Income diversification is an important factor for being successful on the Internet. You never want to throw all your eggs in one basket because if that basket breaks, you will be in huge trouble. I have written up a quick list of various reasons for diversifying your income.
Program Closure
Whenever a major income source closes it can cause all sorts of trouble. It is bad enough having to find another program for one site, but imagine if you use the same program on all of your sites. Major income source no more. You should always have backup income streams, for the just in case scenario.
RSS Feeds
Most advertisement programs do not let you put ads in your RSS feeds. Although I haven’t heard of anyone becoming rich from RSS ads, it is extra money nonetheless. Fortunately, there are several programs around that allow you to post ads in your feeds.
Different Markets
Some markets don’t work well with certain forms of advertising. For example, a site about SEO might have better luck selling links and posting CPM ads rather than CPC ads. Most of the visitors would be webmasters, they would know what CPC ads are.
Also, with programs like adsense certain markets get low click prices while others get high prices.
Crappy Days
I couldn’t think of a better title for this section. Some days are going to bring in less money than others, everyone knows this. Because of the roller-coaster ride that online advertisements can be, you will always want to use several programs so they can help supplement loss income.
More Money
In addition to supplementing your lost income on crappy days, having multiple income streams can greatly increase your revenue. Lets look at this example:
Level 1 (variable) income:
Adsense/YPN and similar CPC programs
CPM advertisements
Level 2 (somewhat steady) income:
Product sales
Affiliate programs
Level 3 (steady) income:
Text-Link-Ads/link sales
If you follow a plan like that you will make more money. Plus, if level 1 fails then you will have level 2 and 3 to back you up. Level 3 should only be very steady/fixed income streams, like link sales, and level 2 should be somewhat steady income.
Look at it this way, your adsense may bring in $20 a day. Pretty low. Now lets add in some affiliate links that may help you bring in an extra few bucks a day, and then add in link sales and boom. More money. If it was not for the extra income streams you would be stuck with a measly $20/day (then again, if you make $20 per day of adsense income you are doing much better than 99.9% of the people out there).
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February 13th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
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March 1st, 2007 at 7:42 pm
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March 6th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
[…] Income diversification is the best way to bring in money. Selling text link ads and banner space is a nice way to have a fairly steady income each month that you can fall back on in the “just in case” scenario. Also, don’t forget about affiliate programs. […]
May 31st, 2008 at 3:28 pm
I found your site and as a new blooger, have found it EXTREMELY helpful. I was naive and thought I would start a blog and immediately have all kindsof readers and ad revenue. A month into it I realize that most of the blogs i read who have success have A) been at it for a couple years now and B) know more about programming and such than I do. I also realized that nothing is going to put my blog in a better position to earn readers than word of mouth and good writing that makes people want to read what I have to say. Anyway…I know now that me making any revenue from my blog will take time and attention to detail and that I have a lotto learn to make my blog a place people want to stop by and spend 10 minutes of their browsing time. Thanks for the input, I will continue to check out your site for great advice and direction.
May 31st, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Thanks. I’m writing a post in a few minutes explaining some things that I’m up to, please check it out. Big changes are coming.