[Atlantean]

I am stuck.

What I have is one domain, which is essentially myrealname.com.

What I want is to develop several separate affiliate sites in separate folders on this domain. For example myrealname.com/affiliate-store-one and myrealname.com/affiliate-store-two, etc.

My problem is, based on what I know about SEO, it would be best to obtain a separate domain name for each program. But at this point it is not possible for me to buy domains and hosting for all the programs and ideas I have. So, I must house these programs each in its own folder. Essentially what I am describing is putting an entire website (or page(s) depending on how I decide to implement a particlular program) in a folder under the myrealname.com domain. Question: How will search engines react to a site with a homepage that has links to folders, each containing a different site and subject?

And what of the homepage? How would I accomplish a myrealname.com/index.html? How would I be able to focus it for SEO? Call it a "online mall", or "online department store", etc. and then optimize it thusly? Should I make it a sitemap with links to the subfolders? How would you guys handle such a scenario? Is it even a good idea?