March 1, 2007

White Hat vs Software Generated WebSites

I'm often asked what I think the advantages and disadvantages really are between software generated and white hat websites. Unless you've been asleep over the last year or so, you've undoubtedly seen the effectiveness of software generated 'scraper sites' die. There still are those who are building these kinds of sites - but they are using MASS generation tools that make uploading 1, 2, or more MILLION pages a day as easy as pushing a button.

But is this what you really want? It takes an equally HUGE number of registered domains and multiple hosting accounts, IPs, blog farms and more… This equates to LARGE expenses and even LARGER organization and management issues. I'd say for a newbie, this is just not a sensible way to go. Especially when a small, 5-10 page article/content website built around a good keyword/niche can get more traffic and earn more money than it's counterpart gazillion-page scraper site, and likely even three or four auto generated sites put together.

But I digress. Here's just a quick list that I put together of some of the main pros and cons between white hat and software generated sites.

Software Generated Sites:
• Ability to rapidly make thousands of websites with thousands of pages (BIG
ADVANTAGE)
• Leaves a footprint unless you significantly edit the templates
• Sites can generate anywhere from 2 cents to a few dollars each day - depending on the niche and your promotion
• Constant threat of delisting always on the horizon
• Requirement to continually build more and more pages/websites to keep up with de-indexed pages and domains.
• Initial costs are high (server requirements and the need for hundreds of domain names)
• Reoccurring costs can be high (domain name renewals and monthly server fees)
• Require the use of blog farms, which can be difficult for some people to setup
• Offers no real value to the visitor which leaves very little chance for a repeat visitor
• Diminishing Adsense returns and / or affiliate sales UNLESS you keep building More sites, Faster and Faster.

White Hat Content Sites
• Difficult to make a large number of sites at once (although this can be overcome somewhat by using good tools)
• Less likely to leave a footprint but still require some template changes if you buy prebuilt templates
• Sites can make anywhere from $5 to $15 or more a day - even more depending on the niche and your promotion techniques.
• Highly decreased chance of getting de-indexed by the search engines
• Build at your own pace because your sites stay vibrant and continue to gain rank and to earn money
• Lower initial costs involved
• Cheaper ongoing costs due to fewer domain names to renew
• Doesn’t require blog farms although blogs can increase earning potential
• Offers value to the visitor and has potential for repeat visitors and backend sales
• Adsense and affiliate earnings are stabile and increase over time

Based on the observations above, you can see that, although in my opinion, a properly made white hat content site offers better profit potential, it suffers based on the fact that it takes a longer amount of time to build a content site as opposed to simply making hundreds of software generated sites.

There IS a compromise.

And it works!

I've been quietly growing my income quite nicely with this method.

You can build 'hybrid' sites that are partially auto generated using tools - Tools that insert and update RSS feed content, auto post articles on a set schedule, slowly add more 'keyword' rich pages, even gradually auto post your site tags to the social bookmarking sites, and lots more.

I do this myself. In fact, I now only incorporate 'hybrid' sites and white hat content sites into my VRE. They work very well together. And standing alone, both my white-hat and 'hybrid' websites bring good traffic and growing income.

Just some of the GREAT tools I use for the ideas above:

* RSS Magician
* RSS Bookmarker ( NEW website version of the popular Auto Social Poster I use for my blogs)
* The suite of tools included with Niches In a Box
* Instant Article Wizard

In addition, there are a handful of memberships that offer monthly white hat content niche site packages - These are a time-saver, AND you end up with a quality and professional looking website filled with custom content that visitors love. You can edit these sites to make them even more unique - customize the graphics if you want, add more articles - your own articles, add your own RSS feeds, etc. This can speed up building your initial BASE of income while you hone your skills, develop your toolbox, and grow your own custom blend of sites - Your OWN Virtual Real Estate Empire - That continue to earn and GROW your income over time.

VRE building memberships I belong to and that I recommend for turnkey website packages:

* Niches In a Box (Can't recommend this HIGHLY enough! J.P. even surpises up with BONUS sites each month.)
* Niche Pal - Only 8 spots left here - Sites are awsome and the bonus area alone is worth it.
* Automatic Niche Profits - Graphics include banners for promoting your site. Sites come with audio and video.

Over the last 8 months I've steered my website building strategies to focus on 'Less is MORE'. Using good research, planning, smart tools, and strategies gained from my experiences to create sites that visitors like and return to again and again - With the goal of squeezing more profit from EACH site. This way I can make a good income with much fewer sites, and less overhead expenses for hosting and domain name purchase and rewnewal. But even MORE, I effectively give myself a HUGE hourly raise because I spend less time to make MORE money.

That said, I'm STILL a member of PG Insider and I always will be. I initiall joined for the incredible mass generation tools. But I just use those scripts and tools to build my hybrid sites these days. And now PGI has evolved into Version 2.0 - Yep, that rhymes with Web 2.0 - It's also become a true white-hat, interractive site building machine. The forum is a hopping place too.

My next post I'll expand a bit more on my personal 'toolkit' and techniques.

Later dudes and dudettes!

Tags: affiliate income