Gabu_uy asks – What is in your opinion the best strategy, a few quality blogs, or a myriad of two nickels a day blogs?
This is a question that I think you’ll find people will argue both sides of and it is something that I’ve changed my views on backwards and forward over the last few years. Perhaps this one is best explored with a little of my own story and then a few random thoughts.
When I first started blogging with entrepreneurial aspirations I did so with one monetized blog – an extension of my first personal blog – Digital Photography Blog.
While I made a lot of stupid mistakes in the setting up of that blog and probably wouldn’t set it up to run as it currently does if I were starting over, it’s a blog that gave me a taste for the idea of making a living from blogging.
Multiple Blogs
I started experimenting with advertising on that blog with the hope of covering my hosting and ISP costs but quickly found that I could exceed that and perhaps even earn enough for a computer upgrade. I didn’t really have any aspirations for much more than that in the very early days – although I still remember laying in bed at the end of the day I first hit a daily total of $10 in AdSense earnings and excitedly having the realization that if one blog could earn $10 a day with AdSense that 10 blogs could earn $100 and 100 could earn $1000!
I made the decision on the spot to roll out new sites and continued to do so until I hit around the 25 mark.
It was at about this time that I realized that my strategy was somewhat flawed (for me) for a number of reasons:
- I couldn’t sustain the load – 25 blog is a killer to maintain, even if a lot of them are ‘newsy/link’ blogs.
- I couldn’t sustain my enthusiasm – while I had a mild interest in all of the topics I didn’t really have what it takes to summons the energy that it took to keep tabs on them all on a daily basis
- The traffic didn’t come – there are many reasons for this but ultimately I believe that the way to grow traffic to a blog is to have someone who has energy for the topic and the ability to write engaging and useful content – I couldn’t and the traffic didn’t come
- The money didn’t come – some of the blogs I started did earn more than $10 a day in the end – but the majority were lucky to make that much a month.
- The money came from elsewhere – while I developed all these extra blogs I was experimenting with other projects (like b5media) and putting time into blogs that I was more passionate about (like ProBlogger and DPS). These were projects that I had energy for and that I put more and more time into developing. In contrast to the minutes that I put into my ‘mass blog strategy’ I put hours into these blogs and the payoff was that readers and money followed.
Now I do know people who make decent money by having many many websites that they develop and let earn their pennies a day but the majority of them are not bloggers. Instead they develop small sites with 10-20 pages that they drive traffic to using arbitrage techniques. Of course there are sploggers who maintain many spam blogs – but I don’t have time for or believe in that model at all.
I guess in a sense I’m also still in the ‘multiple blog’ business by starting a blog network – but there the strategy differs to what I tried above also in that we attempt to find passionate and knowledgeable people to maintain the blogs rather than stretching ourselves and having to cover multiple topics ourselves.
These days I only actively maintain two blogs (plus I occasionally write on another one). I’ve retired quite a few of my old blogs and have found a blogger to maintain a couple of others.
If I were to start all over again today I’d do so by concentrating on building 1 blog at a time to a point where it hits the tipping point and can earn a decent income. I still would diversify with multiple sites – but would probably focus on making them all around the one vertical (ie related topics) rather than picking such a wide array of topics on unrelated niches.
How many blogs do you run? How many would be your limit? What factors would help you decide when you’ve reached your maximum?
I blog daily on two, guest blog on several others.
That’s all I can manage with my other responsibilities.
I blog as a means of public service (when I retired from corporate life young and wanted to share my learnings).
Perhaps if my goal was to earn dollars, I could handle more.
I have two blogs and they take up a ton of time.
I know I couldn’t handle another one unless I made blogging my career.
Perhaps this is a topic for another post, but how many hours a day were you working with 25 blogs?
I only run one blog currently, but I have thought of adding others.
I am more interested in further developing my current blog, which is still under 1 year old, than I am to start a new one from the ground up. But in the future I think I will eventually branch off with a second blog. I just need to think of the right topic.
Very true for me too. And I even tried to do multiple blogs in close niches, e.g. laptops, desktops, tablet PC, etc;. Plus I had a few more sites in other niches.
