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A few big websites or many small ones?

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Bill Manningposted 6 years ago
One of the things I've never got a good answer to is, are a few big, updated websites better than many small, non-updated ones?

I have two very large websites that I update every other day or so. I make enough off them to be happy with them but it seems like once they get big enough the amount more you make stops.

However my small sites I don't update much, I make hardly anything off them. Seems like a small, non-updated site would always be in the 10,000 spot on Google and never be found.

I have been thinking of making some small, niche sites that focus on a very narrow niche.

Then just letting them sit out there, never updating them. In time they would make a little, and in 6 months or so I could sell them on site auction places.

What's your take on it, stick with big, updated sites or make many small ones?
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  Pandoras Boxposted 6 years ago in reply to this
  I don't know. But thank you for saving me. Your post brought my attention back to where it needs to be. I have got to get edweirdo's filter installed on this browser.
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  Bill Manningposted 6 years ago in reply to this
  I know exactly what your saying. I was going to start this out by saying "while everyone else is wasting time on the political and religious forums, I've been working" !
  
  I mean what, is everyone rolling in money so they can spend all day throwing mud at each other and doing nothing?
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ryankettposted 6 years ago
I would go with a few big ones Bill, particularly for one main reason.... they become valuable assets with resale value. Micro-sites don't tend to sell for much. Getting yourself a strong Alexa ranking is a great benefit when attempting to pass on a site in the longer term. You may find that people are more willing to come and guest blog on larger established sites too.

It keeps your costs down too, whilst domains aren't expensive, renewing 100 of them across the course of any one year will be hard to keep track of.
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  Bill Manningposted 6 years ago in reply to this
  Yeah I pretty much think that too. However I do think I will dabble a little in some small micro-niches.
  
  I know I could rank for the #1 spot on Google for many small niches, but they would not have much traffic. Still, it's amazing how much small, new sites go for on flippa.
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  ryankettposted 6 years ago in reply to this
  I have bought around 15 domains this year. I was going to build them all up at the same time.
  
  Instead, I will probably select just 5 of them, and build 5 big sites. The other 10 I may build micro-sites on, just so they aren't wasted, effectively 'parked'.
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ryankettposted 6 years ago
It would also be a pain in the backside backlinking each and every one of those microsites, as well as submitting xml sitemaps for each and every one of them.

I would rather submit a couple of huge sitemaps, and build up the quantity of backlinks necessary to achieve PR3 or PR4 on a couple of domains.
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thisisoliposted 6 years ago
I would definitely say a few big sites.

The problem I have is that I have way too many good ideas!
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  ryankettposted 6 years ago in reply to this
  Maybe you should register a short brandable domain, and then build those ideas on sub-domains?
  
  e.g. thisis.com
  
  and then: laptops.thisis.com, perfume.thisis.com, ipadaccessories.thisis.com
  
  That would overcome the problem? I let WAY too many domains drop, as I buy them thinking that I can take on more than I can (in reality) chew.
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Nelle Hoxieposted 6 years ago
Well from someone who actually has both kinds of sites and years of experience from which to speak. You need both.

Google goes through phases. For a while the big sites were favored. Then wordpress blogs were favored. Then niches did better. Datafeeds were okay, then they weren't now they are, the blog posts were better, now they aren't. Now G loves shared sites. Who knew? Coupon sites were the rage, now merchants won't let them in their programs regardless of Google standings.

If you want to ride out Google's fickle nature and that of merchants. You need all kinds of content and a lot of it.

There has never been a simple solution or strategy that has consistently stood the test of time and yielded income over many years.
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  Bill Manningposted 6 years ago in reply to this
  Thanks Nelle. Yup the more I learn the more I see that you have to keep expanding and doing many things.
  
  Too many try to make money off big ticket items. The real money on the net comes from little amounts from many places.
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sunforgedposted 6 years ago
I have both kinds of sites also and would suggest all of the above. well.. I dont have any truly massive sites but they are in the works.

And to agree with Bill, on industry specific forums and flippa , one year old micro sites with established traffic and earnings history can sell for many thousands of dollars this includes autoblogs.

I find it to be quite easy to make up the $7-10 cost of a domain within a year (or a day)
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  Bill Manningposted 6 years ago in reply to this
  Glad to hear that sunforged. I even have another idea also. If you put many micro-niche sites on one reseller hosting account, when you sell the sites you can be charging for hosting also.
  
  One more way to add to your profits over a long term.
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  sunforgedposted 6 years ago in reply to this
  yep - thats a pretty common practice already Bill - you will often see that flippa and ebay auctions often include a set time of hosting and an offer to continue hosting for $5-10 a month, this is particular common for script based sites.
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Spacey Graceyposted 6 years ago
I have nothing to add, but as ever have learnt a lot just from reading all your replies - although I understood only about 75% of the what you were saying :} Thanks guys.
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