The Great Minisite Review Thread

[melat0nin]

I would change the page layout. Everybody likes pictures and this has none.

dental implants = good!

chargers= not good.


What i have found is people like a colourful page.
Once you get a nice template, stick with it.

My rev increased 50% by changing templates from no graphics to one with a couple of graphics. I now stick to the same template.

Thanks for the tip! I will throw in some nice images to that template. The reason I didn't use images is that most of Scott's minisites have no images, and he's hardly lacking in the success department

But it'll take 10 minutes to knock some up so no problem.


EDIT: I've put some images above the menu now. When I get time later I'll stick some little ones into the body of the text too.

 

[senty4love]

Hi Melot...nice bucks you are earning..
It inspires me ..i think i am too much reading and not doing work...Now i should give it a try...This weekend i will workout on my site...
Btw. are you using templates from your webhost? I like the idea of just only one page site...Lets see how much i will progress...

 

[melat0nin]

Hi Melot...nice bucks you are earning..
It inspires me ..i think i am too much reading and not doing work...Now i should give it a try...This weekend i will workout on my site...
Btw. are you using templates from your webhost? I like the idea of just only one page site...Lets see how much i will progress...

Do you think? hehe I wish they were a lot better!

I use template from Open Source Web Design (http://www.oswd.org) which are free and mostly standards-compliant. I tend to edit them quite a lot though, but they provide a great starting point without having to do the bulk of the coding.

 

[melat0nin]

a) Build a portfolio site, where you can create a single page with a brief description about each of your sites and feed a (or in the case of a multiple page minisite) a few keyword related links. You could do this in a blog format and mix in other posts in order to try a build a little authority for your portfolio site.

I'm thinking of creating a blog detailing my learning experiences with minisites. Would that be a reasonable substitute for a portfolio site? I could have an article for each site which gave a good description with contextual keywords. Would it matter if such a thing was free (i.e. blogspot) or would it ideally be hosted completely independently on its own domain?

 

[retired_member12]

HaHa,

Just went to check my Adsense for today, and it looks like Google.com's down. Anyone else seeing this?

 

[retired_member12]

Yup, and it's news thru UK portal ain't working too. Looks like the Taliban have worked out how to do DOS attacks!

 

[ScottJ]

all works as usual for me, maybe it is your ISP?

 

[melat0nin]

No trouble here, either, and I'm in the UK.



After having quite a busy week when I haven't been able to concentrate on my minisites, I've got the bug again (at least for the weekend) and I really want to get things going.

My initial goal is (contrary to what I posted on SelfMadeMinds -- I've revised my goal due to it being too high ) to earn £1 per day. So $2. Some days I manage it, others I don't.

(please let me know if I am contravening Google's TOS by giving out any of these numbers -- I can't find any definite info about the rules, even in the TOS themselves)

Some facts:

• My daily average this month has been $1.33 per day so far (7 days), over my 9 minisites currently running.
• Last month's average was $1.40 over the course of the month.
• My average for January (when I started this) was $0.83.
• My most profitable site is NoisyNeighbours, in terms of overall earnings. It is also my first, so that's perhaps not surprising.
• Although it's younger, MyDentalImplants paid its registration and hosting fee (£1) within 4 hours (!!) of going live, primarily because I listed it on Gumtree.
• The eCPM on MyDentalImplants is the highest of my sites, so I want to try and push it to earn more. With the same level of CTR as NoisyNeighbours, I would be earning 33% more.
• I get the odd click which is very nice (like $2), but I have no way of knowing which ad has paid that much. I use channels to separate out skyscrapers, square, banners and link units. Is it worth being really detailed and giving individual ads channels to work out earnings by ads? Even then, you can't be sure which advertiser paid well.
• I'm not sure where to go from here

Okay. So the point of that list was to give some clear info of where I'm at. I'd really appreciate some feedback from the gurus on how to move this thing forward to earn more.

I want to make the best possible use of my time.

With that in mind I've narrowed my options down (although I could be missing something):

• Increase traffic through link building*
• Optimise my sites for search engines by learning some SEO (I've got SEO Book by Aaron Wall)
• Add more content to my sites by writing more articles

*I have little/no money to invest in these (or any) options. So link building by buying links isn't really an option for me (yet). Neither is paying for articles, unfortunately. If I'm being naive about what can be done on a shoestring budget, however, please tell me.

What would experienced folk say I should do next? If you need more information feel free to ask/PM me and I'll provide you with it.

Others who would like their sites to perform better post your own stats too if you like, and hopefully some kind (and knowledgeable) chaps will help us out!!

I'm really enthusiastic and willing to work; I'm just not sure whether I'm wasting my time by doing one thing when I should be doing another. If I can be sure I'm doing the right thing then I will do it with all my energy, 100%!!

 

[ScottJ]

The best option imo is to have a tool, calculator or feauture for free use, this can be done on a budget but a reason for people to link to the site ans use it and recommend it.

tattoofonts.net now gets close to 2000 visitors per day and consists of one page, the domain was free to reg at the time. That's the type of thing I would spend my time and energy trying to come up with.

