The following post comes from my experience online of over 13+ years.
It's a cautionary tale and a word or warning. Guess you could say it's my rise and fall, rise and fall.
Quite painful at times.
But it was my own fault.
"You going to get to the point Ron?"
Okay, okay.
I'm talking about reliable, steady income. When you get to the full-time point with your online business, and your counting on this online income, this is important stuff.
See, I've been dumb enough to rely on things like getting my traffic from one main source.
Yep, I'm talking about the big G.
But this goes beyond traffic. It goes beyond G.
Here's the important point of this post, you can NOT build a reliable and stable business when you rely on say only search engine traffic.
You know G changes the rules all the time.
Problem is we get comfortable, we get complacent. We enjoy the hits and the sales. We get lazy.
I know I do.
We work our butt's off and the traffic starts coming in. The sales start coming it. Some times it's gravy for years.
Problem is, it doesn't always last. Any "Guru" that tells you they can get your ranked high in the search engines and keep you ranked is full of you know what. I've been around long enough to know that it's a HUGE myth.
Sorry, just being honest.
It really hits home when some thing changes and all or most of your income vanishes over night.
Been there, my "fall". Been there a few times.
So the key is, as you've probably already guessed, is to have multiple streams of everything coming into your business.
- Multiple streams of traffic - Search Engine, Social, Viral, Repeat Customers, Forums, Referral.
- Multiple streams of income - Varied affiliate programs, varied affiliate platforms, your own sales systems.
- Multiple forms of income - One off sales, Recurring income, membership payments, upsells, downsells, cross sells.
Most people reading this will say, "Oh ya, that makes sense, but I already know this". Or "I'll make sure to keep that in mind".
But I know some people will fall into the trap. I know because I've done it.
So, don't be dumb like me 🙂
Anything to add? Leave a comment below...
