Portals vs dedicated websites

[gigikent]

hi!

i have a few projects in my mind and the first thing i need to do to implement them is to buy a domain. i'm currently in doubt of whether to buy a single short-named domain and group all the projects in a portal or buy multiple domains (one specific domain for each of them).

which is the best choice to sneak through google panda's claws?

[shazam]

Years ago I would say go big or go home. Invest all your funds, energy, and time into making one site the best on the web in its niche. Don't spread your resources too thin and make many mediocre sites. Make one site that is a true category killer.

Now after years of repeatedly being put out of business by the big Ev...er I mean g, I think your much better off making a tons of mediocre or semi crappy sites. Making and maintaining the best site means nothing these days. The main search engine has shown again and again that quality doesn't really matter.

Multiple domains will allow you to always have a plan b. Putting all your eggs in one basket is a surefire way of getting your basket crushed. There are many advantages to this method. You will have a network of sites with hopefully different approaches, cms, layouts, etc to give you some usable data regarding what works and what doesn't work. You will likely find that blindly following the guidelines released by the pr team simply doesn't work and there's a good chance that one or two of your sites (often the spammiest weakest ones) will pop right up to the top of the serps and stay there. You can then modify a few others to follow, but always keep some variety so you don't get put out of business when the inevitable happens.

It's sad that things have devolved to this point but if your not already rich and have a family to feed it's best to take a realistic approach in my opinion. I sincerely hope that one day making a single quality site is a viable and profitable business plan. Until then, it's quite clear that goo is determined to destroy as many businesses and jobs as they can so I personally think diversification is extremely important. Let them destroy parts of your investment, but never the whole pie.

[Pjman]

I have to second the don't keep all your eggs in one basket thing these days. I have been burned in the past. I use to spend all day making 20,00 page sites over years of time, but instead I shot for 10 sites of 2,000 page sites.

Not only that, but make sure that G can't identify them as all related. Interlinking sites or have the same G products (analytics, adsense), IP address.