Is IM getting harder nowadays?

I just had this random thought about how I was doing IM back in 2013-2017. Since then lots of things happened:

- Google changed their algorithm heavily. It constantly updates itself now. They are releasing countless updates (just within the last four months they had at least three major updates according to my experiences) without actually telling what they changed or whats going on. Sometimes they don't even officially say the made updates. This makes it very hard for people to rely on SEO.

- Automation got much harder. Instagram and Jarvee is a good example. Also for Facebook and Twitter it got much harder.

- Facebook: You remember the time when we had Facebook pages with 100k real fans and you could actually earn a lot from it and drive lots of traffic your sites/videos? This time is long gone. They totally fucked up their algo. Nobody is talking about it anymore. Its not worth it to grow FB pages anymore. Few years ago you could earn some serious cash.

- Shopify/Dropshipping is not only saturated, but Paypal recently declared "war" on dropshipping. So many people are complaining about it on YouTube. Problem: From my experience 70% of the customers are using Paypal to pay. No Paypal = much less sales

- SMM Panels: Damn, it became so hard to find a working SMM panel. Last year and the years before everything worked perfectly fine. Now its the opposite.

- PayPal: It seems like Paypal is making it very very hard to make business with them. After they successfully got rid of SMM panels, they are now going after dropshippers. What next? So many people rely on Paypal and they are not giving any fuck to simply limit any account they want.

- YouTube: I remember back then in 2012. I made a YouTube channel, uploaded some original videos and monetized them directly. Just connected my Adsense account and thats it. I could earn money instantly. Now they regulate the shit out of YT by annoying requirements and a very strict policy. Also they are going after kids channels etc. now. Its crazy.


What is the point of this thread?

I am wondering: Did we already reach the tipping point? Are things going to be even worse in the future? Like more regulations, stricter policies, easier to get the account banned, unpredictable serps etc.?

What is your opinion on this?

All this is due to increasing competition in IM. More and more people are entering this field and that is why Google and other companies have tightened the rules.

IM is not really that difficult if you have enough capital budget and know what you are investing or buying

It's not the end. There are still more opportunities revealing themselves with each new platform. It's changing, but not over.

I sure hope it’s not the end of IM lol. I’m just starting to scratch the surface of SERP ranking!

Yes. The main thing is that everyone in the world with a laptop is now doing IM of some kind. It makes almost every method saturated, and that's when companies clamp down.

It's only going to get harder from here on out. Once you do something, it's copied and saturated almost instantly. So you'll be constantly chasing new things, which is very hard to do.

You can say it's becoming hard because a lot of IM'ers popping each day and the competition for niches getting tougher, off course not many of these people make it but adaptability has always been the name of the game and your experience and skill sets will take you far.

Some ways it has also become easier like for instance with the introduction of messenger bots people are getting crazy like subscribe rate.

It's getting expensive for sure.

It's difficult for people who don't have any capital to invest.

One of my whitehat website looks like this:
https://gyazo.com/4c20e0f329047097da3b31dea9301c20 (high competition niche) (already invested 5k+ on the content but it's not out of the sandbox yet)

Will need money to build PBNs/guest posts/niche edits/web2.0s.

Even Amazon websites are getting tougher.

You need to have $5000+ to start a business which can make you $1000 per month fast.

There are still ways to make quick money if you solve some problems fast like make a service that works, research about Instagram and see what works best and help people to do just that.

Learn something really good and cold email people for a chance for free as well (this can help you collect some money if you're starting!)

I think yes, it's getting stiffer. Old rule still works: don't put all eggs in one basket.

Yes. More competitive, and more advance technology(SEO/SEM/ADS).

It's because of more competition

As someone who was doing SEO/IM in 2012/13 and only came back into it earlier this year, I'm finding it ridiculously harder with much more investment needed to get anywhere. I think if my latest project fails that will be it for me, as it's only going to get harder.

I only joined the IM-ship when I registered here so I haven't been in the game very long, however the stories I've heard from IM back in the day makes me jealous haha. I wish I found out about IM 10 years ago.

I started in IM about 10 years ago, and it was like a wild west back then compared to now. You could sell almost anything to anybody, even the big companies. For example, I sold a domain to a big insurance company, and I don't think it would be feasible nowadays. When I started to offer link building services in my country, mine was only the third agency created. I had hundreds of clients, seo was easy and adwords was cheap. When I stopped five years later, there were about a hundred websites offering link building services, plus the demand also decreased because of the big Google updates. One partner of mine even literally copied my website and services. So yeah, OP is right.

WebMinati said:

You need to have $5000+ to start a business which can make you $1000 per month fast.

Click to expand...

this makes a lot of sense to me. I would invest $20k to make $1k per month.
Imagine people buy a real estate $100k and get $800-$1000 per month rental income.

IMO is getting harder due to several factors but it isn't like we're reached the tipping point. I think people who aren't skilled and/or creative enough will lose or give up. I'm in this game for 15 years now and every year people ask this question and complain about things getting harder or more complex.

Adapt yourself to the changes and find your way is the solution.

Well, you've counted all the things that don't work, but there are lots of positive things that work. Not all the people (myself included) complain about IM tough field. I begin when was tough so it normally to me to find creative ways of monetizing IM.

aristocratic said:

this makes a lot of sense to me. I would invest $20k to make $1k per month.
Imagine people buy a real estate $100k and get $800-$1000 per month rental income.

Click to expand...

I don't think it's a meaningful comparison. The risks profiles are really different.

Past time is always better.

I bet it was also easier for Henry Ford to make cars back in time before mercedes, audi, honda, peugeot, ferrari, aston martin, and so on came around.

It is just how life is, another of the problems of living during the information age. Any monkey can google anything and try it even though they have no clue of what they are doing.

it'll only get harder. High saturation level