Content Business Models: Diversify or All-In-One-Basket?

February 12th, 2007 1 Comment

This is the eternal question for content developers. One site or many sites?

Finally, I have proof-of-concept to help you make a decision. For several years, I’ve been running on theory. Now I’ve got details.

The fact is, that you can make a lot more money more easily if you put all your eggs in one (or maybe two) baskets. A single popular site is like a flowing river of money. Once you’re there, it just keeps pouring in. The challenge is getting there.

But…

Making your decision isn’t as easy as knowing the fact above. You should also know these facts:

1. Putting all your eggs in one basket requires all out commitment of time and resources, and you need to look inside yourself to see if you’ve got it. You need passion.

2. Putting all your eggs in one basket requires stamina to put (1) above in motion even when you’re not seeing financial return (which always happens at the beginning)

3. Putting all your eggs in one basket should only be done if you’ve got a good basket to put the eggs in. Do your research up front, and make sure that you aren’t throwing your eggs into a bottomless pit.

4. Diversifying provides you with security, but it also divides your time, and can result in lots of mediocre to poor projects

5. Diversifying gives you a larger portfolio from which to flip sites for profit, so if flipping is your thing, you’ll probably want to plant a large garden to harvest throughout the year.

6. If you don’t have what it takes to make a site blow-up then diversifying gives you a chance to get lucky with an accidental blow-up.

So what should you do?

Here’s my advice. If you’re passionate about a topic, do the research to find out whether enough other people are passionate about it too. Get a nice design and then have fun writing away. Or, maybe you know someone who is passionate about a particular topic. Hire them to write for you on a revenue sharing basis (revenue share gives incentive to make the site successful). But make sure that they are committed and ultra productive.

If you’re not sure what to do, or you get easily bored, then do some experiments. Take the diversify approach, but maybe only play around with 5-10 sites at a time. See what works, what doesn’t. We all learn as we go. As you learn, you’ll figure out where to invest more of your resources, and by that time, maybe you’ll have exactly what you need to make one of your sites blow-up.

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