There's no doubt that we live in very interesting times and they seem to be getting even more interesting as the months go by. While this industry has gone through any number of difficult periods since 1996 the one that we're in the middle of right now seems to be the worst.

Over the years various governments and religious groups have done their utmost to make life difficult for us. There have also been some tough financial times too but there's been nothing quite as bad for us as the global financial crisis.

That's certainly seen a major dip in the earnings of many webmasters in this business and it's now gone on so long that some are beginning to look seriously at their business plan because the question of survival is becoming important.

While some might have thought the most pain for many in this industry would have come during the worst times of the recession some of us expected to see the real impact for this industry begin to show up much later. And that's the way it seems to be unfolding for, as the world starts to come out of recession some players in the industry are only now beginning to show signs that they're not going to survive.

That's really not all that surprising because many people had reserves stashed away ... reserves that could carry them through difficult times that didn't last so long. But this crisis has gone on longer than we might have hoped and those reserves have been spent and now the real struggle for survival has started.

I noticed on one major industry board this morning that someone was asking about late payments from a sponsor. Now late payments are nothing new ... there will always be sponsors who are late paying their affiliates ... but this sponsor has been around forever and they have a solid reputation for paying their affiliates on time.

This was a sponsor that was always recommended to newbies because they were a reliable company ... but even reliable companies go under when times get as tough as what we're seeing now.

A little further down the list of topics on the board was a post by a guy who has been a well-known affiliate for many years. He was lamenting the fact that he's just shut down one of his servers and taken a huge number of his domains offline simply because they just weren't making him any money any more.

A server full of domains equates to a lot of time and effort that this guy has put in and to simply wipe it all is a major backward step. It must have taken him a lot of time and a lot of pain to come to the decision to trash it all but sometimes that's what you have to do if your expenses are reaching the point where they are greater than your income.

Now I'm not saying that this guy was anywhere near that point but he must have been looking at his incomings and outgoings and realized that it was time to take some drastic steps to ensure his economic survival.

So what should you be doing at times like this if you want to ensure your survival?

Well the first thing to do is not to hide your head in the sand and pretend all is well. Despite what you might read on some message boards everyone has taken a financial hit since economies around the world collapsed. Some have taken bigger hits than others and if you're one of the lucky ones then I salute you but don't be too cocky ... go and have a look at your financials and see what the true situation is ... just in case you missed something.

If your income has dropped then it's time to look at what your biggest expenses are and whether or not those expenses are offset by income. The guy who shut down one of his servers and ditched all those domain names must have realized that the cost of keeping that server going was more than the money he was making from those sites.

If that's what you see when you look at your income and expenses then look at ways to bring that negative ratio back into positive territory. Can you get cheaper hosting by closing your dedicated server and moving your domains to shared hosting?

If you really do need a dedicated box can you negotiate a better rate with your host or can you move to another host who offers better rates for dedicated hosting?

Can you get a better deal with your content buys if you buy from a different content provider or can you negotiate a better deal if you buy all your content from just one provider and buy in bulk? Can you recycle your content to make better use of it or would you do better if you invested in better content?

Can you branch out into some new area? Some people are doing this with good results but you need to be careful here. If you do try something new you need to understand that it might be months before you see any income from what you're doing so, if you need more income right now, doing something new ... something that won't put any cash in your pocket for months ... could be the very last thing you should do.

While times may be tough and you may be feeling the pinch this is not the time to make rash decisions. Look at your situation and get a clear picture of what's costing you money and what's making you money and only then make some adjustments to your business empire to ensure your survival.

07/30/2010 - Unique Selling Points and Other Things

07/28/2010 - Go Hard or Go Home

07/26/2010 - Keeping it Simple

07/21/2010 - Are You Stuck in the Past?

07/16/2010 - This and That on a Friday

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