I’ve written in the past about my general distain for the one-stop shop affiliate site.

You know what I’m talking about - the “online mall,” the “Internet superstore,” and (my favorite) the “Internet shopping portal.” I’m sorry, but unless you have a way of fulfilling every product related need for everyone in a way that is better than Amazon.com, your market is already gone.

I’m reminded of my one-stop shop phobia by Seth Godin’s recent post “The Long Slide to Gone.”

In the post, Seth shows a picture of a store he saw recently with a big sign on the front awning that says:

HOBBY SHOP

TRAINS - R / C - MODELS

COFFEE - LOTTERY

Seth points out that the store started as a hobby shop, but as business was not meeting expectations, they started adding more, unrelated products. Gradually, the shop started selling things that have nothing to do with what was their core business. In the end, the store has ended up being a so-so hobby shop, a so-so coffee shop, a so-so convenience store and absolutely great at absolutely nothing.

That’s a problem.

I think some affiliates can be guilty of a similar scattershot approach when things aren’t going as well as they planned. They may start out with focus on one niche or vertical, but as their website commissions wane, they decide that instead of starting something new they’ll add more products to their existing offers, in a hope to gain a wider audience.

The final result is often a decent site becoming bloated, overcrowded, and focusless.

Before you add a new offer to your site to boost revenue, ask yourself if you are adding something that really does compliment the current focus of your site or if you’re just trying to sell lottery tickets out of a hobby shop.

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