I have not personally published articles on my blog here for the past couple of months. That’s because of a local project I’m working on.
However, thanks to you my active community and guest authors, my blog is still thriving.
I remember creating this article helping female bloggers aspiring to be moms with tips on how to keep their blogs active while they are away taking care of babies.
So a few minutes ago, I was just thinking on something and decided to write about it.
The point is that we are in a world of uncertainties. Everything seems to be moving on. They say “change is constant…” and that’s affecting online business big time.
A lot of things have stopped working and a bunch of new things have popped up. A few months back, Google came up with a big change and so many webpreneurs got hit. Here is my question…
What if your current business fails as a result of a major change?
Do you have any guarantee it will never fail?
Ok let me be very specific and talk to content marketers and everyone else online.
We are all depending on someone’s business to run ours. I don’t care how you see it. You are using something someone has created for its purpose:
- Google for natural/sponsored traffic.
- Facebook, Twitter, YouTube for social media
- Pinterest for Traffic
- Etc
Maybe you should go ahead and tell me in the comment box how your business is succeeding as an Island.
Oh! I see you have a huge list. Isn’t it on AWeber? It’s definitely hosted by someone. Again, those email users depend on Gmail, Yahoo, etc. At every level of your business, there is dependency.
So this makes it so risky to depend on one source of income. Your business depends on someone who, when following change will be obliged to change something that may affect your business.
I remember when I created EasyRetweet in 2011. It fully functioned on Twitter. So its success is at the mercy of Twitter. My friend from Nigeria created JustRetweet, basically cloning EasyRetweet.
By the time I sold out EasyRetweet in 2012, I was averaging $1500/m from the platform alone. But I smelled a dead rat. Twitter was beginning to breed changes.
Valentine sold out JustRetweet too. It kept doing well, generating income for the new owner. Then Twitter hit:
The JustRetweet Twitter API has been suspended and there are no chances the suspension will be lifted.
Social media platforms change their Terms Of Services and kick people’s businesses off. Google does daily changes and bring many ventures down.
These chances are taking place every day because we live in a world where change is unstoppable. So woe to you if you build and depend on a single online business.
Why?
Because change will soon affect you too. If you aren’t lucky, you may see a drop in business:
Develop a Multiple Source of Income
The only way to be financially stable is to develop multiple sources of income (MSI). Relying on a single blog could be suicidal. I don’t care what you think and say about it.
- You focus on Google traffic
- Pinterest traffic is your best
- YouTube is like your grand ma
- Etc
The simple truth is that change is coming some day and that may be soon.
You may be thinking you are 100% compliant.
Congratulations!
But let me tell you this…
Years back, 500-word article was good food for Google. If you wrote 1000 articles then, I imaging you were king. You were probably 100% Google’s friend.
But what becomes of your 1000 articles today? You see it’s not just about being in compliance. It’s about positioning yourself for the evident change: Build different sources of income. Period!
How to build a Multiple Source of Income!
The first step at building an MSI is to make up your mind to do so and start with one. But do not engage another business until the first business is somewhat stable.
Well, you may have enough resources to run your new businesses on parallel rails. But for many, a better approach would be to take one business to a point that will be able to sponsor your next new business.
Secondly, I’m going to recommend you spread out and don’t rebuild the same business. If your first business is an SEO tool, your second should NOT be an SEO tool again. Avoid building two business on the same platform. If all your businesses are powered by Facebook, a change by the platform owners may ruin your MSI.
Investing offline is a nice way to create an excellent source of income. There are lot of business ideas for offline ventures. Don’t pour all your eggs online. Get a local business you can turn to if something goes wrong with online.
Listen…
All I have been trying to tell you is online is risky. That’s because of interdependence and change. You can’t avoid any of these.
I’m not against you creating all your businesses online. Weigh the risk and decide which direction to take.
Drop a comment!
How many businesses do you have online? BTW is your blogging a real business?
Do you have a business offline?
I’d like to hear from you in the comment box.
Comments are closed.