Are multiple sites really important?
 

Hi,

let's say we have our main site and around that we have 5 other sites with blogs linking to that one site. Does that really give a benefit?

Or should i just blog on the main site? When i keep the same blogs there as on the five other sites, google will index that and won't the result be the same? It will be less management for sure. And also more cost efficient...

I understand that when you build five websites around your main site you have five extra entrances. But if those offer nothing extra, why put in the extra effort? Should we put that effort in the main site?

I'm really small time, so what's been working for me so far may not be applicable to what you envision, but I'm getting good organic paying traffic on my site, having only one site. I'm in the top 3 in most of my target keywords in my niche, top 5 in all of them, through strategic free advertising.
Depending on how broad your target niche is, having multiple sites spread around just for SEO purposes may be alot of work for very little reward. I know I'd rather have one kick ass site than spread around a bunch of ish just for google.

either way, I think your site is cool and I'd like to do a traffic trade with you, if you're interested. I sent you a message on ICQ, hit me back if so

Owning large bulk of sites in some smaller niche could be strategically very advantageous. In more wider niche is better to buy links/advertisement then to spend your time to try build it up. Spend that time in building your main money site.

You definately are on the right track. You do have to keep in mind that duplicate content doesn't get you anywhere. Keep doing what your doing but always keep the content different between your multiple sites. More work I know but it will pay off. I think everyone here will agree that this biz will always require work and it's not a post it and they will come kind of biz anymore.

Check out my response on this thread:

gfy.com/showthread.php?t=1085812

(sorry, can't post links yet)

In a nutshell, if you aren't offering relevant and unique content on your niche blogs, it is a waste of time and might even hurt your rankings on some search engines to have them linking to your main site. But as I detailed in the link above, if you have quality content spread across multiple genres, it can be advantageous to break it out into smaller, targeted niche sites.