Should I Build One Site Or Many Sites?
A question that comes up a lot is whether you should build one large website, or many small websites. I wanted to share some of my experiences with this, and my advice on the subject.
Building Many Websites
When I first started at Wealthy Affiliate, I had about 5 different niches and 5 different websites. It took me a few tries to find a niche that really sparked my interest and I spent enough time working on it to make my first sale. You can check some of my failed websites here: https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/nathaniell/blog/5-...
So for me, it made sense to "try" different niches until I found something I liked. But the niche training has improved in WA since 2010 when I started, so you may not need to take the same route I did.
Then, after I found my niche, I went a bit crazy. I bought 20 different domains in the same niche, and built a website for all of them.
This was back in the day when EMDs ranked much better, and you could use article spinners to rewrite content that actually ranked. https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/kyle/blog/exact-ma...
So I found some good keywords, bought a domain for each, and built a spun copy of my main site on each keyword. They ranked for a while, and even made some sales, but two years later, they were nowhere to be found. Was it worth it? Yeah. I learned how to build a decentWordPress website in about 30 minutes and learned how to troubleshoot a lot more issues than I normally would have.
But I probably put in more work than it was worth for the money I made, namely because I was still a beginner. Each mistake I made had to be fixed across 20 domains. Used a keyword wrong? 20 article rewrites. Affiliate program changed their links? Need to fix 20 websites. Information changed? Now I have to scan everything and update. Ugh. It was a real pain.
Focusing On One Website
For the past 2-3 years I've just been focusing on one website, and it's much easier in my opinion. I can publishing every day, and feel productive, like I'm really building a solid content base. One article every day for a year is 300 articles, and that's not bad for a brand new "authority" site.
Instead of doing the same thing to a bunch of sites, I can do many things to just one website! I do a product review, a keyword-rich article AND work on my email marketing campaign in one day. I can do a video, an infographic, and run my social media account the next day.
See how much there is to do? Rather than building 20 weak websites, I built one strong one.
About Multiple Streams Of Income
The main thing people get concerned about with having multiple sites is having multiple streams of income, AKA not putting all your eggs in one basket. But that depends on your perspective!
If you have one website that is monetized with many different methods, isn't that the same thing? In one site, you can have:
- Amazon affiliate program
- Multiple independent affiliate programs
- Google Adsense, Bing Ads, Amazon CPM
- An email marketing campaign
- Sell your own ebook
- Sponsored social media posts
So rather than have 7 websites, why not just have 7 ways of monetizing your ONE website?
Plus, success snowballs over time. So one website with 10,000 visits per day will get more exposure, more links, more engagement, etc, which will provide more income opportunities like joint venture projects. And as your site grows, you'll need to expand the types of topics you cover and products you review, so your income will grow that way as well.
Still, I can understand the desire to be 'safe' and have income coming from different sources. Keep in mind, if you are building a business to work from home, you'll eventually have more time to work on a second or third site.
With more experience, you can do more outsourcing, make smarter moves, and you second site will reach success much faster than the first. It may take you 3 years to "go full time" with your first site, but you could double your income in just 1 year the second time around just due to experience.
One website can be a full time job, so two websites would definitely keep you busy!
Verdict?
My personal advice is to start with just one website, in an area where you really think you'll enjoy doing research, writing articles, and communicating with people in your niche. Build that one up to where it's making money, then consider starting a second site.
Or, you can have your "main site" and a "side project" you can tinker with when you get bored or frustrated with your main one.
That being said, I arrived at this conclusion having had the experience of building multiple sites at once, so perhaps your same journey could replicate my own and you'll find yourself in six years saying, "Do what I say, not what I did!". LOL.
What do you guys think? Have you had success with just one or multiple websites?
Recent Comments
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Here at WA we learn that their is a "critical mass" in our SEO marketing efforts. It occurs somewhere along the continuum of achieving site "relevance" and site "authority".
I don't pretend to totally understand the process for achieving critical mass, but have accepted the notion that it is a function of the "volume" of quality content published.
In the interest of keeping the notion of SEO critical mass as simple as possible we are told it results from quality content ... and lots of it. The logical conclusion is that this is a one site at a time effort until we are successful enough to delegate content production.
Awesome advice Nathaniell,
I have recently decided to do away with many of my websites and place more focus on a few and it has paid off Huge!
i admire the fact that you have been with WA for over 6 years and continue to share with us all your great advice and tips.
Thank you Nathaniell for always sharing & caring,
Tony
Great info and very informative. I have been having a hard time figuring out what I wanted to do. One was on Lymphedema and the other was on lifestyle. For now I am going to go with lifestyle because I think it will be easier than starting with a disease.
I agree with you about working primarily on one site. I have another that is secondary and running and a third that needs work. I am going to begin to work on that last one once I feel my first site will just need maintenance. Multiple sites demanding full time work is just too much for me
I don't have your level of experience, but from what I have learned here and my own experience with one site I think one is the way to go for a beginner. If you have a regular job or other responsibilities, you probably won't have time to do a great job on more than one site so you will be wasting some time spinning your wheels. Most people here have other responsibilities. If you are free to dedicate all your time to building your business some super achievers may be able to juggle several but for the rest of us I think 1 is smart!
Great read, I have 2 websites and that alone is hard to do. I try to focus my attention on one and when I have some time, I'll post on my other site.
As long as I put in most of my effort to one, the other one will slowly but surely build. You are right though, it is much easier to do one.
Hi Nathaniel, great post. I have come to a similar conclusion. I started with 2 sites, and am focused on one right now. Glad to know that I am on the right track. I am doing this part time, so it becomes even more important to do things correctly in order to optimize my limited time. Would like to hear more about how you get your sites to rank. Thanks, Tom
Thanks for this blog. I am working on 3 sites. ONe free for wa, one for my home inspection business and one for a MLM program in which I am a distributor.. None are monetized yet but Sunday I got Amazon and will start adding links. I made a page on the MLM one for "build a free website" that directs to my siterubix. I am still learning but what I would like to accomplish is total synergy btwn all my sites.
I really enjoy your trainings, in fact, much of what I have accomplish I learn on your traiining. Thank you. Best wishes your WAy.
Thank you so much - I really needed this advice. I've been working on one website (www.PeopleLovingAnimals.com) for about a year and it's making very little money. I was thinking of doing other small niche websites, just trying to create income. But your ideas make much more sense - I already have a great foundation - over 100 pages/posts - and I think it would be best to just continue on. Thanks so much.
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Starting multiple websites at the same time is like trying to open several traditional retail businesses at the same time. Does anyone do that? No!
Stick to one, make it a huge success, then add another once the first is creating the income you want and you are ready for MSI's - Multiple Streams of Income!