I don’t mean to be alarmist, but I do love a catchy headline, and nothing beats scaring the crap out of your readers. I enjoy it.

But on a serious note, these dangers are real - and they’re approaching fast, so if you want to avoid the top 5 web startup hazards of 2008, read on.. but don’t have nightmares…

1. Embracing Web 2.0 - Don’t do it. The moment has well and truly gone for web 2.0, which has become a parody of itself this year. If your 2008 startup has gradients, beta buttons, or anything akin to an “oh so super simple ^_^” look to it, prepare to be laughed at, or at the very least, join the legion of slow-starters who missed that shiny, rounded boat.

Oh and by the way, Web 3.0 isn’t going to happen either. Web 3.0 was just a web 2.0 meme.

2. The Worthless Dollar - The US Dollar is widely used online, as even those on foreign soil are quite comfortable with it. Trouble is, the value of the US Dollar has been falling rapidly; people are losing faith. If you plan on monetizing your site with paid memberships, sponsored accounts or even selling products and services, you might want to adopt the Pound, or Euro as extra payment methods. Experiment and see which your users are comfortable with. This is especially true for UK startups who charge in USD because it’s more familliar than the GBP.

3. Social Media Saturation - In 2008, social networking and user generated content will be a pre-requisite, not a “cool feature”. Every site and its dog has some social aspect to it, and if that’s all you offer, you’ll be swallowed up by the Facebooks, Twitters and StumbleUpons, who beat you to the post years ago. Offer something worthwhile and original, and make sure your pitch doesn’t start.. “Well, it’s like Facebook, but it’s orange”. Bad.

4. Emerging Monopolies - Google buys YouTube, Panoramio and Blogger… Ebay buys Skype, StumbleUpon and Paypal.. Yahoo! buys Flickr, MyBlogLog, and a load more. It’s hard to keep up, and all the while these giants swallow up every good idea, patent the crap out of every feature, and you’re left standing there with that goofy “erm” look on your face wondering what the fook just happened. The answer? Think regionally, find a niche - Social bookmarking for eskimos or something. Ok, I don’t actually know the answer. That’s kinda your job.

5. Build Now, Monetize Later - Don’t get me wrong, providing value to your users is absolutely paramount for a web startup, but you can learn from the backlash seen from YouTube and Facebook users who felt cheated when the sites built a loyal userbase, got bought out and suddenly the user experience drops in favour of advertising revenue. After all, without a userbase, there would have been no aquisition, and no investment to recoup. So I predict (and hope) that 2008 startups will be wise to this, and keep user loyalty in the long-run by working unobtrusive revenue models into the site from day one.

So there you have it, we’re all doomed. Or you could look at it this way.. The internets biggest players spend millions making mistakes, so you can sit on your arse and reap the benefits into 2008 and beyond.