The Summary of Discussion 2: Which one is Better: One Site or 10 Sites earn the Same Total Amount a Month? Lobo Question for website owners who have done both, is it easier and faster to bring one website up to $20k per month or 10 websites up to an average of $2k per month per site. I have only done the former. I generally start one or at the most two sites bring them up to 20-30k and flip them. But a post on another group got me thinking if the alternative is better. Would love to hear your thoughts. 17 👍🏽1 💟18 28 💬🗨📰👈
Mucha Depends on timeframe, these days, definitely one site. Single Large Site (20k MMR) Thinking about topical relevance (likely over 1000 published) of larger sites, depth of content, authority, ability to rank are all huge factors now. My focus, teams focus. You hit 500k+, finding real buyers with liquidity is difficult, also look at 10-15% for broker. 10x Small SItes (2k MMR) Trying to bring 10 small sites up to 2k monthly, with limited topical relevance, content depth and focus dispersed across 10 sites is challenging. You also have tech upkeep 10x, including Google Search Console (GSC), Google Analytics (GA), tracking 10x sites P&L, etc. The one upside is diversity and easier to sell (2k Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) is under 100k buy, easy sales, likely without broker). I often buy sites between 2-5k MRR and scale them. These are sites someone has spent 2-4 years on, worked their asses off, and sold a tad to early (imo). I can take a 5k MRR site and scale it into a 20K MRR a lot faster than the guy who built it up to 5k. It takes time to build the foundational roots early on, which I hate. 👍🏽31
Lobo ✍️ » Mucha Thanks. Excellent points. I appreciate it. Beatty » Mucha Would love to know some of your processes/ areas of focus for scaling 5k to 20k Mucha » Beatty You'd be surprised how many owners have sites making 2-5k, yet are still doing everything in a very unoptimized way. There are lots of sites in this range that are: buy unoptimized content onpage tech ads/affiliates I just bought a site last week from a retired lady, 70+, in gardening for 27k (below my normal Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)). That being said, she was making 1k MRR and literally the entire site was unoptimized, everything you can think of I'd rate 1/10. poor content, titles, nada onpage all over the place no internal links, no clusters, nada hosting/tech horrific, slow as f*ck 6k Referring Domains (RD) 25k organic keyword And the site has 700+ published, and she worked on it for 10+ years. Give me a year and that 1k site will be 10k, or more and Lifetime Value (LTV) will be insane. The data suggests this will be 10-20k Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) within a year. I base this on my own past performance, strategy, Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). Areas of focus content, internal links, topical relevancy, optimizing everything. As Matt would say #doallthings, at least I think he says that. The more unoptimized the more potential. 💟👍🏽9 Hans » Beatty Where do you find these sites? 😁 Mucha Obviously not on broker sites (Empire Flippers (EF), FE, Flippa, etc). Follow the rabbit, or have someone do it for you. For years I followed Grant Cardone, ya another Grant. They would look over thousands of real estate deals, and close on maybe 1% of those deals. I do the same for digital assets. As for follow the rabbit reference, I use Ahrefs and scout leads through site relationships, how they connect, and go from there. Site gets added to list, checked based on SOP, and then outreach. 💟👍🏽2 Beatty » Mucha Amazing! So you just outreach to individual site owners? Very clever move and you've given me a lot of food for thought here thanks! Mucha Ya hundreds weekly. Josie » Mucha I feel bad for the old lady Mucha » Josie Why? everyone wants something. She has a completely renovated kitchen of her dreams. 💟 Edward Are you based in the US? If so, why not sell to a buyer using SBA financing for those larger deals? Sure it will be a longer process but the buyer only needs 10 – 20% down and there are tons of SBA buyers out there. I don't think you would have to have a broker either, get the business prequalified with a lender and self list on BizBuySell, Facebook groups, etc. That's my exit strategy. Mucha » Edward I see this over a million, and often even higher. Given we are not in that range, not really. By the time all that is done, someone else would have bought under 500k. This really only happens (imo) for larger sites where someone who knows what they're doing wants to buy a 1-5 mil dollar site. Edward » Mucha I was mainly talking about deals at/above $500k. Live Oak used to be willing to go down to $500k for content sites before COVID. Not sure where they are at today as I haven't been looking at content sites that require financing lately. That being said, I've seen SBA financing from other lenders for deals as small as $300k for offline businesses and e-commerce so I think is possible if the business has a stable track record and you reach out to enough lenders. Under $500k you may need a broker to use their relationship with the lender to get things approved since there aren't many out there that will go that low.
