Mini-Sites Advance … Finally
By Alan on Apr 17, 2009 in Mini Sites
It’s no secret that I despise many of the services selling mini-sites who simply develop the same templates over and over but just change the picture. This work simply shows a creative mind which is not as creative as that person(s) may think and one of the main reasons for selecting a service to design a mini-site is to create the base – a foundation – for an atmosphere which will inspire users to return, not to click an ad and never return.
More importantly you want to look different. Just because Tom’s site works doesn’t mean you want to look like Tom – no offense, Tom but with all the mini-sites being built around the same dozen designs today there are MANY Tom’s around.
I am done with ranting about mini-sites since we all always have developers who simply want to attract business from newbies week after week however tonight (the eve after I questioned people about avoiding being a post whore) here I am, sitting down for an unproductive 20 minutes of work only to recycle news already published.
Why? It is well deserved.
Instead of announcing a new case study that was completed with .. you guessed it .. the same old template with a different picture MiniSites.com has launched not one but three (3) great examples of their work.
But wait, it gets better.
They also include examples of the SEO placement resulting from their optimization of the site.
For example, in the beachwear.com example Minisites.com explains
“We decided to focus on the following keywords for this project: Beachwear (#4 in Google, #6 in Yahoo), Beachwear Trends (#5 in Yahoo), Fashion Beachwear (#5 in Yahoo), Kids Beachwear (#6 in Google, #1 in Yahoo), and Sports Beachwear (#1 in Google, #1 in Yahoo). Of course those rankings may go up or down, but that’s where they stand after just a few weeks.”
I’m starting to get the feeling some people secretly listen to some of my words (still don’t care if you do) and the showcasing of these designs and the results of the SEO efforts is what buyers need – again, these three (3) unique designs and the additional info – was great news and great work.
Just goes to show how one company is advancing a hell of a lot of faster then many and they only opened a month ago.
MiniSites.com showcases the mini-sites for three (3) premier domain names including
MotorSports.com
Celeb.com
Beachwear.com
To the crew at MiniSites.com – Three Words.
Damn Good Job.
Esa | Apr 18, 2009 | Reply
Thanks for the follow up comment on my blog. I know better understand where you’re coming from and I do agree that Showcasing is important, and that minisites.com is acting smart in that way.
Alan | Apr 18, 2009 | Reply
Just to recap…
This article was wrote to commend minisites.com for SHOWCASING more of their work – more, different and custom variations – along with some additional SEO information.
I am not patting them on the back for being SEO kings of the industry and not saying they are bad either – no judgement here whatsoever. The entire point is about providers showcasing more of their work, more designs, more choices. Claiming SEO fame is hard, very hard without a catalog of your success online to showcase your talent. For service providers the only way to stand out or nudge a little farther in the race is to showcase more and more work and minisites.com stepped up to the plate this week.
Again – its all about the showcasing, that is what this post was about.
Free Credit Scores | Apr 18, 2009 | Reply
I think we all know that I like minisites and I got to agree with you on several points – There are too Many Tom’s out there.
I have launched over 100 minisites in the last 6 weeks and I have the option of around 15-20 templates and most of my sites have stayed the same as you say just different pictures. I not proud of it and I have tried different templates but these seem to work with the best CTR on Adsense.
here some examples
http://CheapRims.us
http://CheapCarpet.us
http://MyCreditScore.us
http://CareersAdvice.us
What we need and I think all minisite developers should look into is allowing us to buy a template and send it over to them for design.
This shall help create different templates from the same providers.
I use Noomle.com which is free and great imo but there are other paid services that could do so much more to help change the development, especially as many of them have teams of developers.
DN Media | Apr 18, 2009 | Reply
Thanks for the kind words Alan.
SEO is important, and we do all the principles correctly. There are sitemaps on every domain, unique keyword/description/title tags, friendly URLs, alt tags on images, the keywords are researched and chosen well, the backlinks are on do follow sites with content relevant to the domain, 301 redirects from the www to the non-www, and on and on and on.
Copywriter.at | Apr 18, 2009 | Reply
Great review and Nice work on the minisites, DNmedia! yes Your sites are one of better looking ones from the mini developers i’ve seen.
wannadevelop.com | Apr 18, 2009 | Reply
I exposed Rick Latona’s aeiou.com when they straight out lied about one of this case studies / showcases which they do regularly.. Domain that was around forever, etc… They make a blog post and take credit for the “seo work and rankings” when all they did was re-design and re-develop a domain.
