Multiple sites

[pete]

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OK couple of quick question

I've read people here saying they have 10,20 or even 60(!) sites on the go, and i'm just curious about a few things...

Do you create these sites about multiple topics that you may not necessarily be interested in?

Or is it multiple sites about a handful of topics you're knowledgable about?

And how in-depth are these sites? Are they the bare minimum to grab some search engine traffic, or are they built as "proper" sites?

Ehhh that's it i think.

[Lea]

Hi Pete - I have between 60 and 65 domains/ sites & subdomains.


I have one main site - http://www.housemouseuk.com - that is based around my own proffession / hobby / passion. I built it up because there was a need for information about the subject, and there was nothing but people "selling" on the web. So it has grown organically over 2 / 3 yrs.
This site makes money out of events, affiliates, referals, shop, seminars, and opportunities (I also get into the newspaper occasionaly - and am in one big one this week in a specail property feature)

Then based on how I started to make money on that site - by affilating with homelet and bits like that I came up with the idea to duplicate this - similar - but less info - and more affiliate focused

so next in-line would be http://www.moneymouseuk.com site - half info half money making - focusing on multiple streams of income - and more about building up a long term income out of the businesse - that getting money out of affiliate things.

then I tried out an online auction - which makes no money yet - but is building u slowly.

We have say around 5 main sites that are similar to housemouse and moneymouse that are affiliate sites - they dont make much - but I get the odd purchase - they are on the main http://www.totalmouse.com site - which is something my hubby built to make easy access for us to get to our mouse empire. He basically took the housemouse tempate and put them together.

Then from them, I learned what worked and what didnt - so went into buying mis-spellings - which do us a bit of biz.

Then explored a crappy shopping site - which did nothing for months - but suddenly recently started to make money - so I am working on making a more refined and easier to use one.

So all of the sites were experimental - except housemouse - and we basically took the ones that worked and duplicate accorss different topics.

Out of all of them housemouse - as it is part of me - does the best.

I recently got into online shops - using the oscommerce - and have about 5 shops - 3 of them have good turnover - one very new - and needs more stock.

I feel like I am rambling now - so will shut up.

In a nutshell - main ones are very indepth - all the rest are experimental proper sites in lots of forms - mostly wanting traffic to click on links and buy.

I even have good sites - then build up my own competition - and people who dont like me (in communities) use my other sites - but dont know they are mine - lol

[pete]

thanks lea

just the kind of stuff i was curious about

At the moment i run a fairly big site with a reasonably targetted audience but which makes diddly from advertising, even though it gets up to 35,000 unique visitors / couple of hundred thousand page views a month.

Just to give an indication, i made about $30 for over 250,000 adsense ads shown... thing is, i've made sites for other people that have made 5x that for a fraction of the number of ads shown, but these sites were niche areas with a very, very targetted audience.

(I have made a few quid towards the site costs by offering sponsorship, with people paying 50 quid a year getting a banner ads.)


There's a handful of subjects in pretty niche areas i reckon i could make viable sites out of but i thought i'd check here to see what you experts thought first!

[drivetowin]

If you're getting 35000 uniques per month and not making money you're doing something wrong.

Our smallest site gets about 3000 uniques a week but still makes over £100 per week (and not from adsense).

If you want - pm me with your url and I'll try to come up with some constructive ideas how you can make some money from it.

To answer your initial question we have three niche sites which are our interests - two of which make a little money and one which makes reasonable money during the motorsport season.

We also run three general sites which aren' t of real interest to create but bring in about 70% of our income.

[pete]

i should have clarified

> most of the pageviews happen on the forums part of the site - 200 different registered users visit every day but i've no way of knowing how many unregistered people drop by.

> the number of unique sessions per month varies depending on who you ask - extreme tracking says 35,000 unique souls, webalizer says 21,000, AWstats says 11,000 - all for the same month...

> the adsense ads wouldn't be at the higher-value end of the market.


Bottom line is i know i should be able to leverage this user base a bit better, but i guess the subject matter of the site just doesn't lend itself to capitalist exploitation!

And so this is what leads me to my current position. I'm working on a new site which i hope to get launched in a week or so.... just have to wait & see i suppose.

[adigaskell]

Don't think of it as captalist exploitation. Think of it as offering your visitors a valuable service by referring them to a respected merchant offering a product that might interest them.

[Jeff]

Originally posted by pete
most of the pageviews happen on the forums part of the site - 200 different registered users visit every day but i've no way of knowing how many unregistered people drop by.

8<

Bottom line is i know i should be able to leverage this user base a bit better, but i guess the subject matter of the site just doesn't lend itself to capitalist exploitation!

I run a site with a football forum on it. I don't put any banners on it, but I still make a bit of cash from it without much effort. People will ignore most of the advertising on a forum, unless you can make it part of the content.
Before a match I'll post a new topic on the forum with the odds for the match, and links to bookmakers (highlighting free bet offers, etc).
The people who visit the site see this more as a service than an advert, and the subject generates a discussion with people giving betting tips etc, which keeps the thread at the top and means a lot of people will see it.

