Did you know that creating a network around your flagship site could massively increase your income?

Take a look at sites such as TechCrunch and ProBlogger. Both of these sites have built up a network around them. For example, TechCrunch, a popular tech blog, has a number of other network sites. These include different blogs, a jobs board, a forum and more. ProBlogger has done the same thing by creating a Jobs Board.

The Benefits of a Network

There are many benefits in creating an “empire” or sites related to your chosen niche. Each network site you create, should drive traffic, build brand awareness and trust for your Flagship website. This method of promotion can be considered vertical integration - the process of having all your network sites promoting your brand and product.

Time Equals Money!

But don’t be mistaken, building a network of websites is not only time consuming - it takes quite a bit of skill. Think about the blog you currently run. Just imagine how much more work it would be to create another blog of equal quality. Emphasis on “equal quality”, as creating a crappy minisite could have adverse effects and damage your brand. I know from personal experience that running multiple websites is extremely time consuming.

Build Your Network For Your Niche

So how do you start building a network? Well its a good idea to define your niche and target audience as a start. In the case of the DoshNetwork, we are looking to target bloggers interested in making money from their blogs. Of course this is a very general target audience and its usually refined when it comes to marketing and advertising. But I take this target audience and look at what tools, resources, services and products they need. Take a look at the current line up of Dosh’s sites. DoshTalk, DoshPing, BloggingDosh and DoshPro - they all cater for bloggers and a provide a valuable service or resource.

When to Build an Empire

Should you wait until you have a high traffic flagship site before building a network? Yes and no! If you have a flagship site such as Techcrunch, driving traffic to your other network sites is as simple as writing a quick post. If you don’t have a flagship site you’re you’re going to have trouble getting your network sites off the ground. Whenever I make a post about a network site on this blog, I see a spike in the traffic on the network site.

Stay tuned for part two of this post where I explain the methods I used in promoting the Dosh Network and how I monetized it.  This is the first article in the new Pro Blogger Section, which is all about taking your blog to the next level.