I have a stupid business question and I need advice from smart people please
 

I've been playing with mainstream and dont know what niches sell best, so I made 10 mainstream blogs about different but related categories and added amazon stores to them. Like 1 site about Laptop memory, another site about printers, and other about gaming mice, etc.

After almost 3 months of testing I've found 3 that convert nicely and the remaining 7 are so so.
My long term goal is to spend the next 10-15 years working my ass off to build up something really big and profitable and then sell it for as much money as i can get.

So my question is:
1. Should I keep the 10 sites separate on separate domain names and just link to each other like "Check out our sister site Laptop-Keybords.com"
or
2. Should I put them all on 1 big mega site, give it a great name, and just put all my marketing efforts into 1 site?

It will be WAY easier for me to make youtube videos and write articles to promote 1 big site than to make videos for 10 small sites, but then again 10 smaller sites may grow faster and be more profitable than 1 big one.

My goal is long term, NOT immediate. I wont make good money the next few years and Im ok with that.
Im treating this new business as my retirement fund. Whats the best strategy to take?

:helpme:helpme

You're on GFY - good luck with that.

Your goal is long term but you want to build and sell it off quickly for as much money as you can get?

Hmmmmmmm.

i said 10-15 years. thats quickly?

Start with one niche that you already know something about and then really kill it for about six months, I mean daily work. Promoting products with recurring income is preferable. Stay away from over sold niches such as IM.

Don't start with Amazon, start with something that will provide you with larger commissions as this will help keep you motivated.

Do your keyword research, explore what your competitors are doing and make sure you're better than them. There are plenty of tools available to help you analyse this stuff.

That's all the advice I can manage at 7.30am. I'll post in this thread later today with some more.

One site. Build a brand.

Just thinking out loud here.

I am an Amazon affiliate too. The only thing that bothers me is the possibility that Google may start punishing Amazon affiliates. Or the idea that we are just training people to go straight to Amazon instead of searching Google.

I am thinking long term, May be best to create your own store and do drop shipping. But that is a pain in the ass. Dealing with people and stuff.

I just launched my first mainstream site Cheeky Response - Site LOL, still working on it,

To answer your question, keep building, something will hit with google and then put extra effort into it

thanks for the advice. I like amazon, the commissions are tiny but man people have no problem buying from amazon. The conversions are great, like selling porn in 1996 lol


thats what I was thinking too. thanks

Sometimes I really don't like you AdultKing, but I've seen you give people some solid advice! +1 :thumbsup

:thumbsup

One site, one brand.
Think Amazon, Google, Apple and Facebook.
Do something and do it really well.

You should think about what makes you tick personally, then focus on that.

I am proverbial one of the smartest on gfy, just ask adult king.
Anyway, I would suggest doing one megasite that encompasses everything if you are prepared to spend on branding and promotion.

As you mention, it's easier to promote multiple niche sites and get a bit of traffic from each one and you may not need to spend as much money because you can target them better.

thanks everyone nice feedback. btw if your company domain name wasn't available what would you append to it?
Like say my company was called Digify LLC, but Digify.com isn't available.
Would you go with DigifyOnline.com, DigifyTV.com, MyDigify.com? DigifyShop.com?

This is the main site with articles and shopping store so it has to sound like a good solid name.
Every variation is available except the main name, ugh.

I agree, there is no shortage of people who will buy from Amazon. If you're making a solid income keep doing it.

However the thing with Amazon is that there are quite a few "shiny object" all in one Amazon store solutions on the market that can end up causing you grief in the SERPS. So providing you're not using some automated store and are just blogging with original content then you'll be fine.

I'm going to answer your original questions directly

You can do that, but you also don't want to look like a blog network. You also don't want to expose all of your sites if Google decides to algorithmically or manually penalise a site.

Typically if you have a site on Cameras and another on Guitars then you have no real reason to interlink them. If the niches are more narrow like Keyboards and Monitors then the best thing to do would be to add some suggested Monitors to each blog entry on Keyboards and vice versa on the other site.

This provides you with a single point of failure. If for some reason the Google Gods change up an algorithm and it hits your site then you're done for all three niches.

