Exclude Category Vs. Additional WP Install

Assume my blog has 2 sets of widgets…

1) Super content widgets. This is what has made up the site for 4 years. They’re big, full of info and the foundation of the site. They drive traffic to the site and are often linked to. (The site currently has only 1 category and all 3000 posts are in it)

However, I would like to add:

2) Mini-widgets. These are brief content snippets that drive some people but they are more localized. Usually no more than a few sentences.

Here is my dilemma..I would like to add mini-widgets without having them show up in my RSS feed, or on the main page.

Would it be better (and easier) to add an additional install of WP to manage the mini widgets or to take the time to figure out how to hack WP and exclude a category?

I’ve read some on excluding but don’t understand a couple of things.

Thanks!

I’ve looked at a couple of plugins but it seems they either have bugs or are not supported much.