Do Online Business Owners Feel the Recession?
Seriously.. does anyone? Okay, first off, I know that the US economy is not in an official recession by definition; however, when Warren Buffet says it is, and when every economist is debating whether we are or not, I think that we’re in a recession as a pessimist by nature.
I’ve been following the world markets very closely ever since I started playing around in the stock market , and the economic downturn has definitely gotten the best of my investing ventures. When I was reflecting on what to do with my money, I realized that my online business seems relatively unaffected.
So why do online content based businesses seem unaffected?
- Consumers will still consume your free content, and will in turn still see and/or click on ads
- It’s hard to tell whether the recession is affecting a firm’s online advertising budget for your sites, especially when Google brokers the ads through Adsense
- Our increasing inflation has not really increased the consumer price index as a whole yet
For those reasons, it is easy to forget the economy’s poor condition when working in a niche like online business. But the truth is, the average ‘recession proof’ businesses will eventually be hurt with the devaluing dollar. By the end of the year, $1 may only be $.80, and that will definitely hurt your purchasing power and bottom line if your wages don’t increase similarly.
I know this is kind of a rambling, reflective post on the economy, but I am concerned with my past profits and bank account being eaten away by inflation getting up to 5 or 6%. So I end with 2 questions:
Is your online business directly feeling the recession? If so, how?
Do you plan to hedge your business or capital against the deflation of the US dollar at all?
Nick,
Honestly, I’m not currently feeling it. I felt an advertiser pullback right after Christmas, but as Q2 approaches, I’m seeing good levels of ad spending again.