Why start multiple ventures versus scaling a successful model?
This was a question posed to me on Reddit when discussing my portfolio of online businesses. It’s the common question of authority site vs. niche site, should you start one authority site or multiple niche sites?
It’s a good question! So, I’m going to break down the three reasons why I have a portfolio of online businesses rather than focusing on one venture. This is my argument for niche sites in the authority site vs niche site argument.
1) It’s the way of niche sites.
The niche site world is a little different. It’s very passive, so there’s a lot of extra time to work on various projects at the same time.
It’s good for someone like me that can’t sit still for long. If you spend ~1 year on a niche site with low competition, you can secure your place in the market, differentiate from the competition, launch a product, and build your automated sales funnel. Then, you can sit back and make long-term strategic decisions, which do not require a day-to-day grind.
Plus, I view my portfolio of businesses as one business and I’m the CEO. At this stage in the game, I sit in the background and pull different levers for long-term marketing. I have a team of five assistants and two writers, they help with the day-to-day customer service-related tasks, data entry tasks, social media tasks, etc… so that I can focus on the important parts of the business (the ones that make money) like creating new products.
Not to mention, the same strategies I use for one niche site can be repurposed for another site. I can take one successful marketing campaign, rinse and repeat, and re-use it on a different website. It’s easy to share resources that way.
Take my insurance education business for example. I put a lot of work into this website for the first year, got it up and running, now I outsource the majority of the work to my assistants and ghostwriters. I don’t need to spend every day sitting in this business pushing my insurance courses. My automation does this for me.
Then look at my dog training education website. That one grew passively and slowly, with a couple of long-term strategies (SEO and my membership platform), from 2016 to 2021 when I sold the website for $95,000.
That being said, I’m not recommending you go out and start ten new businesses all at once. I always recommend you invest at least one year into each business you start. You can not start a new business every day and expect to succeed, you will be spread too thin (trust me, I’ve tried).
Compare that to a traditional business, like landscaping or running a restaurant. You can’t run multiple brick-and-mortar businesses at the same time. You are needed in your business every day. For me, I step back and work on my business in the background, the day-to-day money generating process is automated.
2) It’s my personality.
My biggest joy is finding a new niche opportunity and starting a new business with all of the possibilities ahead of me. I can’t help myself, that’s why I track my journey for others to follow. It’s my excuse to start new businesses, try new strategies, and keep learning.
3) Diversification.
Diversifying my revenue streams across a couple of websites has helped me succeed. This is a big reason why I lean toward a portfolio of niche sites in the authority site vs niche site argument.
In 2017, I ran into legal trouble with my insurance education business. I spent over $20,000 in legal fees to keep this business operational. If I hadn’t had two other websites at the time bringing in revenue, I would have been in big trouble. Being self-employed now, this diversification is pretty important to me.
Conclusion: Authority Site vs Niche Site
There are a million ways to make a business work. There is no wrong choice when you are considering the one authority site vs niche site argument. You can invest all of your time in one successful model, and make it your life goal to grow that business or you can diversify and explore different models operating different niche sites like I do. In the end, it comes down to your industry and personal preference. I really don’t think there is one correct way to operate your business.
