Network of small sites or one large site

[vcasebourne]

Hi there,

I am taking a group of mums through how to set up a blog and how to build up traffic to that blog. Should I suggest that we all blog on the same domain so www.dsdsds.com/myblogname or get them to set up their own domains.

My aim is for everyone to support each other, share and link content so would it be more powerful if they were all on different domains or on the same one?

Would love some insight as it is something I just can not get my head around this part.

Thank you so very very much

[SEOAndy]

it's hard to really decide, it depends on what you are wanting to do with the blogs at the end of it.

If its for businesses they should be alone

If its just as hobbies or something like that then together would work.

[vcasebourne]

Thanks Andy. I want to show them that they can set up a blog and earn money through affiliate opportunities and Joint Ventures so help them from beginning to end.

Some will want to sell etc. I was going to set up wordpress multisite.

[SEOAndy]

I would vote for their own urls if you are selling goods. That said it sounds like they would want to be related anyway and so having .com/blog1 .com/blog2 maybe of use (it can be changed later with jiggery pokery of multisite - though don't ask me how, I just know it can be done and is done by the likes of wpengine - start as subdomain and paymore to have a custom url in use)

this said if you want them to repeat the process having them set up their own site would mean they know how to in the future

[djlaidler]

Hi Victoria,

I agree with Andy but would put it this way.

A well constructed site with a lot of great content and some well situated external links (on a variety of dominant and relevant sites in related industries) will out perform many site with little content all interlinking any day of the week.

The unknown here is, what are the group is going to blog or sell? If you can concept the site as the one entity and all the women are discussing/selling to a similar topic, fantastic. But, if the topics are a little abstract (say baby clothes, pets and mountain biking) I would not try running them as one, unless you can build the site to discuss all these topics in very fluid way (with the example I gave I very much doubt it would be possible, although I could be surprised).

The main takeaway is that I wouldn't simply run a directory of separate sites on the one domain without having a strong theme to seamlessly offer them as the one site with a variety of categories (for use of a better word). Also for usability I would also ensure they ran on the same theme.

If you can pull off the one site I commend you and think as a group you'll go far. Don't forget about Andy and I when you make your first million

Hope this helps.

Dan

[EGOL]

If you have six different people you will have six different styles and six different levels of motivation and six different quality standards.

These might not mix well.

So, at least for the start I would put them on their own blog and they can support one another by being a commenting/discussing audience (it is really hard to get this type of audience and such an audience can do a lot to help a blog attract a following).

The lesson that they will get out of this is that different topics have different levels of success, different styles have different levels of success and they will have six opportunities to learn instead of just one.

The day that one of them decides... "I want to start over again"... then that is the day you have personal growth.

[djlaidler]

My first reaction was to disagree with you EGOL as a company had many different personalities. BUT, you have a very valid point. Unless you can get away from a level working relationship (all members being equal partners), issues will arise over time.

Good insight!

[EGOL]

Thanks,  most bloggers quit after less than a dozen posts.

I have started and abandoned a few blogs myself... but the good one is still out there and doing nicely.

[vcasebourne]

Thanks so much for your feedback and insight. What I was thinking was that we would pull it in as being all about mums and their chosen topic. So not that different than About.com or wordpress.com where everyone blogs/talks on the same platform but all separately but I pull in the most commented/popular topics on the home page like a 'what's hot' sort of feature. Perhaps have a directory on all the different topics but everyone markets their own separate blog.

So my options are:

• set up people with their own domain or
• have mumbloggers.com/blog1 (not calling it mumbloggers but using it as an example!)

So really focusing on mums with a passion and interlinking them all if appropriate.

If there is not much benefit from having it all on the same domain then I guess separate will be the way to go but am picking up that if I can get the above 'shared' domain to work then it would be far more powerful?

Does that make more sense?

Thanks so much