The beauty of having three sites is that you can still build a mailing list from all three and you have greater income protection because one site might up end going south but the other two keep returning income.

Back to my point in the previous paragraph, make sure you're building a list. There is a saying in the mainstream affiliate world that the money is in the list - and it's true.

If people have bought via you before then there's a chance they'll do it again. Capitalise on that chance by having them on a list and communicating with them.


But it's also "way easier" to lose it all in one fell swoop if Google decides to algorithmically penalise your site.

There's an old saying that's true to any part of life "don't put all your eggs in one basket".

(I mention three sites as an example because you said 3 were doing nicely. I suspect if the other 7 sites aren't worth the effort that you're putting into them then drop them - because it's easy to become fatigued keeping many sites up to date unless you have a really good system going.)

How would you possibly brand an Affiliate website with a name like DigifyOnline?

Price.com and priceline.com are the first affiliate websites in mainstream that I can think of off the top of my head that branded an affiliate website in mainstream successfully. These web operators spent a lot of money advertising to do it :2 cents:

http://www.priceline.com/promo/conte...promo-nyop.jpg

'Price' is not trademark (common phrase?)

Rather than selling off a profitable affiliate domain why not just continue to run it to fund your retirement account tax differed?

To brand a business or domain you need your own unique content or a unique value proposition to brand.

With a keyword driven affiliate seller's domain you can make money but you will never rarely be able to develop a brand. This has been proven millions of times literally with a handful of successes. But you can make money keyword marketing as an affiliate. If you are successful scale the idea and milk the network you build for current of retirement account money.

Lots of great advice here so I will try to add some meta observations that may help you along the way. The fact that you mention "working your ass off" and trying to build up something big so you can sell it in 10-15 years tells me you just may be the type of individual who will actually, you know, make it. :)

1. Forget these peole throwing brands like Apple, Amazon or Google around. You (chances are) will never get to be an Uber or Starbucks so don't set yourself up (emotionally) for failure.

2. With porn, in today climate (2015), it is virtually impossible to create a GIANT mega-brand like a Naughty America or Brazzers. The entire Industry has shrunk and consolodated to the point where many sites is basically the only way to go (my personal business model). But "mainstream"? Theoretically limitless.

3. You are going down the right road, doing what you are already doing (another reason to support your efforts here). Test out 10 things, see what sticks, ramp up those. Rinse/repeat. So here's my two cents on this: keep going! What will happen is one or three or eight projects will emerge as the real moneymakers. This may be after you try fifty things! But if you keep going and then follow the money - and put most of your efforts there - you have what you are trying to do (build something long lasting). It WILL take time to test out all these things, build your sites, try different marketing techniques and test out different traffic sources. But I honestly think it's the smarter way to go.

4. You already have your answer. Not to sound like Star Wars here but search your feelings (Luke?). LOL IF there was one burning idea blazing away inside your soul you would KNOW that's the only thing to focus your passion on. But if you don't feel the drive to build one mega site then that's telling you nothing has caught your spirit yet. But that's ALSO "good news". It means you're about MAKING MONEY, whatever the product or service may be.

5. Never, ever stop. I mean you CAN of course, if you want, but then the game is over because YOU stopped playing it. You have experience and some traction now. Give yourself a reasonable time frame and a reasonable financial goal. If you don't hit it - or even come close - time to do something else. But if you are inching closer every day....never, ever stop.

Best of luck to you and your endeavors!! :)

What if he put all efforts in one site, and google launch some stupid algorythm and fuckim him up? It happened to many legit sites when first panda was launched.

My name is available as a trademark on USPTO and I bought the LLC for it. I just dont have the .com, .net or .org domain name.
I was asking what word to add to my name that sounds solid and professional.

I just bought mynameOnline.com so I think Im good now. thanks

Yes, if you don't love what you do you will inevitably fail.

Some good advice here. Do you plan on buying traffic or followers?

If he follows the advice, he won't need to do either.

Buying followers is an exercise in futility unless you like being followed by fake accounts.

Buying traffic is usually buying someone else's leftovers unless you're using Facebook Ads or Adwords etc.

good luck :thumbsup