Things change at such a rapid pace online that it’s easy to get caught off guard while your business tanks.  If you’re relying on one stream of income, it’s easy for a change to come along and wipe you out. 

Examples:

• If you relied on Google AdSense income prior to 2006, you probably saw it all but dry up a couple of years ago due to changes in terms.
• If you rely on PPC advertising for most of your traffic, a change in Google’s terms can drive your costs beyond your break-even point.  This happened to a lot of site owners in the past year.
• If you rely on affiliate income from a single vendor, that vendor can change any of their affiliate terms and send you down the tubes in a split second.
• If you rely on income from the sale of a product or service, a bigger competitor with deeper pockets can enter your space and drive you out of business.

Any number of things can change to leave you scrambling to keep the lights on while you figure out which way to go.  The only surefire way to keep this from happening to you is to have income coming from several channels.  Get your traffic from organic and paid search as well as offline methods.  Set up affiliate programs to let others help you sell your own products, and promote products offered by multiple vendors.  Offer your services to other business owners for a premium and use that as an upsell behind your other product offerings.

You have to prepare before the storm hits so that you’re ready to go if or when it ever happens.  And if it never happens, at least you’ll be enjoying the benefits of multiple streams of income.  This doesn’t mean to jump around between opportunities.  You’ll only lose focus that way and never get anything accomplished.  But once you have one or more income streams running smoothly, you owe it to yourself to work on setting up 2-3 different cash-generating methods.