A viable business needs a website.
A website isn't a viable business.

A web presence is useful, but not required. Doing business with a website is possible, but very difficult.

Find the value level for putting time and effort into the web, and I'm not talking hosting/dns ... that's the least of the expense these days (and the real reason why the noise on the web is so immense!).

1. Google rules it all, that's a HUGE issue. They can ruin a business in no time with there monopoly and business practices.

Yes Google dominates the web, but it dominates the web for everyone equally. So unless you plan on competing directly with Google, this is unlikely to be a direct concern.

2. A information site, almost every user have a ad blocker.

This isn't true, not even close. Yes many people do have ad-blockers but it is far from most people.

No one wants to pay for info.

Again, this isn't true. There are plenty of situation where people would be willing to pay for information, but the information you provide must be of high value and not available anywhere else.

3. Lets say a creators interest is in the Health category, that would almost be impossible to establish a site which is also found on Google. If he is not a big shot, he has no change to come with his own opinions

Opinions are like ......., everybody has one. Nobody cares, see the previous point. The Health category has high bar and rightfully so. If you want to get anywhere you really need to establish yourself/business as an authority and that is no small task.

The days of publish something show a few ads and print money are over. The web, for the most part is extremely competitive with very low, if not no barriers to entry, economically speaking this means that it is very difficult to make a profit. A fundamentally web-business is like any other business, you need to be creating value for your customer, simply reselling a product that everyone else is also reselling hardly provides value.

The bottom line is that it is still very much possible make money with a "web" business, but you will likely need to invest a lot of time and money establishing the business. Thus you should be sure that the products and/or services that you plan to sell can provide sufficient revenue to ensure that the business will be and remain profitable.

Before anything, make a business plan.

@zeus ... your thoughts, the others expressed above, are all legit. Starting a website to MAKE MONEY from ads is likely to fail.

If one has a product, it best be unique, else nickles and dimes will flow (after costs, mailing, etc).

That said, a website is EXPECTED for most businesses these days, so decide between brouchure (what all biz needs), info (what most sites end up doing anyway) or ecommerce (which is where the rubber meets the road ... and seldom travels far since gazillion are attempting to do the same thing).

These days, when I am asked those kind of questions I strongly suggest that a website is your "business or personal card". Everyone expects it, you provide it ... and you don't have to pay a printer for a box(es) of 250-10,000 cards 2" by 3.5" with name, address, phone, website and cut line (what you do). Then again, having those cards to hand out at MLM, breakfast, BBB, meets, etc. still has great value.

If they still want to do it I add this as a source for information:

webmasterworld.com

Let me say it in another way would you recommend one these days to start a web site for profit. No local business, so no website to represent a company. Well I would not, I started a fe in the days of Alta vista, Yahoo and Google. those where great times :) - So if a person/comapny can not offer a unique service (no ecommerce), there they are pay for, I would not start a site.

So if a person/comapny can not offer a unique service (no ecommerce)

E-commerce or not, your website must offer a unique service. That service would likely be in the form of offering information that is not available anywhere else, or in a unique format.

Again, whether your business is tangible or not doesn't change that one must be provide something of value.

It seems from your comments that you are having trouble figuring out what that "thing" of value is, that is not a good sign. Step back, review your idea and find, what is often referred to as, your "value proposition". The more value you can provide to your customers, the greater the opportunity for profit.

Note also, that you can provide something of limited value. As is often the case with informational website, but in this case the opportunity for profit is low so to compensate you must increase volume. That is increase the number of customers, ie users visting your website. These days that is no easy task.

Make a business plan, there is no point in spending time and money creating a website simply to discover that it is a total failure, specially when that could have been predicted from the start.

Yes I know what you mean, I do have a good ecommerce business and a service site. Also im aware of a unique service or products. Im just talking about if a newbie wants to start, that it is VERY hard these times to get started or survive ex. different Goog le updates,...
The only solution is to offer a service where you are payed or start your own brand and make it unique, but im not sure I would recommend a person now to start a website. That was my speculation.

If you’re starting today with your very first website, you have to provide a product or service that isn’t available in satisfactory form from any of the billion-plus* websites already in existence.

That’s a pretty high bar, though by no means impossible.


* This turned out to be an interesting rabbit hole. 1.7 billion is a popular figure, offset with the assertion that only around 200 million of them are active.

There is the question asked: Is it even worth it these times to start a website?

And the broader unasked question: Is it even worth it these times to start a web business?

The answer to the first is a definite maybe, to the second a resounding yes.

If one is thinking of a third party ad driven info or a commodity drop ship site then I would say don’t bother adding to the cacophony. Further, if one is thinking of primarily SE referred traffic I’d ask why suffer the angst. Those business models have been walking dead for a good five years plus. Yes, there are always exceptions but the risk is ever increasing.

