Domain move to com now what to do with old one?

what would be better to do with old local sites after moving to .com

[silverbytes]

Hello! Experiences appreciated about that scenario:
2 local domains ranked excellent #1 in several relevant keywords.

Florida came. Same 2 local domains ranked awful.
I decided it was time to move those to .com. I did.

Now the .com sites rank awful too :(
But I have the old domain sites with permanet redirection to the new domain sites.

I wonder what would be better to do with old local sites and domains:

a) leave it with permanent redirects to the new .com sites and kill'em in 2 months

b) leave it with permanet redirects to the new .com sites and passed 2 months quit the redirect and change the content to have a stronger support between sites

c) quit now the redirects and change the content to avoid a duplicated content penalty

d) kill those sites right now

e) Please dont tell me kill the new .com and get back to the old local sites!

Your help is very appreciated.

PS: I'd like to say that I'm working in every possible failure of optimization following the know guidelines. That procedure gave good results in the past... (but not so good now)

[SEOMike]

Well, I'd start by transferring they old sites over to a different host to get a different class C. Then build sites all in your industry and link to each other. I do this technique for some customers (some with as many as 10 "sister" sites). If you get decent links to each site, then inter-link them, the group can really take off and start to dominate the SERPs. Professionally done, this costs a TON, but with the help of this site, you can do it with nothing more than a time commitment!

Besides, why not give the customer more than one place to originate a sale / hear your sales pitch? Be sure to watch duplication, and make the sites look different.

[silverbytes]

Thanks! I have some questions:
Why moving hosting? Can't I just quit the redirection and change the content?

What is considered duplicated content exactly?
The same document?
The same texts?
Some common elements?
The same design but different texts?

I agree interlinking those may help. Sites are actually PR4 each but I'm worried about why are they crawled by google but not showing in SE results (except 2 pages only...)

[SEOMike]

Why moving hosting? Can't I just quit the redirection and change the content?

Well, my experience, and research says that if a site has the same class C as another (aaa.bbb.CCC.ddd) the links between the two won't be counted by Google.

What is considered duplicated content exactly?
The same document?
The same texts?
Some common elements?
The same design but different texts?

Well, this is kind of tough to really nail down. My rule of thumb is; if it looks a little different, and reads a little differently, you will be ok. Word for Word will definitely be picked up. Common elements will help establish that they are in the same industry.

Good luck!