Should you put all your eggs in one basket?
At the start of the year I started a few other blogs. I have not put 100% of my time and energy into any one of these blogs though but I have still been updating them. I do update them with a post or two every week but I have also hired some writers to help me with them. In this post I would like to discuss the pros and cons of developing new blogs and maintaining
Spend your time wisely
Recently I’ve been noting down the time I spend every week on each of my blogs. Currently I have another 4 blogs which I own and update semi regularly and I have been wondering whether I am spending my time wisely. As you know, time management is one of the most important aspects of making money on the internet. Darren Rowse posted an article today entitled ‘Is it Possible to Earn a Full Time Salary as a Part Time Blogger?‘. There are established internet entrepreneurs who have cut their workload down and still make a lot of money however what all these people have in common is that they use the time they have wisely ie. they don’t spend too much time browsing the web and cut down the time they spend on messenger too and get right down to business (messenger clients are great for networking however using it too much can seriously distrupt your work!).
It is very difficult to determine how valuable the time you spend working online is however If you think about your portfolio as a whole it may help you decide how you can best spend your time.
Opportunity Cost
Lets say, like me, you own 5 blogs. The questions I think you need to ask are :
- Collectively, has the value of my portfolio increased?
- Collectively, has my monthly income increased?
- Collectively, has blog traffic increased?
These questions can be hard to answer as it’s very difficult to compare two blogs in different niche fairly because it’s easier to get traffic to some types of blogs whilst other blogs can make more money with the same level of traffic. Also, can you fairly determine the value of your blog without looking at the traffic and income?
Although difficult, we have the above 3 important questions to ask which will help us determine how we should spend our time.
Consider the following, in a 10 hour working day :
- what is the benefit of working 2 hours on each blog?
- What is the benefit of working 5 hours on two of your blogs?
- What is the benefit of working 10 hours on just one blog?
These are the questions I have been asking the last few weeks and I’m sure most bloggers who run multiple blogs have been in the same boat. You need to look at the cost of working on one blog rather than another. In Economics this is known as the ‘Opportunity Cost’ ie. the cost of passing up the next best choice when making a decision.
Should you put all your eggs in one basket?
Clearly, the more time you spend on a blog the more likely it is to grow and be a success. However, it’s also important to diversify how you make money on the web and from where.
So should you put all your eggs in one basket? Personally, I don’t believe there is a right or wrong answer to this question, I think this is an interesting subject and I believe you could argue for and against both sides. One things for sure, the more blogs you develop, the more you will have to make sure you manage your time wisely 
Rod | June 2nd, 2008 at 11:55 am #
Like you, I own 5 blogs, 4 niche, and 1 personal. I fnd that I spend most of my time working on the one niche that’s probably not going to bring in much income, but it’s the one that has the most traffic, and the one that I enjoy working on the most.
It’s frustrating that it’s probably not going to be a bigger earner, but it’s tough to consider just walking away from it to concentrate on the others. But that’s what I may have to do at some point.
Kevin Muldoon (Post Author) | June 2nd, 2008 at 12:25 pm #
Rod - I’m in the same boat - 1 personal blog and 4 niche. I dont update my personal blog that often but I do enjoy updating it
Good to hear from someone else in the same position. I definately wouldnt rule out selling the new blogs in the future if I find that overall I am not progressing.
Kristian Liebrand | June 2nd, 2008 at 1:54 pm #
Writing blogs have become a well known practice by a lot many people. There are a lot many techniques with the help of which we can make our blog attractive. We can find a lot many ideas on the internet about blogging.
Kevin Muldoon (Post Author) | June 2nd, 2008 at 2:00 pm #
Kristian - I fail to see what this has go to do with the post I wrote
Myfinancebutler | June 2nd, 2008 at 5:15 pm #
In my opinion, it is better to have a couple of well-maintained, good blogs, rather than have five where other blogs suffer. It also depends on your schedule and priorities — I think I personally would focus on two good blogs, because I do work full time and have a lot of other social and work activities.
Trucker Jake New Hampshire | June 2nd, 2008 at 5:16 pm #
lol reading that kristian post made me laugh @_@ Maybe he just wants to weasel a backlink from you and tried to write something ‘intelligent’.
Kevin Muldoon (Post Author) | June 2nd, 2008 at 5:25 pm #
Jake - Yeah the least you can do is read the post before you comment haha
liam | June 3rd, 2008 at 8:52 am #
I don’t have 5 blogs, not even one at the moment, so these are just my thoughts.
How I would handle it is to ask myself which has the potential to make the most money long term, and which do I prefer working on. I’d choose these two to work on most, then spread the time out on the others evenly. But I think it’s still important to make sure your quality across all 5 blogs remains the same.
Sketchplanet | June 3rd, 2008 at 9:30 am #
My tips are to fix the design and seo for each blog seperately…of course submitting and promoting your site is an ongoing process, but if it spiders well to begin with and the design is functional then it won’t do any harm.
Also I’d start with the blog that makes you the most revenue first and leave the personal blogs until the end.
Wii Fit Accessories | June 6th, 2008 at 2:23 pm #
I just recently learned this with regards to monetization… I am glad I don’t depend on money from online venture… many of my niche sites are Amazon affiliate sites, and with amazon being down right now as i write this, there goes all possible earnings for today (until it’s fixed)
jonson roth | June 10th, 2008 at 10:52 pm #
Kristian is just spamming for link with nonsense that any “text blender” would have spit out.
Edward Lomax | June 23rd, 2008 at 11:14 am #
Always a fine line to walk. On the one hand, you need to FOCUS on one blog long enough to get it established. This takes time and effort. However, at some point it feels like you’re one of those “one-hit-wonders” that has to keep singing the same song over and over again for 50 years.
I try to focus on one thing until I get really bored. Then I force myself to continue for a little longer. The it is time to branch out to something else while still maintaining the first project. But you can definitely not expect to gain any momentum if you’re jumping all over the place.