I often get asked if I would rather have one large site or many smaller sites. Anyone who is familiar with my business knows that I have many sites, over 100 probably, and many of them are small. However, ideally I’d like to combine the best of both worlds and have many large sites.
If you only have one website your income is going to be very vulnerable to changes in the market, likewise if something happens to that website, such as a server crash or a DoS attack, you will be without income. You can of course back up your website and secure it against hackers, but what happens when Google makes a major algorithm change as they did at the end of 2003? Many websites suffered then, including one of mine, and had that been my only site I would have been in trouble.
So diversity is definitely desirable, and you should always try to diversify your holdings by making more websites, especially websites on different topics. Branching into ecommerce can also help diversify your income.
As for site size, well some sites due to their niche will never be that large, but I don’t think anyways starts out wanting a small site. Personally if a site makes me money I like it, even if it is small. So long as it doesn’t require upkeep a site that makes a mere $10 a month I consider successful.
However, the real reason for having small sites is so that they have time to be established. The most important factor in a website’s success is the length of time it has been online. Invariably sites that have been online for a long time have an advantage over newly minted sites. For instance, some of my sites (which are small now) I consider long term earners. I built them and now I’m just letting them marinate. I plan for these sites to make me oodles of cash 5-10 years from now, but for now I’m content to let them grow.
In a way I’m fortunate, I can afford to have sites that don’t make very much money because I have so many that do make very good money. However the point I want to make in this post is carpe diem. There is no time like the present to make a new website, so go ahead and do it, build 5 new sites. Even if they’re small at first. Its okay for a website to be small, they have a tendency to grow and if you can afford to wait for it you could end up with one or more websites that make enough money for you to quit your day job and enjoy a self-employed lifestyle.
Chris Beasley
