If you dream of setting up your own little social networking, widgetized, diggable, video sharing, community-based Web 2.0 site and making millions out of the gate, it’s time to get real.
A gut check is taking place around the web with people realizing that, while it is far cheaper to start a YouTube.com than one of the original portals VCs sank tons of money into in the first internet gold rush, the party is over for simply launching and getting bought for millions.
Does that mean Web 2.0 is dead for the little guy? Not at all. It’s just getting started.
But the easy traffic and instant community is not so easy or instant as it was for the trail blazers of last year.
Now that everyone and their sister knows about the craze, and the fact that you can start a YouTube of your own for chump change, competition for buzz and novelty is absolutely sky high.
There is a growing list of video sharing sites. Gazillions of Digg wannabe sites. Who knows how many Myspace’s.
And everything is going vertical with smaller, niche oriented networking sites popping up where there is far more room and interest in being a bigger fish in a smaller pond.
There is some good discussion going on out there about what to expect now that the market for the first iteration of Web 2.0 is starting to normalize.
Fractals of Change: Web 2.0 – Greater Initial Investments Required