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Services | Support | Coaching Lessons | Affiliate Program Solo Build It Mastery Lesson
33 - What The Banning Of Online Gambling Means For Your Your
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What this shows is that you can NEVER rely on any one source of anything. The absolute WORST number in any business is 1.
One big affiliate program paying most of your income, one source of website traffic, one product to sell, one staff member or contractor helping you with the books...you can't afford to have one of anything, or you are totally at the mercy of change.
I read today that this change in the law resulted in a $7 billion investment vaporization. In a matter of seconds, a $12 billion industry lost 60% of its market capitalization.
How would you feel if tomorrow it became illegal to renovate your home?
Far fetched?
Maybe, but there are countless other examples of multi billion dollar business models being killed or severely damaged overnight by changes that swept their industry, whether by legislation or changing technology.
The railways industry, tobacco companies, television Infomercials were banned at one time, people who use cold fax broadcasts can't do that any more in many cases, the Do-Not-Call list for telemarketing companies...the list is long.
So, what does the banning of online gambling mean for your business?
It means you need to diversify your income, traffic, sales and marketing systems so you don't wake up one morning to find your business killed off by an outside event.
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Don't rely on search engine traffic for 100% of your website visitors
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Don't expect Google Adwords to always send you an unlimited number of visitors for 10 cents a click
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Don't rely on one website for 100% of your income
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Never spend up big because you had one good month expecting next month t0 be even better (I've done this in the past :-)
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Always keep backup copies of all of your web pages in case your web host's server goes down and you lose everything
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ALWAYS keep a backup copy of ALL your customer and prospect email lists in case your list server crashes
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Don't rely on one office helper or contractor for everything - one day she will leave, rip off your client list and sell it to your biggest competitor, cook the books and steal your money, report you in to some government body, or generally do something (insert bad thing here) that takes your business back months, or even years
...in other words, never rely on one person or thing for anything in business - you WILL be disappointed at some point if you do.
Create backup systems for everything, multiple streams of everything, so your business can continue to flourish no matter what anyone does to you.
Develop a 'healthy paranoia' that keeps you on the lookout for problems before they derail your business.
Don't live in fear, expect the best, but plan contingencies for the worst, just in case.
You'll be glad you did if the financial tsunami ever comes to visit your business or industry...like it has just done to the online gambling industry...
Action steps
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Create as many pages based on long-tail keywords for your site as you possible can - link each of these 'buying keyword' pages to a specific affiliate product or something you sell personally
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Bid on hundreds of Google keywords and create specific landing pages for closely related groups of words, all linked to a specific product offering
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Plus make sure you use Yahoo Search Network and MSN's Ad center for additional Pay-per-click traffic
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Write multiple articles and use Article Marketer.com to submit your article to thousands of online publishers instead of spending time doing it by hand
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Exchange links and articles with webmasters in markets related to yours. Use Value Exchange to find related link partners.
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Diversify your income streams among multiple affiliate products in different price ranges to insulate yourself from the collapse of one large merchant
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Create additional web businesses in related or totally different niche markets to insulate yourself from a collapse in your industry
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Use several different outsourcing personnel from different sources (Elance.com, Guru.com, WorkaholicsForHire.com) so you aren't totally dependant on one person for these services
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Backup everything - your web pages, your articles, your customer database (twice in two separate places, it's your most profitable business asset), your computer's hard drive...everything!
I hope this article helps you to protect your business and allows you to handle the inevitable problems that will occur in the future.
To your success,
Cheers,
P.S. Having problems? If you'd like a hand with anything to do with getting your Solo Build It site performing at it's best, make sure you visit my services page to see how I can assist you in getting the most out of SBI.
P.P.S. And if you want to move on with the next lesson, or review any of the other lessons in this coaching course, you can by visiting this page.