 

[melat0nin]

The best option imo is to have a tool, calculator or feauture for free use, this can be done on a budget but a reason for people to link to the site ans use it and recommend it.

tattoofonts.net now gets close to 2000 visitors per day and consists of one page, the domain was free to reg at the time. That's the type of thing I would spend my time and energy trying to come up with.

I've been thinking about what kinds of tools I could provide. I'm goign to add a wallpaper calculator to my Hanging Wallpaper site, but most of the others don't really have subjects which tools would be of any use to.

I think next time I'll only get a site with potential for a tool. I must say that tattoo fonts is a brilliant idea, I wonder how many other such niches won't have been exploited!

 

[ScottJ]

It isn't easy but if you can think of a topic and a tool/calculator for it then possibly putting it together and a press release would be enough to have a good little earner.

 

[melat0nin]

It isn't easy but if you can think of a topic and a tool/calculator for it then possibly putting it together and a press release would be enough to have a good little earner.

In the absence of a new site (which I'm working on), what is the best and cheapest way to increase traffic?

I'm sure those of you who are successful started somewhere, with little to spend on buying really high quality links, so how did you build up your success in the initial stages?

 

[ScottJ]

The quickest way is if the site is viral, so Stumbleupon & social tagging and forums (try not to spam)

 

[RSK3000]

I have been interested in minisites for a long time now. But I am not sure they are worth the effort.

If you do it properly the whole process for one site can take - in all honesty between 1 - 2 hours, excluding any book/ internet research on the content. If you plan to write articles with a link back to your site for these ezine article sites, add a couple of hours for that as well.

Now compare that to developing a decent 'authority website', such as a blog. OK, in the early days you will get next to no traffic. But, go at it for a few months and you will be getting more traffic than any minisite. You will also get other sites linking to you. Chose topics with high paying key words and I would guess that you are easily going to make more per page than on the equivalent brand new minisite. Add to that the advantage that you are not changing topics all the time. Perhaps build two or three sites so you are able to post every day.


The only time you might consider a minisite is where you have a domain name that gets descent natural/ type in traffic. But even then the revenue from ad clicks has to be worth while, after all 5 clicks a day at 1, two or 3 cents a click is not going to make you a fortune.

 

[dock]

hi

Hi have a same feeling as above.
and don't waste your time creating one.

When does a minisite makes sense?

1) when you have a good domain and parked.
2) when you get good type in traffic.
3) Good tool based domain like bmi.
4) when you can give some good links.

Other wise its waste of time for the money you earn.

 

[RSK3000]

You are right Dock.

The thing is that on the face of it it seems like a great idea. Thats why I got into it in a reasonably big way. The problem is the money is in authority sites, but domainers don't always have the desire or the skills to develop authority sites.

All you can say in favour of a minisite is that they are going to bring in more money than if that same domain was parked.

 

[dock]

In the absence of a new site (which I'm working on), what is the best and cheapest way to increase traffic?

I'm sure those of you who are successful started somewhere, with little to spend on buying really high quality links, so how did you build up your success in the initial stages?

Hi melat0nin,

How are your websites treating you?
Any new observation?

 

[G00GLE]

Idea That Works For Me

The best way to increase google ppc revenue is to involve yourself
with high ppc topics like contents insurance, refinance, refinancing,
mortages, etc. Fortune 500 companies are breaking each banks biding
as high as $22(usd) per click. Their click per 1000 (cpm) can run into
the 100k+ budget range. So if you are looking for new topics/ideas to
develop your future sites with then check http://Adwords.Google.com/Select/KeywordToolExternal
and register the top paying keywords as url words!
Good Luck :twisted: :twisted:

 

[redtruck]

Was reading through this thread with interest as I have created one or two minisites, and one in particular has great ppc rates. My experience mirrors what G00GLE said. I have one site that's been around for donkey's years and has about 100 unique visitors a day, but the eCPM for Adsense click-thru's - as tracked by Google Analytics - doesn't often go above $5. So, even if I get quite a few clicks it doesn't generate much cash.

I have another site that I recently put up that doesn't get much traffic at all, but the eCPM average for the last 7 days was $162.35. So the 6 click-thru's I got (some of which were from Self Made Minds - thank you Scott ) earned me $6.49.

The first site I mentioned is a personal site with some useful weaving instructions and advertisers don't have big budgets. Even though I have some regular advertisers who show up, there's no competition, so they don't have to pay much for there ads to make it onto the site. My other site is a healthcare related site, and I think advertisers have much bigger budgets. More competition = more dollars for each click.

I've been working on improving the rank of my healthcare site, with some success, but I could probably do with adding some content. In the long run, I think it will be the biggest earner I have.

 

[bassbliss]

Hi, I have just built 2 mini sites, feel free to give me some feedback..they are both similar but with different emphasis in the text..

http://www.sellandrentbackmyhouse.com/

http://www.veryquickhousesale.com/


Sell and rent back has already made $10 in the first 24 hours!

thanks