If you could do something similar with a product that interests your visitors you may do a lot better than just using banners, adwords etc. If you could let us know the url (or the subject) of your site I'm sure people will be able to come up with ideas for stuff to promote.

[Melter]

If you want - pm me with your url and I'll try to come up with some constructive ideas how you can make some money from it.

Any chance I can do this kbudden? I've not even covered my hosting costs after a year and from lots of reading on this forum I know money can be made but I'm at a loss to know where I'm going wrong.

[drivetowin]

Hi Melter

No problem - I guess it's the url in your sig - I'll have a look over the next couple of days and see what I can come up with.

If anyone else wants to pm their url feel free - I don't promise to come up with anything but sometimes a fresh pair of eyes can spot new opportunities....

[Mogga]

I mighthave mentioned this to you before - I certainly meant to...

My browser shows
http://www.authoretica.com/news.php
as the main page.
Put an index.htm in as the main page so you don't get your 404 error - I'm sure this will help you get indexed by search engines.

why have your reviews got 0% rating?

I think you're pushing it asking people to register without giving full reasons why - AND why not have one registration covering both?
(Note: Registration to the site does not include the forum which has a separate membership. Register with both to get the best out of Authoretica.)


It is about books so where are your links to bookshops? Reviews of bookshops?

[Mark Norville]

Melter,

Yours is very easy to say. What are you actually selling or advertising?

I saw one banner for great days out which most sci-fi buffs wouldnt want. A couple of other adverts scattered around but a lot of clutter.

You need something like sci-fi dvd ads, book of the month linked to amazon or another book store.

Battlestar Galactica 6 DVD box set is out today, that would related to your website more than people having days out.

Having top 10 sci-fi or books of all time and then linking them to merchant pages.

Totally the wrong adverts for the theme, where`s flame books from AW contempory publishers of independent books?

If you had a pro hunting website what your doing at the moment, is advertising anti hunt advertisers and it`s clashing.

[Melter]

Mark Norville: I saw one banner for great days out which most sci-fi buffs wouldnt want.

Surprisingly this is the only ad that gets clickthroughs (though no sales) so figure that out.

Kbudden: Thanks for that I look forward to hearing your comments.

Mogga: Your point about index.htm confuses me. If you type in the web addy you're directed to the news page as that is the front page of the site. Where's the problem in that (tho I get the bit about being more google friendly)?

The reviews have 0% rating because they're reviews from Amazon and not mine and the cms automatically has a rating system that can't be turned off. I suppose I should make up a rating to add to the reviews.

Site registration: The site is in two part; the main part built on a cms and the phpBB2 forum (which was there before I turned the rest of the site in a cms). Hence, I can only have one registration by dumping the existing forum and starting again using the cms's built-in one.

I make use of AWS to provide pages of books by current authors and I'm just not getting clickthroughs so are people any more likely to click on a link to another bookstore?

[Mark Norville]

You`ve got errors on your news.php which wont be good for search engines.

Get some free dvd rental in your association bit, might have the click throughs as people being nosey, chances are if someone does order anything from there, it will be after 30 day cookies have expired.

At least with the dvd free trials, your going to get £2.50 or whatever pumping up your money for a bit.

10% of a £180 day out is nice, but when your getting £0.00 it`s better to get £2.50 x 5 for people signing up to watch sci-fi dvds.

Just to add before I get stamped on, the 30 day cookie bit was artistic license and may not represent the actual advertisers actual cookie time, always check with your local affiliate network to double check.

[ianm]

For me the righthand side of the page is too eye-catching - the information there is not that important, but the eye is drawn to it imediately. I'd even be tempted to lose the Latest Forum Posts and Comments bits - and make your main content area larger.

Also you're missing out on opportunities to sell stuff. Take the Jasper Fforde interview - you've got a great bit of exlusive content there, but you're not making the most of it -

* In the first paragraph he mentions a couple of books, why not link to them on Amazon - you might get some people interested in them.
* Where he mentions his own books link to them on Amazon.
* At the bottom, as well as linking to your Jasper Fforde page, why not have something like 'Jasper's latest book is XXXX' and link directly to it on Amazon.

Also as Mark said earlier, look for related products. If there is a video/DVD collection coming out based on an author's books stick a link in.

The quicker you can get people to a product the better and if you make sure the links open in a new window then you've not lost the visitor.

Ian

[Mogga]

index.htm is a bit of a default as the main page of a site (or index.html)

"If you type in the web addy you're directed to the news page "

directed? Don't direct them - let it be the index.htm page they get first.

I don't know how you're doing it - as I know nothing about php really but if its not a straightforward page it gets to it will really mess stuff up. The fact you get a 404 error for index.htm REALLY disturbs me.