One evening after work, walking out of a subway station, I noticed something I had seen countless times: dozens of shared bicycles parked neatly near the exit, right alongside several motorcycle taxi drivers waiting for passengers.
The shared bicycles are cheap, quick, and ideal for short hops. The motorcycle taxis are more expensive, depend on local experience, trust, and regular riders, and offer a completely different type of service. Yet, they are directly competing for the same commuter.
Watching them made me think about a very practical question that applies directly to indie hacking and content creation: If I am starting out, should I build many small websites (like placing shared bikes across the city) or focus entirely on one big website (like becoming an established motorcycle driver at one station)?
The Motorcycle Drivers Are the Established Websites
Imagine building a niche site—say, around traditional topics like Chinese Feng Shui. Large, established websites in that niche are the motorcycle taxi drivers.
They have been operating for years. They have old domains, historical backlinks, comprehensive databases, newsletters, and direct brand search traffic. They know their station inside and out.
As a newcomer launching a fresh site, you arrive with none of that history. You are standing at the same subway exit with zero authority, trying to capture attention while massive competitors sit right beside you.
A Small Website Is Like a Shared Bicycle
Because competing head-to-head with established giants is brutal, many creators lean toward building small websites instead.
A shared bicycle doesn't need to be the dominant transportation system of a city. It just needs to be useful to someone at the right place and the right moment.
Similarly, a small website doesn't need thousands of pages or an enormous brand. It might consist of:
- One useful calculator
- A single niche generator
- A concise set of guides
- A very specific utility
The cost is low. Domains are cheap, hosting is inexpensive, and modern tooling lets you build quickly without a team. You can place one small site here, another there, and explore different markets.
Ten Bicycles Are Still Only Ten Bicycles
However, diversification has a hidden trap. Suppose you spread ten small websites across ten different niches.
It sounds productive, but ask yourself:
- Does each project have enough good content?
- Is it updated?
- Does it have proper analytics and a clear purpose?
Often, managing twenty projects just means owning twenty half-finished experiments. Sometimes diversification isn't brilliant strategy; it's simply a lack of focus.
What If I Choose the Wrong Station?
Conversely, the classic advice is to "focus on one thing for ten years." But that advice assumes the station you chose is actually worth your decade.
What if you spend years building the world's best niche site, only to find that search intent has shifted, monetization is weak, or larger competitors dominate every viable keyword? Five years of misplaced focus isn't discipline—it's just time spent in the wrong place.
Explore First, Then Concentrate
The solution isn't a permanent binary choice between one monolithic site and twenty scattered micro-sites. Instead, treat them as sequential stages:
- Explore cheaply: Build several small things with low overhead. Try different markets. Do not become emotionally attached too early. Let real data show you where demand actually exists.
- Concentrate when proven: When one project clearly outperforms the others—showing real visitor traction, return usage, or revenue—stop treating every project equally. Give the winner your time, better tools, and deeper content.
The danger isn't failure; the danger is keeping a weak website alive for years with just enough trickle traffic to drain your focus.
Final Thoughts
The goal shouldn't be accumulating a massive portfolio of neglected sites. The goal is running experiments to discover where people actually want to go—and then deciding whether to place another bicycle there, or stay and build a lasting vehicle.
(This thought originally appeared on Ordinary Man Trying.)
Top comments (1)
Explore first, concentrate when proven is right — just make "proven" measurable: give each site one kill/keep trigger (returning visitors, a sale, an email signup) before you build, and kill whatever misses it. That turns many small sites into an experiment instead of a graveyard. Have an idea, or torn between a few? Reply here in one line and we'll give a free verdict: worth building or not, and why.