Quantity Of Sites

Quick poll about the count of sites you run.

[Demaestro]

Hey all,

I am a nerdy programmer that works in web development for a large software company and I have decided to, based on webmasterWorld posts to start a suite of websites that I will run personally to try to generate revenue using a few methods I have come across ehre and other places as well.

I am just curious how many sites some of you are in control of personally?

I am not talking about a team of people running a bunch of sites, but I am talking about a single webmaster. How many sites is enough? I have started with 3 sites myself and I have nursed up their rankings over the past couple of months and I am getting top 10 results for my keywords. I want to kick off another 3 and I am wonderng how far should I take this? Does anyone out there run over 50? over 100? And at what time cost per day to keep content current and optimized?

[Matt Probert]

One. It's web-based publication and takes all of my time.

Matt

[celgins]

I've read on numerous threads that many members run between 50-100 websites. I haven't a clue as to how they do it since I have difficulty keeping up with just one!

Maybe I spend too much time on just one? Maybe I'm not diverse enough, or smart enough to run more than one?

Don't know the answers to those questions, but I would like to have at least 3 more profitable sites.

[Essex_boy]

I have 4, 1 is performing well, 1 is showing real potential, 1 is up and down and the last one is too new to mention.

Im aiming at having around 30 by the end of the year.

[Small Website Guy]

I have one real site that's a database application using SQL Server and ASP.NET and it makes 95% of my money (which is only about $100/day).

Then there's the failed site, some blogs, some bogus useless sites.

Don't take this as a model, I just do this as a hobby.

But people who run "100 sites" are not running real sites but SEOed garbage sites which make money by leeching off of search engines. It's impossible to run more than a handful of quality sites.

[bateman_ap]

It's impossible to run more than a handful of quality sites.

Not when you have people working for you...

[JerryOdom]

1, 4, 50 whats the difference. On a personal basis I have one. On a professional I really have no idea.(lots) I would suggest you build a handful of really good sites based on subjects you're interested in and can quickly develop content for.

[lammert]

and I have decided to, based on webmasterWorld posts to start a suite of websites that I will run personally to try to generate revenue

I run many websites, but my experience is that the main part of the revenue is only comming from very few of them. Concentrating on one site and making good content seems to be more profitable than making many written-in-one-day sites, but it depends on the type of revenue generation you want to use ofcourse.

[Demaestro]

lammert, that is a good point, I want to nurse maybe 3 sties to good rankings and decent traffic before I leave those to move to the next three. I want to have good context and I am not going to be putting them up for the sake of having it.

I am thinking that if I can do $20 a month per site. and get 10-20 sites up that that would translate into a nice little revenue stream. Pay for a nice Christmas at least.

Jus wondering if 20 sites most of them static, is too many for one guy to handle, I may have one or two that have dynamic content or databases associated to them.

What are some of the favorite ways of generating revenue I wonder? I mean I have all the knowlage you can have on the web and putting up sites and doing special coding for dynmnaic features. So what ways should I be looking at generating reveue? Other then with Ad placements?

[laertes]

Why have 20 sites making 20$ a month when could have one making 400$ a month? Either way, you will have the same number of pages and earn the same amount. Except with 20 sites, there is much more work promoting them all.

The only reason to spread to other domains is to try out different niches I suppose.

Personally, I have gone the opposite way. I started out with many sites, ended up with about 50, and got burned out trying to get them all ranked for their keywords. I finally decided a couple of months ago to focus on just site one at a time, make it the absolute best it can be and let all the rest of the sites age themselves. Then when I'm ready to move on (if ever)I'll tackle the next one.

[celgins]

I think the key is finding a good niche. It sounds silly, but if you find a niche and do it well, you don't have to have the best looking website in the world. It just has to give the people what they want.

When they get what they want, it becomes popular. When it becomes popular, ads begin to generate revenues.

I just wish I had the time to run more than one website!

[Demaestro]

laertes,

An Excellent point. I would much rather have 1 making $400 then 20 making $20. Based on a few tests I did originally I found that it wasn't opitimistic to expect to be able to get $20 a month from a site. So to increase the total dollar amount I was going to increase the quantity of sites. I am not sure that I have a business model that can realistcally expect more the $50 a month per site I am not sure I want to start selling things online, other then information.

If you don't mind, and I understand if you don't want to, but if you don't mind saying, what is the main source for your revenue? Site subscriptions? Selling products? Ad placement? I am really only thinking of the latter for now, although once I get knee deep in it I may see something I don't know.

What celgins said is more of what I was thinking. Get some niche sites and make the content the best it can be. Get it top SERP results and then hope people click ads. Forget awesome skins and flash objects. I am thinking of things really simple. Like:
"How To Care for a three toe box turtle"
or
"Strategies for Playing Black Jack in Casinos"
That kind of thing. Nothing heavy, but like I said once I am knee deep in it something more obvious may come to mind.