Develop one site vs 10 sites? what would you do in 2021

[side-hustle]

Yo, hope you're doing well?

I'm a long-time lurker and due to work changes because of the coronavirus, I'm looking at creating a side hustle to hopefully bring in a few extra quid each month.

Bit of background on me.

I did a bit of affiliate marketing back in the day before all the google updates... Basically when it was easy. Buy a keyword domain, bang some shitty / thin content on it, point some links, and bing bang bosh.

I didn't make a living out of this but did make a few quid. I was also involved in domaining and had a few hundred domains at one point.

Due to work changes and working away a lot I moved away from internet marketing and domaining. However, I've always wanted to get back into it as I did enjoy it but never had the time until now.

The problem is I've been out of the game for so long, I'm not sure what the best course of action is to take and I'm finding myself procrastinating and just wasting valuable time that I could spend getting my teeth into something.

Sorry for rattling on above but I just thought id give a bit of background about my past - present.

......

I've got around 30 domains left. some of which I want to develop hence why I've kept these.

However

My brain is absolutely battered... I've got around 10 domains that id love to develop. These domains are nice aged domains that are in different niches that are popular and what I enjoy.

I've done the research and it seems people develop authority sites these days, which makes sense.

I'd just like to know what you guys would do in my situation.

Is it worth trying to build out 10 sites?
whittle it down to fewer sites?
Just focus on one site and make it massive?

The problem I faced in the past is what a lot of people encounter in the IM industry "shiny object syndrome". In my head, all 10 domains could be made into something special but I'm worried I will be spreading myself too thin which will ultimately result in them failing.

Content won't be an issue as such as I enjoy each of the niches that id like to develop however I'm not the quickest writer as I like to create engaging, in-depth factual articles which take time.

 

[watsonovedades]

Depends in how much time you want to get results?
Writing the content yourself saves You money but it takes more time
If you decide do it alone i would recommend focusing your time and efforts on 3 maybe 4 sites

First create good content on them, let them marinate for a couple of months and elaborate a smart link building strategy

And so on
Best of luck

 

[xReminisce]

My inner self says get 10
while my brain says focus on one or two

Pick what you are able to accomplish without draining yourself out.
Some are more than capable of doing 10 at once, while some only 1 or a few.
The key is to make sure you can stay committed, preserve and strive to work towards each of the sites goals.

 

[Deleted member 658642]

Why stop with just 10? Use all your leftover domains and build 30 different sites.

 

[side-hustle]

Thanks for the replies.

Depends in how much time you want to get results?
Writing the content yourself saves You money but it takes more time
If you decide do it alone i would recommend focusing your time and efforts on 3 maybe 4 sites

First create good content on them, let them marinate for a couple of months and elaborate a smart link building strategy

And so on
Best of luck

I'm not too fussed about how long it takes to get results as I'm quite happy playing the long game and create something long-term. Obviously the quicker the better.

I thought about outsourcing content for some of the sites but it's difficult finding a reliable source to produce good quality content at an affordable price.

I did think about using relevant plr content, taking bits from several articles then rewriting it to make a more unique in-depth article to save time. Not sure what your views are on this??

My inner self says get 10
while my brain says focus on one or two

Pick what you are able to accomplish without draining yourself out.
Some are more than capable of doing 10 at once, while some only 1 or a few.
The key is to make sure you can stay committed, preserve and strive to work towards each of the sites goals.

I get you, man. In an ideal world id dev them all but in the real world for me, it's not possible.

I'm all geared up and committed buddy, just need to pick the path, and ill 100% stick to it.

Why stop with just 10? Use all your leftover domains and build 30 different sites.

as much as id love to id struggle to bang the content out on a regular basis for them all. This puts me off as i don't want to spend hours creating a site, creating content for it to be a waste of time.

Realistically with my free time, i think I can create 1-2 1000+ word articles per day, more if I rewrite plr content

1 site = 30 - 60 posts per month per site (30k - 60k words per month) / 1 site / 1 email address / 1 bunch of social accounts to manage
3 sites = 10 - 20 posts per month per site (10k - 20k words per month) / 3 site / 3 email address / 3 bunch of social accounts to manage
10 sites = 1 - 2 posts per month per site (1000 - 2000 words per month) / 10 site / 10 email address / 10 bunch of social accounts to manage

 

[bossofthebosses]

If u want to build 10 - make sure you use different ips and (different hosting providers if possible). Otherwise, in case if 1 site gets penalized - others will be too.

 

[side-hustle]

If u want to build 10 - make sure you use different ips and (different hosting providers if possible). Otherwise, in case if 1 site gets penalized - others will be too.

would that be the same theory for 3 sites ??

 

[bossofthebosses]

would that be the same theory for 3 sites ??

if they are in the same niche then yes
also make sure u use different search console accounts

 

[side-hustle]

if they are in the same niche then yes
also make sure u use different search console accounts

They are all different niches. No overlaps.

 

[bossofthebosses]

They are all different niches. No overlaps.

Then same ip/hosting for 3 domains is fine but always use one google search console account for one domain.

 

[side-hustle]

thanks buddy.

Any more opinions?

 

[Nihilism]

Develop 5-10, see which ones do best, keep the winners. Set strict guidelines so you know when to stop working on them. This was my first move in IM, I made about 20 websites, I kept 3 of them, and sold 3, it was a learning journey more than anything. Eventually now I still have the same 3, but also 2 new ones i'm working on. The 3 original ones are fully automated and rarely take up any of my time

 

[side-hustle]

Develop 5-10, see which ones do best, keep the winners. Set strict guidelines so you know when to stop working on them. This was my first move in IM, I made about 20 websites, I kept 3 of them, and sold 3, it was a learning journey more than anything. Eventually now I still have the same 3, but also 2 new ones i'm working on. The 3 original ones are fully automated and rarely take up any of my time

How did you manage the 20 to begin with?
how long of a period did it take you to launch the 20?
did you outsource?
how long did you give them to be categorized as a winner/loser?

