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Originally Posted by Nickatilynx
and back when I started in 1996/1997 is this...
In 1996 the vast majority of people involved in this games ambition was to make millions a year , minimum 250k a yr.
Now the vast majority ambition is to make beer money or just around the same as they could make at a "real" job.
It is a major difference in mindset.
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I would agree with you for 1997, but 1996 was a totally different time. The concept of sponsorship had just started, and very few were actually doing it. Xpics came out with the monthly percentage share of a set amount based on traffic sent, and Webpower started their $0.01 Raw Click promotion. It was very late 1996 and early 1997 when we saw the jump into higher pay-outs and PPS.
In 1996, we didn't fully understand what we had or where we were going. None of us "knew" this business as it was still in it's infancy, so we all ended up pioneering various techniques for traffic, conversion and retention. Many of which are still employed to this day. We had the handful of serious businessmen, and a lot of "Playas" (sounds like today, doesn't it) who were happy riding on the coattails of others, and making their "beer money".
With the demise of the original YNOT message board, and the proliferation of other webmaster boards, the real bullshit and cock-swinging started. The "Big Boys" were all trying to out do one another with higher and higher pay-outs, seeing huge revenue but taking a massive hit on pay-outs (just never made business sense to me). That was 1997.
I always stayed fairly quiet and behind the scenes, and have enjoyed good success all these years. My mindset in this is still the same as it was back when we started making real money; maximize revenues and minimize expenses to obtain true profit.
We still get people coming to us all the time thinking they can just throw up a website and get rich. Truthfully, I doubt the average person just coming into this today can even make beer money! People look at our success and think they can do it too. They tend to forget that we have been doing this for over eleven years now, and paid our dues those first few years. They also expect you to hold their hands, and guide them through the learning curve involved. While I'm happy to give basic advice, like most I keep the good stuff I know close to me.
I just consider myself an average "webmaster", but these days I just work on projects that hold an interest to me. My "cash cows" are out there running well, which gives me the ability to "play" with new ideas. We are still more than willing to work with others on projects, but we do tend to be selective on what we work on and who we work with.