Why Your Internet Business is Like the Stock Market

As savvy stock market investors know, chasing after the one "hot stock" with the possibility of bringing instant riches is not a wise idea. You know the old saying, "Don't put your eggs in one basket". This type of thinking carries a high risk. If your stock goes up and you are smart enough to sell, then you've made money. However, if your stock falls, you just don't know when (or if) it will ever make a comeback.

With this idea of chasing after the "hot stock of the day", you might as well buy a lottery ticket. Diversifying your investment portfolio for long-term growth and stability is the wiser of the strategy. You invest your money over any number of stocks in different industries, thereby spreading your risk across the group.

The same principle should be applied to your internet business. Many of us first arrived online with the notion of building a really great website to reach the masses in hopes of making a lot of money. We later found out that the "build it and they will come" theory is just that, a theory. Oh sure, there are a few who have managed to create a nice income from just one or perhaps two websites, but even Amazon didn't turn a profit until 2001.

Unfortunately, most of us do not have unlimited financial resources. Many have given up, only to go back to either a corporate job or some other type of work in order to support their family. What they did not realize is that their internet business really should be treated like their investment portfolio.

Why do many of us still try to squeeze every single penny out of one website until it's bone dry? It's like wringing out the washcloth until there's no water left to drip. Why bank all of our risk in just one site?

There is a better way and it's called diversification and leverage. How? Instead of building one website and beating it to death in trying to get every last penny until it screams " no more!"... build more sites. In the past, building websites by hand took days and weeks, if not months. Today, there are tools to make this process much simpler and faster and in some cases, you don't even have to know any code at all.

Why diversify and leverage your business across a variety of websites? To reduce your risk and to leverage your efforts. Individually, they may not make a lot of money, but collectively, you could create a nice little internet empire of your very own. It will be well worth your time in creating a long-term internet "investment" portfolio.

Patty Gale is a successful entrepreneur who specializes in personalization and customer care for all her clients. She exchanged her suits, hose and heels for working at home in her "jammies" and is on a mission to empower other women to do the same.

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