What I found out was that it is not worth the effort and splitting the sites doesn’t pay. One PR6 site in Alexa to 50K will make you more money then four PR4 sites with Alexa 200K. And you split all your link love and SE rankings also.
So now I have 2 blogs (computers and cellphones), that I actively maintain + just started a personal blog and it works quite nicely for me.
I have one product blog and am preparing to start another blog on a wildly different topic, but one that I am equally passionate about. I would rather focus on a few deep sites with quality material than many sites that lack quality, both for financial reasons and for reasons of pride. I figure that when I read a blog, I am more likely to do actions that make the owner some money when I find the content to be quality. On sites with low quality content, my stay is likely not long enough to ever contemplate, much less click, an ad. I don’t see how a person can have many, many blogs without quality suffering on some of them.
Hey Darren, I have three blogs but I am really involved just with one of them. I guess the limit depends on the average profits, but probably a small network, 10-12, would be fine; with a lot of external help. To know when to get the maximun depends on profitability and time consumption.
I just run the two, and while I’ve toyed with the idea of starting more, I know deep down I do no have the time to do it properly. I guess one way of knowing you’re at the limit is when you (or your readers) see a drop in article quality; rushed posts, a decrease in passion, few returned comments, infrequent posting patterns – all would lead me to think about how many sites I could run if I were on my own.
One thing you forgot Darren is that concentrating on one blog makes it more likely you become an “authority” in that topic. And, being an authority is where the real money is.
Income (like linking) through blogging is exponential. The top 5% of blogs get 90% of the traffic, 95% of the revenue, 97% of the book deals, 99% of the consulting work (fake numbers).
You could have 100 blogs in the bottom 30% and still not make as much as if you had 1 blog in the upper 5%.
I think bloggers forget to think big. Yes there is money in adsense/YPN/CJ.com etc… but the real money is in branding yourself as an expert. When you are an expert then business deals, job offers, book deals, articles, consulting, speaking, etc.. etc.. all flow towards you.
For example, person A creates 50 blogs, person B creates 1 blog.
After 1 year:
Person A’s 50 blogs each earn $1 a day (average).
Person B’s 1 blog earns $3 a day.
After 5 years:
Person A’s 50 blogs each earn $3 a day (average).
Person B’s 1 blog got him numerous print publications, which led to book deals, which led to a consulting job, which gives him a six figure salary.
Darren Rowse is the perfect example. Darren has other blogs, but I would argue the VAST majority of Darren’s future (possibly current) income comes from the fact that he is considered an authority on professional blogging BECAUSE of problogger.
Well, I currently run two personal blogs and one network blog, so a total of three. I would say that that’s about the limit I can handle, at least when it comes to content (and “producing” it). I guess I could start so many more blogs (about various topics), but how can you sustain them? You need content and you need to be behind the stuff you’re writing, so my approach is clear: Quality > Quantity as it may be nice to have x number of blogs, but what good are they if they’re “dead” (not updated regularly)?! Not much…
I currently run three, but one of them is just a newsy/link blog, which is very easy to maintain.
I think quite a few bloggers have been in a similar experience of trying several blogs but finding you gravitate to a small number. I think a recurring theme is that a successful blog is one where you would enjoy doing it even if there wasn’t any monetary reward. If you just do a blog for money I guess it shows.
I have two which I currently post on daily. I started up a couple of others but they were non-starters… One of the ones I maintain daily is my first ever blog and is a blogger blog. I will probably stop maintaining it soon because I made so many SEO mistakes and a lot of my posts are somewhat basic (the early ones). My new site, however, I am definatly going to maintain for a lot longer. I really enjoy posting on it and it actually provides a useful service to other bloggers. I have just bought the domain name for another site, which I will show you later ;)
Matt
Great post. My wife Jill and I did the same thing. It’s so important to focus most of your engergy on one project at a time.
It’s also hard to give up on blogs you thought had such great potential when you started them. How do you go about convincing youself it’s time to let a blog go? It feels like quitting and I hate quitting!
I have head it said that humans can really only mange 7 things at once. I find it hard to keep up with what I have now. Most of my non blog sites need some serious attention.
I guess it is really up to what an individual can handle. Hey, if you can handle more and are successful-go for it. If you can’t-slow down.
