Is it better to have one website or many websites
If I were to start all over again I would recommend that people use one website or maybe a few no more than ten. Why? The extra effort to maintain a large number of websites, even using a CMS like WordPress is a lot cost and the fact Google does not like too much inter linking between your own sites as this could be perceived as a way of distorting the Google algorithm. Why have 10 PR 3 sites when you could have 1 or 2 PR6 sites.
- Identify your real interests not something you want to make money on.
- If you can not decide your domain name it could be your personal name. Then you could have many categories for each of your interests. This is how the big sites do it.
- If you have a business site you can keep a blog on that site, not on a separate site. I never understood why people do this. They have a blog on another site from their main site.
- If you have a portfolio of domain names and weak sites, consider selling them, the opportunity cost is higher than the profit in most cases.
- If you a serious about blogging and have a good domain name, keep it. Add content slowly. Over time it will gain age and value as it will be a trusted site as long as you do not do anything wrong. Therefore, if one of your sites falls in the rankings you have a back up.
Many guys blogging out there buy domain names because they are cheap and load up with fancy names. Nothing wrong with this. However, just beware than when you buy a domain the only way it will work for you is if you have unique, personal content and it is not interlinked with your other sites. Outsourcing content in my opinion is not the best idea as they tend towards spammy low quality content mills.
What most website owners do
Since most domain names are cheap they buy like 15 domain names and set up 15 sites, but most of these will be useless as one person can only promote a couple of sites unless they have a large staff working for them.
I personally own a number of domain names as I did not understand all this. I have let a few expire and a not actively starting new website. However, I use a couple to experiment on. For example, I always want tot try to start a forum and a social networking sites. So I set these up. But again, I noticed unless I am on this and building content on a regular basis nothing happens. So it comes back to my original recommendation, that is less is more, when it comes to website numbers.
In fact the content on this site use to be on another site of mine I closed. I was using the word WordPress in the domain name and I did not know that was a no- no. I closed the site to be honest and now move the best content to this site. That is an example of why having some back up sites, but not many are a good idea. You do not want all your work to go to nothing if you make an honest mistake like I did.
My recommendation if you have many sites and want to interlink
I advise not to. If you really must, the children need to have their own links and if you link to your other site make it relevant and related to the parent if you really want. Some people use no-follows if they interlink their own sites. I do not use no-follows on anything, just as I try to be real in my linking. However, I do not interlink.
In conclusion about how many website to own
If you have too many sites for your time to create good content, let some expire or sell them and move your content to your stronger site. Some people do 301 redirects, I do not as I do not want to even slightly appear as spammy. I know a 301 is honest but still I want to be clean as possible. If the content is good it will be found. If you have links to that old site write the own of the site that gave you think link and switch it. Focus on your strongest sites. You can keep a few to experiment on or in case your main site gets hit with a Google penalty. One site or many? I recommend only a few.
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