janethuggard - 11:59 am on Apr 24, 2005 (gmt 0)

I have found the key is to have a cornerstone site, then a group of sattelite sites. The cornerstone drives traffic to the smaller sites. So, the question is really, how much money do you want to make today, tomorrow, next month, next year, and the next decade? If your goals are weak, a weak income will result.

On the profitability scale, my smaller sites, some of them, earn the same as my cornerstone. Big sister is definately doing the job for her smaller siblings, driving 25% or more of the total monthly traffic to all other network sites, month after month, season after season.

Creating that kind of in-house neighborhood, along with seo has made for a very nice full-time income. The most important reason for that development has been traffic stability. Big sister is always there, as the engines flip and flop and keep the ebiz community on edge. It gives the smaller, newer sites a base traffic level that is stable and guaranteed, as a percentage of total traffic.

Long term, the main reason I have done this is not for short term profits, but for long term stability. All industries on the web have high and low periods. Some are daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal, even year to year. By using diversity in our network, I can spread my eggs into more baskets, both in traffic, and income providers. One site is hot today, another tomorrow. One is hot in spring, another in winter. One is fabulous in a recession, another only in an economic upturn.

Traffic wise, over history of the web, hot topics are changed like Mustang Ranch women's underwear. The topic diversity ensures that you can maintain through the bull traffic, and the bear traffic for any given category. I will give you an exmaple of this.

Today, the topic of Michael Jackson is hot. Let's say you want to capitalize on that and design a site for the court updates, so you can serve high paying legal ads through Adsense, and increase your income. Launch it today, how long before the engines begin to drive a nice flow of traffic to your site? 2 days? 2 weeks? 2 months? With a wide ranging network of your own, you can promote the new site in house, and instantly drive that nice flow, the same day of launch. The search engine traffic, when it comes, is frosting on the cake. That means you are gaining Adsense revenues from day one for a newly launched site. If you couldnt' promote the site through your own network, the topic might have run cold, before you jumped on the gravy train.

I love instant gratification. Maybe that is flaw. But, it is a profitable flaw.

Just because there are already one million sites on the web with any given topic, is that reason for you not to launch another site with the same topic? No.

How many restaurants are there in NYC? How many are mediocre? How many new ones open each year? Is there a market for a new really awesome restaurant in NYC? You bet. There could be 10,000 restaurants there. If you have a great idea, go for it, even if every chef with a private veggie garden has already done it. It could just be your secret ingredient of the dash of cumin in the salads, that will create waiting lines wrapping around the building. Add your own flair, and jump on in with your own twist on a delicacy.

It is important to have a wide range of topics, but also a wide range of revenue stream providers. For that reason we have about 100 or so different sources of income on the web. It is really not good to have just one source, or even two or three. If they go down, or slide hard, or decide you no longer are a suitable partner, you will likely implode into a black hole financially. While I love the single business that pays me $350 a month, it scares me to death. That is alot of eggs in one basket for a small MAP(mom and pop)ebiz. But, with revenue diversity, if he pulls out, all the stars in my galaxy don't get sucked in.

IMHO it is narrow minded, short sighted thinking to narrow your potential field of income on the web. If you are basing website topic delevolpment on your own education and experience, then you need to balance time between building new sites, maintaining established sites, and continued education. Learning and experiencing new things weekly, will be vital to your long term success, and steadily increasing income levels.

Try not to over intellectualize the web. It is much more basic than most would leave you to believe. Try searching within your heart and soul for content, not just in the books.

Can you build and maintain a hundred websites, successfully, and still have time to buy ten dozen roses, pluck their petals and toss them on the grass in Stanley park, then snuggle within them with the love of your life (or love of the day) on a sunny, salt air filled, romantic Saturday afternoon?

Yes ;)

You might even create a webpage about that moment, complete with images of that inspiring day. (and complete with credit to me for the idea)Then, display ads for romantic products, day trips, or weekend getaways. Did you have to learn anything new to launch that topic? No. Life is not just all about your history, it is about today, and tomorrow.

Most importantly, the cost of the ten dozen roses, will be a drop in the bucket, due to your wide ranging topic and income development, enabling you to make those kind of memories now, and frequently, which later you will come to rely on so heavily, late in your golden years. I know it is hard to see that now. You just have to trust me on it.