SEO question. Teaching my self. 2 competing sites

[www.OneLead.com]

Hi all,

So here is my deal. I found some cool keywords I'm attacking.
My best friend does SEO and before I get him involved I want to take a crack at it.

The keywords are "Surfboards Sale"

So I bought both Surfboard Sales dot com and SaleSurfboards dot com

I figured I would try to pin them against each other.
Ie Using wordpress blog for one and a starter site from godaddy for other.
Also, use different traffic sources to see what is working etc.

Any hints?
Is this a bad idea and I should focus on one site?
Any cool ways to pair the two sites so the work synergistically?

I would love any input so I dont have to put my tail between my legs and go to my friend for help.

Thank a ton warriors!

You can be mean to me or curse me out if I did something wrong or this is a super noob post.. ; )

[www.OneLead.com]

Another question - Im sooo needy lol

Can I use one article for both sites?
Resubmit on same site with links to other site
OR
Resubmit to another article site and link to other site.
Same with forum posts or anything.
Lets say both site have an internal blog. Can I use same blog post on both or will that P' Off google..

I think you get the point.

Bonus Question: Perfect Post Length and Article Length?

Thanks thanks thanks!

[RebeccaL]

Its a great idea to tackle a niche with multiple sites.

Treat them as different sites though - post different content, have them hosted on different servers. Create a different perspective for each one, mix up the designs etc etc.

Its a good way to split test what works.

[www.OneLead.com]

thanks Rebecca! Great points!

[Edge88]

Dan,

Sounds pretty cool that you are put up the sites agains each other. you will learn a lot this way. I would recommend going to your friend for help as much as needed though. He'll usually be excited to talk about it and teach you. to enjoy teaching is probably an innate human trait. I'm also pretty new and I'm working on 3 projects simultaneously. 2 ecommerce sites 1 article to rank along with the ecommerce site, and 1 article that sells an affiliate product. So working on multiple projects is totally doable if you can keep focus.

about the keywords. I used to surf myself (and will begin again when IM is making me enough money) try looking for more "buying keywords" too. and also write some articles like how to choose a surfboard, and get that to rank along with your site that way you get even more traffic.

and last pointer, from lurking around the warrior forum I noticed that most people don't reveal what keywords they are working on to avoid competition from other warriors... I'm not saying do the same, just pointing it out since you are new here

[www.OneLead.com]

good point. I started doing that then I realized my signature gave it away and lets be honest Warriors are smart people.

So I'd rather come clean and if someone tries to compete, give my friend the grand im getting for a domain sale today and say "crush him/her" lol

thanks again!