Newbies: Put ALL Of Your Eggs In One Basket!

I agree with sticking to one type of business....TOTALLY!

But I think that you need to diversify where the traffic is coming from... since that is something that newbies fail to do...

And more importantly to build a business around a niche rather than a product.......building a business around a product is the most common error I've been seeing lately!

Regards

Chris

Yeah, I totally agree with you.
Diversify when and only when your current business is well established.

Otherwise it's going from method to method searching for the unexisting holy grail...

Be happy, be successful,
~ JoeDRL

Totally agree. I believe it is lack of focus that causes most newbies to fail or to take much more time and much more money to succeed.

However, I do believe that once you have a method and a niche that you are focusing on, you then diversify your sources of traffic.

I would agree that you should start with just 1..make it successful, work hard at it, and focus solely on that 1 project...HOWEVER, one it is up and running and hopefully not consuming all your time, I would recommend diversification.

I know where you're coming from, but I disagree with focusing on one thing only.

When I started making money online I was doing UK Secured Loan leads selling them to UK banks and loan companies. This was back in 2004. It went awesome for a couple years. I got complacent. I was completely on cruise control. Money just came pouring in and I was laughing. Life was good.

Then the credit crisis hit the US and UK and every other financial market in the world.

My income went from Donald Trump to Dumpster in about 7 days. I literally went from rich to poor overnight. I was stunned. I never expected it and it was something that was totally and completely beyond my control that did it. UK companies were not buying leads anymore, banks were not lending money like they did and I was in panic mode.

It was then that I vowed I would NEVER be in that position again. I started up PPC Coach in 2007, things were going swimmingly well, back up to big money, back to the lifestyle I was used to. Money was pouring in. Then one day Adwords decided they were going to BAN 10,000 affiliate accounts overnight. Now I don't need to tell you how much that hurts a business who was training people in how to use Adwords for affiliate marketing. But it hurt. My membership dropped, people were moving onto other traffic sources.

So that's the second time something had happened beyond my control that affected me big time. I refused to let the site go down in flames. Instead I started showing how to use MSN Adcenter, Yahoo, Facebook, 7search and others. Members started coming back and things were good again.

BUT I knew that you can't rely on one thing, so I decided to expand my empire a bit. Get into other traffic sources, other methods and I have since launched about 15 other training sites in the PPC Coach model. Some failed, some are still there and some are not in the IM niche at all.

So now I've got those sites, my own campaigns using a lot of traffic sources and even more expansion plans, (just launched my own ppc agency this year to help business owners with ppc campaigns). I'm not stopping there either.

I do all this because I know if you get complacent and start focusing on one thing, you're putting yourself at great risk. Too many newbies focus on one thing, the offers drops and they're back to square one. They need to diversify EVERYTHING imho.

Sure don't take on 5 different things at once, but build upon each success by trying more new stuff. If you're brand new, try to learn one traffic source but push 5 offers at it. That way when one goes down, (which it will), you're not back at square one.

Don't go by offers alone, go bigger, go by niches and dominate a niche. Then you've got a lot of options within that niche that you can do to safely build a diversified business.

Once that's done, go out of your comfort zone and try something else while maintaining your bread and butter. That's how I'd do it if I were starting out again from square one.

I disagree with you. The best thing to do is to have multiple income streams from the beginning, which should all be related. Well, this is the ideal scenario. For example, you should create a blog or website about something that you want to sell, and at the same time provide a related service, and at the same time create a passive income while promoting your business. A good combination is what will really help you make money through many ways, instead of depending on only one thing.

If you’ll only depend on selling, you will have to waste a lot of time and money until you'll manage to sell your products. If you’ll provide a service at the same time you will have another income stream that will give you money faster.

If you cannot find something related to your main business, you still should care about finding another income stream so that you may have money always coming in, without passing through empty periods of time without making money. Wish I had understood that from the beginning of my adventures online.

Of course, one of your income streams will be your favorite, and you will put more effort on it, but don’t put all your eggs in this basket. Put a few eggs somewhere else. You may find out that it is better to concentrate your attention on something else (because it gives you more money, or fast money) than on your favorite income stream.

Hi,

You are right in the short term.

when starting its important to focus on one thing at a time! So we start on one method.

but when we have cracked one method and making the money we aimed for, its time to move on and start on a new revenue stream!

thanks

TheKaver

When I say one method, I mean something sustainable and then add other niches to that one method once you are making money.

