It would have been simpler to keep everything on one website.
- One domain
- One stream of posts
- One place to publish, update, and maintain.
From a technical point of view, that’s usually what people recommend, fewer sites, fewer decisions, fewer moving parts.
But over time, I found that simplicity at the technical level created complexity at the thinking level.
Everything started to blur together: practice, reflection, finished work, half-formed ideas, and long-term conclusions all lived in the same place.
This post explains why I deliberately chose to separate my work across multiple websites and why that separation matters to how I work now.
One Site Looks Simpler Than It Is
When everything lives in one place, every piece of writing has to do too much work.
A single post can’t just be:
- an in-the-moment note
- or a reflection written after the fact
- or a record of something finished
It has to be all three at once.
That creates friction. You start hesitating:
- Is this polished enough?
- Is it too provisional?
- Will this still make sense later?
- Does it belong next to that other piece?
Over time, that hesitation becomes a brake on writing and thinking.
I didn’t need fewer ideas.
I needed clearer containers.
Practice and Reflection Are Different Things
The most important separation I made was between practice and reflection.
Practice
Practice is messy by nature.
- It’s written while things are still unfolding
- Assumptions haven’t been tested yet
- Outcomes aren’t known
- Some ideas will turn out to be wrong
That kind of writing needs permission to be provisional.
Reflection
Reflection happens later.
- Patterns have emerged
- Decisions have settled
- Some things have proven durable
- Others have quietly failed and been discarded
That kind of writing needs space to be calm and selective.
Trying to do both in the same place meant neither worked properly.
Why Steve Flips Exists
Steve Flips exists to document practice.
It’s where I write while I’m actively running resale businesses:
- what I’m testing
- what’s changing
- what’s working
- what isn’t
The posts there are not meant to be timeless.
They’re not meant to be authoritative.
They’re simply honest records of work in progress.
That makes it a useful place to think out loud without needing to be certain.
Why SteveKingOnline Exists
SteveKingOnline (SKO) exists for reflection.
It’s where I write once things are clearer:
- why I work the way I do
- which decisions held up over time
- what I’ve learned after finishing something
- what patterns I’d still stand by later
Nothing on SKO needs to keep moving.
Nothing needs to be “kept alive”.
If nothing new is added for a while, the site still works.
That calm is intentional.
Why Some Writing Appears in Both Places
Occasionally, a post belongs in both contexts.
This usually happens when a piece explains:
- a principle that governs how I work everywhere
- a constraint I’ve chosen deliberately
- a reason for how the sites themselves are structured
In those cases, duplication isn’t a problem.
It’s a way of giving the right context to the right reader.
I’m not writing for algorithms or optimisation here.
I’m writing so the structure makes sense to humans.
The Same Thinking Applies to Product Sites
This separation isn’t limited to writing.
Each product I’ve built, whether it’s a reference library or an archive, lives on its own site.
That’s not because it’s technically necessary, but because finished work benefits from clear boundaries.
A finished product should:
- stand on its own
- not depend on ongoing commentary
- not be confused with experiments or notes
- not feel like it’s part of a feed
Separate sites make that possible.
They allow a product to be finished and to stay finished.
Fewer Sites Isn’t Always Calmer
It’s easy to assume that fewer websites means less maintenance and more calm.
In practice, I found the opposite.
When everything lived together:
- writing felt heavier
- decisions felt harder
- finishing things felt rarer
Separating practice, reflection, and finished work reduced that friction.
Each site now has a single, clear job
and I don’t have to negotiate with myself every time I write something new.
The Real Reason for the Separation
The real reason I chose multiple websites is simple:
I wanted to finish things properly, without having to explain myself every time.
Clear separation lets me:
- work when things are unfinished
- reflect once they’re settled
- preserve what matters
- discard what doesn’t
And just as importantly, it lets each piece of work exist quietly once it’s done.
That’s worth more to me than having everything in one place.