Most new web proprietor businesses have been leveraging a mashup of several to all of Instagram, TikTok (latest), Twitch, Twitter, and YouTube.

The earliest adopters usually started with a WP blog/site and moved away to SM. Lately they are starting on SM and eventually adding in a site.

It’s been fascinating to watch the past several years. I initially was intrigued for marketing reasons (still am) but quickly became intrigued at the leveraged usage of one platforms strength tied to that of another to another. Websites are no longer the default web presence for the under 30 (increasingly for older groups as well) cohort.

If I was starting out now with an info type business model a site would be the last property presence once I had grown a return audience across SM.

If I was starting out now with an eCom type business model I’d build a basic order from site and then put all my effort into SM audience acquisition. Plus emphasise quality non-counterfeit products.

This is the year 2020 not 2000 or even 2010... adapt or...

While a new site may have a rough row to hoe, the site itself still means something.

1. It can protect a "name" in the domain system(s).
2. Lets others know you actually exist.
3. can be done for $20 or less PER YEAR.

Making a living, on the other hand, is quite difficult without having a brand, product, or capital to invest.

YMMV

I started buiding websites because I developed an interesting product in 1998. When I checked elsewhere the prices of advertising, I was shocked by the incredible CPM the website owner were asking for. So I decided to make my own websites and buy myself the advertising at cheap prices.

Thant model worked, more or less, until Adsense became and suddenly I made in one day more money than in a month before.(Do you remember the Fedex Club?) :-D

And that's the point where I'm moving towards today: developing small websites with unique products/services and advertising it through my websites and it associated social media accounts, email lists and so on.

In Spain we have a saying for this: ¡Hay que ver las vueltas que da la vida! (See the twists and turns of life!)

Hello,

It depends of your niche, and how much you "want" to earn (profits), and "when".

It also depends of your skill. What do you know? What can you do (yourself)? Do you need to hire / pay others to build your project?

It depends. Websites are like bikes, it's good when you have one, and if you don't: you should. It's useful and it can take you to places, my perspective regarding the thread would be too long but it can be made simple if we consider "is it valid to start a hobby site?" yes, as valid as in the past. Business? well, it can end up as a business, or open windows to new businesses.

Having a website keeps you in shape, but yes, starting a new one? only if its justifiable FOR YOU AND YOUR GOALS. Be it money, hobby, share info, educate, etc. Making money directly IS NOT as easy as in the past, yes, but it can be done in different ways. This reminds me a few recent readings, one in particular "why should you create your own framework?", I did, and read the article just out of curiosity and I agree, it's useful, the learning, or ending with a very useful tool for your businesses or your hobbies.

I posted on another (old) thread on people complaining about the web industry, and don't get me wrong I agree with them because what's been said it's true, but even if a website is not making money as it did in the past: the skills you developed over the years should. So: content creating, photographs, coding, etc. And your website is your portfolio, besides most client websites go dead after 1-2 years because most have dumb ideas, only few take it to the next step and all your portfolio becomes just a collection of screenshots: you need something alive... My main websites still don't make me loose money, make money sometimes more than others and are alive after 20+ years.

Recently came up with two ideas for the web... and I'm still thinking if it's worth going for it. Perhaps very similar to your thread, I don't know, but at least in my head somethings are different. Like 24 hours of woodworking would produce me a better, more precise and controlled income VS a new website that... let's face it "it will always be work in progress" unless you are selling something, then the business model simplifies itself. I'm attracted and enthusiast on these two ideas, but resources are resources and I won't go for it unless it's more beneficial than other projects that I currently have.

But hey, yes I agree, there are too many aspects in the web industry making it "not fun" if you really want some precise ROI.

Now more specific:

I got a few questions from some individuals about starting a web business

There is a place in my country (like many other countries), where people place parts for recycling. I have seen (and bought) stuff there for about US$1-5 that I would have to pay around US$50 on product listings. <<=There is a market there!. Abandoned routers like new for US$2, the same ones sold on Marketplace for US$40.

There are other markets, business opportunities, but it's about finding the market and wanting to be part of it. I don't know about you, but... sometimes our knowledge goes to the roof and we can build a lot of things but we measure the risks differently, and so, some business stop looking good for us, and we move in other directions.

What about this?A friend of mine codes for a living (complex corporate stuff) and always has issues getting paid by clients (toxic industry), or well paid but too many hours invested, tired, you know... little social life, etc. He was speechless when I told him how bad the industry looks compared to painting walls. It's practical, fast, the investment is minimal, you can finish a job in one day, most people will pay you in cash, no fragmentation of payments, and besides the walls won't change! due to traffic or because some new tool was released and clients want it, or clients changed opinion: no, the wall is there, static.

