Recession, What Recession?

I've pretty much stopped reading newspapers at the moment, as the press seems determined to talk us all into an economic recession. I can't bear the negativity.

It's ironic that the very people who we are supposed to trust for financial guidance, banks, the so-called experts, are the very institutions that have been reckless in their lending and have created a situation that has caused a virtual meltdown in the financial markets.

It looks like there will be some hard times ahead.

My response to all of this predicted chaos is to strengthen my position by looking at how I think people will react online.

As business and household budgets get stretched to breaking point, people will be flooding online more than ever, seeking answers to their problems.

The simplest way for me to prepare for this is to build more sites, something I wasn't really that interested in doing a couple of months ago.

However, my safety net for a recession is my domain name portfolio, so it's time to put it to work again.

This means creating a few specialist niche sites that will allow me to:

1) Earn direct income from services offered (only the stuff I like doing)

2) Earn commissions from other businesses

3) Earn residual income from programs like Google Adsense

That's what I've always done of course, but there's no harm in adding a few more sites to the pot and making some money from those who turn to the Internet for their answers.

My job is to anticipate the questions of course. If I get them right, I'll make money.

So how do you anticipate the questions?

Simply put yourself in to the position of the people who will be affected by an economic downturn of course.

Personally, my approach will be to look at the service industry sector, as they will be the amongst the first to feel the strain.

Services like recruitment, training and the like always suffer from budget cuts.

Companies still have to recruit of course, even in recessions, but suddenly they find that they can't afford to be paying 20% fees to recruiters, so they'll have to start learning how to do it themselves - they'll be looking for free advice on how to do so.

Employment related information will serve the many people who will soon coming flooding online looking for new jobs as inevitable redudnacies take place. They will be looking for ways to promote themselves by writing a better CV. They'll want answers to interview questions.

Those struggling with mortgage or rent problems will be looking for new sources of finance, or information on how to cut their cost of living, or manage their budgets better.

Small businesses will be seeking out new ways of promoting themselves and having ignored or written off the Internet, will suddenly start exploring this wonderful "new" medium.

I've only touched on a very small part of what could happen, so the opportunity to strike it rich, or at least provide a cushion from any recession by putting in a few hours a day online are limitless.

Just like they have always been.