Splitting site into similarly themed sites

Site catering to several markets might be "blurry"

[Ceverett]

Suffice it to say that I have *thousands* of pages of content
that I can split up into multiple sites. Would it be advantageous
to split them up into more tightly focused sites?

For example www.widgeteers.com could become a hub site for

www.widgeteer-online.com
www.widgeteer-coaches.com
www.widgeteer-scouts.com
www.widgeteer-team-owners.com
www.widgeteer-support-people.com
www.widgeteer-fans.com

with all the sites crosslinking and backlinking to www.widgeteers.com/.

[Susanne]

Cross linking can give you a penalty. Duplicate or very simlar content can too. It's easier to build up link popularity for one site than for many. Search WebmasterWorld and you'll find many interesting posts about this subject.