Need Some Advice in making a link network

[Farmer77]

There is a niche I want to get into that is very competitive, but it's something I want to get into anyway, so I am thinking of building a group of websites around the hub & spoke method.

For example:

bluewidgets.com
greenwidgets.org
redwidgets.com
yellowwidgets.net

And they all link to the hub, Aboutwidgets.com, which would have the most desired and competitive keyword I want to rank for.


My question is, should i get a different IP for the Hub (Aboutwidgets.com)

Also, if an IP is different from another IP by only one digit, is that still considered the same IP in Google's eyes or not?

[Chris]

IPs are cheap, it wouldn't hurt.

However... I like hub and spoke for linking unrelated sites.

For related sites, especially new or yet to be launched sites. I much prefer straight cross linking OR just making one big site

aboutwidgets.com/red/
aboutwidgets.com/blue/

etc