Is There An Internet Marketing Bubble Ready To Burst?

I don't think so.

There are lots of products that are overpriced. But unlike real estate if you can't afford it you can usually download it free (depending on morals, ethics etc ... not up for discussion, just saying). There is always someone who will rehash and undercut.

Dominating niches can be done with very little money, just lots of effort. So unlike the stock market and real estate you don't really need money, just knowledge. Although, if you can pay for the services it saves you time.

There are literally millions of niches, just follow them and create for them. Carving and creating a niche would be like creating a product or brand.

It's just to vast.

Sorry if I chewed the wrong end of the stick. My 2c.

I think for the instant easy cash crowd, the bubble already burst - Panda ate them alive and the FTC is out there stalking. Some state's laws crushed many and many more stand to lose if the laws begin to creep to other states.

For the rest of us - the only real bubble is whether the general population loses its ability to buy from us.

None of the above is an example of a bubble, so I'm not too sure what your point is.

Certainly, there are small sectors within internet marketing that could be described as bubbles; for instance, the AdSense rush of a few years ago, and some might also say the current WSO surge.

But to say that there's an Internet Marketing Bubble is as absurd as saying there's a marketing bubble. There's the internet and there's marketing. And neither of them are going anywhere.


Frank

Internet marketing to me is like betting on a race horse. You do not simply put your money on something unproven and unresearched. You are basically investing in your research and if you do it right you will profit wildly. Any bubble about to burst would be for those who are using unethical methods to make their profits.

Not a bubble per se as much as trends. Marketing evolves and with the advent of the internet, that evolution moves...well, pretty damn quickly! As something wanes in popularity and effectiveness, something new takes its place...and in some cases, such as Google+, things don't even have to wane before new things crop up. As for me, I mix it up between online and offline and I can tell you one thing...there are PLENTY of offline clients who think things such as article marketing are some new fangled fad they just just can't seem to wrap their heads around...lol

Mac the Knife

So the Adsense and WSO surges/retractions mean that the entire industry is going to see a downturn? Not at all, if you ask me. Certain methods will bubble up, and eventually burst. Here's the thing though, Internet Marketing is still so young and the facets that it encompasses are widespread and diverse.

If the entire IM industry were to bubble (and subsequently burst) anytime soon, you can bet that I'll be shocked.

I get what you're saying, but isn't "bubble" really just another way of saying "the death of"?

Either way, things WILL come and go, things WILL change. It's not a question of IF, but WHEN and HOW.

The other thing is that those who apply proven principles to new techniques (those who can adapt) will be the ones who succeed. It's a good idea to have a contingency plan of some kind in place, but right now the signs are still favorable, so it's probably best to not waste too much time thinking about it.

Of course that's only a guess, but guessing is all any of us can do.

All the best,
Michael

The housing bubble came about because the markets could no longer sustain the upward trend of prices caused by the artificially-enhanced availability of mortgage money.

Home loans were easy to get. So easy, in fact, that there weren't enough new houses to go around. Supply down, prices up. The qualification rules were further relaxed, because since the prices went up, debt-to-income ratios went up and fewer people were able to qualify. The brainiacs in D.C. pressured Fannie and Freddie to relax the rules, in some cases by legislation. Wall Street was allowed to package mortgages as backing for new 'derivative' securities, fueling the demand for new, fresh mortgages.

Then came the defaults because people couldn't pay the loans they'd taken out. Foreclosures rose, the markets became saturated with inventory. Supply up, prices down.

Pretty simple process really, when you think about it. The seeds for disaster were sown when the social engineers in Washington started tinkering with time-tested, proven qualification rules.

The collapse of Silicon Valley - the 'dot com' collapse - was caused by something similar: unsustainable rise in prices fueled by artificial demand.

I don't believe either of those scenarios apply to "internet marketing", unless of course we see a complete collapse of the world economy. Who knows what will happen if we ever arrive on THAT doorstep...

I dont believe theres a bubble on its way because there are so many different niches and sub niches to choose from...and they build up each day.

While it's possible that a bubble could form in portions of the Internet Marketing industry, it's too large itself for there to be an all-encompassing IM bubble.

Think about what the marketing industry is, as a whole. Nearly every business in the developed world uses marketing in some way or another. Putting a sign up is marketing. Telling your friends about your company is marketing.

All the example bubble markets have always had their own niches in the marketing industry and thus in Internet marketing. Real estate, stocks, dot-coms, etc., all have their marketing machines.

There have indeed been myriad micro-bubbles in IM, and they happen all the time. Fad diets are a prime example.

The danger to those of us doing independent Internet marketing is not diversifying. If large chunks of one's income is from marketing in a single niche, then a burst bubble in that particular market can spell disaster for one's overall business.

We must diversify our businesses in order to survive. Branch out, include dozens of niches in your marketing portfolio, and you will be prepared to survive nearly any market problems. Beyond that, once we have a well established and well diversified marketing business, we can use our capital to diversify outside of IM.

Diversification is a topic I hammer about quite frequently on my blog.