Sustainable Income – The Holy Grail
The following is an excellent guest post by “doovde” from the PAL forums, who runs a great bingo reviews website. His ideas on creating sustainable income and not worrying so much about short term profits reflect the exact moves I am making in my business at this moment.
Business isn’t just all about how much money you make right now, yes it’s awesome to be coining it in and living the high life while things are good but how sustainable is your income? It’s not a topic that’s widely discussed but it matters, in fact it matters more than the amount of money you make this month and even the amount of money you make this year.
When I first started out as an affiliate my main focus was to grow my monthly income to a point at which it could support the lifestyle I wanted to lead. There was no better feeling than achieving my monetary goals but after a few months of earning well and spending cash I began to wonder what would happen if all this was taken away. Basically my conclusion was that it would be a total disaster, one worse than not making any money in the first place! You can’t miss something you never had and the thought of having to start over from the bottom of the pile sent chills down my spine having spent so much time getting to where I am right now.
Upon the above realization my goals changed significantly. I went from the pursuit of more money to the pursuit of sustainable income. Now obviously I still want my income to grow but what I really want is the safety of a consistently good monthly income that can allow me to lead the life I want to lead. Don’t get me wrong quick income is good income but when you really think about it sustainable income is the holy grail.
How To Create A Sustainable Income
Hopefully I’ve convinced you a little or maybe even just made you consider the idea of sustainability when it comes to the growth of your business. It matters and in 20 years time if the income streams you’ve built now are still paying out for you then you’ve got something very special.
Like anything there is no one way to create a sustainable income, it’s more of a mind set than anything else and the more you start to think about it the more it creeps into every decision you make. Often it’s pretty obvious that decisions people make are not sustainable. If you’re strategy is to just spam you way to the top of the search engines then you don’t have a sustainable income stream. Even if your strategy is to buy your way to the top of the search engines you’re taking risks with the longevity of your income.
You need to strike a balance of risk that you are comfortable with when you build your online business. Don’t worry about what other people are doing, do what’s right for you and what works for you but try to put yourself in a position where you can take countless hits and still sustain income.
Think about the different affiliate programs you work with. Are these programs likely to be around in 2, 10, 15 or even 20 years time? If the honest answer to that question is no then reconsider promoting them. You might be thinking 20 years, who’s going to still be playing in 20 years time on a gambling site I’ve referred them to?
Well you’ve only got to look at some of the major online bookmakers to answer that question. The likes of Bookmaker.com, Ladbrokes, Betfair and Bet365 will have had customers for serious lengths of time. You should be trying to send players to a program where there is potential for this player to earn you cash for as long as humanly possible. Think of the difference in ROI that you’re getting here, it’s unbelievable.
If you are promoting the type of programs above and you’re taking CPA I think you might just be a little mental. I can understand why people take CPA deals, especially at questionable programs but you’ve got to take the program you’re promoting and long term ROI into consideration.
Sustainable income is the absolute nuts and if you want to work 4 hours a week and spend the rest playing golf then it’s the only way to go!
Cool article Dave. To me it seems like some of the more experienced affiliates have been trying to diversify over the last 6 months. Yet when the Harry Reid online poker bill popped up it suddenly hit everyone else.
I actually have my doubts over where seo is going over the next 5 or 10 years. Hell, most affiliates are pretty young and aren’t going to retire for another 30-40 years so you have to ask yourself these types of questions.
I feel I’m quite fortunate in that I cam into the affiliate business just in the middle of this whole “diversification saga”, so I have never become too dependant on single programs and industries.
I’m actually in the process of building one or two authortative/brandable sites in some markets. I think this is a less risky strategy than building thin affiliate sites in multiple niches, because regardless of different programs the one company that you really depend on is google. And who knows how they’ll change their rankings in 2011-2050?
Adam
December 23rd, 2010
Great article, although I’m not sure we agree on CPA vs Revshare but I understand your position. We do Rakeback, CPA, and Revshare depsnding on the program and options. Personally, I like taking a $200 CPA now, rather than #1 – hoping the player sticks with the room and earns that much #2 – who knows when the room will say “well we think we need to stop paying you, sorry” – Which has been happening at some rooms.
So I like CPA in a lot of cases for poker, now casino is revshare all the way IMO except in rare cases.
Randy
March 25th, 2011
opps hit the button by accident.
Anyway, the main point of your article is awesome and I hope all new affiliates give it a read.
Randy
March 25th, 2011
Randy,
This was a guest post by doovde, not sure if you saw that or not. Regardless, I agree with you on CPA for poker – that’s pretty much all I do nowadays.
Mike
March 26th, 2011