In a recent interview I was asked what advice I would give to people wanting to start out online. Apart from the obvious that you need to actually get work done rather than just dreaming about it, I think now is a great time to be building stuff on the cheap while we ride out this economic mess. As most can build stuff from anywhere, for the first time I think working from somewhere that offers a great work/life balance is also important.
Why now is the right time to build stuff
Advertising spend is down because people are buying less. It’s a fact. I am seeing it across my sites, and my friends that work online are seeing the same trend. For this reason I will not be worrying about sales and marketing for the next 6 to 12 months across my 3 companies.
Instead, I will be taking advantage of the many talented designers and developers out there that are hungry for work. I believe now is the right time to build stuff. I also believe now is a great time to buy web sites/projects as I have seen many for sale, under their true value.
So my advice to people working online is to invest any spare cash in building projects rather than promoting them and take advantage of the talent out of work. When people start to pick up their spending, you’ll be in a great position to switch the development costs over into marketing.
Why Bali is the perfect place to do it
I’ve just committed to spend another 2 months here so I can continue building stuff. For me Bali is truly magical, not only for the food, culture and the great beaches… but for the great work/life balance Bali provides.
Since arriving in Bali, I am spending more time outside – meaning less time online. But my work productivity has stayed the same. When I get online, I’m focused on getting stuff done rather than just “browsing” which I’m a sucker for.
With the great beaches scattered all around the island, having a break mid day is very tempting and it really does improve the state of the mind. When I come back from the beach, I feel refreshed, happy, and upbeat about life. It’s hard not to feel like this when you have spent the last few hours running with happy people trying to catch the next big wave.
I spent years in Bangkok working my arse off and I hardly ever went for a walk or visited the park mid day to clear my mind – I can’t really put my finger on why, maybe it was the hassle of getting there. I’m not sure. But what a difference this new lifestyle is having.
Bali is also cheap, with means more money can be spent on building stuff :)
Once you said you wont be building staff now. So how a sudden change of plan?
Staff and stuff are not the same :)
Oops, probably lack of sleep. could not see that was stuff, lol.
Now is more like the time to consolidate, both within your own businesses and with any businesses, both associates and competitors, that could bring a greater level of future growth and ‘value adding’ to your own business and services.
Being a developer I am seeing many of the weaker businesses struggle, some of these will have something they can offer a partner, being cash flow positive puts anyone in a good position.
I think this all depends on if a business is already cash flow positive. You should only form partnerships if the deal is great for long term growth, instead of just because we are in bad times. If you already have a business were you have reduced overhead costs and can pay for food, you are in a great position to build stuff now which after a few years, will provide a great return on investment (when advertising spending picks up).
Would you say that it’s also a good time to experiment with alternative ways to monetize websites? Since advertising is down so much, the cost of playing around with a different revenue model for some of your sites is relatively lower than it would be if advertising was still raking in a lot of money.
I’ll be sure to check out Bali some time. Is the cost of living lower than in Bangkok?
Rule number one is is to split test everything. It doesn’t take long to find 20 programs, design multiple ads/landing pages and use a simple PHP script that will rotate them all. After a while, you’ll see what is converting best and you can then drop the ones that are not converting. I would then add a “advertise” page on your sites with a 30%+ mark up on what your best program makes.
As for Bali being cheaper than Bangkok, I think the prices are very similar – Although in my opinion, Bali provides a better work/life balance.
Quote: “You should only form partnerships if the deal is great for long term growth, instead of just because we are in bad times. If you already have a business were you have reduced overhead costs and can pay for food, you are in a great position to build stuff now which after a few years, will provide a great return on investment”
You are presuming that markets remain as they are which is highly unlikely. The ‘heady’ days of the past 7-10 years are well and truly over, the drop in online advertising revenue is only starting to kick in and will decline much further. Take a look at Google’s recent attempts to rapidly diversify their income stream by entering into the mobile phone, browser and PC Operating System markets, why would they do this, which is an extremely risky direction, if they had such a strong base in their current business model.
There is also likely to be a tightening of the taxes applied to revenues made from ‘monetizing’ websites, in the UK for instance the Government is likely to tax all online advertising revenue at a flat 28% which would be deducted by the vendor, credits can then be claimed by the client.
By diversifying away from simple ‘click-thru’ based advertising revenue to providing more of a service orientated business model for advertisers, and users, you have the ability to value ad. Of course to do this you would need to have the ability to create the services in-house, as cheap as possible, hence my comments about companies that may be able to offer either a partnership, or sale of the business, to an advertising or media based company.
Thanks for the interview the other day!
This is excellent advice. Now is definitely time to be building. Those that are will see some strong growth when the economy returns.
I think many people can learn a lot from your approach to business. Everyone seems to be chasing the easy passive income online. Real money and competitive advantage comes from building real businesses and solving real needs.
Now is the time to be building those projects, but maybe we should always focus on building cool projects.
I could not agree more. Getting work done while it is cheap is always a good idea. Even when it stretches you. That is, if you have idea’s that you believe in your heart are worthwhile.
A question. Will you be focusing on multiple smaller sites. Or, concentrating on one or two larger sites over the coming months. What do you favor, focus or diversity?
Second question. Why?
I want/almost feel jealous of your lifestyle Chris. You seem to have the balance just about right(for you) in Bali. But then I realise that, it is open to almost anyone. It’s simple. If you got the get up and go? Get up and go!
You got it boy, and it make me proud :)
Hi Dad,
I’m building a media company that will handle 50 or so sites in various different categories in the same niche. As to why, for a number of reasons:
1) I get bored working on the same site
2) I get to put my eggs in different baskets
3) It gives me freedom to work with different people on different sites
You got it… get up and go!
Hi Chris,
What do you do about visa’s and things? What kind of site’s are you building? I ask because I never realised that you could earn a living from doing that. I’m a software developer and back end developer thinking about ditching London and heading to Thailand or somewhere similar. I’d appreciate any advice.
Keep living the dream,
Nick
Hi Nick,
I’m heading back to London in early September – I’m more than happy to meet for a beer and you can then pick my brains.
Get in touch if interested.
Cheers,
Chris
Hey Chris, I hope you’re right! I’m in the middle of focusing on one project in particular, we are very much in the middle of the ‘building’ phase. Hoping to launch in the next couple of months. Exciting times and always good to maintain a positive attitude, especially when things are a bit tight…
Building stuff is so exciting :) Please let me know when you launch – would love to see it.