Hell, that describes me and I'm nowhere close to being a home contractor - I haven't applied to a job the traditional way in 7+ years, and all the jobs I've worked have been via my network.

This is preferable, since I don't have to deal with tire kickers or companies that lowball me - my network filters that - and the quality of jobs that get put in front of me are all pretty high quality.

Casting the net wide and slapping your contact info everywhere is one way to do it, I'm not sure why there's the belief that this is somehow necessary, or even better than the alternatives.

If he can be, don't, but is that realistic for most businesses?

If you legitimately don't need business leads then don't do a website, but also don't do the Yellow Pages, or the local paper. But being in such a position is rare and a privilege.

It's not so rare as you might think. Of course I only started learning about this once I (accidentally) got introduced into such a 'network' (it's not an organized or sinister plot, just something that organically grows). Plus yes it's only the best who can work like this; which are exactly the ones you want to find. Which was the point of my original post: not having/needing an internet presence signals being high quality, in 2016. It's the chumps that need to shell out the money to the web design firms and SEO guys and 'lead generators' and bidding sites (you know, all the 'elance for plumbers' sites - I know it's the wet dream of most geeks not having to pick up a phone ever again any more, and getting job quotes via email, but it's a sure way to get the bottom feeders...).