New Website vs New Section

[Hazo]

I much prefer having fewer, larger sites. But I find myself creating new sites every time I find a new keyword/niche.

What are the advantages/disadvantages or adding a new section to a general gambling site instead of making a mini niche site?

Nick

[kushmoney]

Why not do both to split test?

[MJ]

I say do both.

[Ridge]

Well a year ago I would have said hit the niche sites, but with the recent changes to how google and other SE's are handling newer websites, I'm pushing towards expanding my larger websites not.

I think the issue for a lot of us, is that we did not plan far enough ahead, I found myself having to redesign my two largest websites to properly structure my expanding content sections.

If you look at the most dominating websites in gaming, they are large websites that cover every aspect of poker, rakeback, bonuses, strategy, video, etc - So for me I'm getting away form small mini sites and expanding my big sites. I'm currently redesigning LC to manage everything. Felt was redesigned a few months back and still is being tweaked.

Now that said, there is a few specific niche sites I would get into, but I think having larger massive content websites gives more long term advantages.

[leporello]

Interesting question. I think one of the big things about minisites is the immediate domain name advantages. I have a few exact match domains that rank well for competitive terms and i've never built one link for them. I think there's a tarde off between the two. While the focus now appears to be shifting more towards larger sites, I do still think it's worthwhile having minisites. I certainly dont think there are any issues with targeting XXX Poker Bonus via XXXpokerbonus.com and having just 5 pages of content. I still think those sites will convert well for that particular niche.

That said I do think that having a large trusted site with great content that users want to bookmark and come back to as a poker/gambling/Twilight/whatever resource is far more important in terms of long term business.

[Unknown Webmaster]

I think the opportunity cost of building minisites instead of focusing on 1 big site is significant.

The small sites may do well, but each time you create a new site, you will have to spend time to manage it. Even if you only spend 1 hour/month managing each site, it adds up to quite a lot of hours being wasted on managing your sites instead of doing things that will increase your income.

Another thing to consider is that it is generally harder to split test and optimize conversions when the content is spread over several domains. Everything tech related just gobbles up extra time when you have to deal with multiple sites, and it gets exponentially more boring to do the work for each site you implement it on.

I also think that large sites seems impressive to other people, which makes it easier to get links.

Having a big site will also help keep yourself and the people who work for you happy - It just feels better to work on something you know will be viewed by a lot of people, which may also improve the overall quality of the work you do since it seems more important.

[chowner]

keep in mind that if you add a new section to an existing domain, you are not only making your site bigger (which is good) but also using the existing domain's authority rather than creating a whole new site and starting from scratch.

In my opinion, build a large site if you can.

[DealerDan]

Well a year ago I would have said hit the niche sites, but with the recent changes to how google and other SE's are handling newer websites, I'm pushing towards expanding my larger websites not.

I agree with this 110%. This thread is posted on January 7th, 2009 and I'd be backing the mini-sites all the way. Now I'd be all about expanding the bigger websites based on the way things are going.

Now in saying that - if it's a niche site but you can actually turn it into a big site, and you are able to be patient and not plan on earnings till awhile down the road, then I'd consider it. But you have to actually be able to turn it into a big and quality website. I'd sit down and start writing a list of quality article ideas - if you're struggling to come up with any past 100(or even get to that number) then I'd like at integrating it into an existing website.

[Spry]

assuming that the topic you are going to cover will fit within a current site then I would add it to a current site instead of building out a new mini site. Again, the wind has shifted because in 09 we built out a lot of mini sites instead of building out our bigger sites... 2010 most of the focus is on the bigger sites instead of building more mini sites. Exceptions would be if we acquired an excellent exact match opportunity that we just couldn't pass up.... but those are far and few between in the poker/gambling niches.

[Tom]

I am focusing on building bigger sites these days instead of smaller mini sites.

Although it is sometimes hard to pass on a small niche site that has an exact match domain.

Sometimes I just start smaller niche sites as part of an experiment to see if it has potential.