Web Empire Strategy

[MasterOfNone]

I have (and have had) a lot of hobbies. This puts me in the nice position of being able to create a lot of content relevant to many niches. I am currently building an information site with guides for getting started in many of these hobbies. My plan is to build quality content, get some traffic, and then starting linking out to some affiliate stores I will build (offsite). Howver, I realize there are several ways I can implement this model. Here is a summary:

MegaSite (all niche info in one) with built in niche shopping for each topic.

• Pros: Easy for me to build and track, SEO should go faster since all links will go into one site, boosting the ranking for all the niches
• Cons: If the Google algo changes, I can kiss the whole thing goodbye. Also, having all the niches together might be slightly confusing even though they are somewhat related to each other (in terms of demographic interest) Also, this makes me feel like I am directly competing with About.com, which is pretty much impssible to beat I figure.

MegaSite (all niche info in one) with external niche shop for each topic

• Pros: Same as above, but mini shop site provide a cleaner breakdown and a better shot at resiliecy in the event of an algo change
• Cons: The info site is still all my eggs in one basket, have to SEO/link build each shopping site. Also, the competition feels huge, but I still think I could get some traffic since my content should be good.

Niche Info Site + Niche Store, in one site, build site network

• Pros: Content and shopping are relevant to each others, multiple sites provide a backup in the event of an algo change
• Cons: have to SEO and linkbuild every single site.

What do you guys think is the best strategy, based your experience? I'm currently building the supersite, with no shopping just yet, but its still early enough in the game to switch to mini sites if thats the better strategy. I'm very curious to see what you all think.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Like with many things my answer is it depends. Lots of variables to consider and not knowing the exact niches you are targeting.

My 1st thought is: How about smaller groups of related niches instead of one big "everything but the kitchen sink" site, where some things may not appear to be very related to users or search engines. Then you can get a domain name thats related and keep things more tightly themed.

1 fishing site, with sub niches like fly fishing, deep sea fishing, bass fishing
1 craft site with 3-4 tightly related niches

Each site is tightly themed but then each main sub niche is in a sub domian with a core landing page - links to articles about that niche and links to products.

Again not knowing the niches, this may not make sense