By Danny Brooks
Oct, 31 2014
The internet is home to a vast array of money-making opportunities -- from monetized blogging and article writing, to affiliate marketing and beyond. But in today's economy, it's important to avoid putting your eggs in one basket.
The internet is a rapidly-evolving and even more rapidly growing marketplace, but it's still in a state of relative infancy and this results in an inherent, inescapable element of uncertainty and instability. The dynamic, ever-changing landscape that is the web makes it difficult and rather unwise to rely upon a single, sole source of revenue. Therefore, it's best to establish multiple revenue streams from an array of different sources; place those eggs in a number of different baskets instead of placing them all in one.
Case in point: several years ago, many affiliate marketers, content writers, bloggers and web developers were thriving on the internet and making money online by working from home. But the web soon became over-ridden with poorly-written content, "thin" affiliate marketing pages, and entire websites with absolutely no real value and so forth. Yet these sites ranked very high in the search results and as a result, many enjoyed significant earnings.
But this landscape was short-lived. Google took action and implemented its now-infamous Panda algorithm update, which devalued poorly-written, value-sparse web pages with duplicate content. This was followed by several Panda iterations, and then, the Penguin algorithm update. These changes completely revamped the online money-making landscape. Once-lucrative affiliate marketing ventures were left barren and devastated. Blogs and content websites that brought in tens of thousands of dollars from on-page ad revenue alone � all thanks to millions of monthly pageviews � suddenly found that they had dropped from the top of page one to the bottom of page 27 in the search results.
Thousands of once-lucrative work at home businesses were finished. Many once-viable online home businesses were suddenly rendered non-viable. Just a few remained � those who offered real, genuine value in some form or another were able to persist and recover. A majority of individuals who had placed their eggs in one basket were left devastated. Those who placed their eggs in a number of different online baskets were also impacted, but the impact was less significant.
In the years since the Panda and Penguin kerfuffle, the internet landscape has changed dramatically with the arrival of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook � yet another example of a dramatic game-changer (though this time, work at home online business owners enjoyed a dramatic change for the better!)
These game-changers have made a few things extremely evident � nothing is permanent when it comes to the internet. It's a constantly-evolving landscape and as a result, you, the online business owner, but evolve as well. Pursuing an array of different online business opportunities provides a degree of protection; it's a way to safeguard against losses due to another inevitable game-changing event.
The Panda and Penguin algorithm changes also served to highlight a second, very important point: low-quality never wins. Always opt for the best when it comes to your online business opportunities. Poor quality products or services may sell in the short term, but affiliate marketers who promote low-quality products or services will ultimately suffer when the low quality of their offerings becomes commonplace knowledge. The most successful affiliate marketers and online business owners are those who can stand behind a high-quality product or service; when you truly believe in your offerings, that's conveyed in your marketing materials, in your interactions with others.
It's also essential to maintain high-quality websites, whether you're a professional content writer and blogger, or an affiliate marketer making money online by promoting products or services. High quality always wins; a poor quality content and website leaves a negative first impression and it makes prospective customers or clients wonder, �If their website/content is so poor, what are their products/services like?�
While it's a wise idea for affiliate marketers to maintain multiple websites, it's essential to avoid publishing duplicate content. That was another extremely important lesson from Panda and Penguin � keep it unique and original. That's where an article spinning software program can come into play as a very important tool. The best content spinning tools will generate a unique version of your website content. You can use an article spinner to create just one additional copy or dozens! It's important to note that even the top article spinning tools aren't perfect, so in order to ensure optimal content quality, newly spun content should be reviewed to ensure it reads well.
The key to making money online as an affiliate marketer is to spread your eggs into a number of different baskets and maintain a focus on quality, as it's the quality products, services, content and websites that always win out in the end!
Danny Brooks