I think comparing the "web 2.0" era (2006+) with magazine distribution is a bit too distant - but imho, things have really been getting too competitive as of la

I think comparing the "web 2.0" era (2006+) with magazine distribution is a bit too distant - but imho, things have really been getting too competitive as of late, and that explains a bit of a reduction on the number of side projects. My personal experience: it got easier to build (although not that much since 2008 or so, to be honest), but my feeling is that there's just TOO MANY projects happening, and too few people actually looking at them at all. I feel people are just saturated, and that's a direct reflection of all that easiness (is that a word?) + the web and mobile converging to a handful of very addictive gatekeepers. My first couple side-projects (launched in 2006 and 2008) turned into respectable revenue sources (at least for a long while) with very little effort - and a small user-base (both were ad supported). I launched other stuff ever since - a terribly designed mobile app in 2010, on a niche field (QR code reading!) netted thousands of downloads. Then it started to get crowded. My most recent toy apps barely got a download. Some web experiments got dozens to thousands of signups (after, say, a product hunt launch), but retention is just tending to zero. On the flipside of that (as an early adopter), I find myself signing up to more and more landing pages of things that either never launch or I just lose interest when they do. Dunno why. It's just a point of data, of course. Maybe I ran out of good ideas or I'm just barking the wrong tree. Anyway, just my 2 grouchy cents.