Forum Moderators: martinibuster
W.
My adsense sites are large 'bottom feeding' sites - ie, they are not particularly sensitive to PR and algo fluctations. PR is useful, but it is very much the icing on the cake for my sites (read: I am targeting thousands of 3 and 4 word phrases with little real competition)
It was in my interest to theme my content and create a different site for each theme.
Where appropriate, I used subdomains, but I still have 7 distinct sites - all legitimate and all pulling good traffic.
Its hard to describe without breaking TOS here. I am not disagreeing with EPV, just pointing out that it should perhaps be the content and market that decides how many sites you need.
Looking back, I couldn't imagine doing it any other way. Having just one site would scare me.... too much like buying all McDonald's stock then wondering when the next mad cow scare will show up :P
Im happy because amazon feed create a lot of .html pages in my site.
(read: I am targeting thousands of 3 and 4 word phrases with little real competition)
Are these like the keyword spamming pages I have come across? Like where you generate thousands of pages based on 3 related keywords for a specific subject with search results from some search engine API?
For the life of me I cannot undertsand why Adsense allows these useless sites in their program.
I prefer a less volatile approach: building a substantial, high-profile site with "evergreen" content that has value beyond its suitability for AdSense. But maybe that's because I'm over 50 and have seen a lot of trends come and go over the years--and I still get occasional royalties from an "evergreen" book that I wrote more than 20 years ago. :-)
What do you do then--throw out your sites and start over with something new?
These keyword-spamming sites are trivial to produce. So if it goes away it doesn't really matter. In addition, they tend to put these pages secretly within a legitimate site which no real person will use. It's sole purpose is for googlebot to index. I think that technique is not fair, which is why I cannot understand why Adsense allows it.
Heh, I learned my lesson. I don't optimize jack for jack. I just build sites on subjects that interest me, and go figure, people always show up to link to them. Some sites I may forget indefinitely while others I add to from time to time. I suspect some of them will be quite popular by the time Adsense fizzles and there will always be the next big program.
In the end, I'd rather have 10 medium-sized sites and 50 little ones than one big one, just because it would be stressful to me to be dependant on only one site, plus I'd be bored to tears sticking to one site (that probably being the bigger issue, heh). I'd rather research and learn about a lot of subjects than be an expert in one area.
Are these like the keyword spamming pages I have come across?
There are plenty of AdSense publishers who have 1000+ pages running AdSense, targeting 3-4 keyword phrases that are not keyword spamming pages.
The problem with keyword-spam pages (pages with little but keywords, but with no real content/information) running AdSense ads has definitely diminished in the last couple of months.
Here is a thread from last month on this issue:
[webmasterworld.com...]
loanuniverse said it exactly - going for 3-4 keyword search phrases can be quite profitable, especially since surfers are often using multiple keyword search queries rather than single ones. The competition isn't nearly as fierce as if you are targeting a big money single keyword, and the rewards can be great.
Are these like the keyword spamming pages I have come across?
Others have kindly answered for me, but just to confirm - nope.
These are pages that people are actually searching for - I get plenty of e-mails thanking me for the content.
The reason that I am doing multiple sites is curiously exactly the reason that EPV isn't - stability. We are probably both right, as well.
The bottom feeding approach is incredibly stable as I am not deliberately targeting any really competitive phrases.
My traffic comes from thousands of different phrases - I really don't worry whether one goes down in the SERPS or not.
Once I have run out of data to start new sites or increase the current ones, I will start promoting the largest of the sites more agressively, but for now I get a better return from using the time to 'add content' as fast as I can.
The only thing slightly devious about most (but not all) of my sites is the fact that they are deliberately slightly 'amateur' looking and would definitely not win any usability awards.
I want people to land on the page they searched for and then find the Adsense ads more interesting than browsing through my site using up bandwidth.
This is very specific to my particular market and would not apply to all circumstances.
