I recently read an article about three federally insured banks going belly up since the beginning of 2008. Remember the days when people thought investment safety meant heading down to the bank to buy a CD? This was the safest way to protect your money, right? Well… maybe.

The mortgage crisis is poised to hurt small banks (and maybe some large ones- see Bear Stearns). We’re all sure the FDIC will always step in and pay these debts, right? Again, maybe.

The ideas and beliefs that we commonly held yesterday may be completely obsolete by tomorrow. Change has always been here, but change seems to be happening faster than ever before.

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Have you noticed all these niched flat bread restaraunts popping up everywhere?

As we see the healthy eating craze grow we see the pizza by the slice eateries begin to fade away. I guess the flatbread joints are stealing the ‘pizza by the slice crowds’ away. If you’re angry, dont blame me- I personally love pizza by the slice. And besides, you can still have pizza- just without the sauce. And now you have to call it flatbread.

I fully understand that true innovation is developing a new and extraordinary product. But isn’t there a place for the subtle changes that help things continue to work?

The moral of the story is: never be afraid to tweak your product. The consumer is changing- shouldn’t you?

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Depending on how you look at it, I have good news or bad news.

The internet as it is today is losing its value. For several years, bloggers, social sites, and innovative new web services have propelled massive growth in the value of the internet. You have probably spent a lot of time online in recent years, learning new things, making your life more streamlined and convenient, and gaining new insight in your particular field. Chances are, you have recently noticed a plateau.

Seth Godin, one of the most insightful voices in business, and internet business in particular, writes:

For a decade, the web kept delivering an ever better signal to noise ratio to me. I was able to hear more things, more clearly, in less time. Websites and email and my RSS reader were bringing me signals from everywhere, and processing them (and creating, I hope, new signal) was a joy.

Lately, I’m feeling noise creep.

Lately, the noise seems to be increasing and the signal is fading in comparison. Too much spam, too many posts, too little insight leaking through.

This is bad news if you are in the business of “me too.” If you notice successful trends and then hop on the wave with a similar product or service, this means the wave has reached shore. You won’t make any more money until a new wave picks up.

However, this is great news if you are a wave maker. There is a huge opportunity to rethink, reinvent, and recreate the online experience for a massive audience. Here’s just a few areas that are dying and in need of a change:

Blogging: Too many blogs shouting too many mediocre messages means you turn them off altogether. Blogging has had a great run, but now it’s run out. If you come up with a new way for regular people to teach, preach, and publish effectively, you will profit tremendously from it. PS- Twitter is not it. It is the opposite of “it.”

Communication: People like communicating with each other, but the current ways of doing so are losing their effectiveness. You have phone, email, voicemail, SMS, Facebook, Twitter, blog comments, and yes, some people even use regular mail and faxes. The types of communication coming in range from outright spam, to almost spam, to “I want to know about these offers,” to acquaintances, to friends, and finally, older family members still sending you email forwards. It is an absolute mess. When people are talking about taking a vacation from their phones and email, there’s something seriously wrong. That’s a huge opportunity.

Information: News, educational material, and entertainment. We have reached an “embarrassment of riches” here. Lots of great stuff. So much so, you don’t know where to start. You don’t know what you’re missing. There’s a great chance for someone to channel the waters of this flood.

These are just a few places where we need a change. Not just a change, but another revolution. That means it’s your chance to become king.

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You can’t fake free anymore. People know the difference between ‘free-if-you-do-something-or-buy-something’ (FREE!) and just ‘free’ (free.). If you are offering FREE! your prospects now think of spam, hooks, bait-and-switch, and high pressure sales. They may have tolerated FREE! when there was no free., but now that free. is plenteous, FREE! has lost its appeal.

Which one are you offering?

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