Shaun Depends on how well organized you are with teams I don't think you need anyone to tell you the answer, pretty sure you'll already figure it out and, but for me 1 site I can focus on. If you do want to diversify,grow one to a good profit, then invest into a 2nd till it's got good profit then a 3rd and so on so your personal income doesnt drop too much 💟👍🏽7
The Summary of Discussion 1: Which one is Better, 10 Sites or 1 Site Earn the Same Total Amount a Month? Morgan 10 small sites making $1000/month each or 1 big site making $10k/month? 78 👍🏽79
John Most people that recommend 10 sites have never tried to managed 10 sites. Personally 2-3 sites is the sweet spot gives some diversity but doesn't spread you too thin. 💟👍🏽33 Youssef Related to your fear of life. If you are afraid of becoming without an income, you will always think of more than one site. Even if something happens, your personal life will not be affected, but there are certainly challenges. They may not all succeed … the effort will be greater … you need more than one team … it will be a material loss and a waste of time … it is better to have a site that enters 500 dollars, then you go to create another site. Alvarez 1 site, 10 sites making 1000 a month is a lot do work to maintain 😂, I have multiple sites and I can tell you maintenance is a b1tch with 3 sites.
John As a rule of thumb, larger projects are nearly always more worthy when jobs involve human interaction and supoort.
Truslow 🎓 Maintaining, promoting, and managing 10 sites takes more effort and time than 1 site, even if the one site is 10 times bigger. Since your gross income is the same in both your scenarios, you net would be greater for 1 big site. Plus… think about scalability. If you succeed, would you rather have one site making $20K, or have to create and manage 10 additional sites? Now imagine getting as big as Amazon or Wal-Mart or something – how many sites would you need for that? <shiver>
Darji » Truslow What if a Google Update vanished a Big site?? Truslow 🎓 If Google update vanishes a site, then you were doing something horribly horribly wrong. So… if what you are doing would vanish the big site, it would inevitably vanish the smaller sites too – for the very same reason. I can say… in the 25+ years that I've been working on digital marketing and the web – I have never ONCE worried about Google or anything else suddenly making a site go away. The only time that happens is if you're trying to cheat. Toto » Truslow Exactly, same here. If anything their updates help, as their search engine gets more and more sophisticated, they get better and better at understanding your sites when you do things the right way.
Kar Scaling 10 sites all by yourself is hard AF and totally defeats the purpose of getting "passive income" (even though there's no such thing). Like Derrick said, 2-3 sites is the sweet spot, where you can outsource all your writing. Phil 1 site. That's always been my business model. It makes about $80-$100k a month. We went after something that was actually valuable and which would be incredibly difficult to copy. Although I'm adding a second business soon which will be in coaching around remaining calm in your business. I do think though that people should see in terms of businesses not sites… (Leadgen site in the recruitment industry) 💟👍🏽19
Filipp » Phil Do you mean with affiliate business? is this possible if so? Phil » Filipp No. This is leadgen. Filipp » Phil Thanks Walberg » Phil I prefer that model too, logistically it's so much easier. But… the one big drawback Is if something changes with that one business and then that revenue stream is gone over night. Major impact. Phil » Walberg It is true .. but 22 years later still here, still pumping in the revenue and only one scare. In the end – any business has this same risk. It's just about believing you could do it all again if you need to 🙂 But my sweet spot would actually be two income streams, personally 🙂 Kevin » Phil Hi Phil, what does an $80-$100k/month site look like for you in terms of # of visits, etc.? Is it a membership site (how many members roughly)? Phil » Kevin It's about a million visitors a year, I think. Maybe less at the moment because of the market. No – not a membership site but monetised well because we targeted something that is very valuable to our niche, and we cro'ed it well over the years to get maximum throughput. And the site is useful to the target audience 🙂
Dimitar 10 websites making around $10000 in net profit per month is my dream. I realize that it will take a lot of resources both financial and human, but I am determined to achieve it. I realize it wont be passive but I don't care tbh. Oggy Depends on the type of sites. It's great having one but if it gets hit, you possibly lose it all. Also, having 10 is a b1tch to manage and run, unless you have a team.
