shared IP addresses so all those worries about having different Class C IPs and such will go out the window, if they haven't already.

It may also make hosting more expensive in the short term.


These things have always been the same,
So why worry now?

I've got to second dvduval, in that the biggest threat to an extent is a greater awareness of what's possible online.

More companies with bigger resources will enter this space in 2011, making it even harder to rank, find domains and control traffic, especially as going niche or long tail will become more common place.

Slightly off topic, I'm already noticing a shift within Internet Marketing as a niche. I track the number and frequency of blog posts of about 120 internet marketing blogs that have been fairly consistent since the last three years. Since August this year, most of them have decreased the amount of posts they put out monthly and a significant amount have ceased posting all together.

It's too early to tell if this has any trend or relevance, but I sense a big shift as blogging seems to make less revenue in this space than it previously did.

Justin

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

Seriously, though, is your site hosting government secrets? Are you doing something illegal? No? Then why worry!