This recent post by Shoemoney got me thinking - is there any such thing as an indispensable web site?

The answer of course is emphatically ‘no’. Even if the mighty Google were to fall, we’d all find a way to get by somehow. Now, of course you could get horribly depressed about this. No matter how hard you work on your blog, it’s never going to be completely indispensable, and people will get by quite happily without it.

But the flip side of this is that the same goes for all your competitors. And just because someone tells you your idea has “been done before”, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go right ahead and do it anyway.

Back in March 2006, someone said exactly that about Chocablog. They tried to put me off by telling me it couldn’t possibly work because it had been done before. 18 months (and some serious hard work) later, and Chocablog is starting to make real money. Not to mention all the free chocolate I get sent!

Exactly the same thing happened to me when I started Money Blogger. Now I could just give up because people have done this kind of thing before. Or I could take a chance and go for it.

You can probably guess what I’m going to do… and you can come back in 12 months to see if it worked out.

So my advice? Plan ahead, work hard, get some good advice… then ignore it and do whatever feels right.

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