Day 568 - Diversify across different industries for antifragility - https://golifelog.com/posts/diversify-across-different-industries-for-antifragility-1658447726883
A common way of running a portfolio of small bets, is to have parallel products, spin-offs from a single origin product, offshoots of one big bet:
- 1 main product
- Sell by-products e.g. templates used
- Sell a cohort-based course on how you built it
- Build a paid community for the course
- One-off coaching
This makes sense, because they build off the audience of the previous product, and serves to amplify one another. It's a bit like how Pieter Levels @levelsio did it - his most successful, revenue-generating products are centered around digital nomad and remote work:
- Nomadlist - a digital nomad directory of cities to live in
- RemoteOK - remote work job board
- Rebase - immigration-as-a-service agency
He started with Nomadlist, and branched out from there to the others. He built a lot of other non-related ones too, but seems like the ones that worked are related.
The scary realisation from all this is: I run a portfolio of disparate products, across different industries.
- Lifelog - writing for creator
- Sheet2Bio - link-in-bio using Google Sheets
- Plugins For Carrd - software downloads for Carrd
- Keto List Singapore - keto directory for Singapore
- Sweet Jam Sites - web dev for JAMstack sites
- Outsprint - design consulting for govs
There's not a single spin-off so far! ALL are different niches!
Am I crazy?
How I think about it (or rationalize post-hoc):
It's like investing. You diversify to mitigate risk. Diversify across different types of assets with different risk profiles - from bonds to real estate to stocks to crypto. All have different levels of risk, in different industries.
This can bring more resilience, or even antifragility.
That's what I'm trying to do with my products. To treat my products as financial assets in an investment portfolio. I'm investing my time, energy and creativity into my investment, not capital outlay.
For example, during the pandemic, business was bad for Outsprint as the government were busy fire-fighting the crisis, and had no time, budget or bandwidth for service improvements and innovation. Yet there were lots of good opportunities for products, especially stuff related to remote work, or helped people made a side hustle during lockdowns. My own COVID-related side projects for social good did really well during the pandemic, even though most were not revenue-generating. Plugins For Carrd did pretty okay the past 2 years too. I had little consulting but could focus more on working on my products. Thankfully I got products during this time when my gigs ran dry. At least there's still *something*!
And now it's the pandemic is almost over, but recession and inflation is here. Business is better now for Outsprint as the government are back to normal functioning. But with consumer spending potentially affected, it might be bad for products in general. I see more churn, less sign-ups (despite my low conversions I see it too!).
So depending on the external forces at play, different products perform differently, and it kind of evens out.
Looking ahead, I think I'm good on the diversity so I can start more spin-offs to build off from momentum of existing products that's pulling me in. Plugins For Carrd is one. Outsprint is another. Lifelog has lots of potential for spin-offs too - cohort-based course, templates, writing tools, etc.
Having a blend of diversity and similarity is also mitigating risk!
- 1 main product
- Sell by-products e.g. templates used
- Sell a cohort-based course on how you built it
- Build a paid community for the course
- One-off coaching
This makes sense, because they build off the audience of the previous product, and serves to amplify one another. It's a bit like how Pieter Levels @levelsio did it - his most successful, revenue-generating products are centered around digital nomad and remote work:
- Nomadlist - a digital nomad directory of cities to live in
- RemoteOK - remote work job board
- Rebase - immigration-as-a-service agency
He started with Nomadlist, and branched out from there to the others. He built a lot of other non-related ones too, but seems like the ones that worked are related.
The scary realisation from all this is: I run a portfolio of disparate products, across different industries.
- Lifelog - writing for creator
- Sheet2Bio - link-in-bio using Google Sheets
- Plugins For Carrd - software downloads for Carrd
- Keto List Singapore - keto directory for Singapore
- Sweet Jam Sites - web dev for JAMstack sites
- Outsprint - design consulting for govs
There's not a single spin-off so far! ALL are different niches!
Am I crazy?
How I think about it (or rationalize post-hoc):
It's like investing. You diversify to mitigate risk. Diversify across different types of assets with different risk profiles - from bonds to real estate to stocks to crypto. All have different levels of risk, in different industries.
This can bring more resilience, or even antifragility.
That's what I'm trying to do with my products. To treat my products as financial assets in an investment portfolio. I'm investing my time, energy and creativity into my investment, not capital outlay.
For example, during the pandemic, business was bad for Outsprint as the government were busy fire-fighting the crisis, and had no time, budget or bandwidth for service improvements and innovation. Yet there were lots of good opportunities for products, especially stuff related to remote work, or helped people made a side hustle during lockdowns. My own COVID-related side projects for social good did really well during the pandemic, even though most were not revenue-generating. Plugins For Carrd did pretty okay the past 2 years too. I had little consulting but could focus more on working on my products. Thankfully I got products during this time when my gigs ran dry. At least there's still *something*!
And now it's the pandemic is almost over, but recession and inflation is here. Business is better now for Outsprint as the government are back to normal functioning. But with consumer spending potentially affected, it might be bad for products in general. I see more churn, less sign-ups (despite my low conversions I see it too!).
So depending on the external forces at play, different products perform differently, and it kind of evens out.
Looking ahead, I think I'm good on the diversity so I can start more spin-offs to build off from momentum of existing products that's pulling me in. Plugins For Carrd is one. Outsprint is another. Lifelog has lots of potential for spin-offs too - cohort-based course, templates, writing tools, etc.
Having a blend of diversity and similarity is also mitigating risk!
