What would you do?

[Brismom1]

For those of you who don't know me I have 2 individual websites that I have been working on and building for a year now. They are both doing quite well and both growing everyday. For the two sites I also have a blog for each site and also a facebook page for each site.

For the sites as well I do everything from updating, sourcing products, to marketing, to blog post, to writing articles etc.

With that said, I am going into this new year of 2010 with lots of goals really but one big focus which is where I need to start for sure. I need to simplify my business, I feel like it is moving slower than it should be because I have so little time to really make one of the two work so they are both growing at the same pace which is good I guess.

They both have the same target market, on one I sell childrens bedding and room decor and the other I sell kids chairs.

My question is if you were in my shoes would you think about combining the sites into one site to make it easier and more effective in the long run to grow the business? They both are getting about 2500 uniques a month and like I said the sales are picking up on both. Also I am not doing any cross-selling so I think I am losing out on sales because customers on both sites don't really know that I have another site selling in the same niche because everything is separate.

On one hand I feel like it would be a good idea to combine them, but then again I feel like I have come so far with both of them and they are starting to pick up that I am not sure if that would be the right thing to do?

Another thought I had was to move the kids chairs that I intend to keep selling to my bedding site and turn the kids chairs site into a total affiliate site... any thoughts on this.

Would love to know what you think you would do? Thanks!

[Ellen C Braun]

Hi,

I think I would lean towards combining them. How are you generating your traffic?

People who have little kids tend to buy lots of kids-related things

Do you think that combining them would entail building a new site? Perhaps you could just make one of them redirect to the other one, and combine all the products in one site?

What kind of affiliate programs do you use?

[Brismom1]

Ellen,

I actually don't use an affiliate program, I drop ship which actually has gone quite well, I have a lot of really great, reliable suppliers.

I generate traffic by blog posts, posting on my own blog, social bookmarking, writing articles, yahoo answers, forums, things like this that I do on a daily basis.

Yes I am thinking about moving the chairs to my bedding site and working under that name and build out that store to sell more childrens items. What would I put on the other site though if I was to leave it up?

Thanks!

[mommyenterprises]

Have you thought about adding the products to both of the sites? So instead of combining and having one site, you would have two complete sites. You then could market them differently to see which one brings in more traffic and work your way up.

[lindastacy]

Something tells me combining them isn't the way to go, but I really have no more than a gut reaction to base that on. Perhaps you should test it before you make any decisions. Add a chair or two to the bedding site and see if they sell. Or vice versa. Or what about testing some cross promotion?

Another thought.... if you were making enough profit would you hire someone to run one of them for you? If so, think about it another way.... if you hire someone, will your profit increase enough to pay her?

[retta719]

if you were making enough profit would you hire someone to run one of them for you? If so, think about it another way.... if you hire someone, will your profit increase enough to pay her?

I think this suggestion from Linda would be my first instinct as well and I would probably try that for two or three months and see how it went.

I also like the point you brought up of making the chair site an affiliate product site so that it would be more hands off for you, meanwhile combining the drop shipped products into your bedding site.

[Brismom1]

Originally Posted by lindastacy
Something tells me combining them isn't the way to go, but I really have no more than a gut reaction to base that on. Perhaps you should test it before you make any decisions. Add a chair or two to the bedding site and see if they sell. Or vice versa. Or what about testing some cross promotion?

Could you give me some ideas on how to cross promote? Thanks!

[Adriana]

I too, would suggest continuing with both sites. 2500 unique visitors each, it would be a shame to stop now.

Pick the one that makes you more now (or the one you are more passionate about), and continue to do everything you do now. For the other one, outsource the article/blog writing. That way, you are still working on both sites, yet have a little more time.

Start a list. I see you have a sign up for one of the sites, but the form is so far to the right, I didn't see it: I had to scroll to find it, so not many will sign up. Move that form somewhere where your site visitors will see it right away.

BTW, I recently started using Rachel's outsourcing team (aff), and so far I had a wonderful experience with it.

[Danielle]

I would agree with outsourcing. I think you have a good thing going here with both of your sites.

Another thing I would try is to add affiliate links and information into both sites. So hire someone to had what is going on with one or both of the sites and then work on adding affiliate links on both sites. This could really increase your income!

You could also just sell one of the sites for a big profit. In my opinion I would not combine the sites for a couple reasons. First because it looks to me like it would be a lot of work. Second because I am sure you are creating links to both websites that are helping you in the search engines!

Good luck! You have a good thing going right now!

[Kayla Fay]

I'm also in the camp for keeping the two sites - they are different, although related, niches. You could link between them, too.

BTW Is that a blog theme you are using? They both look really great!