Sep
How many sites can one man handle?
I wonder how many websites one person can handle owning. I’m talking about websites that require daily work, not just slapping up 50 proxies sites and doing nothing with them. I’m talking about content sites, like blogs or forums. Do you think there is a limit? I own a dozen or more and feel like I really can’t do anymore.
I have plenty of ideas for websites, and own dozens of domains that are just itching to get turned into websites. I just don’t have the time to do it. Maybe someone who does web publishing full-time can manage 20 websites a day, but if this is just a hobby… I don’t think it can be done.
So what do you do when you have too many websites?
1. Sell off a few of them - I’d concentrate on selling off the dead weight. Maybe some sites require more time, but don’t produce as much revenue. Dump those first.
2. Hire staff - If you run a network of 20 blogs and you only have time to post on 10 a day, then hire some staff for the other blogs. You can find content writers on DigitalPoint or job boards (problogger) for pretty cheap. If the sites make money, it will be worth it to spend a few bucks on staff, which will free up your time.
3. Shut them down - Sometimes it’s best to just shut a site down and let the domain expire. I’ve done it several times on failed projects.
4. Consolidate - Maybe you have 3 fishing blogs and don’t have time to post on all 3 everyday. Why not consolidate your 3 blogs into one big blog. Pick the best domain, and just important the database from the other 2 blogs into the one you picked. Then forward the domains of the old sites to your new one and you’re done.
The point is, feeling overwhelmed in this business sucks. And everyone always thinks they can take on more projects. Everyone has a ceiling. One person can only do so much.
Why just shut them down. I’m sure you’d be able to sell them for a few pennies at least!
John
The logic applied should be the same used when optimizing programs. First find out where your big bottlenecks are, compare it to the results you get there, and optimize so that you are spending your time where you should be.
Who knows, perhaps the Paretto (80/20) rule applies to you. The 20%, in this case, is the dead weight to get rid of.
I’m with the consolidating method. If you have so many sites about one particular topic, try and group them together. That’s also why I am against making sites as limited as, for instance, Tim Tebow. It’s working for you, but you’re also running a Fred Taylor, Percy Harvin, Jeremy Maclin, and Michael Crabtree site which I am sure is tough to update all of them regularly. What if you consolidated into one and made it an “all time best sports players” type of site that you could add new players to regularly? That’d be easier, no?
Jacob - it may be easier to make and update, but might be harder to get ranked on page 1 for those specific players. Having the players name in your domain helps get to page 1… at least in my experience.
At this moment I have 11 sites, some of which are complete while others are being developed. I also work full time which leaves me with only a few hours to work on them per day. I’ve noticed that after 4-5 sites, it is getting difficult to maintain the quality of content that one would like. It would be different if I had more time during the day. I also noticed that my main site suffered in terms of traffic, after I got involved with new projects, mainly b/c instead of posting on avg 10 articles per day, I went down to 2 or 3
We run a few hundred client sites with 10 people but then we don’t work them all every day but have various tools in place to simplify our work so that we work better.
blogs and forums though they are time crunchers as you have to always be involved in order to get the results.
Only do as many as you can handle, that you can do well.
I used to think that having more and more sites was better, but I am starting think that just concentrating on a few sites that you enjoy and make money is better than going around trying trying to chase every new shiny object.
LOL all of that work. I’m not a stranger to hard work. I say build them and sell them one at a time!