1. Available freelance work will explode.
Would you rather have recurring, or one time payments? Freelancers are a dream for employers who can find ways to break large projects into discrete, measurable tasks. Almost every company is looking to lean up in 2010. This prediction should really say freelance work will continue to explode, because judging by this graph of hours billed on popular freelance site oDesk to date, this one is bound to come true:
2. Real Time Search = Fad.
With Google and Bing jumping all over the chance to embed real time results for pretty much any term, real time was the hot technology this year. From bubble-boy flying into space, to finding out the latest on tiger woods, twitter and real time search has exploded. Personally, real time search pisses me off (see: No One Reads on Twitter, and the other numerous cases where twitter is first to break a story, but grossly off in terms of accuracy.) Any Google search term that includes real time results, by default includes real time garbage. Look for this to fade out for most search terms.
3. Rich Will Get Richer
Every year that passes is another year that it’s more difficult to ‘get in’ on the Internet. This will not hold true if you’re developing the next YouTube or Twitter, but if you’re launching a small niche site about tennis shoes or golden retrievers, good luck; cause you’ll need it. Age is a factor that can’t be ignored, and time is not on your side if you’re developing a web business. Knocking off a competitor who has cemented good rankings gets harder each day. Developing a strong brand for your services will be important in keeping visitors, even if you’re not dominating the SERPS.
4. Search Engines Will Send Less Traffic
This is something Joe has been saying for a while. If you do a query to convert 1USD to CAD, you get a result without having to visit a web-page. If you typeGOOG, you’ll get a stock quote. Look for these kind of features to expand beyond just measures and financial data, and overwhelm other statistical pieces of information like weather, sports scores, flight data, and to an even further extent news.
If I don’t have time to write again soon, happy holidays and stay safe this holiday season!
I hope to have more time to write in 2010…that’s one of my goals. Speaking of resolutions, we also have a thread going on the top 10 new years resolutions of 2010. Check it out if you’re looking for ideas.
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Thats not Rich Will Get Richer…. infact the Richest gets richest.
That would be the very rich! The traditional middle and upper middle classes are suffering though!
On a happier note – HAPPY NEW YEAR eveybody! All the very best for 2010, and may the force be with you all!
what based on you’re saying it?
I would love to see freelance work explode this 2010!! Now that would be really really cool! Any tips or suggestions on where to fine freelance work?
Thanks so much!
http://www.whydowork.com/jobs.php
LOL!
lol
Everything will be very different in 2010
I agree with you. And have a questions…
Why search engine websites send less traffic?
I agree with all of your predictions. Freelance work will definitely explode as many businesses are just starting to learn what a great opportunity it is. odesk is growing quite quickly, but there are also sites like elance.com, rentacoder.com, etc.
Search engines will most likely start sending less traffic. This won’t just be because of Google features, but also because of other ways to find things such as various social media sites like facebook & twitter. Also increasing competition in all niches decreases the individual market share for many companies.
agree with that social media and ‘peer to peer’ answers to questions they might find on a website will drive less traffic for sure.
Which give us all very good reasons to become as active with social media as time allows. This will definitely be more fun than regular link building efforts!
Everything will be very different in 2010
^^^^^ xd
thank you
@Turkish food, how will everything be different in 2010? What in 2010 will be different than 2009? Please give more concrete examples in your comment post.
Till then,
Jean
I would really like to see an article or more informaiton of you really expanding the idea of search engines sending less traffic? Very interesting thought, and though we have seen this to some smaller scale do you really think it could be huge in 2010?
I wouldn’t say it’s going to be a huge effect in 2010. I think it will be a gradual shift over time. Sites other than search engines will keep getting more popular. People will still rely on search engines, but they will also start finding things in other ways. Instead of all searches going through search engines, people will learn to use youtube for videos, flickr for photos, etc.
Most internet savvy people already do that, if anything it will be up to the rest to catchup. So if nobody teaches them.. or they don’t learn then things will stay as they are, but as with any trend… off course more people are going to get internet/computer savvy.
