dataguy - 3:15 am on Aug 23, 2006 (gmt 0)

Very good question... I just got back from a meeting where this was the center of the discussion.

It would seem unwise to build a business on something that may some day disappear through no fault of your own. Some might say that a business model which relies on free traffic is no business model at all.

In my situation, my business is large enough that when traffic is 'on' it requires several paid employees to manage it. Because of the type of business it is, I could not pay for advertising and have it be profitable, but when traffic is 'on', it is a very profitable business. It would be insane to walk away from the money just to have a 'real' business plan.

The solution for me has been to run as clean of an operation as possible. I make sure my employees are constantly aware of the possibility that they could lose their job in a week if everything doesn't line up perfectly, but I pay them well so that if I have to lay them off, they have no regrets. In the event of a Google catastrophe, I would manage the business with just me and my wife, and then we could survive without Google traffic.

The idea of splitting a website to spread out the risk has been around for a long time. In my opinion, that idea has run its' course as it will make you more likely to be seen as black hat, or at the minimum dilute the popularity of your main site, subtracting from its position of authority.

If you want to spread out the risks, it is much better to have multiple unrelated websites, but it is hard for one person to manage more than one really good web site. Again, just my opinion...