Everyone likes to think their business is solid as a rock, I know I do! However, sit back and think about yours for a minute. Is it REALLY as solid as you think it is or could it be gone in an instant?
It’s very difficult for us to realistically look at our own business models and determine if it’s solid or not. That’s why I am writing this post, I’m going to force you to take a good hard and long look at your home business model. Hopefully, after you do that, you will have a pretty good idea of whether or not your home based business is built on a solid foundation or if it’s on the verge of crumbling to the ground.
The best way to do this is with an example…
If you’ve been an internet marketer long enough then you surely remember the “Made for Adsense” (MFA) sites of the past. If you don’t know or remember then just imagine crappy looking sites with a bunch of low quality content on them around a particular topic with the sole intent of getting clicks to their Adsense ads. Internet marketers were making an absolute killing with them for a few years! Then, something tragic happened…
Google decided that all these sites were basically worthless and put an end to them. They got removed from the index and all of the income they were producing for marketers dried up overnight. And I won’t even mention how many people completely lost their Adsense accounts forever. A lot of online home business owners never recovered from that event. It was devastating to thousands of people.
Okay, let’s take a closer look at this business model to show why it wasn’t solid. What did it depend on? It was built on the Google Adsense program… A third party site. In this case, the internet marketer had no control over the program itself, in particular, the Terms of Service of that program. If Google changed the rules, which they did, it could have adversely affected the income of each online home business owner, and it did. In fact, these changes in policy may have been the biggest disaster in terms of adverse effects on home business owners in the history of making money online up to this point. Another similar home based business killer was when eBay banned the sale of digital products.
Do you see what the point is here? I know it’s impossible to predict the future, but you need to look at your home business model and see how much of it is within YOUR control and how much of it is being controlled by a 3rd party site like Google or eBay or Amazon. If more of it is being controlled by other sites, then you have a business model that could fall down around you at any minute.
Once you recognize this, you can then take steps to correct the problem. That might mean you need to come up with a whole new home based business model to ensure you have an indestructible business. Or at the very least it is always a good idea to diversify your business and not have all your money coming from one type of model. You should have multiple income streams.
If you don’t do this then all you can do is hope for the best. But in the ever-changing internet marketing world, I wouldn’t count on anything!
Control. That’s really a keyword when you’re handling your own business. At least you have the last say on how your business should be, everything’s at your own pace.
Hi I totally agree with you. I have been a Internet Marketer for the past 6 years myself. And just to give others looking to start or grow there business an idea of what it takes to stay successful and continue to grow and have a successful business I would like to to make a few comments here.
First IM takes hard work and dedication just like any other business or career out there. Some people give newbies the idea it simple and no work is involved at all. Absolutely not true at all!
Second you have to stay focused and working from home can be distracting and you fall off the track and decide well I can take a day off and then it gets where you are only working 1 day or a few hours a week. You cant expect to be successful that way at all.
And most important in my opinion never settle and just be content with what you have going. Always be looking to grow your business, and important to have yourself multiple streams of income in this business. What I mean by this is as mentioned in the post above if you rely on just one or two main sources lets say adsense and ebay or amazon are the only two things you do and they change the rules or fold your home business goes right down because you only have those two streams of income because you got complacent and didn’t care to grow because you didn’t think anything would happen to them.
Anyway I wont ramble on anymore thanks for your time, and this is a great blog I will be stopping by often. Good luck to all
It takes a lot to run a successful business, especially from home. Far more than one would imagine that’s for sure!