I have 4, but also have guest bloggers helping out with 3 of them. One of them is just starting to make some decent money, but I don’t think I’ll start any more just yet.
One issue with using guest bloggers a lot is that they occasionally disappear off the planet and you can be left without new content. I’d recommending never taking on more than you can manage on your own.
I’m still getting my first blog going. I’ve been posting frequently since December ’06 and I’m getting ready to change platforms that will include my own domain name. Hopefully these changes will bring more traffic, etc.
But I have a few ideas for some other blogs as well. Once my “main” blog is in full swing and getting steady traffic, then I’ll try bringing up a new one. Funny, but the blog is like my “baby”, as silly as that sounds. But I care for it, help it grow, just like with a baby.
Oh yeah, I have another blog I rarely post on, so it doesn’t count. I’m thinking of bringing that one back online agains soon as well.
I’m with you on the idea of working with one blog until you’ve hit sort of a “tipping point” and then building the next one. I get so many ideas in my head, that sometimes it’s hard to remind myself that I can only do so many things at once. I have a personal blog that I update a couple of times a week just for friends, and that doesn’t feel like work. I have a public blog that I sort of think of as a “gift” to whoemever, because it’s not monetized or anything. That one seems a little more like work, but it’s heartfelt and therefore not too much of a struggle. I have three new adventures in various states of planning, each of which will be monetized, but I have to slow myself down and remember to tackle one thing at a time so that each of them is the best I can make it.
Thanks for sharing your lessons with us so that we can learn from your mistakes, as well as from your successes!
I used to have 6 blogs, 4 of which i regularly blogged on (at least twice a week). But now, i have streamed down and i only have one active blog, as well as my MySpace blog but i don’t blog regularly on it.
I cover a few different niche topics on my blog, including music, playing the guitar, writing, lesbian film/TV show reviews, film reviews, AutoCAD in the urban design industry (my day job). Those are all interests of mine and it doesn’t require any “work” to blog about them, i’m enthusiastic about them.
I also have a blog as a writer, where i post funny dialogues i have heard on the streets of London – or i have made up! It’s a quizz game where people can guess which dialogues are real or not – i blog on it 5 days a week but it’s only 5 minutes of my time daily so it’s easy to stick to it.
I totally agree that if you blog about something you aren’t fully into, it’s going to be hard work and you will probably get lazy about it.
I maintained a personal blog for five years without ever thinking of monetizing it. Then last year I started two other blogs, both with the intention to make money. One of them took off. It now earns $2000/month.
In the meantime, I’ve started several other blogs, including one on a related topic. It’s a LOT of work. None of them are as successful as my big blog. And the reality is, none of them will be until I spend the time to focus on one of them a couple hours a day. (I spend several hours a day on my main site — roughly 40-50 hours/week.) If I can put two hours of energy per day into another site, I think I can get it generating a few hundred dollars per month.
Even then I have to ask if that’s worth it. Wouldn’t it be easier to put these extra couple of hours a day into my main site? Wouldn’t it be easier to get another $200/day out of it?
Interesting question.
I only have one blog.
When I started last November I thought of creating many blogs. I have a list of at least 15 subjects to become blogs.
However, given the hard work it takes to create compelling content, I decided to stick only with one blog. Only when this one is developed and running with at least three good posts every day I’ll think about creating another one.
I have two blogs: one for my consulting work and one for teaching people how to survive as consultants. I make a very good living from the first one because it drives consulting clients to me. I don’t make much off ads on that site and I don’t update as often as I used to. The second one has seen monthly revenue growth of around 6000% (total) since I started it a year ago. That’s where I spend my blogging time, because I think there’s good potential for passive income. But I spend most of my work time on consulting, since that has a bigger volume right now. I make about the same per hour from both, though.
About 18 months ago when I started “pro” blogging (I’d had a non-monetized website previously) I did so with the launch of about two dozen websites (though most of them were called blogs, they were more in the nature of news/link sites, with not a lot of personal comment) over six months, on a myriad of topics.
A few were topics that really interested me, but most were subjects that seemed to have potential, but about which I did not know a lot. However, gradually I realised it was impossible to maintain that many, websites, and started scaling back.
