Over the past few years, I've tried lots of online activities, some of which should be producing some income by now.

In the majority of cases, it's true; there is an income. However, what I'm noticing is that the quantity counts.

Quality First

Before I start talking about quantity, it's essential to understand that quality is more important than quantity for me. I'll only release a product/design/audio track if I'm happy with the quality. That's my preference. I believe it's a good basis to start business on and a good basis to build relationships on.

Critical Mass

I'm now of the opinion that it's better to spend quality, focussed time on 2-3 areas of business, rather than a small amount across 20+ business areas.

It's not so much the number of business lines you have, but how much time you can devote to each one in order to make it credible.

I'll use an example from the Print-on-Demand world such as CafePress or Zazzle where you create a design and have it printed onto t-shirts, etc.

If you create one design, you will probably have to wait a long time for your first sale, maybe forever. You could be lucky and get a sale quickly, but the odds are against you. You won't be high enough in the search results for the general public to find your design or product. You could advertise it yourself, but that's another story (one which I'll get to another day).

Now, instead of 1 design, you make 20. Then you'll probably begin to see a steady, but infrequent trickle of sales. Not many, but enough to prove it works.

So take that up to 100 designs and the trickle increases to a regular income.

Part of the argument here is that if someone looks at your shop (whether on your own host or on the Print-on-Demand site's marketplace), they'll see a product with an image of a drum on it. If you have 1 design, then they'll have to go to another shop to find other drum images for comparison. However, present them with a collection of different drum images, then the visitor starts to select between them instead of going elsewhere. This is where the quantity counts.

So if you're only going to dip to toe in the water and make 5 designs, then you'll only see a trickle. Not really worth it, is it?

How many eggs in one basket?

So why not do 1000 designs on only one Print-on-Demand shop? I use several sites and several business lines to mitigate risk. I'm aware that companies are being declared bankrupt all the time. I don't want to be dealing with credit administrators for all of my income. I'm a lot happier knowing that if one of my income streams disappears, then the others still exist.

I also believe there's an element of saturation. I haven't seen it yet so it may not actually be there. The reason I haven't found the saturation ceiling is that I've been focussing on quality.

Time to Focus

The other reason I haven't found the effects of saturation is that I've been involved in too many activities. Now's my time to cut down on the non-productive, non-profitable activities and to focus on the profitable.

I will not be spending much time doing lots of little activities, instead I will share my time in larger chunks and tackle activities.

"So many ducks...Ducking Hell" - image by Gaetan Lee