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Apr
09
2008
What Joomla People Can Learn from Bear Sterns
Diversify

"Does putting yourself in a position where someone else can turn off all your income just by saying two words (?You?re fired?) sound like a safe and secure situation to you? Does having only one income stream honestly sound more secure than having 10?" Steve Pavlina.

Not long ago a developer was told me that his wife wanted him to diversify away from Joomla. Not leave Joomla, just diversify. I've since talked with a lot of people who don't seem to think its worth the effort.

She was right. Too many people who assume the Joomla gravy train will never end. It will. It might be next week or it might not be for many more years, but it will. You and I both need an exit plan. Relying on one income stream is dangerous, whether its a job or a website business.

Diversification Is Essential

"Some Bear Stearns employees have learned the hard way that putting all their eggs in one basket is not the best plan ... Printed reports of Bear Stearns employees and retirees losing huge chunks of their company stock-based retirement holdings are already common. In one report, an employee for nine years said he recently lost $600,000 in Bear Stearns stock." WallStreet.com

What is true for the corporate crowd is true for you and me. We need to diversify. Fortunately, many of us already have the necessary skills because we've been doing such for work client for years.

6 Ways To Diversify

  • Head over to CJ.com, find a high-paying affiliate offer and learn how to promote it.
  • Diversity your workload into another CMS such as Drupal or Wordpress.
  • Start an e-commerce business of your own.
  • Build a local tourism site for your hometown.
  • Build some Adsense-optimized sites.
  • Buy revenue-producing domain names.
If you're talented enough to make a living with a webdesign company, you can use those skills to profit in other markets. Simply being a coder or designer or SEOer isn't enough and in fact, its downright risky. Don?t be afraid to go from SEO to CEO.
 

Comments  

 
#1 Ulas ALKAN 2008-04-10 03:06
Hi Steve;

I completely agree with you. Putting eggs to different baskets is a neccessary think for everybody
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#2 Herbert-Jan van Dinther 2008-04-10 12:18
@Steve: You are so right, but for a lot of people it is hard to take a step back from something you love doing.
But diversifying into WordPress, Drupal, and Typo3 is work that can be really worth your time.
So as in many Money making efforts you need to invest, in time and knowledge.

In the end, you will get a more stable income and grown as a person as well.
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#3 mozami 2008-04-10 18:03
100% Spot on!
Looking at another cms, or diversifying one's risk through several other websites is a good option, but it may also worthwhile looking at "offline" businesses as well, should an opportunity ever arise.
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#4 Joseph LeBlanc 2008-04-11 08:17
I've been running WP for my blog and my sister's (newly launched) site since the beginning of the year. Quite impressed! They have KISS principle almost down to a science. If all you need is a "news/press release" section and several static pages, WP can do very nicely.

I also did some development on a CakePHP project. The framework didn't suit my tastes, but I can see how some people like it.
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#5 Salyris Studios 2008-04-12 02:11
I TOTALLY AGREE STEVE! You can also align yourself with partnerships to help out with referrals/RFP's when one of you is in need of assistance. (This is for the small design shops and one-man crews). Never be afraid to network yourself or your company! Strategic partnerships could turn into a larger company via a merge down the road. :P
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#6 Copes Flavio 2008-04-16 04:44
It's not a good idea to focus only on a product in a niche.
We're talking about CMS, and every CMS is good doing one particular thing, one peculiarity.
So, if you want a complex site use Drupal, an average CMS Joomla, a blog / simple CMS WordPress and so on.

You've got to know everything about those products and then choose which one best fits the project you're working on.. to get the best from the right tool.
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#7 Ogy Nikolic 2008-04-24 16:56
Diversification Is Essential if you have at least 10 people, etc. How could you possibly diversify with 4-5 full time developers.

Definitely agree with Steve that Joomla may die some day but there are always going to be need for technical support. The technology is just becoming more and more complex and issues are becoming harder to troubleshoot. Some day when Joomla is not so hot any more, we'll start looking to support something else.

Definitely don't put all eggs in one basket but the fact is that Joomla is one of the hottest CMS systems on the planet right now and it's just becoming more popular.
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#8 Neil Malhar 2009-01-06 13:20
Nice post...i think one of us should start a newsletter for joomla developers(anot her story this)..

Back to the point,
The best thing to do currently if a developer does not want to learn new CMSs would be to create information products or become an affiliate for a program that is related to the software they are offering and promote that to their list
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