So, painting walls in many ways and specific scenarios IS a better business. Should we kill the web? nope, what about building a web about you painting walls? that's the thing. In a way, I described PIVOTING. How valuable it is to see the potential to turn something into another thing, and turn your business options around. Then somethings that don't sound as profitable anymore... still are in different ways, or with small changes.

Yes I know, thread? dead. Effort and time to explain? not worth it considering the impact on the thread, so don't judge me if it's too short to make absolute sense:

Real case, real numbers, niche "widgets", discussed with client, who BTW has no absolute idea on what the numbers and reports mean. Local sellers: terrible, including him. Customers buy because there is no alternative, so they have to buy from a set of 5-8 local sellers, the searches on the web are active, purely organic on poorly positioned websites with terrible design and information, the response time of the sellers is terrible.

A reasonably decent business + a decent website in this niche = absolute winner. So, what's easier in this case? or what's easier on some other cases?

1. Stubborn and ignorant business owners adapting to offer clients the needed website/tool providing information, becoming decent sellers, and STOP instructing their workers on terrible market practices?

VS

2. Someone who knows about websites-customers-interactions, integral market-product communication, and just invest on those products while using their skills on strategy? honestly, most of what you need here is money to invest. If you disagree, remember this is a short post, I'm not here to provide 200% details and convince nobody.


A lot of people know the game but have no real product to sale.
A lot of people have a product to sell but don't know the game of communication.

Think about it.

Folks coming in on the subject of "site or not to site" as the question are arriving from two different viewpoints.

Presence
or
Profits

Those coming for Profits best have the stuff to back it up (product, service, authority, etc.)

While those coming from Presence best Establish same and reach for authority at the same time.

REALITY? Just like cell phones everybody's got one (except me!). It's a virtual "yellow pages", a "business card", a "brochure". All very valid reasons to put up a site.

The PROFIT side, however, whether from ads alone or products, services, info etc is a different kettle of fish. If that is the driving question then the kind answer is "go for it, but keep your expectations LOW ... few make fortunes on the web unless they are already making fortunes by other means".

Meanwhile, g is still picking the winners and losers via their AI and black box, so keep that in mind as well.

True, specially the "everygody's got one" and teh G thing. It's easy (and common) to think all the seat are taken, and not being able to see available or "not-so-difficult" options, but earning money works like that, everybody is after the fish. But we might be surprised on the valid options around that we are not seeing.

Over the last 5 years one of my sites had an increasing amount of request for X and z stuff via contact page. I don't sell that stuff and I don't provide that service, yet it proved the market wants it and somehow they are not finding it (or they wouldn't be asking for it). My content is not even directly related, still they ask for it. The panorama in this sense is as I posted on another thread: there is a business opportunity here, it's just I never aimed for it, I'm not interested and requires a bit (little) of investment. It's like having a restaurante and suddenly you get lots of people asking for ice cream, for some it would be quite easy to just add that to the menu, it means the market is speaking, it's just a matter of someone wanting to listen.

The other scenario is as I explained, G is not even directly involved, yes traffic comes from G, but the sites are terribly positioned, it's just people wanting to buy from the only ones who sell the product. There is people from developed countries who are aware of this, and once their market becomes saturated, they start businesses on countries where the trend is just starting, the competition is close to none, and the ones already there (if any) will never be able to compete at the same level on business operation (it's not even tech competition).

Most times in those scenarios we don't even realize of those opportunities, or we don't want to invest, or... like me in this case, zero interest because we aimed for something else. And those same opportunities not taken by any of us (lack of interest) will still be available to morrow and next month.

I can't imagine having a B&M business without a website.

A 24/7 presence on the internet showing your details and your offering.

Simple - if you don't expect it to contribute to sales - more detailed if you do.

I know of directors who say, we don't get anything from our website, usually looking at those websites I can see why!

Forgot a key detail above: people navigating to page 5, 8, 10 of search engine results looking for the product and services, cases where the product sells itself, it's just the market has little offering.

There is a third business opportunity seeing around (regionally), there is a weird market of recycled stuff at around US$1-US$2 each item, all of that stuff still works and I have bought some stuff there. Well, I have seen people searching for those products online, forums, marketplace, etc, it's just simple: the buyers don't know about those sellers, and the sellers don't know about online posting.

Mark_A: I know of directors who say, we don't get anything from our website, usually looking at those websites I can see why!

exactly!

Ultimately, the question is not SHOULD I START A WEBSITE as opposed to CAN I RUN ONE IF I START IT?

Anybody can put up a website, and dirt cheap (as in free in some cases), but won't know what the do with it once they get there. Nothing we say can change that... only the "webmaster" of that "new site" has the power to make the site successful CONTENT wise!

Well said, that's mostly the case, over and over.