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Hi. This is such a radical concept to what I have heard. Everyone talks about getting more web sites up. Even Frank's new thrust seems to be multiple sites. Please say more.

Harlan,

Frank's method is a great way to diversify and a wonderful way for a beginner to get something going quickly and easily.

However, the trouble occurs when someone is so hell bent on diversification that they ignore a natural profit center within a current product offering.

Likewise, it is a poor strategy to "tread water" (100% focus on one site/product) with a website for years/months because then you put yourself at risk of having a competitor undermine your marketing.

As with anything-moderation is key.

Create sites-in different markets to diversify. And go "deep" within appropriate markets to suck up all potential profits.

That is a well rounded strategy that almost guarantees long term success.

Thanks
Jonathan Page

I personally think that an important question is that determines the best course of action is: How big is the market?

If you are in a 40 billion dollar market and you are only making $10000 a month, then you can obviously go deeper and improve profits. So, it would probably make a lot of sense to focus on improving things.

If you are in a super small niche market (like Frank's Parrot product), then there is a limit to how deep he can go. So at some point he should diversify.

Matt

Matt,
Let's take the parrot site as an example-
Let's say that a website about Parrots makes $1000/month.

A very modest sum.

I think that ultimately it is in the site owner's best interest to build in a small backend so that he can take advantage of sales that aren't subject to advertising expense.

The 1000/month is sales minus advertising. For several hundred dollars one could simply get a book/report written that can be offered as an upsell and any sales of that product is found money. Additional net profits.

Essentially it is a way to increase your prices while keeping your advertising costs constant.

Even 10 sales a month at an additional $10/sale would increase his bottom line by 10%. A 10% increase is no small feat.

Thanks
Jonathan Page

I agree Jonathan. Also, just to clarify, I'm saying you should only go for big markets. What I'm saying is IF YOU ARE in a big market, then you should really focus DEEP and keep pushing to suck out more and more profit.

But, for sure, even in a small market, you should push to maximize every cent you can. The difference is at some point (because of the size of the market), it will become a better investment to work on new things.

As far as Frank's site goes, why not sell actual parrots? Isn't 2 parrots better than 1? LOL...

Matt

I think Matt and Jonathan have both made good points.

As someone who contributed content to Frank and Ed's Underachiever method, I thought I'd add my 2c...

I set an income target when I start a new project eg. $3000/month.

I then focus entirely on that single project until I reach that target.

When I reach my goal, I then assess whether to go deep or whether its time to move on.

This way you get the best of both worlds - focus and diversity.

As everyone stated, all situations are different. The biggest mistake entrepreneurs make is overlooking how much money they are leaving on the table with their existing businesses and not putting in the extra work to MAXIMIZE response in every aspect of their marketing processes.

Harhan:

What Frank was talking about is a great way to get a number of income streams up and running.
He has a large goal of setting up 50 mini-sites, I understand he's planning to twink each in
groups of 10's. As long as he twink each of the sites to get the most out of them, what
difference does it make how many he dose or when he gets in or out.

Frank's Parrot product does $1,800 to $2,000 per month, think about 50 such mini-sites doing
about the same. I think $1,080,000. per year for a group of web sites that run pretty much
on auto pilot is the kind of business that appeals to me.

I know of a guy who makes much, much more than just $1800-$2000 per month selling from a parrot site. More like 10k or multiples of that. He has made some posts about it on another forum.

Evidently, he's not leaving much on the table like John was talking about.

And he's still working on more backends to get even more out of that niche.

Something that hit me today. John is right and one of the big reasons is because of the learning curve there is to being able to communicate to each market. If you want to be able to really "connect" with your prospects there is a learning curve to every market.

It's like sex. The people who jump from market to market are like a gigolo has no connection with each woman. Compare that to the guy who has sex with the same woman 1000 times. He SHOULD know every little hot button on her.

Matt

Matt,

Well said. Connecting with your target market's wants and desires, so to speak, is about 70% of marketing. Otherwise your chances of converting visitors takes a nosedive...it seems like a huge time commitment.

Lorrie

Excellent points. Thanks for the reminder, John -- my recent forays into other sites have been much less lucrative than my primary trading site.. good reminder to expand out, improve currently profitable site vs expend too much energy on new site work ... test test test..

ken

This is really an excellent point.

Obviously, the key here is balance as Jonathan stated earlier.

When the creative mood strikes, it is really tempting to start following through on all of those great ideas at once... only to end up with a bunch of mediocre results.

Having the discipline to see an idea through before jumping on to the next really is a great way to boost the bank account...

Jason

I agree that its possible to tweak your current site to probably earn you some more, but diversifying is equally imporant wouldnt you agree?

Plus this "Sites that earn on autopilot" is a myth, the day you stop promoting your site actively, you've dug your own grave....