Comments on: 70 - 20 -10 http://www.webpublishingblog.com/70-20-10.htm Internet publishing, a multidisciplinary approach. Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:25:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.2 By: » Are you diversified? - Web Publishing Blog http://www.webpublishingblog.com/70-20-10.htm#comment-874 » Are you diversified? - Web Publishing Blog Sat, 25 Mar 2006 23:14:53 +0000 http://www.webpublishingblog.com/70-20-10.htm#comment-874 [...] Here is the problem with diversification: even though you are working in a related area it isn’t directly contributing your main business. Last year I got side tracked on other projects that lost money. Worse, I lost time. This happened because I devoted entire months to projects rather than working on them on the site while focusing on the things I really was good at. This is my solution to that problem — keep your foot in the door, but don’t go all the way inside. Google uses the 70-20-10 rule (incidently my top searched keyphrase for this blog.) What this means is that Google employees spend 70% of their time on the core business (Adwords, Adsense, Search), 20% on related projects (Froogle, Google Local, etc.) and 10% on new businesses (Google Talk, Google Maps etc.) If my advertising earnings bottomed out tommorow I could still pay my rent, my hosting, and all my other bills. It would be a pain in the ass, but it would be done. If you are risk averse and can’t bare to leave your current job (I know a lot of web site owners fall into this area) consider this approach. The truth is, you will be safer than a job where you could get a pink slip tommorow. Short of a worldwide economic collapse you’ll do just fine. [...] […] Here is the problem with diversification: even though you are working in a related area it isn’t directly contributing your main business. Last year I got side tracked on other projects that lost money. Worse, I lost time. This happened because I devoted entire months to projects rather than working on them on the site while focusing on the things I really was good at. This is my solution to that problem — keep your foot in the door, but don’t go all the way inside. Google uses the 70-20-10 rule (incidently my top searched keyphrase for this blog.) What this means is that Google employees spend 70% of their time on the core business (Adwords, Adsense, Search), 20% on related projects (Froogle, Google Local, etc.) and 10% on new businesses (Google Talk, Google Maps etc.) If my advertising earnings bottomed out tommorow I could still pay my rent, my hosting, and all my other bills. It would be a pain in the ass, but it would be done. If you are risk averse and can’t bare to leave your current job (I know a lot of web site owners fall into this area) consider this approach. The truth is, you will be safer than a job where you could get a pink slip tommorow. Short of a worldwide economic collapse you’ll do just fine. […]

]]> By: Andrew http://www.webpublishingblog.com/70-20-10.htm#comment-150 Andrew Fri, 25 Nov 2005 18:04:31 +0000 http://www.webpublishingblog.com/70-20-10.htm#comment-150 This is true, my most successful site right now I developed several months ago. Completely unrelated to anything else I've done. On the other hand, I have a few projects that consumed a full month each, and ended up making me very little. Granted, I learned a lot in the process. The "good" site I was talking about, I took a very different approach. I spend a week building it as a test. When I saw that the results were good, I went back and worked hard on it and invested money in content and apps for it. This is true, my most successful site right now I developed several months ago. Completely unrelated to anything else I’ve done.

On the other hand, I have a few projects that consumed a full month each, and ended up making me very little. Granted, I learned a lot in the process.

The “good” site I was talking about, I took a very different approach. I spend a week building it as a test. When I saw that the results were good, I went back and worked hard on it and invested money in content and apps for it.

]]> By: Charles http://www.webpublishingblog.com/70-20-10.htm#comment-149 Charles Fri, 25 Nov 2005 11:44:48 +0000 http://www.webpublishingblog.com/70-20-10.htm#comment-149 This propoertion perhaps works well for an established business, but for a developing business the priorities might be different. I would agree that focusing on what you know works is important and it is important not to get sidetraked by new projects - howere for a web publishing business model, the split might be more 50 - 25 - 25. Those new ideas might just be your daily bread after a google algo change! Hope the turkey was good! This propoertion perhaps works well for an established business, but for a developing business the priorities might be different. I would agree that focusing on what you know works is important and it is important not to get sidetraked by new projects - howere for a web publishing business model, the split might be more 50 - 25 - 25. Those new ideas might just be your daily bread after a google algo change!

Hope the turkey was good!

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