Oh on another note… I also use alot of those Google functions like “Brazil time” or Mumbai time which is awesome, I also use the currency functions myself
Till then,
Jean
Yes people’s internet skills are bound to improve over time. As people spend more time on social networking sites like facebook, they get more exposure to other popular websites that others reference. If other people keep sending them links to videos on youtube and photos on flickr, there is a greater chance that they will start directly using those sites themselves.
Yup exactly! =D
-Jean
I concur with your statement. For many social media is the entry point to the world of the internet, and once their feet are wet they are inclined to dive into the deep at some time or another.
This article was concise and insightful.It is amazing how you could accurately predict the internet waves of the future.Keep it up.I’ll certainly use your advise to stay ahead of the curve.
“Every year that passes is another year that it’s more difficult to ‘get in’ on the Internet.”
But none of the countless online bizopps tell you that LOL
Jose
What are your WWE predictions for 2010?
yes ”
HAHA Now that’s funny to hear or see WWE predictions…any suggestions?
hehe
Wow… im speechless…. while I watch the WWE, and have for many years… but What does the WWE have to do with “Work from home” which is what this blog is about, lol. Sorry this comment just seems out of place
Till then,
Jean
2010 will be year of consolidation for many, and being more efficient will be key to saving money. Telecommuting just makes so much more sense than having to pay, service & fuel a motor vehicle to then waste a further two hours of your day getting to the office and back.
I think you got it right with all your predictions. Businesses will continue to tighten their belts so they will seek less expensive avenues to get the jobs done, there will be a larger gap between the rich and not-so-rich, and the search engines aim to make what they consider to be efficient changes (not always to the benefit of the small website owners).
I definitely agree on real time search being a fad, its just silly that Google is trying to implement it into its search.
Till then,
Jean
An interesting post. It is scary when you put it that way. Paid marketing is getting tougher. If SEO also keeps getting tough, where do we go?
It is inevitable that SEO will get tougher. Luckily there are so many different keywords that we can target. So it may just mean that we have to settle for less traffic. As SEO gets tougher, companies will likely have to rely on other traffic sources like PPC more.
Looking forward to the freelance work picking up. That’s a fantastic way to generate residual income.
I’m sure you’ll get your wish. Even if the recession dies down, companies now realize that they have to find ways to save on operating expenses. Using freelance workers for various projects is a great way to achieve that goal.
I would like to see that freelance work is really increasing so much as you showed on the diagram. That would get me some more things to do maybe.
I agree. As far as SEO, measuring of ROI in social networking sites continues to be challenging.
Freelancers who are able to tackle this issue can find opportunity with companies. Lot of freelancers have already got work in ’social networking management’.
Microsoft’s Bing search will continue to draw visitors from google and yahoo in 2010!
That twitterized look on Google’s face doesn’t look too good =o
When you say search engines will send less traffic are you talking natural search, paid search, or both. Since Google is pushing many large companies and Google products to the top of the natural search results do you think the smaller guy will be pushed to do more and more paid ads?
Maybe that is Google’s strategy.
Definitely not paid, but natural organic search traffic will drop in some areas.
I can imagine a young kid googling a spiderman toy and some idiot with an explicit username on twitter writes about spiderman toys and gets on the front page of google. First Time I used real time search with twitter on Bing < I noticed a username with xxx in it which could be offensive.
Humm that certainly is a great point about one of the downsides of real time search like that, I am sure Google is smart enough and are working on probably filtering out some irrelevant live updates.
But for me… I still say do away with Real time search, lol.
Till then,
Jean
in addition search engines will pay less money
The more people comes online the more will this business rise, with the ever increasing trend towards the online businesses the free lance jobs are at rise, companies prefer to prefer to hire job specific freelancers rather than permanent staff… A good news for freelancers!
Telecommuting just makes so much more sense than having to pay, service & fuel a motor vehicle to then waste a further two hours of your day getting to the office and back….
thanks for true informations!