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Build a second site to drive traffic to money site?

by webatomic
14 replies
What do you guys think about this approach? Say you have a "money site" - an ecommerce/shopping cart site that sells Antique Jewelry. It's not very content-rich or or information oriented, but it looks great and has a functional shopping cart. Does it make sense to build a second site, based on the "authority site" model, designed specifically to drive traffic to the money site?

In other words create a second site with tons of relevant content about Antique jewelry and jewelry in general with a bunch of highly keyword targeted pages, but keep the sales pitches off this site.

Use this authority site to attract a bunch of highly targeted traffic - people interested in antique jewelry - and then just happen to have strategically placed links/ads etc to funnel this traffic to the money site? Does this concept work?
#build #drive #money #site #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author digitalproductreporter
    I would put the content on the shopping site and not split them in two. antique.com/articles/ or something

    Driving traffic to another site when you could be sending it directly to your money site seems not the brightest idea imho. You will have a bunch bouncing off your article site and never even hitting your money site.
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  • Profile picture of the author webatomic
    Right. I guess my idea would be to attract people to a non-salesy site and earn their trust by providing information and establishing myself as an expert in the niche.
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    • Profile picture of the author Peter Antonio
      I agree with digitalproductreporter, since you are not doing anything (grey or black hat) with either site try to build up the content on your jewelry site. If people are looking for jewelry why make them jump through another hoop to get to the site where they really want to end up?
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  • Profile picture of the author Fernando Veloso
    It depends. There isn't a sure shot way to check what works best BEFORE you do a test.

    A *unsuspected* blog about jewels can be a huge traffic/sales magneto to your main site.

    People love to read opinions and see a casual blog before buying stuff.

    Thats why big beauty/jewelry companies NOW have *unsuspected* blogs promoting their brands.

    Just my 2 cents.
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    • Profile picture of the author webatomic
      Originally Posted by Fernando Veloso View Post

      It depends. There isn't a sure shot way to check what works best BEFORE you do a test.

      A *unsuspected* blog about jewels can be a huge traffic/sales magneto to your main site.

      People love to read opinions and see a casual blog before buying stuff.

      Thats why big beauty/jewelry companies NOW have *unsuspected* blogs promoting their brands.

      Just my 2 cents.
      Yeah, that's kind of the direction I'm thinking of. But instead of an "unsuspected" blog, I would gradually build up a large "unsuspected" authority site. Lots of very keyword targeted pages packed with non-sales/spammy content. Search Engine Food + Build up trust and authority within the niche.
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      • Profile picture of the author Fernando Veloso
        Originally Posted by webatomic View Post

        Yeah, that's kind of the direction I'm thinking of. But instead of an "unsuspected" blog, I would gradually build up a large "unsuspected" authority site. Lots of very keyword targeted pages packed with non-sales/spammy content. Search Engine Food + Build up trust and authority within the niche.
        I wasn't advising spammy pages or a flog But you get the idea.

        People now love to see/read before going to a *online shop*.
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  • Profile picture of the author Samuel Baker
    Hopefully that quality content on the second site does enough to feed them through to the money site. That would be the only downfall if you are getting a lot of traffic to Site #2 but the amount of people whom visit site #1 is dismal then you may have to step back and re-think some things.
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  • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
    Originally Posted by webatomic View Post

    What do you guys think about this approach? Say you have a "money site" - an ecommerce/shopping cart site that sells Antique Jewelry. It's not very content-rich or or information oriented, but it looks great and has a functional shopping cart. Does it make sense to build a second site, based on the "authority site" model, designed specifically to drive traffic to the money site?

    In other words create a second site with tons of relevant content about Antique jewelry and jewelry in general with a bunch of highly keyword targeted pages, but keep the sales pitches off this site.

    Use this authority site to attract a bunch of highly targeted traffic - people interested in antique jewelry - and then just happen to have strategically placed links/ads etc to funnel this traffic to the money site? Does this concept work?
    What you are describing is what free websites are perfect for. I am talking about hubpages, weebly, squidoo, wordpress, etc. You can get your informational articles ranked fairly easily when you put them on those free places than a brand new secondary site of your own. You then link back to your money site with a call to action and you can get good traffic from this approach. Dont' forget to get some links pointing at your articles on the free sites!

    TomG.
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    • Profile picture of the author Peter Gregory
      Originally Posted by tommygadget View Post

      What you are describing is what free websites are perfect for. I am talking about hubpages, weebly, squidoo, wordpress, etc. You can get your informational articles ranked fairly easily when you put them on those free places than a brand new secondary site of your own. You then link back to your money site with a call to action and you can get good traffic from this approach. Dont' forget to get some links pointing at your articles on the free sites!

      TomG.
      The only concern I would have is that those sites could decide to remove your content for whatever reason they see fit. Since you do not own the site you lose a lot of control and could possibly lose a lot of hard work.

      I think you're better off putting all your great content on your own site and directing to the money site. However, I do agree that using free third party hosted sites can be helpful, I just wouldn't put as much effort into building those up as much as I would my own site.
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      • Profile picture of the author Samuel Baker
        Originally Posted by Peter Gregory View Post

        The only concern I would have is that those sites could decide to remove your content for whatever reason they see fit. Since you do not own the site you lose a lot of control and could possibly lose a lot of hard work.

        I think you're better off putting all your great content on your own site and directing to the money site. However, I do agree that using free third party hosted sites can be helpful, I just wouldn't put as much effort into building those up as much as I would my own site.
        Those web 2.0 properties are generally very good in terms of holding your content for periods of time; as long as its unique and offering value to potential visitors I see no point in them removing it?

        Its a great way to link back to your money site in such a manner. Been doing it for awhile now.

        Anyone else?
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      • Profile picture of the author tommygadget
        Originally Posted by Peter Gregory View Post

        The only concern I would have is that those sites could decide to remove your content for whatever reason they see fit. Since you do not own the site you lose a lot of control and could possibly lose a lot of hard work.

        I think you're better off putting all your great content on your own site and directing to the money site. However, I do agree that using free third party hosted sites can be helpful, I just wouldn't put as much effort into building those up as much as I would my own site.
        That's why you use lots of free properties to diversify your links and spread effort and not put too many eggs in a single basket. Also, if you observe each site's TOS and aren't spammy, they don't just arbitrarily delete accounts so that's not too great a concern. I've got hundreds of these sites and they are all intact, all over 3 years and counting.

        TomG.
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  • Profile picture of the author JackCool
    I have seen this type of concept work in many cases.
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  • Profile picture of the author Peter Gregory
    I understand what you guys are saying and you're right as long as you aren't doing anything spammy you are likely not going to have any problems, but look at it from another angle.

    What if you decide to sell your business later down the road? You are kinda stuck because almost all of those sites do not allow the transfer or sale of the sites in their TOS. Without the content/site being completely owned by you, you are potentially putting at least some portion of your business in someones hands other than yours.
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  • Profile picture of the author Fernando Veloso
    Quick note: I don't advice to work free platforms as Squidoo or Blogger, instead build your own blog network with own domain names.

    In the long run you get the goodies in traffic, brand building, income, etc etc.
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