William

November 13th, 2006 at 11:47 pm

Good article David, I’ve seen some of these sites that your talking about and my initial reaction was similar to yours, and I also thought these sites were very confusing and kind of all over the place. However like you said a lot of these young guys out there are making some real money from these websites, so more power to them.

I’m not too knowledgable when it comes to operating webpreneur functions, but I definitely respect the opportunity and plan to look into this world of possibilities in the near future. Good job.

David Askaripour

November 14th, 2006 at 1:13 pm

Hey William, Yeah it’s definitely cool to see such site networks make residual income like that — most of the entrepreneurs that attempt this don’t make much money at all, though it appears to be pretty easy to do. It takes a lot of patience and experimenting with google ads and coming up with the perfect mixture of content blended in well with the ads.

Flee The Cube

November 15th, 2006 at 11:26 am

Hi David, thanks for the mention! And I know exactly what you mean about some of these networks sometimes being repulsive. I think the issue is that there is such a broad range. On the low range, you have networks of scraper sites that have no original content, lots of ads, and basically assault your morality. On the very high end, you have networks like http://SugarPublishing.com , which you would never even question. And everywhere in between there is a wealth of opportunity. I think it is exactly the fact that some of these networks are so over the top with ads, bad design, and lack of focus that signals to other entrepreneurs that there is a big opportunity here. Launch a tasteful, targetted network with a good balance of advertising, do your due diligence and you marketing, and then watch your users become loyal fans

Patrick

November 15th, 2006 at 7:42 pm

I noticed this article because the article at FleeTheCube mentioned me and Technorati has been going nuts with my Watchlists for like a week. The article over there showed up again and I checked it out again, saw the trackback and clicked through here. Nice article. I hope this comment doesn’t come across as advertising, for that reason I am not going to post any links. I apologize in advance for the length, as well.

To be honest, I tend to believe that most everything is a reflection of life. There are good people, bad people, nice people, mean people. The same goes for site networks and their owners. For example, one of the people that is mentioned in Mr. Gonzalez’s article is a very good friend of mine that has a great sense of ethics and what not. I, myself, am strongly guided by ethics and what is right and wrong. And then, another one of the people he mentioned, I know to be a content thief because he stole from me. It’s just like life, in other words!

I don’t have that 75%/25% split that you mentioned. Not even close. But, I know what you mean. I agonize over ad placement decisions (especially when it comes to increasing them) and I carefully consider the ramifications. I am trying to balance a certain user experience and, the truth is, ads generally have to be top heavy because that is what the advertisers want and what makes the most money. But, I do work to balance it out. Also, I think you have to take into consideration all pages on a site and also “off page” advertisements like popups, popunders and the like. We don’t serve popups or popunders and we won’t. I make below the range that you mentioned, also. I would say well below.

For what it’s worth, I take pride in what I do. We have some AWS sites, but even with those, I try to make something viable. I try to create a nice layout that a certain group of people might feel more comfortable in. Some may laugh at that, but that is truly how I feel. I am about creating nice websites. I am not about creating a new site and moving onto the next. The sites that make up the foundation of my network require my persistent attention. My largest site has taken literally months and months of my life. It is very much a full time job with most of it being dedicated to maintaining existing sites with me creating new ones as I have the opportunity, which isn’t a lot of the time. The problem with being a one man operation is the more you do, the less you can do. I like to focus on one new site at a time, though, when I do have the time.

We don’t have any MySpace sites. Although, I’m not against them. I have purchased a premier domain name for a MySpace site that I plan to develop in the future. We don’t have any poker sites. Although, I’m not against them either as long as they focus on poker the game and strategy, not online gambling. We don’t do sexy videos and photography - and we won’t. We are a family and work friendly network wherever we can be. Will we create sites that don’t exactly fit there? Yes. We have a House (the TV show) fan site and the content on that show is often inappropriate in that context. However, we keep it to an absolute minimum, self censor any vulgarities, post a content warning on the site warning people of what the site includes and so on and so forth. But, we’re not going to do sexy video and photography because I just don’t care for it. We actually don’t have funny content, either! Well, outside of indirect stuff. But, I actually just bought a domain that would fit in there, as well.

I don’t know if we’re a “super niche” network, but we’ll create a website about anything that fits into what I said above. I don’t come up with site ideas by considering what would make me the most money, I just come up with ideas I think are interesting. I get all sorts of ideas, often times when I am taking a shower or about to fall asleep. I register domain names whenever I have ideas and develop them as I can. We have sites about sports, technology, web development, entertainment and other stuff. In some ways, they reflect my personal interests and in other ways, they do not. The next site we’re doing has nothing to do with anything we’ve done before.

I try not to do “super simple” designs, but I am a fan of simplicity. I really like the design here, for instance. It strikes me as beautiful simplicity and I mean that as a complement. It’s awesome. In any case, nice article again and hopefully this comment is OK.

Patrick

David Askaripour

November 15th, 2006 at 9:16 pm

Hey Patrick,

Thanks for sharing such an informative and insightful comment. Please note that I wasn’t singling out your network of sites; I was speaking in general terms that encompass many, many network sites that I have come across this past year. You seemed a bit on the defense in your comment, so I just want to clear that up.

Actually, I recently became aware of your network from a mutual friend who used to be a part of Mind Petals network.

I’m truly impressed by what you have accomplished thus far. Your network seems to offer tremendous value and has a great balance of ads with quality content.

Your sites don’t seem to be over-cluttered with ads; at least not to the point where it would offend a reader.

Two and a half years ago I planned to start a network of sites, but I ended up launching just one site; a site that allowed students to sell notes and papers to other students. Enabling students to purchased notes immediately after they missed class.

It’s a long story, but I took the site down after 5 months of it being live and $12,000 invested in the project. I actually plan on selling the service after all this time. Just got it back online. Maybe you’d be interested in purchasing it.

Anyways… Like I said, I originally planned on starting a network a few years back and have since been involved in other projects.

Over the past few months I have become enthusiastic about starting one and have been planning something out for down the line. Hopefully in the next few months I’ll really push forward.

Thanks for the sharing your point of view and what you are doing with your network. Let’s keep in touch.

Dave

Patrick

November 15th, 2006 at 9:30 pm

Hey David,

Thanks for the reply.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to come across as defensive. I was just trying to express my feelings on the subject. I didn’t take any offense to your piece and didn’t feel like you were singling me out at all. No worries. I appreciate the kind words. No problem, happy to share. If you happen to have any questions, please feel free.

I don’t really believe in one way or the other. I think it’s all about what you want to do and what makes you happy. I started my first “real” site with a domain name in early 2000. I was going to have one site and that was going to be it. Didn’t even think of having more sites. I was 13 and domain names were $70 for 2 years. And that was a bunch of money to me. “I’m only getting one, so I have to get it right.” lol. Ah, foresight. But, then, my perspective changed. That’s just how it worked out for me.

Anyway, good luck with your network.

Patrick

David Askaripour

November 15th, 2006 at 10:01 pm

Hey Patrick,

Thanks, dude! No worries, I love talking with entrepreneurs such as yourself. It’s all about sharing knowledge and experiences.

Thanks for the boost of confidence; I do plan to implement the network in the future and I’ll definitely keep you in the loop with my progress with that among my other projects.

Keep doing what you’re doing and making the web a better place.

Best,

Dave