There are a lot of perfect formulas flying around out there. Scratch a working adult webmaster and he or she will be happy to give you a simple rundown of how they became successful. Some will tell you that they made their money by submitting galleries to Thumbnail Posts. Other will tell you to build a free site a day and submit it to top lists. You'll find webmasters that pimp a particular sponsor and that is the secret to their fortune. Others will cite a particular niche as the doorway to riches. You'll even encounter webmasters who tell you to do it all, promote particular sponsors , make galleries, find a special niche, and build a new site once a day. Yes, lots of perfect formulas and no two are exactly the same.
|
"So, here you are, practically drowning in perfect formulas and you still haven't got a clue on how to begin or where to move forward." |
So, here you are, practically drowning in perfect formulas and you still haven't got a clue on how to begin or where to move forward. Should you do the gallery building/submitting thing? Should you build a bunch of mini free sites? Should you go for that hot niche or direct your energies to a more tried and true kind of smut? Five webmasters told you that they make money with a certain sponsor. Another five told you that blogging is where it's at. Five more piped in that free stuff is baby playtime and the real money is in running paysites. Your confusion mounts.
To make things worse, you see all these high-profile webmasters diversifying their asses off. We almost expect a major sponsor to operate at least 20 paysites, along with mobile access and other upsell-type ventures. When those guys and gals expand in ten different directions, it looks so tempting. However, what isn't noted is how often some of those major players cut back because they had too many irons in the fire. If they survived their gluttonous mistakes, it's because they were at least smart enough to take stock of their assets and plug the money leaks.
Untitled Page
I've not been to business school but I'm guessing that those institutions teach no course on EXPANSION: WHEN TO STOP. It seems like these days, MBAs think the purpose of owning a business is to become successful in order to open another business and another and so on. I suppose that's fine for some folks but the larger and more diverse your company, the more control and profits you give away. Most of us will never be so driven. Most of us are happy to make a decent living in unstable economic times. We like working for ourselves and reporting to no one. Nevertheless, even the laziest of us can get carried away with too many projects.
Every six or so months, I take a good look at the domains I have sitting in my registrar account. Some have websites attached to them. Some domains are site-less. I them registered with the intention of making a site. I usually re-up my registration as a domain comes due. About twice a year, I take a good long look at all those domains and ask myself: "Do I want to keep that one or that one?" Some I will never retire. They are the ones that still get traffic and still make me money. Those are the ones that always remain after I clean my domain closet.
Before you lease another domain name and open another hosting account, stop. Take a long look at what you already have. The sites you already own. When you first put them online, they served you well. They made you money. Why on earth would you continue to neglect them? If you already own good sites, would it kill you to give them an overhaul and make them better? This diversification thing is very attractive but will it make you any richer? Why not concentrate on a few projects?
Scale back your mega-mondo plans for a future more streamlined. Work on two, three or four sites at the most. Make them real sites that are the best they can be. Maintain control over your vision, your freedom and your finances. Focus on the Few!