Changing a site with it's own domain to a 3rd level domain

Should I do this?

[mona]

A client has a corporate site that sells widgets. The also have several "side projects" that sell widgets in specific areas. Right now all the side projects have their own domain. These sites have a few incoming links, but the site is not fully indexed and the referrers are low.

The corporate site is well indexed, ranks well, etc. Should I switch these small side project sites to 3rd level domains of the corporate site?

Another point. If we switch to 3rd level domains, we need to point their current domain names to each site because they adverstise these domains in their print advertising. Anyone ever made this kind of move? What were the results?

[RonPK]

Do clients associate the widgets with the company name? Will putting blue widgets and red widgets under one roof have any added value, or are the widgets too different?

I've done jobs for a company that sells soup as well as washing powder. They've wisely chosen to give them their own domains ;)

[mona]

They are very closely related. You could easily have these sites as a simple directory in the main site. We've even discussed doing that instead of the suddomain. I wonder if that would be a good solution?

[iamlost]

If you were designing 'new' would the site architecture be one, one with sub-domains, or multiple sites? Work within that decision as much as possible without damaging the main site.

This might be a good time to sit down with the client and talk through likely future site requirements and incorporate them into the redesign model for ease of later addition. This 'future proofing' is something I like to do annually - provides lead time rather than panic time as well as a natural contract renewal point.