Think Big Blog

It’s no secret that the economy is in a bit of a struggle these days and the effects can be seen from the average American household to the large corporation. Businesses have had to make serious choices in order to help bolster their bottom line and this has impacted the jobs of many people around the country. While we may not automatically think of web sites as the average business, in reality they are more than average in today’s business environment. With more and more people working online, a web site has become tantamount to the corner store fifty years ago; everyone goes there for everything they need.

So how is this economy affecting web sites? With consumers in possession of less disposable income they are shopping less and less; certainly those web sites that are engaged in the sale of products and services have felt the pinch and have responded accordingly.

During economic downturns you will always see an increase in competition in the traditional world of business; just as animals will fight harder for the only available food during a famine. Consider for example the mortgage industry which is suffering tremendously at the moment. Just a few short years ago we were seeing a housing boom and the market was rich; there was more than enough business to go around and while competition is always alive and well in a capitalist society, the pressure was somewhat off because essentially everyone was fat and happy at the time. Today, of course, the housing market is much slower and mortgage companies are fighting for business – doing what they can to out step the competition.

This same philosophy holds true for web sites. When there are few people shopping there is less web site traffic. The pressure becomes to increase web site traffic in spite of the economy so that a web site can remain viable and ride out the current economic wave.

In the next post, we’ll talk about some of the ways in which web sites can remain profitable and increase web site traffic.