Article in Web Design

Once you have tasted the success of having your first fully functional and profit making website, you’ll want more, and in large quantities. You can actually see the dollar signs before your eyes and what you can do with that sort of profit, but if you’re not careful you can end up waist deep in a mess of your own creation.

Here are some tips to avoid the pitfalls of building and maintaining multiple websites:

1. Take One Step at a Time, One Site at a Time

Never build more than one site at a time, especially if you’re the only one doing the work. Your work and efforts will end up more productive and less chaotic if you focus on one step at a time through one site or project at a time.

Once you’ve made a few different sites you can get the feel of how long it takes to build a certain type of site. If your long-term goal is to own multiple sites, then you can use this knowledge and estimate how many sites you can build a year. However you should never over estimate. Always underestimate the time it will take. After all, you DO want to take a vacation at some point don’t you? Your wife will thank you, trust me.

2. Create a Schedule

Not only are you building sites in the background, but you also have to maintain the sites you have in order to keep them running. Depending on the type of sites you run this can be anything from writing articles a few times a week, to setting up new advertising campaigns. Set up certain days that you work on different sites, so that everything is updated and nothing is ignored. In time this will become routine and keep your stress level down.

3. Leave Your Weekends Free

This may seem crazy, but you really need to take days off. When you come back to your sites on Monday, you’ll feel refreshed, relaxed, and energized. Ready to tackle your self made mountain of work.

4. Outsource

Figure out what work you’re doing yourself that you can hire someone else to do cheaply. Webmaster forums are a great place to find people to create cheaply priced but professional looking graphics, articles, and more! Always check the ‘services’ areas to see what freelancers are offering. The time they save you can be used on your site building instead of site updating.

5. Use Free Services

Additionally, look for automated software and services that will let your sites run themselves. For example, instead of selling ad space on your site by hand, and installing the graphics yourself – sign up for an advertising service site like Adbrite or others similar to it, which will not only sell the ad space for you but handle all the financial aspects associated with it, sending you a single check once a month. Programs like these save you valuable time, and the more sites that are fully automated, the more you can create, bringing you full circle.

Email Katrina at kattmarketing@gmail.com