Christopher IF you can handle it.. Aim for 10 to reduce the personal risk businesswise. If one of the 10 drops, you'll be left with 9 and can work on the 10th relaxed to get it back on track or spin up a new one. While, if you have just 1, if it drops, you're lost. However, if you can't handle 10 sites… Go lower.. Always try to distribute risks for your business though. 💟👍🏽8
Larry » Christopher Excellent point Christopher » Larry Especially if you're able to bring 1 to 10k… You'll be able to bring each of the 10 to at least 2-3k… People miss the business view quite often, sadly. And especially in an environment, that has external factors being able to shoot your business to zero.. Putting all eggs in one basket is actually stupid. That said, don't go for multiple pages at once.. Quality needs to be remained no matter the numbers. If you can't handle it, it's not the right time. Build each one on a solid ground but the work involved to go to 10k from like 5k is twice as much as going from 0 to 5k… Larry » Christopher I would also create a larger web of referrals which would lead to more business. But I would be careful not to create the perception of cheap.
Steven Kang 👑 I have a bunch of both (except I start with $3k on the lower end, and I rarely have $1k clients), and I like both. They have different logistics requirements. What's interesting is $10k type is easier to keep longer and clients are easier to deal with provided you know how to communicate your value prop. Lower the pricing point, their expectations are out of whack, and you need to provide constant re-education. For argument's sake, I like $10k type clientele. I can always create case studies and go after similar types of clients. 👍🏽24 Roger 10 happy moment with 1 girl friend vs 10 girl friends, hard to choose😋if the maintenance and power needed is the same, i think i will vote for 10 girl friends. LOL. Hope that my wife do not see this msg 🤭👍🏽12
Chris » Roger Lol. Great analogy. 10 girlfriends sounds like a great idea at first, but can quickly become a pain in the ass to manage all of their needs. 1 big girlfriend will take care of you, support you, but you run the risk of her getting killed by a car. Then you've got no girlfriend. 👍🏽🤭4 Roger » Chris Lol. Maybe promote 1 girl friend as wife while 9 remained as girl friends? No sacrifice no victory😛 The OP question, if the primary objective is to earn money, i will vote for 10 but if the primary objective is to build a brand, 1 for sure. Info pages even the content is good, Google may still offer kiss, example the rewriting titles update.
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Doc Sheldon 🎓 As Truslow said above, losing the one 10K site is only a risk if you're using risky tactics. Managing 10 sites will consume a lot of time and energy – both better spent growing a single site to 20+K
Truslow 🎓 I'm honestly reading many of these answers with my jaw on the ground. lol 🤭👍🏽2 Christopher » Doc Sheldon probably the first time ever I disagree with you and Ammon There have been sites tanking without any shady tactics before. Intent shifting to just name one of the things that can happen and hit a page. Or Google draining the purpose of your site into their SERPs directly for example, to name another one. Also, bringing one site from 0-5k is easier than one from 5k-10k. But then, it's work, a lot. That's why I suggested to aim for more sites IF you can properly handle them. Start off with one and work your way up. Once the income stream seems solid, increase the work one at a time for each. Doc Sheldon 🎓 » Christopher Each to his own, mate. I've never EVER had a site drop without some reason that was my own doing (with the exception of a hack with malware, which was quickly recovered). But then, I always "color between the lines", so not to find myself in Google's crosshairs. Feels great to wake up and laugh about a recent algo update, 'cause I'm not bovered. 😉 Ammon 🎓 » Christopher The thing about 0-5k being easier than 5k-10k is actually more about the business model and strategy. There are a LOT of business models that only really work at scale, and take a ton of investment to scale up fast. Thousands of businesses out there that just don't work at all until passing the bigger milestones. There are actually only 4 price tags in the world: 1. Can't afford and don't want it enough anyway. 2. Can't afford but definitely want. 3. Can afford but don't want it enough. 4 Can afford and want it enough. The actual numbers involved don't change that other than in terms of market size – how many people can or cannot afford – and that still doesn't much affect the business since all you do is increase the value per sale (raise the price for exclusivity) where you cannot increase the volume. To me, a $1k/month site is lovely as a hobby site or a blog, but its very much amatuer hour. $12k/annum is not a salary for even one person. $10k/month is at least a small business great for a solopreneur to be getting along with, and even capable of at least supporting a small team. Truslow 🎓 » Christopher Gotta agree with the Doc here. The one other thing that can make a site tank is focusing on too few things and not getting enough other things right. