Inspired by some great travel sites I’ve decided that I’d like to put my efforts into creating a travel magazine type site of my own that I can be proud of. I’ve got lots of ideas and I think that, because I’ll be travelling, I will be able to offer a lot of first hand tips and tales from the road that will hopefully set the site apart.
This has created a bit of a dilemma for me though. I have what I think is a good domain name with Travoholic.com, the site is about 7 years old, Google is in love with it, it has some great inbound links and I really think it’s the best spot for the new site I have in mind.
The problem is that, at the moment, the site is a pretty good earner for me with Adsense, Text Link Ads, Linkworth and direct link sales even though it’s sort of crappy. I’m not sure the type of site I have in mind would be that well suited for affiliate programs so I’d be monetising it with those same four things.
I guess my dilemma is an ‘if in ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ type thing. True, the site how it is now isn’t the best looking thing in the world and has been neglected, but it also earns me a decent amount each month. If I were to scrap it completely and start with a new site I’m worried that I’d be throwing that money away. Most of my traffic currently comes from Google and I wonder if the new site would rank as well, or at all, for the same keywords.
My other option would be to start a whole new site from scratch and leave Travoholic.com alone to rot away slowly. Finding a domain name will be a nightmare but I’m sure with a bit of creativity I’ll be able to come up with something. I don’t doubt that the new site will do well with time because I have a lot of other sites that can link to it and the quality will be high, but I really feel that Travoholic.com is the right place for it, especially because it has a lot of great inbound links that I’d have a hard time getting again.
I guess I just don’t like the idea of Travoholic.com becoming a neglected, link whoring site. I like to build sites I’m proud of and even though it will probably continue to earn a decent amount of money and bring in plenty of daily visitors I’ll still always think I can turn it into something better.
I think I’m leaning towards registering a whole new domain and starting the new site from scratch. I suppose I can always go back to Travoholic.com and tidy it up when I have the time. It’s not a total lost cause, just a bit unruly.
What do you think I should do?
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