Online Product Portfolio Defends Business Revenue

A portfolio of online products will protect a business if one product takes a dive while others keep performing well.

A business that sells only one product takes on a great deal of risk. If cheaper products come along, competition increases or other changes impact the market, the business may get into serious trouble. Its future becomes doubtful.

Consider a typical grocery store, which uses a strategy of offering a diversified set of products. It doesn’t just sell thousands of products. It sells multiple versions of the same product and of similar products.

For example, shoppers can buy a can of green beans from more than one brand. They can buy a variety of different vegetables. They also can buy no vegetables at all.

No one is about to claim that a website is the same as a can of green beans. But they have one thing in common. A single website is a single product. An online business with only one product is not diversified. It has no portfolio strategy.

That’s not to say that an online publishing business should have thousands of products like a grocery store, or even hundreds or dozens. For example, a common goal with an investment portfolio is a total of 10 stocks.

But an online business with only one product runs a higher risk than a business with two or more products and services.

Anyone who has worked online for 10 years or more no doubt remembers many major websites that no longer exist or are a shadow of their former selves.

Why More Products Are Better

An online product portfolio is not that difficult to achieve. A website that is large enough like this one has enough content to go into an ebook and a paperback book, which is exactly what has been done by this company.

It has led to similar content that has appeared on multiple other sites that also produce revenue via third-party distribution.

A second website has led to the same outcome: ebooks, paperback books and third-party content distribution, all of which are producing revenue.

Multiple websites don’t mean that all of them have to be large ones. This company owns several small sites including this blog in addition to a mid-sized site that is the company’s main focus.

The possibilities don’t end with websites and books. Photos from the websites can generate revenue on photo-selling websites. Text, photos and videos can lead to revenue opportunities on YouTube. Skilled employees can sell their skills to other businesses.

Altogether, the combination of websites, books, videos, photos and third-party publications result in a diverse online product portfolio.

Portfolios Protect the Business

The current situation for this company is a good example of how an online product portfolio defends the business from the ebb and flow of the marketplace.

The audience and revenue for one company-owned website has dropped quite a bit over the last year because of changes in how Google evaluates the site and its competition. But a second site has had exceptionally strong growth.

Meanwhile, a book from the site that has dropped in audience and revenue is doing exceptionally well with sales. The revenue from the book has almost made up for the loss of the revenue from the website.

Building a well-insulated portfolio takes a long time and quite a bit of effort. It must be done carefully to avoid diverting too much energy from the core product if there is one.

But the ability to generate revenue from multiple products is not unlike investing in the stock market. Anyone who puts all of their money in one stock may make a killing — or may get killed. A well-balanced basket of investments makes it possible to sleep more easily at night and just might save the online business.