What and how do we Diversify and survive

A look at what is diversification

[steve40]

Many have been saying on this board to diversify so I thought I would try to quantify what is diversification

1 How many websites
2 Traffic from where and cost
3 Revenue Streams
4 Income versus expenditure

With each change of algo's by the SE's some innocent websites are caught in algo changes that were not originally designed to effect them BUT HAVE .
During this update on 4 of the datacentres at one time all WW pages were suplimental ( it didn't stick ) but it may have , sorry brett to use ww as an example but this site should be a model to us all of how to build a business on the internet
Changes in Adsense ( smartpricing ) etc. can cause a business bottom line to change from profitable to a loss
The above are just 2 examples of effects outside our controll

So what is the ideal to survive in the new Internet landscape

1. No one website should provide greater than 50% of traffic or income
2. No SE should provide any greater than 50% of referralls
3. at least 30% of traffic should not be from SE's at all
4. If using PPC no single keyword should provide greater than 30% of profit ( incase new player emerges )
5. No single source of income should provide more than 50% of overall income
6. AND MOST IMPORTANT your business plan allows for no more than 30% of income to be swallowed up by expenditure therefore allowing you to stay in business long enough after any problem hits to identify and resolve

I wrote this down last week at the start of Alegra and answered my own questions to find out if I would survive being nuked during alegra ,
My answer to myself was I would just survive so have decided to put more of my effort into further diversification

Would appreciate and thoughts and comments or additional ideas
steve

[Livenomadic]

Good mini article, of your six points my site breaks 5 of them (eeek), I think it is time to diversify.

[steve40]

Livenomadic
When I wrote them I realised that having diversification in place was possibly more important than just increasing my current income
My goal is to try to match my diversification goals in a 12 month period

And what it did do is force me to change the focus of where i now put my effort

steve

[Macro]

I think there's a case to take some of your diversification to off-line investments/business.

[steve40]

Macro
Good point
Is in my longer term plan to take some profits to off-line
investments possibly property , but need to have built profits up enough to start and find the best way to achieve and tax advantages possible at the same time

steve

[Livenomadic]

Offline investments are of course important.

However currently my revenue only allows myself to offline invest in lunch. :-)

[ken_b]

A little offline promotion could help a lot.

[Livenomadic]

A little offline promotion could help a lot.

I'll share my lunch if you visit my site. :)

[soquinn]

steve40, great post! I poked fun at starting more diversification here msg #:706:

[webmasterworld.com...]

but I think it will be a major focus down the road with the volatility of search and the internet in general . I think the %’s will be different depending on your business and how you are growing. Ultimately, online vs. offline investments (if you’re there) is a good idea too.

You’ve nailed the basics:

1 How many websites
2 Traffic from where and cost
3 Revenue Streams
4 Income versus expenditure

In terms of practical implementations number 2 is a where most people could start. How about a checklist of options to build from…

Search Traffic

Natural (SEO’ed)

Google.com
Yahoo.com/AllTheWeb.com/AltaVista.com/Inktomi
MSN.com
DMOZ.org
Ask Jeeves/Teoma.com
LookSmart/Zeal.com
Gigablast.com
Accoona.com

Paid (Fee’s/PPC)

Google.com (AdWords)
Yahoo.com (Directory)
LookSmart.com (Directory)
Overture.com (PPC)
FindWhat.com (PPC)
7search.com (PPC)
Espotting.com (PPC-UK)
Mirago.co.uk (PPC-UK)

[edited by: soquinn at 5:43 pm (utc) on Feb. 10, 2005]

[Macro]

Hey, why is everyone limited to websites and traffic?

What about databases? Opt-in lists where you charge for advertising? (Get a big enough list and it doesn't matter what the SEs do)

Or write a book/create a program/create a collection of some useful stuff. Don't bother with SEs. Get others to promote it for you on commissions i.e. build an affiliate network.

And there are other forms of making money online. How come you guys are excluding all that?

[steve40]

macro
Your right of course and like others I have looked at alternative ideas for income generation

Selling SEO services independently
Website design and build for others
SEM
PPC management for others
And like us all keep looking for next big thing LOL

The problem is finding the time even by employing others to do research and content writing , infact I subcontract anything i can there still never seems to be enough hours in the day

I have even thought about just letting whatever is running now RUN and letting it earn while I look at something completely different .
Maybe something just for fun but would pay for it's keep and not make me rich

I suppose it all depends on your hunger for success / money and the commitments re: family etc.

I suspect I am much older than many on this board so the fire in the belly is not as strong as it was
steve

[soquinn]

Absolutely Macro, database, email and affiliate models should in the mix but most of those would probably still be supported by a website where you still take “search traffic” into consideration. It's easy to start with “search traffic” as one aspect to diversify because so many have come to depend on 1-2 sources and ideally shouldn’t have to.

[Macro]

>> where you still take “search traffic” into consideration

I'm sorry, I can't see the connection with search traffic. My examples were to show options where you did not need to worry about SE traffic.

>> I suspect I am much older than many on this board

Don't bet on it :)

[steve40]

macro
i think i will take that bet don't take the id as an indication of age that was when i was a young man with only the odd grey hair showing
steve