Never keep all your eggs in the one basket..
Never depend on search engine(s) alone for your income ..
Never "divulge"( fight club ? what is fight club ?..<= who said that ? ) your sites.

I'd suggest a separate limited liability type entity for each group of sites or different types of businesses that you own. Then you have your personal assets, business A, business B, etc. If one entity gets sued the assets of the others are harder, though maybe not impossible, to get at.

The downside is each entity has to have its own bank account, charge cards, tax return, etc.

You can also set up your own retirement plan to save your money tax deferred. You can have one plan for multiple, closely held companies. There are also options beyond IRAs and 401K that a pension firm can help you set up.

I was considering separate LLC and a holding company.

Just pass all earning to the holding corp and pay myself/retirement from there.

bank account are free, and website tax returns are pretty easy "income, expense or more if you want to write off everything possible". extra hundred per year per site for protection is definitely worth it.

what do you use?

has anyone had any issue with Adsense/affiliate networks and multiple account for the different Corporate Entities?

How about media liability insurance? Anyone have it or considering getting it?

Jonathan seem like some good coverage to look into. I usually put an error and omission non liability statement in my terms of service.

@ CMidd - Are you a US citizen and taxpayer?

If you are earning serious money with AdSense you need qualified advice from someone in whichever jurisdiction you may be, forum boards like this can mostly only give general information.

I believe AdSense in the US give all earnings on US Adsensers to the revenue these days...am I correct?

HuskyPup Yes i'm a US citizen and taxpayer.

i have a good idea, i just wanted to know what you guy/girl are doing for liability protection.

yes adsense report all earning for the Tax payer of corporate entity.

Here's a good guide to media liability insurance, from a credible source: [citmedialaw.org...] . It's interesting to note that, in some situations, you may already be covered by your existing homeowner's or renter's insurance.

i just wanted to know what you guy/girl are doing for liability protection.

I'm the wrong person to ask regarding US "ideas" since I'm based in the UK but do know that if you are earning serious money then you need to talk to a specialist for best advice....Who? I've no idea!

The more companies you have, then they each need their own insurance policies. So it gets to be a bit of a trade off on how much you do versus how much you make.

You have to look at how much you are making per company and just do what is good enough. And then it helps to have your own assets in a safe place, which is dependent on state laws. Home and some retirement savings depend on state laws.

Many attorneys try to sell expensive trusts but an ERISA protected retirement plan is pretty cheap and more bullet proof and protected by Federal law except against tax liens and spousal claims.

i take it that no body really has a corp structure for their web properties/business?

That would be an incorrect assumption to make on the basis of the replies you have so far, and there have been other threads here in the past dealing with more or less the same question..

You appear to be confusing "liability" ( a legal term ) with protecting your adsense income by having multiple legal corporate entities ( LLC's in your home jurisdiction )in case Google should decide to close your adsense account which apparently is registered to your current ( sole ) LLC ?

If you are worried about what Google might think or do in relation to one or more of your sites ..then only you can decide what the risk is ..and if it is worth your while setting up multiple LLC's as in one per site.

Some people own more than one company ..some don't ..depends on the individual and their circumstances.

Legosghost Maybe a phrase the question wrong.


I was just curious of what other people were doing. I wasn't looking for advice, just curiosity as to how other webmasters structure their business.

just curiosity as to how other webmasters structure their business.

As I previously wrote I am in the UK and even though we have factories worldwide and export to many different countries, personally I am self-employed and so too are all of my family who work in the business even though we do also have offshore entities.

I do declare my AdSense earnings through my UK tax returns however I have no idea how UK self-employment compares to the equivalent US status.

I do know that US citizens have to be very careful with offshore options and I have no idea regarding Google's attitude towards EFTs/cheque changes.

As Leosghost wrote we have had several threads over the years regarding this, I'll see if I can find one of them for you.

I started an S Corp in Michigan a few years ago; all my web properties, AdSense, affiliate income and so on are covered by that. (Don't really see the advantage of separate corporations, even for wildly different niches and sites, at least not to me)

My "day job" (I'm also the CEO and one of the owners of that company) pays me a salary that I declare as personal income.

Areas can get a little murky, as I'm the sole proprietor and employee of the S Corp, and keeping track of what I'm buying and what I'm earning from which source for tax purposes is kind of a bear, but fortunately I have a wonderful accountant who is very patient and forgiving when I just dump a box of paperwork on her desk and say "figure THIS out!" She always does, bless her.

I cannot emphasize enough how useful a good accountant is, and they're not expensive as you might think.