Managing more than one blog/website

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   NateB11posted 11 years ago

   Specifically, should you establish one before starting another one, or just start more than one at once? I have one pretty well-established, in the sense of looking good and having content, but I have at least two more ideas for blogs/websites and am thinking of starting at least one more right now. I'm just saying that I barely got the first one launched, don't know about diverting energy to a new one. For those who have more than one site/blog, how have you gone about this? Do you start more than one site simultaneously or do you make sure you are satisfied with one before starting another?

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      LoneWolfMuskokaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Nate
      
      The biggest issue I've had with running multiple blogs is keeping them all updated (i.e. the WordPress, plugins and themes). Now I use WP in multisite mode to create a network of separate but related sites. Updates are much easier but you can only add plugins or themes when in network mode and then need to switch to individual sites to turn them on and administrate them. Also, comments are dealt with on a site by site basis.
      
      By default, each site is in a subdomain of the main, but you can have different domains linked in to a single install of WP (I haven't done this yet, but I might try it with some of my older sites).
      
      As for the content, it is tough to keep everything updated if you are trying to post something every day. But if you're schedule is more sporadic, this can give you an opportunity to "go where your heart is" each day. Focus on which ever topic is at the forefront of your mind.
      
      Basically, it boils down to what you want to achieve with the sites and how you like to work. Having multiple sites can be a distraction and a way to satisfy several creative itches at the same time.

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         NateB11posted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks once again, LoneWolf. All of that makes sense and I hadn't thought about updates and plug-ins, that definitely is something that would need to be kept on with multiple sites; I will have to study more on what you said about working them together. I see what you're saying about content; with the one site I have so far, putting content up every couple weeks or even withing a month is fine with me and basically what I do. I think I could handle at least a few sites which would indeed satisfy my varied interests.

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      chrisinhawaiiposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      When I first started, I started with multiple sites right off the bat.  But it just took too long to get any of them up to speed that way, so it was discouraging.  After awhile it becomes hard to motivate myself to write for multiple sites when none of them are getting much traffic.
      
      More recently, though, I bought several domains but have been focusing on one at a time, and I definitely prefer that method.  Yaro had a podcast about this a couple months back, and he hit it right on the head.  It's hard to get a new site going when you keep diverting yourself to other new sites too.
      
      So now I just start a new site, get the home page, about, disclaimers, privacy, header, sidebar...all that stuff...I set it all up and get 5-10 posts on there, plus a little promotion, before I even think about the next site.  That approach is helping me keep my motivation up (and keep my sanity).
      
      If I tried to build 5 brand new sites at once, after 90 days I'd still have 5 ho-hum quality sites with barely a trickle of activity.  But with one at a time, I can have one site earning some money withing 90 days, then I can have some momentum and excitement going into site #2.
      
      Managing multiple sites later on is just fine, but for brand new sites, I prefer giving all my attention to one at a time, to get them off the ground.

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         NateB11posted 11 years agoin reply to this

         That makes a lot of sense, Chris, and thanks for your response. It makes sense to establish one before venturing into a new one. That's exactly how I've been thinking of approaching it; I tend to try to get ahead of myself in this new territory I've discovered.

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      Hostingtalksaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      One at a time does it, if we have two projects that need to be launched for example, we usually give them say 4 days apart from each other so that we can really get into the launching of the one website/project in terms of building back-links and attracting traffic to the page and so on.
      
      Additionally the best way to handle two projects at a time is to have a checklist that will guide you a long the way.

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