How many sites, or blogs, do you have?
I have long since past the 100 mark.
And I keep on, publishing more sites (and blogs).
Some webmasters/bloggers will tell you it’s best to focus on a single blog. Dave Doolin even published a post a couple of days ago about how to decommission blogs that you no longer update.
Here’s what Dave thinks about these blogs -
These supposedly harmless, innocuous little blogs have become stale, stinking up your hosting account. You risk confusing your readers… and the distraction costs you time better spent on your main blog.
I think Dave makes a good point when it comes to blogs like B6s.net here or my personal general/personal blog. Actually, much like Dave, I have my “real” writing focused on these two blogs – one for professional topics and the other for everything else.
For me, these are blogs that are more about the blogger than about the blog. I put myself into these blogs, sharing from my personal experience, seeking to interact and further build my online persona. I don’t think I could actively manage more than two of these blogs (and I sometimes wonder if two isn’t too many!)
However, I also have quite a few small niche blogs. Take for example, Gifts for Kids. I have no problem with updating that blog only once every few weeks. If I were to stop posting there for months on end, you can be sure I would still not “decommission” it.
Here’s why -
- Each of these domains has its good standing with the search engines. Moving the posts to another blog will almost certainly lessen their SEO attraction.
- These blogs have incoming links from all sorts of sites and resources. Re-directing the domains to one of my other domains is a good way to make people take down those links.
- Costs are negligible. In my case, hosting doesn’t cost extra, and even if it did, the blogs make enough revenue to justify the small costs.
- I don’t view my readership as a uniform crowd. The people reading this blog are not the one reading my personal blog. The people reading my niche blogs are other folks altogether. I think putting all posts into a single blog would confuse them much more than having them sorted into separate niche blogs.
- I like them. I like working on new projects, creating new sites, researching keywords, buying domain names and publishing a new little gem. It’s profitable and it’s fun! They’re here to stay and, hopefully, make money.
I’m a serial site publisher. I will keep on publishing on new domains. Some of these sites are going to be static websites. In others, I’ll be using WordPress as a CMS and in most likelihood, stop posting to them after a few months. They will remain online, usually with a nice steady stream of revenue, a part of my ever growing little empire 
Pingback: Vote on this article at blogengage.com
Twitter: websiteweekend
says:
This is an excellent counterpoint!
You have it right about which blogs to condense, which to run independently.
As it turns out, I have about 150 domain names which I *don’t* have working for me yet… I think most of them could pay for themselves pretty easily, about 1/2 could make a few buck every month. I think I have about a dozen that could do well.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for this great response.
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog post ..Doing It By The Numbers – Blog Post Engineering =-.
Glad you enjoyed the response and THANK YOU for providing me with the trigger!
Twitter: DennisEdell
says:
About 30 domains with 3 or so in use. Ironically I had an epiphany just last night about a network I’ll be setting up to take care of many problems I have.
.-= Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog post ..What are YOUR Top 3 Social Sharing Recommendations =-.
Ahhh, those secret networks we work on… I have a bunch of them myself.
Twitter: websiteweekend
says:
I’d love to publish an article on “secret networks” hint hint hint.
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog post ..Doing It By The Numbers – Blog Post Engineering =-.
Can’t wait for that
It’s true that having a large number of sites is easier to get rankings but it takes a little while before you have all the websites setup and building content and links to them. But if you take it step by step then those websites just build up easy if you aren’t in a hurry. For me it’s more like bigger sites than many these days.
.-= Mokki Lomat´s last blog post ..Vuokramökki Ahvenanmaa =-.
Good point – it does take time and patience. I’ve been building sites for over a decade now…
hey Anne,
100 plus sites? Wow! I have one blog, and keep thinking I should start another… and my number of sites I can count on one hand.
If you don’t mind me asking, do you have an unlimited hosting account (you said hosting costs weren’t that bad).
And are you paying annually for 100 plus domain names? Seems like that would add up.
Steve
.-= Steve | Trade Show Guru´s last blog post ..Best Trade Show Giveaway Idea Ever? =-.
I have a dedicated server which means extra smaller sites are at no extra cost. I actually pay for closer to 300 domain names… some I just keep as “real estate”. It does cost money, but hey, that’s part of the business expenses
Twitter: sonlinebiz
says:
Kudos on your success with handling multiple blogs @ a time. It’s just not working for me @ the moment and I tend to favor one blog over the other
.-= Udegbunam Chukwudi´s last blog post ..Optimize CSS & Speed Up Blogger Blog Load Time! =-.
hey Anne,
300 domains! wow! That is a small empire!
Having a single dedicated server for hosting would make sense. Do you run the server yourself, or is it run by a hosting company (if you don’t mind me asking)?
300… wow.
one-blog-Steve
.-= Steve | Trade Show Guru´s last blog post ..Best Trade Show Giveaway Idea Ever? =-.
Twitter: mattchedit
says:
On the personal front, I have a set of domains which I am hoping to “eventually” turn into blogs. I generally don’t have much time for personal projects, so they’re just sulking in the corner at the moment.
I’m definitely a fan of having numerous sites/blogs, each typically smaller / more dedicated / more focussed on a specific audience and topic.
.-= Matt Chatterley´s last blog post ..Starting an online shop – Part 6 – The Shopping Cart =-.
Twitter: eenrockstar
says:
I run several blog niche and I make a schedule to update them..who want to build blog niche empire should have their own schedule..