Forum Moderators: skibum
Subject area: Build and run six sites on at least three disparate subject areas -fewer and you are vulnerable to sudden changes in rankings; any more and your effort to develop sites is dissipated. Better still, aim also for different geographic markets to mitigate against the effects of local economic downturn.
Site type: Experiment with different types of site -possibilities include directory formats, blogs, bulletin boards, newsletters, reviews, articles etc.
Hosting: Register and host the sites with at least three different hosting companies -that way if there is a problem with one of your hosting companies, then you will still be at 66% capacity.
Search engines: Optimise different sites for Google, Yahoo or MSN -experiment with new techniques but on only one site at a time. Make changes gradually and monitor the effect.
Link exchange: again go for variety. For example, one site might use link exchange, another bought links and another rely on natural growth. You might explore bulletin board posts on another. In any case whichever you do, vary the text by hand and avoid automated system like the plague.
Cross linking: Never, never cross link your own sites -if one gets into a bad neighbourhood, you don’t want it dragging the others down.
Site design: go for as much variety in design as possible, from the number of links per page, amount of text, layout, metatags, use of images etc. Search engines will always have slightly different principles for ranking sites and by varying the design you may be surprised at the results.
Affiliate selling: Make money with a number of different affiliate companies -CJ, Tradedoubler, Affiliate Window, Linkshare etc and develop each simultaneously. Run Amazon ads as well on the same pages, and where appropriate, ads for poster sales. If something works well, do it more, but not to the exclusion of others.
PPC ads: Do not over-rely on PPC contextual ads for income. At present there is one major player, Adsense. Ultimately I will be looking to develop different sites for Yahoo Publisher Network and MSN when their schemes are available.
Other income: if a site has good specific traffic, there is no reason that you shouldn’t sell advertising space direct to visitors -it may be less convenient, but people forget that the affiliate schemes do not hold a monopoly.
Currency: keep payments in the currency of the country of origin and open up accounts in different currencies to avoid the cost of exchange. Look for opportunities to arrange any spend in different currencies too -for example hosting or advertising costs.
Experiment: if one of your sites isn’t working, don’t give up on it -use it as a test bed for new ideas -there is nothing to lose and everything to gain.
A final thought, before giving up that day job, ask yourself whether you could still manage if the worst happened and one of your sites lost all of its traffic overnight.
I would suggest that must have at least a site that can make money from traffic that comes from advertising such as PPCs. This means high-paying and high-converting affiliate programs, or as a merchant selling physical products, downloadable products, or serices.
You touched on some of this, but I wanted to point out that you should not just diversifying into separate niches, but also to diversify in several other areas:
1. Site ideas. Don't just do different niches the same way. Look for different ideas as well. Some niches might do well with a forum. Others with a product showcase site. Others with a directory format. Others with a resource-focused site. The list goes on. If every site you build has the same idea, they're subject to some of the same risks.
2. Traffic sources. Rely on SEO with some sites, PPC for others, and viral and/or organic growth with other. The more diverse your traffic sources are, the less risk you have of losing significant amounts of traffic.
3. Revenue sources. Use affiliate programs, AdSense, banner ads, sponsorships, memberships, etc.
As you're growing your business, determine what part of your proceeds you're going to save, what part you're going to put back into the business, and what part you're going to enjoy.
If you're in debt, get out of debt. It's much easier to handle the ups and downs when you don't have debt.
Start saving for retirement. Consider the various IRAs that are available. Max them out.
Aim for at least twice what you're making in your day job before you quit. You'll have extra expenses that employees don't have: health insurance, self-employment taxes, etc. This will also help you weather any down periods.
Continue building new sites.