I don’t really have the time to go one by one on every minisite showcase out there… But yea, you know what I’m saying.. Old newz
wannadevelop.com | Apr 18, 2009 | Reply
BTW, dnmedia — the title tag is the most important piece of real estate as far as SEO goes and you should make the most of it and make it for you — sticking the url beachwear.com on every page there is pointless, as is currently.
Whoever your SEO gurus are, you need to keep a closer eye on them.
You are welcome.
All the best,
Mike
Alan | Apr 18, 2009 | Reply
DNMedia,
No problem. Have no desire to bash anyone which may of seemed liked that in our prior battle of words – just want to see this industry evolve quicker and it was a nice treat to see you showcase some of your different designs.
Credit well deserved.
Mike, your turn
Alan
wannadevelop.com | Apr 18, 2009 | Reply
Alan, I’ve shared a bunch of the sites I’ve put together a while back which I’ve sold off. I don’t mind sharing those examples / case studies because I no longer own them
I don’t care to share much more than that publicly at this time for many reasons.
One of them being that I got a lot of fans as well as haters too as you can imagine.
Anybody who wants to see more examples and get more info, assuming they are serious about domain mass development, simply has to follow instructions on my web site. It’s as simple as that. It’s my way preferred way of doing things.
Alan | Apr 18, 2009 | Reply
And just when I thought we were all getting along
…
Fair enough.
DN Media | Apr 18, 2009 | Reply
Mike,
Thanks for the comment. We’ll look into the title tags more, we’re just trying to avoid putting in too many keywords and getting penalized for stuff. They could probably safely have a few more in there though.
I think we’re getting along nicely. Having seen most of Mike’s comments and read most of his blog posts, I think his comment was constructive and not aggressive… and I appreciate that.
We try to follow sound principles and do things in a very white-hat manner. There’s always room for improvement, and we’re up for the challenge.
As for not making your work public, I can understand that to some extent. However, I think it would be beneficial for you (and other developers), to show what you are doing so others can point out areas to improve, and get ideas on how to improve themselves.
Otherwise you leave people thinking either that you don’t have a lot of work to show off, that you’re not confident your work can stand up to scrutiny, or that you can dish out the critiques but can’t take the heat yourself.
Even if that couldn’t be further from the truth, it is the impression given off. I would love to see some of your work if you’d be willing to share it, feel free to email me.
I know showing your work puts you in a vulnerable position, but it also helps this area of the industry progress.
Alan | Apr 18, 2009 | Reply
DN Media,
Well said…. My sarcasm is not flowing over very well today
I must say there is a lot of benefit in these discussions and have to give you, Mike, Esa credit for continuing to chat about this topic. Sometimes it may not be great for one particular service but each time people step up to the plate and provide reasons and examples of their work so I think its quite positive for us, the readers and I think even you guys… wait, no one reads this blog so maybe just me and you guys lol.
Have a great weekend.
Rick Latona | Apr 18, 2009 | Reply
Mike a.k.a. WannaDevelop I’ve had enough of you. You’ll hear from my lawyers this week and this time we won’t relent. Your constant slander and lies must stop. I hope you have a big budget because this is going to get ugly.
Alan | Apr 18, 2009 | Reply
Rick,
Since you are here (the issues between you and Mike are between you guys) can you provide any more example’s of AEIOU’s work that does not revolve around basically the same template such as all your showcased designs.
Many parking providers even have a large selection of templates which (unless you were a domainer) would never know the same company is providing the ads on each one.
My point, my persistence in talking about mini-sites and the lack of showcasing by companies is derived from a simple feeling of wanting more. We are SEO experts, I was one of the first 50 certified Adwords specialists yada yada but if I was a newbie who did not know anything about developing a website or SEO then one of the biggest factors in choosing a mini-site provider is the design. When you visit AEIOU there is no vast selection or even a minor showcase of different designs – they are all from the same format.
Think back to the day before you understood domains and SEO.
Stop, think way back – that’s where most domain investors are.
A perfect example is Elliot’s bullridinghelmet.com site he posted about this week – no offense Elliot as kudos for spending hours on this and sharing – but if some of the most well known faces in this industry are only now putting out sites like this then the entire team is a decade behind where it should be. Is it bad work? yes, but ONLY if we base our opinion on assuming every domainer is a developer but some are just beginning to do it themselves (in Elliot’s example I’m pretty he did this all himself rather than hire someone like has for his bigger projects – so kudos to taking the first step)
But AEIOU and other mini-site providers potential customers do not understand SEO that well – usually why they are coming to you guys. We all know SEO is separate of design. You can have an ugly design and a beautiful design – doesn’t matter one bit, the SEO is in the code and linking of the site, not the design. However, again, we know that but newbies do not so why not showcase different templates and a variety of obviously unique designs to further show people what you can do because people do – believe it or not – still judge a book by its cover.
