The Digital Gold Rush

August 5, 2014

The Digital Gold Rush – Staking Your Claim

The digital Goldrush is a term coined by Jay Kubassek (above)to describe the continuing growth of the digital economy. In one of the video’s that are part of the series introducing his company The Digital Experts Academy he explains what he means.

He starts with the fact that in the digital economy anyone with a laptop and an internet connection can access the digital goldrush. He explains the process of making money online and how his Academy has trained thousands of individuals to do that.

Jay’s presentation starts with a fascinating look at how the traditional economy has basically been on a boom and bust spin cycle for many years. Dealing with the period form 1980 onwards he shows how during all these upturns and downturns another economy – the digital economy or as he puts it the digital goldrush has gone from boom to boom.

Economists agree that it was really in 1980 when the world started to go digital in a serious way. From then electronics have become increasingly important to most of us in lots of areas. The home computer started to become the norm and products like Cameras, and music moved into digital formats. They began to become part of everyday life.

Then in the 90’s came the Internet. As a so-called baby boomer I remember all this clearly. I remember getting my first computer, my first digital camera and my first CD. I also remember all of those as novelties. I wasn’t sure they would catch on and what has happened with the Internet since then has been utterly incredible.

Sadly many of the businesses that had grown to huge multi national level in pre-digital areas also didn’t think this trend would last. Look at some of the big names that have fallen by the wayside as a result. Who for example would have thought that Kodak would ever go bust?

In the digital economy however this was just the start. Leaving physical products to one side lets consider the Internet. At first when business started to be done online it was very like the traditional economy. The only difference being that you bought stuff from your computer rather than from a shop. It was a bit like mail order.

Now however many of the goods and services that have made emerging digital companies the biggest the world has ever seen don’t actually exist in the traditional economy. They don’t actually exist as physical objects. Look at Google, Facebook, mobile apps, the way we consume music now. These are multi-billion dollar industries yet none are actually physical products.

The digital gold rush really just describes the way entrepreneurs have harnessed the internet to build massive enterprises without the need for much more than a way to connect to the www. There is no need to be the whizzkid with the next big idea either in the digital gold rush. We can become virtual sales people for countless businesses and generate commissions from multiple sources.

The biggest currency on the Internet – the digital gold rush – is information. Again delivered in an electronic format. This costs little or nothing to create but can fairly easily – when you have the skills, tools and resources – be turned into money.

Make no mistake this is the future. It’s here already and with the new mobile revolution it’s getting bigger every day. There is no way this is going any way but forward. Digital marketing is the must have skill set of the future.

You can catch the digital gold rush presentation on the link below. Jay also outlines how his Academy provides all the tools, resources and training needed for anyone to jump in to this gold rush. His vision for this is inspiring stuff.

These tools are like the shovels used in the old time gold rush. More money was made by the people selling those tools to prospectors than was ever made from prospecting after all. It’s the same with the digital gold rush.