I'm going to share with you an important strategy that can improve your chances of succeeding online: Diversifying your line of products and services around a common theme.

The fact is, you are less likely to succeed when you market one (or just a few) products and services. Even if you happen to stumble across one of those relatively rare items that is enormously successful on its own, you can still benefit by diversifying and expanding your product line. Consider several reasons this is true:

* Diversity gives your prospects more choices.

When you offer a variety of related products and services, prospects are more likely to find something they want to buy.

* Diversity increases the average order amount.

Offering prospects and customers a variety of things to purchase from you also makes it more likely they'll purchase multiple items, thereby increasing the average amount of profit per order.

A Note of Caution: Diversity can confuse prospects in some cases, so it would be wise to test in order to find which approach works best in your circumstances. Some marketers find it better to initially focus on making one sale without any other offers that might confuse a prospect, and following up with related offers at a later time.

* Diversity helps you take maximum advantage of the lifetime value or your customers.

Many marketers are content to sell one thing to a customer, one time, and forget about that customer forever, only to continue their quest for new customers elsewhere. However, such a strategy overlooks lucrative profits available through additional sales to existing customers.

The best customer is one that already trusts you, and is satisfied with previous dealings with your company. Since people prefer to do business with those they know and trust, additional sales to existing customers meet with less sales resistance.

You've invested precious resources to acquire your customers, and likely had to overcome a bit of initial distrust when they first bought from your company. If you keep delivering them solid value through related offers, and keep them satisfied through good customer service, many will be glad to buy from you again and again.

* Diversity reduces marketing and fulfillment costs.

Reflect on the following ways that diversity reduces marketing and fulfillment costs:

o Many marketing costs are the same (or nearly so) whether you promote one product or several. Per-item marketing expenses are reduced as each new product or service is added to your line, because each shares the marketing costs with all the others.

o No customer acquisition cost is involved in selling to existing customers, making such sales more profitable than initial sales.

o Processing an order for multiple items involves nearly the same amount of labor costs as a single-item order.

o Per-item shipping costs are reduced when you ship a multiple- item order in the same shipment.

* Diversity reduces business risk.

If you diversify your line instead of putting all your eggs in one basket, a dip in sales in one area of your business (due to seasonal variations or other reasons) will have less of an impact. You won't be totally dependent on a single income stream.

All too often, entrepreneurs that recognize the value of diversity tend to promote a disconnected mixture of totally unrelated goods. However, the real benefits of diversity come from expanding your line of offers around a common theme.

A Proven Way To Diversify Rapidly

I always recommend that you market at least one of your own core products or services that that you have exclusive control over. However, acquiring or developing your own products usually take time.

One way to diversify rapidly is by reselling quality products or services of other suppliers. These should be related to the specific interests of your existing clients and prospects.

You could set up drop shipping arrangements with suppliers, or join affiliate programs, which are the online equivalent of drop shipping, without many of the usual hassles involved.

In short, once you've struck "Internet gold" with one profitable product or service, you can extract more gold from the same mine shaft, so to speak, by diversifying and expanding your line of products and services around your chosen theme.