Hiya

fletchbog · Feb 24, 2010

Hello,

I've been a member for a while now, still discovering the wealth of information buried in the forum, it's fantastic. Im looking to start utilising a few domains I have, setting up some wordpress sites and writing some decent content. The sites I will be developing are hobbies or I have some knowledge about so hopefully this will keep the interest up and start to make progress.

Finally sorted out some hosting so I can host multiple sites and actually get on and get the sites up and running

One question, is it best to dive straight in with google ads, or approach companies (related to the subject) for some sort of affiliate program?

Cheers

woopwoop · Feb 24, 2010

Welcome - my short reply to your question is try everything.
Ad sales, adsense, affiliate links... Which ever pays the most (after a period of checking your results) is probably the one you want to focus on.

I haven't done much affiliate marketing, but I suspect that the people who do the best are focusing on affiliate stuff. Adsense might pay great if you have high traffic and are good at positioning the ads and tweaking it to get a higher CTR.

Good luck

rjs_essex · Feb 25, 2010

Hello and welcome to the forum!

Rich

fletchbog · Feb 26, 2010

Thanks Rich, youve been here a while by the looks of things!

Hi woop woop, im just discovering the affiliate 'providers' commonly used on this site and trying to figure out if there will be any suitable for the site I'm building.

newguy · Feb 26, 2010

Welcome to the forum. There's no harm in getting ads up quickly

. What names do you have?

fletchbog · Feb 26, 2010

Domain names?

Primarily a few motorsport and driving related ones as this a big interest of mine.

Most of these are sitting idle, a couple I could redirect to the one im setting up now, but im wary of "pissing off google" by doing the wrong type of redirection!

newguy · Feb 26, 2010

fletchbog said:
Domain names?

Primarily a few motorsport and driving related ones as this a big interest of mine.

Most of these are sitting idle, a couple I could redirect to the one im setting up now, but im wary of "pissing off google" by doing the wrong type of redirection!

Well, it's good that your domains match up with your interests. I've found in the past that I'm more able to put time into sites I actually have a connection with. It makes it seem less like work

. Good luck with your ventures!

alex · Feb 26, 2010

Welcome to the forum, you'll definately get loads of useful information here!

fletchbog said:
Most of these are sitting idle, a couple I could redirect to the one im setting up now, but im wary of "pissing off google" by doing the wrong type of redirection!

I was recently given the advice here that setting up mini sites and linking to the main site would work better, especially if the 'supporting domains' do not have backlinks or indexed pages.

boxerdog · Feb 26, 2010

welcome fletchbog.
what hosting did you go for in the end?

fletchbog · Feb 26, 2010

newguy said:
Well, it's good that your domains match up with your interests. I've found in the past that I'm more able to put time into sites I actually have a connection with. It makes it seem less like work . Good luck with your ventures!

Yes I agree, I figured it would help me stay motivated when it comes to writing content for the sites.

Thanks

fletchbog · Feb 26, 2010

alex said:
Welcome to the forum, you'll definately get loads of useful information here!

I was recently given the advice here that setting up mini sites and linking to the main site would work better, especially if the 'supporting domains' do not have backlinks or indexed pages.

Interesting, I've heard a 301 redirect is the most SEO friendly, and less maintenance needed (obviously).

What was the reasoning behind the separate minisites alex?

I reckon there are 4 or 5 minisites to come from 10 or so domains.

fletchbog · Feb 26, 2010

boxerdog said:
welcome fletchbog.
what hosting did you go for in the end?

Hi boxerdog, I opted for i7solutions.co.uk in the end. They seem like a very small outfit, but very cheap and seems to fit the bill. Cpanel has come on leaps and bounds since the old days!

alex · Feb 26, 2010

fletchbog said:
Interesting, I've heard a 301 redirect is the most SEO friendly, and less maintenance needed (obviously).

What was the reasoning behind the separate minisites alex?

I reckon there are 4 or 5 minisites to come from 10 or so domains.

301 redirect is good, but only if your domain is already getting traffic and has back links, otherwise no one will find them. If you set up a mini site for each domain, concentrating on the relevant keywords, the mini sites will rank in Google and enjoy increased traffic. If you then place links to the appropriate pages in your main site and encourage users to follow them then ultimately the main site will rank higher and the overall exposure will be greater. It obviously means slightly more work, but the mini site doesn't have to be extravagant.

fletchbog · Feb 26, 2010

alex said:
301 redirect is good, but only if your domain is already getting traffic and has back links, otherwise no one will find them. If you set up a mini site for each domain, concentrating on the relevant keywords, the mini sites will rank in Google and enjoy increased traffic. If you then place links to the appropriate pages in your main site and encourage users to follow them then ultimately the main site will rank higher and the overall exposure will be greater. It obviously means slightly more work, but the mini site doesn't have to be extravagant.

Of course seems obvious now. I'll work for a month or so on the main site content then will begin with setting up some of the other domains, thanks for the advice.