 

[Nihilism]

How did you manage the 20 to begin with?
how long of a period did it take you to launch the 20?
did you outsource?
how long did you give them to be categorized as a winner/loser?

Firstly it was codecanyon stuff, I learned some courses on Udemy and managed most of it myself, I was outsourcing simple stuff, and to tell you the truth, I don't think I knew what I was doing. The websites I put the most work in worked the best, but they were several websites across several niches. I think I found out if something was gonna work or not within a few weeks of launching/running ads. This was done over about a year. I sold 3 codecanyon scripts for $3-5k each after they were ranked on Google. The rest were SMM/marketing niche sites that just seemed to be getting traffic and sales from Google with no ads.

I think at the end of the first year I had definitely shed off most of the bad websites. I still launch a think or two here and there, but I don't go for quantity over quality. I have a process I work with that seems to work fine.

On the point of outsourcing, yes, I outsourced a lot of stuff. Lots of wordpress stuff, SEO, outsourced some content, but I'd say I did at least 20-30% of the work on all the sites, however now after years I rarely use wordpress and have a pocket full of great developers who get more done for cheaper.

Another hurdle was content. I was writing a lot of stuff myself because the terrible quality sold on the internet, but eventually found myself a few good writers and a strategy to get content done fast.

Winning websites would appear fast. There are a few websites where I had a few sales within a few hours of running ads. Also I was a noob at running ads back then, so to be getting ads with very bad ads was already a good thing. Eventually on those websites, SEO worked too.

 

[Nihilism]

On the other side, I think that losing websites also showed themselves fast. As you're finishing it off, if your gut feeling says you're not doing it right, you're probably right. I look at it as a great experience, lots of ups and down, lots of education, all expenses were deducted from taxes, so really I look at it as if I took some classes or a year at a university, and the costs are far less and the experience is much more relative to real life experiences.

From this process, I improved my knowledge on web, SEO, SMM, ads, but more so when I had less sites.

My final advice is that if you're new and you're trying to hit jackpot, it's statistically better to have more things to test, but also from my experience, it's probably gonna net you less quality work, which realistically will net you less winners.

If you're new, maybe start off with 3-5 websites if you have the time and funds to do it, but if not, maybe take from the advice of others and try 1-2 things and really hammer down and concentrate your efforts to making that work.

If you try few things, you might spend too much time on a losing product, if you try too many, you'll be spread out thin and your quality might suffer but you have a higher % chance of finding a niche.

Final thoughts:
- Learn ALL what needs to be done to do all this stuff, learn website stuff, learn how to set up websites, servers, install wordpress, plugins, make simple edits, learn how to strategize and analyze, all of these skills will save you THOUSANDS of hours and dollars trying to outsource and manage. There are things that are simply too easy to outsource.
- Use some brief analysis on your niches, get SEMRush and search your ideas keyword difficulties
- Check people on the first few pages of your target niche, be sure you're not doing something completely different
- If you have some experience and money, work on a few projects that are broad but in the same niche, for example, if you wanna test marketing, do a smm/web/ads website, build landing pages for the services and stick with the winners, or if you're doing a CPA site, try something like a news site and see which type of news ranks best, instead of making like 6 different websites to offer a few things in the same niche.
- Pick your breadwinners wisely, sometimes things perform good, but don't convert well, or convert well but are boring and dead end niches, so use your brain at that point to determine if you're making a good decision or not
- Trust your gut feeling, if you have a bad feeling about something, or are feeling like something costs too much for the benefit, you're probably right.
- Don't be shy to ask people, a lot of people will let you show them and pick their brains to criticize or try to help you, you will find help in the places you expect the least

 

[chrischris15]

Personally I think it comes down to budget. If I had the money I'd outsource the content for 10 sites and keep the top 3 after a few months.

 

[GenesisOne]

Focus your efforts on just 1 site.

 

[Stitches and Burns]

I would suggest focusing on one site.

I probably had a dozen sites at one point but all of them failed because of lack of focus. It's hard to succeed if you spread your time, effort and money on a dozen projects.

So I started focusing on one site and ditched the rest. By focusing my 100% time, effort and energy on one site, I was able to grow it beyond my wildest dreams. I was obsessed with growing it and still am.

Now I'm slowly branching out to new sites, because my successful site no longer takes that much effort to grow as it was in the early stages.

Even the Income School guys suggested working only on one site until you have earned enough to branch out to other sites.

I would look at your remaining domains and decide which one to focus on. You don't have to sell the rest of the domains or let them expire. Renew them every year. Then when your one site is successful, you can think about developing the others one by one.

 

[X]

Depending on how much time you can commit, one site will likely be your best bet... BUT I'm also a firm believer in not having all your eggs in one basket, so if you can put 10-15 hours/week into 3 sites (and/or outsource an equivalent amount of work), I would recommend working on 3. One may take off while the other two don't do so well, so you'll know which to focus on and can then decide to double down on it, or keep building it and cut the other two (and replace them with other efforts--just be sure to not bail too quickly, I'd say give it a few months before throwing in the towel on any site, and if you see some decent rankings you're on the right track to keep going). I've worked on a few sites that took forever to budge, and some that showed promise very quickly. You won't know if you don't cast a few different nets in the water, though.

 

[Synapses]

It all depends on your ability, in terms of initial cost, time required and more
Definitely, if you have enough expertise, choosing ten websites is a better option