I'll start off by talking about branding since that seems to be the rage lately:
A brand isn't necessarily future-proof, bulletproof, self-perpetuating or non-depreciating. It's funny how IM'ers overestimate its staying power, but that's probably only because they're comparing it to once-off promotional/income techniques.
There are numerous examples showing just how fragile even large online brands can be, e.g. Myspace and Friendster's social networks.
It doesn't matter whether you bank with branding, direct-response marketing, SE-spam or paid traffic. Each of them requires specialization, constant upkeep and the need to stay ahead of the curve. Each of them are equally difficult and full of headaches if you want to be at the top of the game.
SEO headaches: Matt Cutts and teh Googlez.
Branding headaches: Competition, copycat brand leechers, pigeonholing, etc.
PPC headaches: Don't have any experience with PPC, but I'm aware that it's no walk-in-the-park even when compared to battling Pandas and Penguins (and Zebras and Orca Whales or whatever SEO's will have to deal with in the future).
Email list headaches: Spam complaints, list attrition leading to constantly having to find traffic sources to refill it, monetization, etc.
As you can see none of the above are a panacea to uncertain income. No wait, that's an understatement: THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS RESIDUAL INCOME.
The closest thing to residual income in this world are the taxes collected by the US government, but even that requires enormous, consistent effort including lawmaking, enforcement, maintaining global military/technological superiority so that they can actually enforce stuff, etc.
Nothing is easy, not even collecting taxes. So whatever you want to diversify into, make sure you know what you're getting into (multiplied workload).
A brand isn't necessarily future-proof, bulletproof, self-perpetuating or non-depreciating. It's funny how IM'ers overestimate its staying power, but that's probably only because they're comparing it to once-off promotional/income techniques.
There are numerous examples showing just how fragile even large online brands can be, e.g. Myspace and Friendster's social networks.
It doesn't matter whether you bank with branding, direct-response marketing, SE-spam or paid traffic. Each of them requires specialization, constant upkeep and the need to stay ahead of the curve. Each of them are equally difficult and full of headaches if you want to be at the top of the game.
SEO headaches: Matt Cutts and teh Googlez.
Branding headaches: Competition, copycat brand leechers, pigeonholing, etc.
PPC headaches: Don't have any experience with PPC, but I'm aware that it's no walk-in-the-park even when compared to battling Pandas and Penguins (and Zebras and Orca Whales or whatever SEO's will have to deal with in the future).
Email list headaches: Spam complaints, list attrition leading to constantly having to find traffic sources to refill it, monetization, etc.
As you can see none of the above are a panacea to uncertain income. No wait, that's an understatement: THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS RESIDUAL INCOME.
The closest thing to residual income in this world are the taxes collected by the US government, but even that requires enormous, consistent effort including lawmaking, enforcement, maintaining global military/technological superiority so that they can actually enforce stuff, etc.
Nothing is easy, not even collecting taxes. So whatever you want to diversify into, make sure you know what you're getting into (multiplied workload).
