Being New is the Biggest Barrier to Entry

One of the wonderful thing about the Internet is that anyone can voice their opinion or start up a business. Put up a little website or blog and share what you know with the rest of the world. Unfortunately, the little voices out there get drowned out by the big boys on the block, to the point where many people wanting to share something with the world are really just talking to themselves.

It’s not what you write, who you are or the products you make, but who you know.

Two of the greatest improvements to the internet were search and social media. Being able to find what you are looking for and share that with the people you know is the foundation, and without them we would be drowning in a sea of information.

The problem with both of these is that only the popular content can be found or is shared. Social media to a lesser extent but even there, large amounts of content are pushed out by a few people and everyone else just reacts to it. In many cases this model makes sense. The best content producers will naturally float to the top and be heard. But in practice, that is not always ideal or the case. One example would be the large amount of popular but outdated content that has better search results than the correct but new content. And I could get into subjects like content farms pushing out garbage content and other methods of gaming the system, but I’ll move on.

To find a voice online you don’t have to be the best writer, or sell the cheapest or the best products, you simple need to “pretty good” and know the right people.

So if you need to start a new online business or blogging, start looking for friends. Just like in the offline world, having powerful or influential friends will lead to business success.

What strategies have you used to meet important people in your chosen field?