First off - I have a football related website that is complete with a forum. I am thinking of opening a second forum that may be for another sport. Would it be best from a promotional standpoint to create this off of a new domain name, or just add another sub-directory. Right now, my forum for football is at /forum. The second forum would be named /name of sport. My ultimate goal here, if this helps, is to create a few more websites in an effort to start working from home full time. I almost created this today in a subdirectory, but I just started thinking about it and wasnt sure if that was a good idea or not.
I'm doing the same thing (started last night with my Investing forum) but my topics are totally unrelated... i think that at first it will be harder to market on a new domain, but in the long run it allows for more lucrative advertising income etc because (at least in my experience) selling "site-wide" advertising makes a lot of money and having it as subfolder would not allow you to do that for only that forum.
The benefit of another sub-directory is that it is already indexed and PR would pass from the homepage to the sub-directory. A sub-domain would be treated as another site. A new domain name would allow you to choose a name that would be specific to whatever sport it is. It would also allow you to sell either one down the road. I personally like focused sites - it's like shotgun marketing (department store) vs. a specialty store (focused theme). Users can view a site only about football as being better than a site which covers all types of sports - and perception can be very important. I'm sure you could also make a sub-directory work, but you won't have the benefit of a homepage that only talks about football because you will be splitting the focus between two different sports - which can affect your SERPs. While it would initially be more work, and probably take longer to get off the ground, I would go for another domain and make sure you market it on your existing site.
Well, I am glad to see I am not the only one that has thought about this. Thanks for the quick input, it really helps in making a decision that could be very important in the long run.
np, and please update us when you decide.. it'll be interesting to see how this turns out for all of us
Well, I am seriously thinking about going with a new domain name. I have had some issues as of late with my current server, so I was going to check into asmallorange. My luck, the site isnt accepting new customers today.
I have been thru this same thing. In my case an independant domain was necessary. You have the right formula for success, so I think its worth it to take the extra time and separate things. BTW, I have several sites on asmallorange and they have been super for me. Kalypso is another good one.