Wildly different topics on one domain? (hobby blogger)

[Tman3]

Hello Mozzers,

Let's say I have a lot of knowledge about a range of different subjects, for example:

• bicycle maintenance

• wildlife photography

• tennis racket re-stringing

• brewing beer

• windsurfing holidays

I would like to share all of my knowledge in blog format with lots of good content, instructions, videos etc.

What is the best way to set up my blogging empire?!...

a) Use separate domains for each subject:

www.BRANDbicyclemaintenance.com, www.BRANDbrewingbeer.com

b) Use one brand domain with sub directories:

www.BRAND.com/bicycle-maintenance/, www.BRAND.com/brewing-beer/

b) Use sub-domains:

bicyclemaintenance.BRAND.com, brewingbeer.BRAND.com

(I would like to achieve good rankings & traffic in order to generate a small income from these sites)

[EGOL]

Reading your list of possible topics.....

• bicycle maintenance

• wildlife photography

• tennis racket re-stringing

• brewing beer

• windsurfing holidays

I would register a domain like FunHog.com and attack.

[Devin_Anderson]

I was thinking about this a bit myself recently.. I can see a few advantages to both options.

Advantages of the all in one approach:

Inbound links you get will benefit all your blogs.

If you get a link to a post about brewing beer, then a certain amount of the juice will be passed around the domain which will contribute towards ranking the rest of your content. Over time, as links amass, the DA of this all-in-one blog will be higher than that of the individual blog sites.

I'm not sure how you do it, but I would also find one site far easier to manage than juggling 5 or so of them.

Advantages of having separate domains:

All other things equal, then right off the bat **www.BRANDbicyclemaintenance.com will outrank **www.BRAND.com/bicycle-maintenance. ****The exact match domain and consistency of hyperlink anchor text within the site is likely to give you a headstart in the SERPs over the all-in-one domain.

If it was me I'd go with the all-in-one, on the basis that inbound links are harder to get than exact-match-domains - which you can always buy later. That said, I'd be really interested to hear from anyone with more experience doing this.

[DougRoberts]

A couple of questions first:

You mention "BRAND" in all the examples. What is this Brand, how does it relate to the topics covered and what's it meant to mean to people? Why should they care? What's going to tie it together across all these disparate topics? Is there a common theme/view across all of these subject.

While they may all be very different, if the blogs are about your insights, you experience then maybe they deserve to be under one banner.

Do any of the topics you want to cover share the same audience?

If you want to achieve good rankings, then the key really is to write good quality content that people are going to want to read/share/link to. Creating this content takes time. Seriously think about how much time you have available, not just for writing, but research and promotion (guest blogging etc.)

Can you afford to spend the time required across all of these topics? Would it be better to focus on one and build that first. It's easier to write about something you absolutely love. To which topics can you bring new insights, unique point of view etc?

Think also about your return on investment - what's likely to give you a better return? One totally kick-ass, blog or lots of weaker ones.

What do you want to mean to the world. Do you want to be known as the go-to guy for "cycle maintenance?"

My suggestion again is to think about how you want to be perceived and then do whatever you need to do to be that person - but clearly set out your goals first. (Don't stop at "write blogs, make money")

You don't say what your background is, or if you've been blogging before or how much success you've had in the past, so I hope this helps.

Obviously there's a lot to consider, by my guy feeling would be to go with separate blogs on separate domains and give them each an appropriate/unique personality/look. The more blogs you create - the more you're diluting your attention.

Good luck!