A fantastic thread was posted on Builder Society about whether it would be better to have one website doing $10k per month or ten websites each doing $1k per month.
Check it out here: https://www.buildersociety.com/threads/7x-1k-sites-or-1x-7k-site.6424
This got me thinking about what I thought was a better move. Five years ago I would have said 10 websites doing $1k each per month was the right move.
Not so much anymore.
Five years ago I was still a rookie in this internet marketing game. I had some minor success and consistent monthly royalties & checks coming in, but I was nowhere near success.
Beer money mode.
But I also didn’t have the experience to really go in on one project. I wanted to try my hand at print on demand, affiliate marketing, ebook publishing, websites, YouTube, anything that could earn a nickel.
And every single one ended up seeing un poquito success. $50 here, $100 there, it was exactly what happens when folks want to start 10 sites when they haven’t seen success with one. I was spread thin and not going anywhere.
Easier to Go from $1k to $10k
One of the biggest factors is how much easier it is going from $1k to $2k, $5k, and beyond. Much easier than going from $0 to $1,000. $0 to $1,000 is a lot of throwing shit at the walls and hoping something sticks. Now do that 10 times…
Going from $1k to $2k can be as simple as
- putting a tl;dr section at the top of your highest-performing articles
- adding a few more ad spaces
- negotiating a higher commission
- sending an email every week
- commenting on relevant articles
And that’s mostly low impact efforts. You can also find out what’s working already and simply do more of that like I am with my million-word case study.
The Foundation is Built – Content, Backlinks, Authority
SEO boils down to content and backlinks. Then there’s the technical stuff, such as having a fast website. Not hype complicated stuff if it doesn’t need to be.
Check this out. Let me compare websites to college degrees.
For my college-educated folks, you know that like 60% of undergrad is a joke. You’re majoring in 1 thing but have to take classes outside of your major to be well-rounded.
Anyways, you get your degree and decide to get another undergraduate degree. This time, it only takes you a quarter of the time because you already have all the prerequisites and credit hours in so you can get straight to your major and be done in one year.
That second degree is like branching into a similar niche on your existing website.
Imagine if you had to start all the way over, first semester freshman year. That’s like starting a new website in another niche/industry: starting from zero.
And I suppose going for your graduate degree would be like really diving deep into your niche/industry and dominating.
I don’t know shit about PhDs so use your imagination about how that could apply.
Know what works
This sort of goes back to the previous sections. You know what works, you do more of it and go faster. You know the rates for the best partnerships, you know which posts perform better, you probably made a ton of mistakes (like not pacing yourself at a jungle juice party) but you’ve learned.
Cons – Algorithm update
Of course, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. There are tons of threats to websites that focus on SEO for traffic, namely algorithm updates.
There’s a solution for that.
Don’t treat your website as your business but merely as a marketing channel.
If your traffic has a direct correlation to your earnings, you’re one algorithm update from sleeping in a cardboard box.
Build that email list, start promoting products and services that offer recurring commissions, and get the hell off the Amazon Associates program.
Onward.