Which website would you work on?

[Ditso]

Assuming you are looking to make money from Amazon and Ezoic etc with "How to" articles and "Best X for Y" type posts targeting easy keywords and then eventually selling the website for chunks (lol).

If you had 2 websites and could only put proper effort into one of them would you...

A) Work on the .co.uk one with DA30 and 85% of its organic traffic from the UK or

B) Work on a Brandable (5L) LLLLL.com one that is DA7 but would allow you to target the much bigger USA market?

C) Somehow split the time you have between both options, and if so what % split?

D) Some other cunning plan I haven't thought of?

If you want extra background on the two sites here it is.

I bought the .co.uk as an aged domain last July which is DA30. It was 6 years old when I bought it and I was the first to buy it right after it dropped. (So it has never been used for 301 linking or anything dodgy). So although I didn't have the content the link juice and nearly all the links have stuck with it. I started writing posts more seriously from Jan 21 and if I pick the right keyword (Low competition) I can get it on the front page of Google (UK) within a week or so. (No sandbox issues)

The 5L .com one I bought around 2009 for a project that was going to make me rich, (it didn't) so I have used it as a sort of website design/PPC/SEO type website. I'm sure it could switch over to being a blog or ecommerce site without any issues. It currently gets almost no traffic whatsoever.

 

[JamaicanMoose]

What's your monthly budget?

 

[Ryuzaki]

Just going off of the info you've given us, it sounds like you're going to focus on organic traffic from search engines, which means doing SEO. That means the DA30 is giving you an edge, while the 5L domain is starting you from ground zero.

Your fastest path to cashflow here is the DA30 domain that has an ease of ranking in the UK. If you rank tons of easy stuff in the same niche, you'll build up topical authority as well which will lead easier rankings for harder keywords. And that exposure in the SERPs for the easy stuff will start gaining you natural backlinks too, which will further help.

And since people want to buy cashflow, this is also your fastest path to eventually selling the website. The question of whether or not you can also target the USA demographic doesn't really matter, in my opinion, when it comes to the order of operations here.

Getting cash flow and then a liquidation event, even if it's "only" for the UK, will do more for your career in experience levels and having a war chest than forgetting that the bird in the hand is worth more than two in the bush. You can get those other two birds next once you're better equipped.

 

[Ditso]

What's your monthly budget?

I don't have a budget currently I'm having to do all the work myself initially. As soon as it is making some money I'm happy to re-invest that though.

Just going off of the info you've given us, it sounds like you're going to focus on organic traffic from search engines, which means doing SEO. That means the DA30 is giving you an edge, while the 5L domain is starting you from ground zero.

Your fastest path to cashflow here is the DA30 domain that has an ease of ranking in the UK. If you rank tons of easy stuff in the same niche, you'll build up topical authority as well which will lead easier rankings for harder keywords. And that exposure in the SERPs for the easy stuff will start gaining you natural backlinks too, which will further help.

And since people want to buy cashflow, this is also your fastest path to eventually selling the website. The question of whether or not you can also target the USA demographic doesn't really matter, in my opinion, when it comes to the order of operations here.

Getting cash flow and then a liquidation event, even if it's "only" for the UK, will do more for your career in experience levels and having a war chest than forgetting that the bird in the hand is worth more than two in the bush. You can get those other two birds next once you're better equipped.

Thank you for that reply. Makes sense to me.

I'll stick with the .co.uk for now then and keep writing articles as fast as I can.

 

[sunnyleon]

I don't have a budget currently I'm having to do all the work myself initially. As soon as it is making some money I'm happy to re-invest that though.


Thank you for that reply. Makes sense to me.

I'll stick with the .co.uk for now then and keep writing articles as fast as I can.

That idea was clearly well articulated and a good path to follow.. BUT... I would go with a .com that is brandable to target amazon as from what I found, the us traffic converts a lot better and you would miss quite a lot of it with a .co.uk domain.. For ads, as long as you bring tier 1 traffic, even if it's UK, it will work fine.. but for amazon.. I would go for a global tld, even if I have to waste a few months in the sandbox. I would have a clean start and would know how to make fewer mistakes, anyhow.

 

[Ditso]

That idea was clearly well articulated and a good path to follow.. BUT... I would go with a .com that is brandable to target amazon as from what I found, the us traffic converts a lot better and you would miss quite a lot of it with a .co.uk domain.. For ads, as long as you bring tier 1 traffic, even if it's UK, it will work fine.. but for amazon.. I would go for a global tld, even if I have to waste a few months in the sandbox. I would have a clean start and would know how to make fewer mistakes, anyhow.

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it. I've been thinking about this quite a bit.

I've always had an itch to get into the US market as I know it's so big.

Currently why I'm limited for time is I'm working on a joint project with someone else which is a new idea. It takes a lot of my capacity.

However I think within 3 months it will either be making good money or we will know it won't work and it will end.

Either way in 3 months I'll have a lot more time. So then I plan to do even more work than I currently do on the .co.uk BUT I will slowly make a start on the .com (Say a workload split of 90/10)

I plan to get the .co.uk up to a good level, say £300 - £500 per month, and then gradually switch the % spilt around over a period of time.

I'd also be in a position to pay for some content so that would speed up the process.

Thanks again for the reply.

 

[Steve]

In your position, i would work on the uk domain (we are still a pretty big market over here, and you have a massive SEO headstart). Then if you get to the point that you feel the domain is holding you back, just 301 it over to the .com - you might want to spend tomorrow morning making a basic on-topic site on the .com so its not a complete niche switch though.

Actually, thats not 100% true - in your position i would work on finding out if the joint project is going to work as fast as possible, because without some cash to invest, any kind of content driven SEO project is going to be painfully slow and demotivating. Why is it going to take 3 months to find out?

 

[Ditso]

Thanks for the reply. The joint project has its first marketing blitz on 6th April, if it's going to be HUGE we will know within a week tbh. But we may tweak it and try again early May if it has small success.

 

[Padi]

I’d go with focusing on the .co.uk option too. Granted, the US market is way bigger. But you know it’s also way more competitive. Definitely go with the one where you’ve got a notable edge. And once you know more about what works, you can apply it to the .com more efficiently.

In the recent $3m exist AMA thread, ToTheMoon shares how they have a few sites going after the same KWs to try dominate the Top 5 SERPS once they know a certain KW works.