Back in 1997, before I got my cool job writing for Cozy, I worked for a local steakhouse. I took the job to tide me over while I was trying to build my web design business. The restaurant was pretty popular and we were busy all the time. Just the same, I kept bugging the owner to let me build a website for his business. One day, he had had enough of my pestering and asked me flat out:

“Why do I need a website?”

At the time, all I could tell him was that a website would be a great way to attract tourists and travelers. He looked at me, shook his head and said:

“We turn people away every night because we’re so busy. I don’t really need any extra customers.”

"You have to invest in PAID ADVERTISING. Conversely, if your site is busy as hell, then perhaps it's time you made some income from all that traffic."

That shut me up. The man had a point. His little steakhouse was the hottest place in our tiny town. We did, indeed turn people away every night. In fact, we were so busy that it was impossible to give the customers the proper service they deserved. I always ended my shift frustrated and angry. Needless to say, I didn’t work there long.

Over the years, the steakhouse stayed open. Granted, they served great food. I’ve never had a better steak. Just the same, one of the main reasons the place was so busy was that it was the only decent restaurant in town.

Here we are ten years later and the steakhouse is still in business. Unfortunately, it’s not crowded every night like it used to be. Today it has to compete with ten other restaurants - all as good if not better. Today, the place is in disrepair. It needs a coat of paint badly. It needs a new sign. It needs to get back to the days when it was the hottest thing in town. It needs to advertise and it needs advertising that’s inexpensive and will reach people other than locals. Today, it needs a webpage.

In 1997, the collective amount of money that advertisers spent online was around 907 million dollars. To any individual, 907 million dollars is a hell of a lot of money. However, when one takes into account the vast collection of companies that pay for advertising, 907 million dollars is but a drop in an ocean of revenue. In 1997, things were different. A minority of households had Internet access. Surfers were afraid to buy online. Online access cost too much and everybody was on snail-slow dial up. Despite all that, a lot of investors threw their money at anything resembling e-commerce. Their blind enthusiasm bit them in the ass a couple of years later when the dot com bust happened. At the time, market predictors began to wonder if making money from the web was just a pipe dream. They doubted the web as a viable business model. They wondered the same thing that my old boss did:

“Why does anyone need a web page?”

Today, there are 1.8 billion users on the Internet. According the CIA World Factbook, worldwide web usage has increased over 200% since 2000. ComScore Networks states that 2006 online purchasing is up 33% over 2005. The Internet Advertising Bureau tells us that in 2005, companies spent almost 13 billion dollars for Internet advertising. IAB also cites that 2006 first quarter ad spending increased 38 percent over first quarter spending in 2005. In other words, things are looking up for advertising on the World Wide Web.

Naturally, if you want to sell porn on the net, you need a webpage. What you may not understand is that so much has changed since 1997. Not only must your site compete with other porn sites, now your site must compete with non-porn sites. All those old SEO tricks, free top lists and TGP listings simply aren’t enough to reach the amount of people you need to make a profit. You have to invest in PAID ADVERTISING. Conversely, if your site is busy as hell, then perhaps it’s time you made some income from all that traffic.

The point of citing ad revenue statistics is to show you that prices aren’t going down. They’re rising. While web advertising is still an incredible bargain compared to print or television, that doesn’t mean it will always be so affordable. Good things never last forever. Not Internet ad rates. Not busy steakhouses.

If you’re thinking about buying ad space, stop thinking and do it. 1997 is history.