Keeping ones site(s) secret from other webmasters

Common sense or paranoia?

[webjourneyman]

It seems to be conventional wisdom for webmasters that have their own blog, that it is best not to reveal the url(s) of their site(s). Out of fear of copycats apparently.

But is there a greater risk of copycats stealing an idea after following a link from such a blog than after finding it using any other means?

Is there a webmaster/mistress here that this has happened to, i.e. revealed their url(s) in a blog, forum or other type of media and lost out because of it?

[Quadrille]

I dunno why people worry.

If your SEO is successful, then the sites are successful, so people will see them. That's the whole point. :)

So SEOs in your niche will see your work if it's good enough to be worth copying, and if SEOs in other niches see it ... no harm done.

Seems to me that both extremes are pretty unattractive; bragging and link dropping at one end, and secretive paranoia the other.

Your mileage may vary ;)

[webjourneyman]

Yes, that's what I was thinking too. Also if ones general topic website gets visitors directed from ones webmaster topic blog, i.e. other webmaster then who knows, they just might link to it instead of stealing/scraping/copying etc.
Aren't webmasters on average a pretty decent bunch? ;)

[Quadrille]

Yes, by and large, and also they are learning Google's last secret - linking TO good sites is good seo.

Every little helps!

[Marcia]

I think the reason some people (like those doing affiliate marketing, for example) hesitate to make sites known is because of copycats, and letting on what niches they're involved with. Of course, some sites and pages might actually be just "niche tasting" or "algo pushing to the limits" to find out what works best (and what doesn't), so often what's "visible" shouldn't necessarily be taken at face value. Still, many prefer to stay out of view, and there can be good reasons behind it.

[webjourneyman]

Yes, I can understand that, especially if a webmaster blog bragged about it's earnings (why else have a blog ;) ), then it would't be so smart to reveal what those affiliate programs are and how the products are being sold.
Also if it was a very narrow niche that the webmaster had found after much research, then again that would be dumb to invite a crowd to compete.
I was thinking about this after reading a few "make money online" blogs and wondering about how much more interesting they would be if they mentioned their actual sites.

[Marcia]

Also if it was a very narrow niche that the webmaster had found after much research, then again that would be dumb to invite a crowd to compete.

Yep, particularly those who do PPC, to their own landing pages and/or DTM. By inviting increased competition it would raise their PPC costs and could significantly cut into their profits. Not to mention, that if it went far enough some merchants could stop allowing DTM because it would then be edging out their own campaigns by raising their costs.

I've seen someone share *how* they drill down to discover profitable niches, but they sure didn't reveal details about what they themselves promote.