Essentially we all look better – developer, domain owners, service providers … everyone when people see what can be done for a couple hundred bucks. If they are all looking at the same page over and over it does more harm than good imo.
Willing to share some more work?
Showcase some more and I’m sure you will get the credit you deserve from buyers.
wannadevelop.com | Apr 19, 2009 | Reply
I’ve wrote up a few articles and mentioned some of the networks we setup over the years and if one was to actually look into the sites, visit all of the links part of them and do the research to come up with the rest of the list which would take no more than 10 – 15 mins.. You would come up with 4,000 examples at minimum. Over 4,000 hand registered unique keyword domains developed that all rank top 3 on average at all search engines… Til’ this day.
If that is not enough.. I don’t know what else to tell ya
I doubt anybody else has setup that many successful sites in the domain industry.
As for Rick, I don’t have anything against you but you seem to take everything so personal and to heart… When it is just public information and constructive critisim. Stuff that can be verified and checked out each and everytime.
I don’t like seeing people bullying others or getting bullied, there is lots of that going on over the years in the industry but if you feel that you want to destroy your rep and spend a crazy amount on legal fees…and please don’t threaten me again. You are not the only one with a lawyer on stand-by.
David | Apr 19, 2009 | Reply
As the owner of a lot of my own minisites we made ourselves over the years I have been thinking perhaps WordPress sites may be best (assuming the cost and time is not excessive).
The major advantage to WP minisites would be them being much more interactive vs a typical minisite, especially as far as allowing user comments go. Plus access to so many WP plugins would be useful.
Have heard there is a free WP version available for making unlimited WP minisites and plan to check that out soon, anyone know about it?
David | Apr 19, 2009 | Reply
I forgot to say in my last post that having many WordPress sites may only be “best” assuming you have lots of good content and graphics (in addition to the potential cost and time issue).
Without that a good minisite provider such as AEIOU.COM (a domain name I wish I still owned and every day regret letting expire more than 10-yrs ago) may be the best option for most folks since it’s a complete package.
DN Media | Apr 19, 2009 | Reply
@David – Google WordPress Mu
G | Apr 19, 2009 | Reply
Personally, I hope Rick does follow through with legal action. Mike has taken every opportunity to spread these rumors about Rick and aeiou.com. No doubt, it’s had some kind of effect on Rick’s business.
Rick Latona | Apr 19, 2009 | Reply
Alan, we change our designs once a month so we can stay under the radar. So each month all the sites pretty much have the same design. The designs will be different and so on. This is done because we can’t put out 10,000 sites with the exact same time over a period of a year because someone could build an algorithm to detect them all and block them from being listed in the serps. It isn’t realistic to expect us to have 5 new designs every month. If you think that pretty sites makes a minisite company good, you completely miss the point of having them made.
We, like the other minisite companies also have to keep our costs down and do things in as much of an assembly line process as possible.
Over time we have made many improvements. Fortunately, we have had the time. We’ve been around since the beginning of what is now a
minisite craze.
All of this is moot. The service we sell, which I tell time and again, is link building. We write original text for both our sites and other people’s sites in the articles we submit as part of the link building process. I promise you it costs us more per site than it does for most companies because we try are damndest to do it right.
Whatever though. I’m not going to get in a pissing match. I could care less what you or Mike think about my service. We pretty much invented this whole space and I have a new round of products coming out soon which will reinvent it. Minisites.com seems like a decent company and I know it is run by good people but its just a wholesale copy of the product that aeiou was the first to provide in mass as a service.
As for Mike, I’ll let the lawyers fight that battle. I’m not going to lower myself to this bullshit.
Honestly, selling minisites is a service business. It is labor intensive, time consuming and doesn’t make nearly enough of a profit to justify this drama at this point in my life.
ttyl
wannadevelop.com | Apr 19, 2009 | Reply
I’ll have to agree with Rick…
We barely break even on the 10 or 20 site orders but they help spread the word so we offer the service to some. We turn down close to 90% requests though, eh.
The real money is in the bulk orders of 100s of sites and upselling other services from there on.
Mini sites, SEO and proper development as a whole is a lot of work.
I am glad Rick & aeiou took my advice from 2 month’s ago and made it work.
See, this open dialogue is good for everybody.
