There are one-to-one media…like telephones.

There are one-to-many media…like newspapers. (One publisher, with many readers.)

And then there is the first many-to-many medium, on a global basis, the Web.

During its first fifteen years the Web took baby steps towards its promise as a many-to-many medium. Traditional media built big sites online, in the hope that the Web was simply another one-to-many medium they could control.

Sadly for them, that isn’t the case.

The growth of social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter has accelerated the evolution of the Web’s true nature…as a many-to-many medium.

There are now a billion of us online, worldwide. More and more we ignore big media websites and, instead, connect with one another, learn from one another and listen to recommendations and warnings from one another.

The natural outcome of this shift in attention, from big media to each other, is that big media sites online will become increasingly irrelevant.

So who will the new media be? It will be you, and me, and a billion other people online, connected 24/7.

And that is very good news for those of us who have created our own information websites on topics that interest us.

As an example, with my own website, CoffeeDetective.com, my role is not to provide the final word as an expert. I’m not an industry expert, I’m just someone who knows more about coffee than most.

My position as an expert-next-door fits perfectly within the web as a many-to-many environment. My visitors don’t want to seek out some big industry website about coffee. They would rather connect with me. Why? Because I’m not a big company. I’m not an inaccessible expert. I don’t write in the language of coffee professionals. And I do answer questions people ask through my site.

In other words, I’m just a regular web user, like my visitors. I’m part of the many-to-many.

As social media continues to grow the connections between individuals online, the opportunity for people to write their own money-making websites on topics that interest them increases.

In a many-to-many environment we want to learn from each other, not from big media.

This is the opportunity you will find explored in my book, New Path to Riches.

Buy New Path to Riches from Booklocker.com (also available as e-book)

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