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) isn't just the "Match The Keywords and Get Some Links" game, anymore. But we've known that and it has been coming for more than a decade. If you're keeping up with how search works (or at least your primary strategist is doing so) and you've got a diverse and adaptable strategy, you should never really see a total tank job on a site. As some things you're doing lose their value, other things you're doing will be gaining in value. Christopher » Ammon I agree to that! But we're most likely talking about affiliate sites, at least that's what I understood, and that's a case where I consider some distribution of risks to be a wiser approach. Christopher » Truslow I agree that a full tank is fairly rare. But let me give an example, which I faced two years ago (and if I remember correctly Ammon as well as Doc actually liked the case for the matter it was brought up). A client of mine runs an affiliate site for a vertical within DIY. He ranked there for years #1 solid. All over sudden it tanked tremendously for important topics. That wasn't a big issue as months earlier I suggested to have a shop up and running in that vertical as while monitoring keyphrases and the SERPs I figured there is something going on. Now, switching an affiliate site to a shop is crazy so we went with a new shop and did our homework. When the affiliate site dropped, the shop skyrocketed… And vice versa… Because the intent became a bigger portion of what sites show up in that vertical and even more, the intent seems to switch based on the seasonality too. The client was happy because he had the shop in place… But now, someone might have not reacted early enough and would have faced a drop without any shady whatsoever… Just because the environment changed. Christopher Now, I need to clarify the "all over sudden"… It wasn't that unexpected for me as I keep a very close eye on the online environment but most don't and for them it would have been a shock most likely.
Ammon 🎓 This depends on whether one is to own/operate the sites, or whether we're talking about clients. If the owner/operator, one big site is generally better. Now, sure, there is a benefit in having 10 so that if you need funds to grow one or more into a big site, you may be able to sell off a couple of others to raise it, but that's all pushing toward the superiority of one big site as a principle anyway. When the sites are those of clients you get a benefit to the diversity – they'll all be run a little differently. I saw at least one person do the old "what if the one site gets dinged/loses position – well if you own ten sites and run them all, you're going to probably do your best for all of them. You'll be doing what you believe is the right SEO for all of them. If one gets dinged, they all will. With diverse clients the differences are there, the things that you wouldn't have done if it was your site. And THAT is what gives them the resilience. The old saw about not putting all your eggs in one basket means not having all the baskets balanced precariously for the same one guy to carry. 😃 Burca Ok boys and girls, I have been reading these comments and am new to the group! Fascinating material in here! Would I like 10 boyfriends or 3 or perhaps just 1? Fantastic!! I will tell you as a female that this is a whole different question! However, when it comes to being able to get sites and interesting results from Search Engine Optimization (SEO) I am always open-minded!! For me, personally, I feel that the perfect balance is working on niches that are integral to who you are as a person! Making money from these is wonderful! Friar 10 small sites. First, there is likely more room for growth since it's likely the smaller sites have smaller market share each. Second, you are much less likely to lose all your revenue if it's across numerous sites. One Google update can take your big site from $10k to $0 overnight. Less likely to happen to 10 sites so you aren't as exposed to Google's whims.
Ammon 🎓 » Friar If the same SEO is using the same strategies and tactics (and why wouldn't he if he believes they are best?), then an update that takes out one site is just as likely to take out ALL sites using that strategy, meaning instead on one site to fix, you have ten to fix. Friar Ammon not necessarily. Many updates target specific types of sites, like Your Money or Your Life (YMYL). Plus you are less likely to be affected by random.Gopgle weirdness. How often are we giving advice on getting traffic back for no apparent reason? While we've never had a site completely tank after an update, they are often affected differently by an update.
Stefan SEO Reyes It is very dangerous to have just 1 site that converts and putting all eggs in a basket. I made that mistake, or very close to it about a year ago. One site had a huge partner, one of the biggest ferry companies in the world, they changed something in the transaction and I have not made a penny from that site since December 2020. Usually made about $200 daily. My other site got slaughtered of Google core algorithm update in June..in May $7000-$8000, July drop to $1000 in a month. I wish I had at least 10 big money sites rolling.
Natalie I bet every travel niche site/blog owner wishes they built more than one site prior to the pandemic. Never know what could wipe out your only site.