The people behind minisites.com aeiou.com do a decent job, but still always room for improvement… If I am screwing up with my services, please do keep me in check. I’d love the critisim and feedback. Please send it all my way. It even says so on my site
wannadevelop.com | Apr 19, 2009 | Reply
G, you are an ass and I will sue you next time you try to have others sue me… If I only knew who you were! You know better than to post with your real name huh. Tough guy
Alan | Apr 20, 2009 | Reply
Rick,
People who sell wordpress templates showcase multiple examples across their boards to show the power of what they can do.
Link building is one of the secrets of success to SEO but visually attractive sites (along with the SEO and link building) is the 3rd key to (a) bringing users back and (b) getting more people to want your service.
Obviously, you don’t seem to understand that point and, as you said, doesn’t really matter to me so my final words are here.
Minisites.com and a few others are getting it. You may have been one of the first to promote this service but you did not invent it: mini-sites and the development of min-sites have been around for a decade. Were you the first to promote it to the domain community? Quite possible, but we are a small group of people so I’ll give credit where credit is due but AEIOU was not the inventor of this space.
I agree it takes time and money but as a service provider … any service provider … selling still involves showcasing enough work to make people go WOW.
If you think my entire point is wanting pretty sites its wrong.
The entire point is to try and get the providers like yourself to check the assumptions at the door and understand that MOST of the world has no idea who Rick, Frank and Kevin so if you are going to be service providers then why not showcase some of the best work you have done.
5 a week? You said that, not me.
Hell, 20 different examples from each of the providers in total is enough and comparable to any wordpress developers site to showcase the work.
(If you want to argue that I am comparing SEO and the point of mini-sites to wordpress templates than you are not getting my point – this is all about marketing your service)
5 designs of the same template does you more harm than good believe it or not. The steak of your product may be in the SEO and link building (and you may be very good in doing this) but believe me – the sizzle is in your ability to showcase your work.
Rick who? – yes, people actually ask this question who own domains.
My point is that many of the mini-site providers assume everyone knows what they do, they assume people will sign up based on the success of what they can’t see or read. As marketers you all need to improve (now again, I am not referring to you as a marketer in general – I am referring to the marketing of mini-site solutions as a service provider and you are not alone in this).
Minisites.com stepped up last week. Some will follow, some will lead, some will stay where they are – but I do know of a few who have already started doing something to showcase more work and if you don’t seem to get that then hey, that’s your deal.
In 12 months from now when Joe the domainer is comparing mini-site providers to use and it’s a choice between
Provider #1 (showcasing 5 of the same designs)
Provider #2 (showcasing a couple decent sites and a couple spammy sites) or
Provider # 3 (who has 20 different visually attractive sites)
Come on, you do not have to be a rocket scientist to figure this out.
The more visually attractive options available for owners – guess what …
The more people want to be domain owners, more buyers for domains.
We can argue all day but if you don’t get the point here there is nothing I can do.
Alan | Apr 20, 2009 | Reply
By the way and for the record (since some ass just emailed me about this)
I have no interest in mini-sites other than providing comments on how ALL of you guys can do better to help the domain INDUSTY attract new people.
The industry is my interest – not single service providers.
I do not have an interest in AEIOU, share children with Estibot, was college roommates with WannaDevelop or have a secret crush on MiniSites.com
My comments are 100% geared towards the faster evolution of this space.
If you all close tomorrow it doesn’t matter to me – but if you’re going to stick around then why not try to be the best you can be.
Copywriter.at | Apr 20, 2009 | Reply
Alan, it doesn’t matter how hard you try, you won’t turn an Ass into a Horse. Instead of complaining about the mini-site services offered by some of the above mentioned parties, and I totally agree with you on all points. All one has to do is look a little outside, and you will a much superior offer for domain development, you don’t have to look far either, it’s in your own backyard, check out NicheonDemand.com
Let’s face it most domainers are not artists, it’s not in their skill set, you’ll get ugly website, and a boring generic copy that won’t convert well..
For the same money or less you can get:
. superior design,
. superior written copy
. eBook with custom cover
. affiliate offers
. + a team of players with low EGO emissions that will actually listen to your needs and you will like working with. So I ask why settle for less?
This is not an endorsement of NOD by any means, no one paid me, i just like what they are doing and thought it might be something you and other domain developers might be interested in as well. YES mass development services (or whatever you want to call them) are already available, although they might not have the label of domain development on them.
Copywriter.at | Apr 20, 2009 | Reply
Every domainer should ask themeself do i want to build my domains into shanty towns or premier sites, you and i can be proud to showcase.
Alan | Apr 20, 2009 | Reply
Copywriter / Thanks for the info!!!!
People will come back to these sites – unbelievable, you can do pretty sites and still do good SEO work – who would have thunk ….
Someone must be a rocket scientist lol