Single big domain or separate ones?

[vero]

Just wondering, from an SEO point of view...
Is it better to have one domain with 5 different though related subjects, or 5 separate domains?

Example - would the search engines prefer a single Widgets domain with 50 pages each on Red Widgets, Blue widgets, White widgets, Black widgets, and Green widgets...
Or 5 separate domains, again with 50 pages, one for Red widgets, one for Green, one White, one Black, one Blue?

Would the 5 separate ones be more likely to get more traffic combined, than the one big domain?

I have certain sections of my site that are more profitable, and I'm wondering if they would do better if I broke them out on their own domains, or if I should just leave them as part of the original site and just keep building pages on them there. The original site isn't that old, so I don;t think that would be a big issue.

Thanks!

[tedster]

Different schools of thought and experience on this issue, I'd say. It mostly depends on how substantial your plans are for the individual build-outs. My preference would be this: since you've alredy launched the sections on one domain, stick with that and see what develops.