I just wanted to get some different points of view on each of these. I can see good and bad in both and I am not sure what direction to take. Here are my thoughts so far Mini niche site PROS Not much time involvement - once it's done Very targeted keywords easy to rank high in the SE Targeted domain name CONS Submit each new site to directories, SE etc.... No page rank no back links pay for new domain name for each site pay hosting for each site Large content site PROS Benefit from page rank of other pages Benefit from backlinks of other pages low overhead with one general domain name Less cost for hosting better chance of traffic with many targeted topics "under one roof" CONS More time involvement Less targeted keywords no targeted domain name - only sub domain This is my list so far. Please help me add to it. What have your experiences been? Do you favor one or the other? Why?
I have the same thoughts but I am not totally agreeing with the cons for the nich site. You say no PR no backlinks....why would that be? If you submit it to directories and interlink it with other sites you already made it should get PR imo not at first but it will in the end. The hosting thing is also not an issue if you use reseller accounts with unlimited domains. If you build one site and it gets big you will need a bigger hosting account also. I think it should be somewhere in between like having 1 or 2 big sites you develop constantly and use the spare time (if you have any) to make some niche sites but real good onces with some value in it and not scrapper sites. cons: you have to watch yourself not getting the buymoredomainswhenyou thinkyouhaveagoodnameforadomain virus
Both ideas work. Niche sites are super cool though when you can think of ones to do. They're fun (for the most part anyway) and can be big performers.
Actually, you can do a kind of combination by having one domain, but several sub-domains. You pay for only one domain name and one hosting service, but gain the benefit of multiple sub-domains (assuming your hosting service provides sub-domains) that can have nice keyword-rich names. However, you don't get the page rank benefits of having all the pages on the same site, so you still have to separately promote each sub-domain to get traffic. I prefer the large content site approach, with each page targeted to a specific keyword or phrase. It is much easier to get traffic to any new page you add when you already have good traffic to the overall site.
I think its good to have at least one site that outweighs a lot of your other sites combined. I say this coming from someone with a site that makes less than a buck a day in adsense, okay less then $.50; however, I think having one big website will give you a platform for testing smaller websites concerning giving them some starting traffic and what not. Maybe thats not a big deal, but also IMO it would be nice to look at a flagship site and say, I made that. I dominate that one subject.
I think one of the cons of a small niche website would be the lower long-term traffic. That's what's keeping me from deciding whether to build one giant website with small niche-keyword articles or a website dedicated to a central niche-keyword. I just can't decide which to choose. It seems more practical for me to create a website targetted to a niche-keyword because I don't have a budget except for hosting and domains. So a website dedicated to a single niche-keyword would seem more practical because it'd be easier to get a high ranking in the search engines. But, I guess it would just depend on what exactly your keyword is. I would never go for a large content website if the high ranking websites were large corporations.
A niche site might not have the big, big traffic of a general site but, if you choose right, you'll make good money on the clicks. After all one $5.00 click is better than one hundred $0.02 clicks anytime!
a nice site could have also much traffic if you create a 'must see' effect. the downside: user visit the site only one time. I think you should combine both things! try to create mini niche sites that can grow up without your help or assistance. that sounds weird but there are some good examples out there. but you must not only use a niche to be succesful.
Like some have said, try and do both. Outsourcing is your friend. I think though one of the CONS of a large site is if you're dependant on search engine traffic, at any given time your site could get the boot. Traffic could go immediately and sales/commissions/payouts will dwindle to nothing. Plus side though is when trying to tackle a new sub-niche within a popular large site that has been around for a while, you can get top rankings relatively quickly.
niche is not always faster... you need something that people will talk about it. if it is not new or a niche, so it needs new features that makes is different!
one $5 click is not necessary better than one hundred $0.02 clicks, as you are getting more traffic with the one hundred clicks. Many of those 100 visitors will come back, some may be interested in other pages in your site & some may even buy something from your site. With the one click visitors, you are limiting yourself. Saying all that, I'd still try both!
Agreed, there is no "right" answer. When gettng started you need to just do something in order to avoid the "paralysis of analysis."
I believe in building a large site divided into categories for each niche. That way you don't need to try to maintain lots of sites and you can much more easily manage link exchanges etc. with only one URL to worry about. Once your site is up and running and getting good traffic, it should be much easier to get that traffic to any of your newer sections.
If you have the content, they will come back. If you don't, they won't. That rule applies to any site, small or large. If you have a niche site and good SEO you will usually rank high in the search results. I think that SEO is a lot more difficult with larger and more general sites because there's so many of them competing with each other already.