Truslow 🎓 Am curious as to how a travel ban would be easier to endure across 10 travel sites as opposed to just one. (This is genuine curiosity – not something to put down your idea. It's extremely possible that you have some knowledge about it that I haven't considered and that I should consider when thinking about things like this). Christopher » Truslow I assume she meant diversity in the sites too. Not the very same topic. Of course all travel pages face the same problem (although Ammon highlighted opportunities). But having a niche in travel and one in sports may keep you from "loosing everything" at the same time most likely. Truslow 🎓 It shouldn't really matter. If I've got a liquor site and suddenly everyone stops buying and searching for the Wine Coolers, Zima's, and (eventually) those ridiculous Fruit Spritzer things, it's obviously going to tank that section of the site – but it's not going to tank the entire site. Amazon used to sell lots of pagers back in the day. When people stopped buying those, it didn't hurt Amazon in the least. Diversity over 10 sites or diversity within 1 site all add up to diversity. In relation to the travel ban, I still don't see how having 10 sites (even if only one of them was actually a travel site) would put you at any advantage over 1 site with a travel section. Ammon 🎓 » Natalie It's certainly been a tough period for anyone in the travel industry, but I've seen a few blogs actually pivot and flourish by creating the content that was suddenly in huge demand and hadn't been covered before – How to get a great break/vacation when you *can't* travel abroad. Staycation traffic surged like crazy in the past year, and the blogs that provided really good content for that mostly gained traction, building their audience and lists and authority. When you consider how many people have saved up to take a massive, bigger than usual proper trip once they can, you realize how the gains they made will pay off later. Sure, it meant you were not able to get a slice of so many deals that were not happening, no booking fee cut, no travel insurance referral fees, etc. But I know one blogger made a killing from selling cookware as part of his "how to bring the flavours of the world to you" type content. Home cooking again massively increased during the pandemic, and people have spent a fortune on smokers, BBQs, cookware and recipe books to learn new skills while stuck at home. It's really not that hard to sell those things pitched to the travel-starved audience the blog should have built. Agility is one of the absolute core strengths of the independent blogger. The ability to pivot at will is something no company with a board of directors, huge staff overheads trained to do just one thing, or a set of shareholders to appease, can easily compete with. Christopher » Ammon I've seen the same for some training sites raising the "workouts at home" topics and gain a lot of traffic from that. 🤔1
Nick 1 client @ $10k is a million times easier logistically. When you start doing high volume, low margin projects, your operations really need to be tight to make it work. And building an agency is hard AF, a lot of us are doing it for the first time, and high volume, low margin structure is a lot less forgiving when you screw up due to lack of processes, forecasting costs and profits, etc Larry Thanks for the topic/comments. Question for both ways: 1) making the jump from many to 1 big site, what is the key to executing/implementing it (ie. getting that 1 big site?). What allowed you to do it? 2) how are the people managing many sites doing it, IF you don't have a team? I'm assuming the answer is YOU NEED a team to have multiple sites. If a solo person is doing it, what is allowing you to be successful? ==> is there software/automation tools I don't know about that helps with either way? 🙂 it seems there is lots of truth in these replies, but the details are key?
Truslow 🎓 For Question #1: Structure Structure Structure. Or in computer terms, Information Architecture. 10 Sites really does the same thing – it creates the structure and separation and that's enforced naturally. It's great if you aren't organized, but it comes at several costs… 1) You have 10 sites to pay for, update, secure, manage, and deal with instead of just one. 2) While it's great for separation – it makes connection more difficult. Connections are as important as classification. So now… if it's one site I can more easily (and with some level of autonomy) create a natural connection between the "Travel Deals" section of my site and the "Luggage" section of my site. If I have 10 sites, that connection is a much bigger challenge to manage and scale over time. For Question #2: I have no idea how that's best served. I have a few clients with two sites, but it's not because of offering differences, it's because of customer differences. One is a B2B site and the other would typically be a B2C site. The structure stays the same across them – and they're selling the same things (basically) but they message and audience is different. Beyond that – if it's one entity behind it all, then, IMO, it should be represented by one entity. Larry » Truslow Thank you.
Ammon 🎓 This all reminded me of something I wrote about elsewhere a few years back – the essential balance between Focus and Diversity, and how Agility plays in to the whole dynamic. Oldie but a goodie I think for thinking about the bigger picture, the wider strategy, and how to bring it all together. WEB.ARCHIVE.ORG Focus, Diversity and Agility | ISOOSI Blog