... please, no lectures on the basics of usability - I promise you that I have covered all the obvious angles. I have both usable and 'slippy' sites, and I know which convert best for my market
anyway, each site i create is certainly not created merely for adsense. each is a site that has merit all of its own, and i put adsense it on it because...well, "why not". the goal is to see which of these ideas (and i have many) end up being good ones. those that deserve more time and attention (and content) get it. those that don't, don't. some of these sites have hundreds of pages of quality content - some only have 50 or so pages. but all are worthy of standing on their own - with or without adsense.
There are plenty of AdSense publishers who have 1000+ pages running AdSense, targeting 3-4 keyword phrases that are not keyword spamming pages.
Maybe I'm missing something, but how do you build thousands of pages tagetting keyword combos which is not keyword spamming? Are these pages auto-generated? Can you give a more specific example? The example I use is pages created from search engine results where each page is the result of a specific keyword combo. The page simply lists the search results, with a header, ie "Pages about keyword1 keyword2 keyword3."
Would this be an example of keyword spamming? I don't think Adsense has cracked down on such sites because I see them all the time.
europeforvisitors, i think one site is the more volatile approach - the old, all your eggs in one basket idea.
A better analogy would be to say that a large, established content site can avoid the risk of starvation by harvesting its eggs from more than one chicken. :-)
For example, if AdSense goes away or dumps my site tomorrow, I'll still be generating significant revenue from affiliate sales. And if other forms of advertising come along that offer greater revenue potential than AdSense, I can switch networks in the twinkling of an eye (as I did when AdSense was launched). In other words, my "content site" is a revenue platform that can be monetized in different ways, instead of being optimized for one type of revenue that could disappear tomorrow.
Obviously, this strategy won't work for everyone; for someone whose skills are primarily entrepreneurial or technical, developing a "content site" may not be the most productive way to invest time or money. But for Webmasters who come from editorial or information backgrounds, publishing a content site can be a worthwhile strategy both for the short term and the long haul.
I was responding to the "all eggs in one basket" comment and the topic (which has been discussed in this thread) of creating multiple AdSense-driven sites.
Interesting responses, I find it amusing how you all talk about 'creating a new site' as if it was water off a duck's back, I have been trying to think *really* hard for a new site over the last few weeks, and I just can't think of one.
I don't just want to create a site for the heck of making a site (which one or two of you sound like your doing =0) I want it to actually have some real use to the end user, otherwise the internet will just become a junkyard of spam and keyword search engine *%^*. How those search engines annoy me.
So, yeah, where does all you inspiration, themes, topics, content come from for these multiple sites?
Oh, and yeah, do you make these 'small sites' interactive, with member interfaces etc, or community forums etc.. or are they static info pages?
W.
I get so many ideas that my only wish is for more hours in the day. But really, you really only need one great idea, then ride that idea as hard and as far as you can.
But really, you really only need one great idea, then ride that idea as hard and as far as you can.
Yahoo and Google both started in that way. Somebody had an idea - started a website and it just continued from there. The sites with the highest traffic are the Googles and Yahoos of the online world. However to continue make money and be successful your site has to:-
a) have content that people want to read
b) be in someway unique to the other sites - there were plenty of search engines before Yahoo and Google - but they didn't move with the times
c) make money somehow to cover bandwidth (hosting costs) and domain name registration fees
so:- the only two revenue models that have so far worked have been:-
1) Websites supported by advertising
2) E-Commerce website that advertise/ market/ sell a product
or some hybrid of the two.
Of course bear in mind to compete with the "big boys" in the online world you need to be computer wizkid capable of SEO, SEM, website design, copy writing and the skills needed to run a small business.
Sheeze 4 eyes - give away the farm would ya! lol
I am currently running a medium scale site. I am always in two minds if I am supposed to relay on my main good traffic pulling site or make more. But the bottom line fact is, I don’t want to mess up with TOC’s. Hence to adsense and other copetitors and experiment with them, I would like to build few more.
my point is there are millions of ideas out there just waiting to become a website. make what you know.
I will be getting 100,000 uniques / day by my 4th month and I will come on here and just laugh at you all for giving me helpful advice =)
My head is still empty though, I know a lot about main stream things, and you people are always talking about niches... I dont see any niches in my areas. I will explore further =)
If you are passionate about about a particular subject matter, then building a new site is not that difficult.