But the interesting thing is that one of my lesser sites – Personal Health Monitor Blog (www.martinrothonline.com/personalhealthmonitor/index.htm) – took off, and is now my main source of revenues. Had I started just a couple of websites they would not have included that one.
So I think there’s a lot to be said for starting a large number of websites, seeing which (if any) works, and then going with that one, rather than devoting enormous passion and energy to just one blog that may go nowhere.
This is totally different approach than Jon from WickedFire. Of course, he has major blog and several thousands setup & forget blog sites which he claims earn extra $50-$60k per year. Well, I am trying to setup One or Two main blogs and rest is just setup & forget till I could hire some bloggers to maintain.
I currently post every day day on three different blogs and find this is as much as I can manage at present. It must be said however that I write mostly original content on each of them and that takes time and effort. I have ideas for several other blog topics but do not think I could give them the time and energy they would need to be successful.
I have 2 blogs that I spend most of my time on, but 13 total. Most of the other are experimental in one way or another.
I’ve recently dipped my toe into the vast sea of blogging, and I enjoy it very much. I try to post at least every other day if not everyday. And, since I’ve been having so much fun blogging, I am thinking of creating another blog. However, I’m not sure I could maintain another blog with the same passion as I do my current one. Having only been at blogging since January of this year, I might just need some more experience in order to get comfortable enough with the idea of creating another.
I love Problogger and have learned so much from reading the posts as well as the comments. Thanks Everyone!
I have a blog where I critque other blogs to try to promote their blogs and offer some advice if needed. That blog takes alot of my time. I also run a pest control information web site and that reveiws pest control products. I experiment with other blogs as well trying to always tweak my skills. Pro blogger has been a great help. Keep up the fantastic work and thank you for the great info you provide to all of us bloggers.
Personally, I have two. I haven’t tried to monetize either as of yet.
OK, I’ll be the first one to admit that I have a LOT of blogs. It may or may not be foolish for me to do it, but I can’t resist, don’t even want to resist building blogs for my varied interests and projects. At TypePad I can create as many as I want without paying for each one. (I hope they never change their flat rate policy.)
Why did I, do I do it? Several reasons:
1. I love creating blogs. I love everything about it, selecting a name, a domain, the design, writing posts, creating graphics, researching online…
2. I’m a writer, and it’s reasonable for me to create blogs to serve readers and promote each book or area I write about. For example, I have a cookbook, and so I’ve created a blog for the cookbook, also a blog for cookbook web sites, and another to serve as a service site for my email discussion list for cookbook collectors, and one about cookbooks. They all, theoreticaly, promote each other and my cookbook, in a low key and soft sell manner.
I do something similar with my other book genres.
2. I’m a personal/life coach, and so I use a blog format for my coaching related sites and blogs.
3. I’m a micro publisher, and thus have publishing related blogs.
4. As a writer and change specialist, I create projects for myself, and often use a blog as part of the project, inviting others to share the project with me. My most recent blog/project like that is at http://www.6monthfitnessproject.com. The one before that is at http://www.sunnyandtoasty.com.
I’ve created a network that includes most of my blogs, my one regular web site, and some sites I’ve created using TypePad’s blogging format at http://www.arielnetwork.com.
Is this too many blogs for me to give optimum attention to? you betcha! Am I willing to give any of them up? No. I don’t write on all of them frequently. I may focus on a few, or only one and do quite a bit of writing there for a short time, and then shift to another one or more and do the same. One of my blogs that isn’t listed in my Ariel Network links was created for a special interest area, and I have written very little on it, leaving it as a resource site and inviting expert guest authors to keep it going.
Can I make significant money doing this, spreading my attention over such a wide area? I really don’t know. I’ve taken Darren and Andy’s course and am in the process of applying what I learned there. Over time, I figure my blogging will make money for me, maybe slower and possibly less than for those who concentrate on one to three blogs.
But, for me, I just plain love blogging. Blogs serve me and meet my needs in multiple ways. I blog because I’m passionate about the subjects and have something to say in several areas. The money is important, but not the most important reason for me to blog.
I was up to 50 web sites at one time, but then dropped back to about 25 because I decided that where I belonged was investing myself in areas where I had something unique to offer. I’ve pretty much stuck to that for the last year or so.
