The Mind of Vatke
Thoughts, Musings and Advice by Andre Vatke

If yesterdays news is tomorrow birdcage liner, what happens to yesterdays websites?

I was looking through a 1999 version one of our Leaders Club online network marketing resources pages that included FFA sites, Traffic Generation sites, safe-lists, ad sites and more.

Considering how these sites and strategies were promoted by gurus of the time as "the next big thing in marketing" I was curious to see how things panned out for them.

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So I followed a few links and found that not a single one was still active - at least not in the way it was originally meant to be.

Here's what happens to dead websites. Like space junk, they just keep piling up without an end in sight. What you can learn from them can keep your own site relevant and productive...

Scenario #1: Site no longer available...

The bulk of the old links I visited (even at the top level of the domain) were dead links. The domain was no longer registered or had a page like the one in the image letting visitors know that the domain was for sale.

Scenario #2: Site was abandoned...

A number of sites were simply left on the vine so to speak. Having a few sites in this category myself I understand how this can happen. Usually the original site owner has other sites running and thus there isn't a direct monthly hosting fee associated with the old site - they are essentially carried by new ventures.

The first tip off is the copyright date at the bottom. That's the first place visitors tend to go when they have cause to wonder if the content is stale. If you are not regularly updating content make sure you at least look at your copyright date once in a while!

Scenario #3: Site is now a Ad aggregator...

This is often an attempt to salvage what is left of any residual traffic and get a few bucks off of people who land there from organic search or some arbitrage.

The problem with these sites is that I have yet to find anyone that actually likes landing on them! They are annoying and it takes only a few milliseconds for me to click my back button.

The lesson...

These technologies were touted at the time as the next great breakthrough in marketing. Some people even hyped it up to the point of being completely revolutionary.

Today they are not even the liner in the bottom of a birdcage!

The lesson here is that marketing methods may change, but people do not. In order for any marketing medium to survive there must be something of value there. Value is derived from benefit divided by cost. In order for the new trends like PPC and Web 2.0 to have staying power they must be backed by something that will deliver lasting value to the visitor as well as the marketer.