Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Some sites don't even need updating. Buy a domain of widgets, write widget info, and let the site live on it's own (I'm not talking about MFAs but sites with real information instead of just 1 paragraph of text surrounded by 3 AS units). If you have dozens of these, you can make nice overall revenue. And still concentrate on updating 1-2 sites.
SOME people may have multiple sites to milk AdSense, but the Web did exist before AdSense.
I have several sites that predate (that's pre-date rather than "chase for food"!) AdSense.
I have a number of very narrow niche topics on their own sites (eg random numbers, toilets (!), secuity/programming, historical e-magazines from ~1995, etc) not all of which even now carry any AdSense.
Radically unrelated content should not be lumped together on one site, IMHO: it's not like we're going to run out of names any time soon... It helps everyone if the tin contains what it claims on the outside (ie the name).
Rgds
Damon
A good question would be, which makes more money: One daily-updated site or five sites that only update a few times per year?
2. Short attention span.
3.?
4. Profit!
To be a little more detailed, let's go with me. I started with one site that revolved around my primary interest at the time. Also at the time, there were no other sites like it. As time went on, part of the site became popular in its own right, so I branched it off into its own site. More time went by, the same thing happened, and I branched another one off.
Along the way, I had a whole bunch of really great ideas for a website, so I'd pick up "the perfect" domain name for it. Unfortunately, most of the time, I ended up just leaving the domain parked because I didn't have time to do the actual website. Every so often, I get time, and I pull out the name, dust it off, build the site, and go with it.
A lot of the site ideas are more or less self-maintaining, requiring a little moderation here and there, but not a lot of ongoing time investment.
I don't know how people can run hundreds of sites, but 10 - 20 can be easily maintainable depending on what they are.
JK
Radically unrelated content should not be lumped together on one site, IMHO: it's not like we're going to run out of names any time soon... It helps everyone if the tin contains what it claims on the outside (ie the name).
Agreed. Why confuse visitors to a site about bright-pink polka-dot widgets with a load of articles about dark-blue examples?
And even with a general topic, there is sometimes good reason to have separate sites targeting different income demographics and niches within that topic.
[webmasterworld.com...]
I seriously doubt any 1 person can update 5 or 6 websites enough to make a quality website that people want to come back to.
A lot of AdSense sites are built on the "bring 'em in through search, let 'em click their way out with AdSense" model. Repeat visitors aren't a consideration.
Yes, I know, regrettably if you follow that logic too far you have an MFA.
I seriously doubt any 1 person can update 5 or 6 websites enough to make a quality website that people want to come back to.
Even in one-person shops, people often have more than one interest. Besides the focus of my sites, I really enjoy bicycling and hiking, though I haven't done sites for those activities. If I did, I probably wouldn't put them on the same site.
But in this AdSense-age profit is probably one of the main reasons. It used to be different a couple of years ago.
True, although if a website gets enough traffic daily they can profit greatly by selling your own ad space to bigger companies.
They don't make adsense money, and don't get seen that much as they have not been properly targetted to search engines.
I sincerely believe that if I was to find the time to shuffle the information on these sites to get a lot more hits, I would have loads of people grateful for the information given on the sites.
If at the same time I was to slap a few adverts on and make a few dollars it would be even better!
In some ways of course it becomes a contradiction. I have written information people want to find. If they find it on my site, they will read it and be happy, but won't be clicking adverts!
To make multiple dollars
just be sure and diversify your ad networks as well :-)
Having lots of return visitors is a wonderful thing but return visitors come for your content and are not shopping for something related.
Actually, those repeat visitors may very well be shopping for something related to your topic, if you have the right kind of content site (e.g., a travel-planning site, a product-review site, or a site about insurance, stocks, mortgages, or mutual funds).
DoubleClick 's 2005 "Search Before the Purchase" report showed that most buyers complete their research two or more weeks before buying online. What's more, users' shopping research typically involved multiple searches, beginning with generic searches ("running shoes") and eventually concluding with brand-specific searches ("Adidas running shoes").
The lesson to be learned here is that authoritative content sites have opportunities to reach users not just once, but throughout the planning and buying cycle. (Plus, they may have opportunities for affiliate sales, which can be far more proftitable than AdSense in some categories.) Made-for-AdSense sites whose business model depends on "get 'em in, get a click" are leaving money on the table.
More than one web site is called DIVERSITY and lots of people have sites that are automatically updated.
My point is: Diversifying is always a good thing. I agree with incediBill. If you can split your topic into several smaller sub-topics that could attract different users, do so!
If you can write and have ideas about many different topics, do so, too.
quality website that people want to come back to.
Many AdSense sites do not make their profit primarily by repeat traffic, but by having an authoritative answer to a commonly-asked question.
You're thinking more like a magazine subscription model, where you want people to keep coming back for the fresh content. But there are many other models, including the "dictionary" model, where my AdSense site essentially owns the "dictionary" (Google) entry for "red widgets", and has the ability to show ads to anyone who looks that term up in the "dictionary" (Google).
In the dictionary model, the goal is not community or "stickiness" -- the goal is maximizing ownership of a term, and profit from that ownership.
I seriously doubt any 1 person can update 5 or 6 websites enough to make a quality website that people want to come back to.
I can
I can
nya nya neener neener
I seriously doubt any 1 person can update 5 or 6 websites enough to make a quality website that people want to come back to.
Our main site has been up for over 6 years. We add very little new content to it on a regular basis, since we are mostly focusing on the e-commerce side of it. Yes, it has an active user base who post messages, which accounts for a large numebr of repeaters, but most people come for the content. We get dozens, maybe even hundreds, of new visitors every day.
I'm not advocating that this works for everyone- far from it! I'm just saying that some topics do not require constant additions or updates.
By the time adsense even came out I already had 9 websites.
So I build about 3 websites a year I guess, and don't really have to do anything to them now except occasional tweaking.
They're all on different subjects, some make money, some don't, but that wasn't the point.
My personality and life experiences are poured into my websites. When I'm dead and gone, my kids and grandkids will know exactly who their grandma was.
They'll always be able to find me online.
When I finish with my plan, I will have about 10 such websites. My intention is to provide the information first, but will be using AdSense to cover my costs, and eventually cover my efforts. I add 2 to 4 pages to each site each month. I'm in no hurry to make tons of money from these sites, but rather a residual type of income.
