I make my living from monetizing my various sites. The general equation is simple enough:
More sites = more potential traffic = more money.
I won’t get into the question of which is better – investing your time and energy in enlarging and promoting a single mega site, or spreading your efforts across a chain of small sites. In my post today, I’ll try to review the pros and cons of a static content website vs. a blog.
Blog like this one
Pros
Easy WordPress Setup
Easier to promote (comments on other blogs, blogroll exchanges, blog directories).
Cons
Requires constant content updates.
Requires software updates and patching.
Static Content Mini-Site like this one
Pros
Launch and forget – no need for updates.
No need to update software.
Smaller risk of being hacked (static html pages)
Cons
Fewer good ready-made templates – less professional look.
Coding required during setup page (no WYSISYG editors)
Harder to promote (people less likely to link to it then to a blog)
What’s My Bottom Line?
For me, static sites will remain a central part of my portfolio. There’s only so many blogs I can keep and promote. Static mini-sites are fun to make, and I can make one in a day or two. They’re not as visually appealing but they’re just as effective.
Looking at my revenue stats, on average, static sites generate the same kind of revenue as my blogs. In my experience, it takes longer for them to pick up traffic, but once they gain their places in the search engines for their terms, they often stay there forever.
Most importantly, because there is little to no maintenance, I am not limited by my ability to keep dozens and even hundreds of them in my portfolio.
How about you? do you have static content sites in your portfolio or just blogs?
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I do not have a static site yet — still to busy to maintain my growth blog.
I have some idea according static site in my mine such as affiliate static site but I think I will not have it in near future.
.-= Dana @ Blogging Tips Blog´s last blog post ..A Learning from recent Google Page Rank Update: Link Out is Never Hurt! =-.
Twitter: JayceOoi
says:
Cool… Will try to create some static sites and do lot of SEO on them. See how much will I earn.
.-= Jayce´s last blog post ..Download Opera Mini 5 & Opera Mobile 10 with Adobe Flash Lite 3.1 Support =-.
Twitter: DennisEdell
says:
Just an FYI – There are plenty of WYSISYG editors around today, some real good free ones too.
You gave me an excellent question and answer post idea for my community; I’ll contact you when it is done.
.-= Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog post ..DEDC Remains DoFollow – BUT… =-.
Looking forward to seeing that post!
It’s pretty impossible to say that one or the other make more money, or are better for making money. Static websites have the huge advantage of being easy for Google to check out and recommend to people searching for related content. Think about a Youtube video: its static (the video never changes), but it is often high up in Google rankings. Blogs may be nice because its always recurring, but don’t discount the advantages of both
.-= Jimvesting´s last blog post ..Jimvesting.com’s New Header Compromise, A Fresh New Look! =-.
Thanks for info Anne! I believe for static sites it’s harder to get high pr because of their small number of pages.
Possibly, though they don’t have to have a small number of pages. I have a few that are generated from a database (provided by a merchant) and they’re static but have over 10,000 pages each.
Twitter: anneonline
says:
I don’t know much about static sites. For a random topic I would like to promote I think I would just use something like Squidoo or something similar although it may not make as much money in the long run. I have several blogs, but maintain one regularly. I really need to spend more time on the others and on branching out in other directions.
.-= Anne Bender´s last blog post ..You Pledge, Cascadian Farm Donates =-.
I earn more from my static sites. I don’t use WP for my product sites as WP is just too heavy for a site that requires only a few pages. And I do agree that static sites are far less likely to be hacked than wp blogs.
.-= James M.´s last blog post ..Galaga Video Game =-.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting on this. Glad to find another webmaster that follows a similar model.
WordPress can be set up as a static site. I am not a coder but I understand wordpress so that is what I would use eve if building a static site. i don’t understand what James M means by WP being to Heavy – who cares.
.-= Ned Carey´s last blog post ..A Base Hits Beats A Home Run =-.
This is an issue I have faced as well. WordPress is easy to set up and customize, but you can’t always customize it to look exactly how you want it, and you don’t always have the time or the need to add more content continuously. Also, it does take longer to load than a well made static site due to the database calls. On the other hand, I’m not a very good webdesigner so I would have to use a template for a static site too, which limits me because it’s hard to find a good one that works for the topic of the new site, and it might be hard to edit it too.
Hi Anne
I started with static html / CSS websites and then went on to wordpress.
I’ve never used any of the sites for making money, but I am starting to think about it, big difference between static / dynamic is… load time.
I was very disappointed with my WordPress blog when I checked the load time via Google webmaster tools!
If this is a static html page, which it is, how does this comment section work – obviously not PHP.
.-= Keith Davis´s last blog post ..Flying in formation =-.