So what is VRE?
VRE stands for Virtual Real Estate, which normally means a lot of websites owned and run by the same person. It is also a term used in the gaming fraternity, but that won't concern us at the moment.
The idea is simple enough. You start a site about a subject in which you have an interest, promote it by whichever method you choose, and get some traffic.
Then you put some Adsense code in your website, and you make a few dollars income.
Having looked at your measly three dollars, you then think "I can make three dollars a day on this one site, if I had a hundred sites just like this one, I could make three hundred dollars a day!"
So that's the theory, and it's one propounded by John Reese and other internet gurus.
But, like anything that sounds easy, it's not!
First of all, you have to find a hundred topics for your one hundred sites. Actually, that's not that hard to do. Go to sites like Wordtracker and Overture, input a keyword, and they will suggest similar keywords.
For example, if you put in the keyword "golf", you would get golf clubs, golf tips, golf schools, golf holidays etc. you get the picture. Then if you take "golf clubs", you could have sites "Golf Clubs Alabama" through to "Golf Clubs-Wyoming", there are fifty sites for you right there. Now if you did the same for "Golf Schools", you've got fifty more!
The next thing to do is to get 100 sites up and running. Are you going to just do one site and then clone it for the other 99? Remember Google does not like duplicate sites, so you will have to get some items of difference between them, and not just in the title.
Are you going to make 100 individual sites?
How much time will it take to put on all your adsense in the best position on every site? There are software packages which will create sites based on keywords and insert your adsense in the places you have chosen, and indeed I use one myself. (You'll find the link on the "money" site in my signature.)
Then you have to find a host for your 100 sites do you have completely separate domains or do you have several sub-domains coming off your main one? The costs associated with these could be a significant factor in your VRE plans.
Another thing to consider is the upkeep of all those sites. As well as duplicate sites, Google does not like static sites, so you will have to keep adding content. Using RSS feeds will help do this, but you need to get other content as well.
One option for VRE would be to set up a blog, and let your visitors update your site for you, but again you have to set this up and also have a vibrant subject, which will generate lots of interest and comments, and you would need this setup on each of your sites. Would you have enough interesting keywords to generate this interest? Most webmasters would be very happy to have just one site like this. Another way to add content to your blog is by grabbing articles (see below) and adding one a day, just to keep the search engines interested.
But, in spite of all this, there is some hope for you! There are ways of getting VRE without having lots of sites, but once more you will have to do some work.
You could start an article directory, which would have articles on all different subjects, each one carrying your adsense ad. This would give you VRE all within one site. Of course you would still have to get the articles to fill up your site, but if you give enough incentive for authors to submit their articles to your site instead of someone else's article directory, you will have your updating VRE. Once you have a lot of articles, encourage bloggers to come to your directory and take articles for use on their blog. You can view my own article directory at the "article" site in my signature at the bottom of this article.
Alternatively, you could start a link directory. This is a site which gives the visitor a selection of links to other sites relating to your sphere of interest. This is a method used to build up page ranking, by reciprocating links with other webmasters who already have sites with good page rankings. Then hopefully a little bit of their ranking will spill over onto yours. Of course this means that you have to give the other site owner some incentive, otherwise why should he benefit you by giving you that little bit of his ranking? By the way, beware of link exchange programs that agree to swap links with you. Virtually all of them are just listings of sites, and the link to yours will be down at number 854, and no visitor will ever scroll down to that level. Also, none of these sites have any page ranking themselves, so they are of no use to you.
So this is just a brief overview of VRE. If you still feel this way of increasing your earnings is right for you, then by all means go ahead, and many happy returns!
Peter Phillips
© 2006