But I am new to blogging. I have 3 blogs now, and plan to add a couple more on targeted topics on which I have things to say.
However, there are two things involved in my agenda:
I blog when I feel that I have something of value to offer. I don’t believe in blogging for the hell of it. I don’t think people want to see pictures of my life or my friends, or whatever. That’s just not me. So I wait until I have something to say that’s really worth sharing.
Secondly, I got pretty excited this week when I found out that Feedburner now offers the ability for folks to subscribe to your blog by email. In my experience, the vast majority of people have never even HEARD of RSS…much less know how to use it. But that doesn’t make them any less interested in my topics. I have about 4K email addresses of people who’ve signed up to receive my newsletter…but I’ve never used it, because it seemed like such a daunting task. However, i CAN blog. And I can see that this might be a much better platform for me to use. I think this email thing is VERY cool.
I just blogged about this…I have over 100 sites, and about 15 wordpress blogs. I currently am trying to maintain 3 of them, 1 post a day for each, but all posts are well written and lengthy. Sometimes it seems that is too much for a part-timer like me.
Wow, 25 blogs? How much time did you spend blogging?
Personally, I have three blogs, although I’m kind of a newbie. And I guess it’s a bit easier for me because none of them are monetized yet.
I spend a LOT of time writing content, since most of my articles tend to be kind of long. I spend most of my time on my LifePBS blog, and my health-related blog is the newest, but a topic that I’m very interested in. I used to have a personal-ish blog, but I’ve dropped it since it seemed like too much effort. Finally, my third blog is one which I’m actually considering dropping, simply because I worry if I’m such an expert in that topic.
I like the point about becoming an expert by maintaining one site. I think that’s very true. However, my health blog needs to be seperate since the topics don’t really go on my other blog.
Maybe 1 – 5 blogs is good reason.. if someone need more focus on their post and make rambling ^_*
Brilliant Article, Very Very Timely at this Exact Juncture in my life! Have just put out my very first blog, it is very very rough, and indeed am actually in the very first week, of actually interacting with it on a daily basis, whether it be backend stuff or playing with the template. Not Sure, how its all going to pay for itself…However am very passionate about the material that I write about. SO I will find a Way!
I run one blog which I started over a year ago and I’m focusing my time on it now. I’ve also taken a stance that I need to build traffic to the site before I start to monetize it – that way I’m focusing on the content and not on how many times the ads have been clicked.
Like you said at the start people will argue this one both ways. They called James Brown “the hardest working man in showbusiness”, you Darren must be “the hardest working mate in the blog business” having built such an incredible platform I note that now you are able to devolve more and more writing to others. That strategy seems to work very very well for you, I’m interested to know if you believe this will work for others. Is this characteristic of a “mature blog”? That is work hard post regulary, dominate your niche, develop the readers & subscribers, develop the culture of your blog community and then in order to say evergreen you pass the baton on almost. Cheers Dean
[…] Mr. Problogger (Mr. Rowse) himself once tried to create multiple blog sites. He has found out that it takes time to write. Attention is divided among many different blog posts. Simply put, it’s too difficult and the payout will not be as good as you thought. Reading through the messages on the post, I realized the a lot of people experienced the same thing. At most, an ordinary blogger can probably maintain a maximum of 3 sites. […]
I have one and will have another one (co-authoring) — both are have similar topic. I agree with vertical approach, There few reason I believe this approach is good:
1. In a blog post, you can link from one blog to another;
2. keep you focus on a particular interest;
3. easier to build your expertise, knowledge, information database;
4. prove to readers you love this topic so much and not going anywhere;
of course I believe we can write another topic, but that doesn’t have to be in our own blog — you can contribute to other blogs, helium, paidcontent, etc
Darren, I agree with you to build 1 blog at a time. Choose the best blog concept or theme. Focus and concentrate on this one. Optimize it with the right keywords. Monetize it. Update it regularly. Promote your blog and establish your own brand name. When you reach the tipping point where your blog is getting a very good traffic and income, you can start building another 1. You can easily share the traffic of your first site to the next sites.
I have about seven blogs in last year, but some days ago, i removed all of them and started one new blog only, because I founded that more blogs I created, less free time i have.
