Forum Moderators: martinibuster
My site is an online magazine about northern New England. Right now I'm making about $5-10 a day (one day I actually hit $15!) from Adsense. I have also diversified by selling affiliates (selling art.com posters/prints does especially well since they pay a 25-30% commission).
I really want to take my Web site to the next level and have been tinkering with the idea of starting spin-off sites. I have read some threads about one-site versus many, but am wondering if the extra work of more sites (and how many, on average do posters to this board have?) is advantageous -- or if I should keep plugging along on this one site?
Many thanks for any help & advice!
it seems the question about one site vs. many is very personal to each webmaster and your comfort level and your drive to earn more money. I run just one site, but on a number of diverse topics. The site's name is one of those 'means nothing' names, and the topics are in directories. I like the one site approach, because of the high PR and instant 'weight' your new pages receive.
On the other hand, if I had a site about New England and decided to create new sites about Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, I'd probably keep them under a common New England "umbrella brand" because each would benefit from its association with the other. Even if I decided to add a site about the Mid-Atlantic States, I might try to unite the New England and Mid-Atlantic sites under a common umbrella brand (Eastern Seaboard, Northeast, Eastern U.S., or whatever).
Of course, if you're running the kind of site that you'd just as soon keep below the radar, branding is the last thing you'll want to do. But if you have a legitimate site that would benefit from branding (as yours would, from the sound of things), it makes sense to create a brand identity that will grow in importance and recognition in the years ahead.
I do put google adsense on the same pages. Is this not okay? I didn't think that was a conflict (I thought that only other similar ads should not be on the same page).
I do have other questions -- but maybe I should start another thread. Well...I'll give it a shot here. How long until success (good income)? 3, 4, 5 years?
[edited by: martinibuster at 10:25 pm (utc) on Feb. 27, 2006]
[edit reason] Removed specifics. [/edit]
How long until success (good income)? 3, 4, 5 years?
2 years.
I believe in one great site verses many smaller sites.
I used to believe the same as you, but no more. It seems to me that the trend for the foreseeable future is for Google to place more weight on a website's "authoritativeness". I do not believe that means you get any inherent penalty from Google for storing diverse topics on a single website.
Where the problem lies is in getting links from other authoritative websites. I believe people prefer to link to websites, not sub-directories in websites, and that people's perception of your authoritativeness is colored by the degree to which you're wholly devoted to the topic in question.
A canonical example is the ODP which, by policy, tries to only list each website exactly once in their directory. That's a clear potential penalty for the "store diverse topics on the same website" approach.
I believe it's even worse for individuals. If I'm an authoritative site for Widgets, I'm just going to be slightly less enthused about adding an unsolicited, non-reciprocal link to your www.bigbagofinfo.com/widgets/ directory than I would if you just ran the same information as a separate www.widgets.com/ website.
I still do keep a "grab bag" website around, but it's for drilling test holes for keyword oil. For example, if I discover something interesting or amusing to say about "peanut butter", I'll put that onto the "grab bag" website. Probably nothing will come of it, but there's some chance that now or in the future, that page will suddenly start getting some traffic. I may then develop a small cluster around that keyword, if it looks plausible.
But beyond a certain threshold, any cluster in the "grab bag" site that I decide to get serious about writing about gets moved onto its own website, so that it will have a better chance of eventually garnering those (IMO) important inbound links from websites that Google deems authoritative.
I used to believe the same as you, but no more. It seems to me that the trend for the foreseeable future is for Google to place more weight on a website's "authoritativeness".
I guess I am a Rebel or Free Spirit. I do not believe in planning for the future to the extent that it will hurt my current income. I believe in seizing the moment.
Currently there are to many advertising dollars to be won. There is currently a race between all of the major search engines to win these dollars.
If I was to worry about the possible future directions of the major search engines I could miss out on the best chance I may ever have at creating the life style that I want. That chance is now.
i take it that people who do that have turned off site targeting?
as frostymug indicated, the problem with seperate sites is getting 'em ranked well in google... which means that it could be months before you start seeing any significant traffic... but that's how i'm doing it, i think that you have to be in this for the long haul.
How long until success (good income)? 3, 4, 5 years?
It does not take as long as it use to. 6 Years ago there was no Adsense.
i take it that people who do that have turned off site targeting?
I do not use site targeting; However, I do use Section targeting.
There is currently a race between all of the major search engines to win these dollars.
That's a common perception, but I think it's wrong. Google is largely going after quite different advertising dollars than MSN and Yahoo! I wish they were all three head-on competitors, but it sure hasn't happened that they compete equally for my content yet. Not close. Not even in the ballpark.
I don't actually view the increasing weight on authority rank as something in the future. It's been happening for a while now, and I only see it getting worse (or better, if you position yourself for it, just like with Smart Pricing).
But I'm definitely no Rebel. When I see a freight train coming, I get out of the way or hop on board. I don't stand on the tracks, enjoying the sunshine :-)
I believe it's even worse for individuals. If I'm an authoritative site for Widgets, I'm just going to be slightly less enthused about adding an unsolicited, non-reciprocal link to your www.bigbagofinfo.com/widgets/ directory than I would if you just ran the same information as a separate www.widgets.com/ website.
I get quite a few inbound links to my "sites within a site" and to specific articles. In fact, I've found unsolicited links from the ODP to subtopics within my site, not just to my index.html page(s).
Just as important (or maybe even more important), having my subtopics under an overall "umbrella theme" helps to generate internal referrals. Some of my most popular and profitable pages get nearly all of their traffic from other pages within the site. IMHO, "critical mass" is a good defense against the vagaries of the search engines. (When I lost 70-90% of my Google referrals for two months last spring, my revenue dropped much less than I thought it would because of internal referrals.)