Yes, you have to hedge against changes but for newbies who are jumping all over the place, they never get anywhere and they waste a lot of time and energy.

This is another reason why I believe list building is so important. You will always have your list of people you have built a relationship with no matter what happens with Google or any particular program down the road.

Once I built a list in one niche, I started building lists in totally different niches.

Then I got some local businesses who weren't building lists at all to pay me per lead and more per paid client to build their list.

So I stuck with one method (list building) and only one niche until I was making money (about a month), then I scaled that up and once it was running well, I added another niche and then the offline clients (which is still online work once I got the clients).

So by focusing on one method at first and then using that same skill but diversifying after getting it going well, I finally got somewhere rather than when I was doing some list building, some CPA, some stuff on freelancer, some niche sites, etc. etc. etc.

How many different fields does one diversify into and how many firfferent mediums would I promote across- FB,Twitter,BLogs and real life Etc?

I would really suggest to put your heart into one project or business. Learn everything, deliver, make money, get it stable, improve upon it. Once you can take your girlfriend out for dinner and fill up your gas tank with your profits, THEN you should expand and move into other niches to hedge against risk.

I would have never found success online if I did not commit and focus to one course of action.

I split my attention in 2005, when I started a second business. That allowed me to make more money, but it made the job harder.

Most people cannot handle two businesses, so sticking to one course of action is best. And only when the first course has proven absolutely successful should one look to diversify.

I agree with you about the one business idea. My friend has multiple sites, and none of them make any money, because he moves to the next one, and then the next, without properly ranking and promoting it. However, you do need to diversify your efforts. Build your social following on multiple sites, try SEO, email marketing, and PPC, and make money on other people's sites as well. I'm making good money writing articles on an article writing site, like twenty dollars a day. I can't make that guaranteed on my own site, and I do Fiverr gigs selling similar services as what I do on my site so I get an extra source of income.

Focus on smaller goals to achieve the objective...am i right?

I disagree in part.

Develop a business model, but execute it a couple or a few ways.

For example, if list building is your bread and butter - build a couple or a few lists in related niches. You'll be able to leverage content, traffic, lists, affiliate promotions, product sales, etc.

If you're into affiliate promotions on a website, again develop a couple or a few websites where you can leverage your existing content. I'm not saying copy and paste, but instead re-purpose it from a different perspective to serve different, but related niches.

If you sell products, create related products that you can cross-sell.

I agree diversifying traffic sources is good (although I don't think the OP is suggesting focusing on one traffic source).

Moreover, consider diversifying monetization methods. Again, I don't believe the OP is suggesting otherwise.

If you have 2 to 4 projects that you can efficiently scale by leveraging past efforts, you minimize risk, create more income with less effort and avoid boredom.

I agree to a point. Yes you need to focus on one thing and not get distracted by bright shiny objects. But if you have focused on getting one thing done and you find that it just isn't working out, maybe it's time to pick another niche, or ditch the product idea and come up with another one. This is why speed of implementation is so important because you can test fast and fail fast so you can really get on to the stuff that works!

I couldn't agree more. When i first started off, all i did was article marketing. After some success with it, i branched off and started doing alot of other marketing strategies for my website. Worked out well for me.

Great point about focusing your energy but things get boring...fast! ha. Even with the most disciplined mind I think you should have one or two non traditional tasks to help you think outside the box, and still achieve your main objective. If you are an article writer only, and never allow yourself to branch out, you will most likely remain writing articles.

This is why Google and other ultra successful companies allow employees time for ancillary activities that don't support their main objective. The human mind is funny. One minute you're writing an article, the next your making a blog comment and you get a great idea. Don't short change yourself, but focus is critical. Balance!

I think the idea about not being too diversified initially and putting enough focus on one to succeed is good. But it really depends on how much time you have. If you have a lot of time, there's nothing wrong with diversifying a bit which is what I'm doing. Check out different methods of making money online. Stick with a few for a while and don't just run to another one.

It is true that for many one problem is just doing something for a while and then going on to something else when no success is in sight. However, if you can stick with various ways for a while and not give up, there's nothing wrong with diversifying a bit.

One important point I think is to initially explore everything. Get a macro view of the industry. Then pick either one or a few based on that knowledge. Don't just rush into the first thing you find out about because that may not be something you are really interested in or something that fits you well.

Get a good grasp of the whole, then focus on it. It took me months to do research without getting into any one area. And then eventually I had a better picture and now I'm focusing in on a few.