I have my personal blog, and on top of that, I’ve just started a charity-based site, and have already bought the domain for my future turtle site. I don’t know, I hope I have the enthusiasm to keep all the sites alive :)
So far I have only 1 blog.. where I’m not really happy with the result. Somehow, I will keep going. And I will create another one also though. I’m still stuck with the topic of blog I should do. :(
People often forget that they even if they concentrate on one blog .. they can still be a crappy blogger and never become that expert or authority person on that subject and will never make any money. And, then there’s the individuals that can create 1 or 2 blogs or 25-50 blogs and with the right timing may find phenominal success in a very short time.
But – bottom line is that if you have many blogs, there is a better chance for a multiplier to create real earnings for you in the short run. Eventually, If you can reach a level where you can afford to quit everything else and just concentrate on one area or field that you want to become an authority in .. you will at least be able to, financially. But eventually, that earning curve will become much higher in the very long run for the reasons other commentors mentioned (expert, book deals, opportunities, etc).
If you look around at the REAL examples of experts and authoritative people that are successful (i.e. Darren, J.D. and a few others commenting, etc) people read “the making money part” of their success stories but don’t seem to remember the “it took me 3-5 years to get here” part of their success story. You will NOT be rich in 3-6 months with 1 blog or 100 blogs doing this part-time. Not everyone can quit their day job or have half a year’s savings, VC Funding, abundance of loans, etc .. For those who can .. it’s still a struggle everyday with the ‘what did you do for me today’ attitude readers have now.
Personally, I’ve got a lot of blogs on my plate, with about 10 more ready to go. But .. based on my time spent .. (I am not a problogger and shouldn’t be doing this full-time) .. I should be dropping or merging about 60% of my blogs and sleeping 7 days a week instead of 6 days a week – instead of expanding! Yet – my earnings are growing about 15% each month before or rather despite this fact. So – here I am in my busiest offline season time, slowing down and making more money online – it’s hard to not see the math potential and the extra money that is available to help keep my banker happy with mortgage payments. Yes … I am starting to show some burn out .. but the temptation brings the original goal back to mind – which is that hopefully it can come to a point where I can do THIS full-time, quit the offline stuff, and become an expert or authority is certain areas that I like doing .. work less, make more, have my pie and eat my cake too.
I have one main blog that’s making some money each month and a couple of others that are just placeholders right now until I find time to work on them. The time component is the biggest factor, though. I would probably be pretty actively maintaining 2-3 blogs at least if I had more time to do it.
In my opinion, quality is much more important than quantity. So few blogs with high quality content is the way to go.
Inspite of trying to deliver more and more number of blogs, Try to put your entire Strength and concentration on one blog and make it popular so that u can earn more from that blog
For now I just focus on one blog. I think my time is be best spent pouring energy into that one instead of spreading myself to thin and making blogs with just a few readers each. And I agree with Emodo above: income, readers, links etc is exponential.
I currently run one blog about Internet and computer software but I have also 4 web sites, 2 of that have forums. This is not my primary job and I am working on these sites and on the blog only when I have some spare time. At this moment I can not imagine how I would be able to handle one blog more. However, my intention is to improve the quality of these sites and may be I will consider using an external editor to fine tune the articles’ text that is the most time consuming job for me.
Helpful discussion here.
I have 2 blogs right now and guest blogger on the 3rd.
Before I read this post I actually was already thinking of consolidating and running only one blog for now, mainly because I do not have the time and energy to handle the two with passion. I started a personal blog first and then started another blog about Learning Disabilities which is my passion, but even with the passion I tend to neglect it due to time constraint (I’m a working mom). I recently started adding Adsense to my personal blog and it’s earning a little (oh yes, very little but I see the potential there :) …
Thanks for the tips and comments here :)
I have 2 blogs. My first blog focuses on technical tips and blogging insights with WordPress. I’m very interested in this topic so while the work does take time, it’s not really work because I enjoy it so much. My other blog I share with my brother where we blog about any topic. It’s a great place to vent about anything and sharing the load with my brother allows us to consistently post twice a week without killing either of us (we both have day jobs). I’d like to branch out in the future but am trying to stay focused on these two blogs for at least a year before I do anything else. There’s a lot to learn and time will obviously make doing another blog a little easier.