[thenomad]

If you started in 2002, and particularly if you have been actively link-building since then, you have a huge advantage in terms of visibility SEO-wise.

It's quite simply much harder to build a link profile in 2017 than it was 15 years ago.

It's not impossible, but don't underestimate the difficulty of starting up now. I started things in 2002, I'm still starting things now, and building an independent web presence now - at least, one which anyone will find - is considerably more difficult.

(Technically it's much easier - getting the actual website serving to the Internet is easier. But that was never the hard part.)