question Are minisites dead?

[Blues Brother]

Hi everyone, I know this is a domaining forum and not an seo forum but I have a question about traffic. I've been reading up on SEO for building traffic to my website and the general consensus seems to be that I need to create a 100 page authority site. This is also known as creating topical authority site. Google likes seeing these types of sites. According the SEO article I've been reading, if I have a 100 page site about auto insurance, Google will see that my site is about auto insurance and will likely rank me for long tail keywords.

But creating 100 pages takes time and can be expensive.

Enter the minisite...

These sites are 5-10 pages long and center around a specific small niche.

Can these types of sites rank well for an uncompetitive keyword? The competitors for the keyword that I'm trying to rank for have DAs of 6-10. According the Ubersuggest, this is easy to beat.

Thanks

 

[pablohc86]

I also have wineryconcert.com and gets tons of traffic from the plural site ..oh yeaaaaaaaa--free advertising

btw the thread starter means if minisites are still ranking when do you talk about websites getting traffic because of a typo of another website, it's a total different thing.

 

[Blues Brother]

to me it is not ranking in any page on yahoo.. probably because i search from EU?

same

 

[marijuanadomain]

btw the thread starter means if minisites are still ranking when do you talk about websites getting traffic because of a typo of another website, it's a total different thing.

but just to let you know minisites are still usefull....and yes they do have rankings and are being google indexed

 

[mixing]

The simple answer to your question is no, mini sites are not dead. Maybe in some niches, but not others. Personally, I run several mini sites which I run Adsense on and rank for noncompetitive keywords. Yes, they can get less traffic, but I try to make up for that in other areas (such as high PPC).

 

[Alvin Brown]

Minisites (a.k.a Microsites a.k.a. Minisites) is not dead, and a reasonable income can be made. My wife and I have 16 websites (niche, hyper-niche, and/or hyper-niche authority) that we operate and rarely update content. That is not to say that we never add or modify content, but that consistent daily, weekly, or monthly content creation is not part of the plan for the sites we own. Our sites, especially those with their own hosting plan, MUST generate 3 times the cost of hosting and pay for the renewal for us to keep them or place them on an independent hosting plan to begin with. We use a combination of CJ.com, Adsense (Web/YouTube Video), and Amazon Associates ads on the websites. A few examples: CCBTutorials·com, KickstartCommerce·com, DNAdverts·com, BatsInRoundRock·com, DolphinsInPortA·com, etc.

 

[marijuanadomain]

Minisites (a.k.a Microsites a.k.a. Minisites) is not dead, and a reasonable income can be made. My wife and I have 16 websites (niche, hyper-niche, and/or hyper-niche authority) that we operate and rarely update content. That is not to say that we never add or modify content, but that consistent daily, weekly, or monthly content creation is not part of the plan for the sites we own. Our sites, especially those with their own hosting plan, MUST generate 3 times the cost of hosting and pay for the renewal for us to keep them or place them on an independent hosting plan to begin with. We use a combination of CJ.com, Adsense (Web/YouTube Video), and Amazon Associates ads on the websites. A few examples: CCBTutorials·com, KickstartCommerce·com, DNAdverts·com, BatsInRoundRock·com, DolphinsInPortA·com, etc.

agree and I can attest to that as I have a couple of niche minisites that bring in the $$$$$
legalizeblackness.com,gardenigloos.com,wineryconcert.com,ripplerugs.com,onlinedrones.com,vaccineczar.com,
karmaenergy.com,cloudengineer.com
Best of all , I get many sales of the domains too.

Niche Niche Niche market

 

[mdent]

agree and I can attest to that as I have a couple of niche minisites that bring in the $$$$$
legalizeblackness.com,gardenigloos.com,wineryconcert.com,ripplerugs.com,onlinedrones.com,vaccineczar.com,
karmaenergy.com,cloudengineer.com
Best of all , I get many sales of the domains too.

Niche Niche Niche market

Can you share your stats with these domains? I'm not very familiar with the niche minisites.
What sort of domain/metrics do you need to make the minisite worth it? How do these perform vs parking? How long does it take to set one up?

 

[Hypersot]

Minisites (a.k.a Microsites a.k.a. Minisites) is not dead, and a reasonable income can be made. My wife and I have 16 websites (niche, hyper-niche, and/or hyper-niche authority) that we operate and rarely update content. That is not to say that we never add or modify content, but that consistent daily, weekly, or monthly content creation is not part of the plan for the sites we own. Our sites, especially those with their own hosting plan, MUST generate 3 times the cost of hosting and pay for the renewal for us to keep them or place them on an independent hosting plan to begin with. We use a combination of CJ.com, Adsense (Web/YouTube Video), and Amazon Associates ads on the websites. A few examples: CCBTutorials·com, KickstartCommerce·com, DNAdverts·com, BatsInRoundRock·com, DolphinsInPortA·com, etc.

Thanks for sharing some examples.

How do you earn money from the ccbtutorials domain?
I used a 'clean' browser to navigate (ie. no ad-blocks, no script-blocks of any kind) and I saw no ads at all.

Also,
I noticed that the first 2-3 domains are not using https... do you still earn enough money from those to justify supporting them?

Thanks again

 

[Alvin Brown]

Thanks for sharing some examples.

How do you earn money from the ccbtutorials domain?
I used a 'clean' browser to navigate (ie. no ad-blocks, no script-blocks of any kind) and I saw no ads at all.

Also,
I noticed that the first 2-3 domains are not using https... do you still earn enough money from those to justify supporting them?

Thanks again

Not certain how you're not seeing https for all domains, but all do use https. Also, "We use a combination of CJ.com, Adsense (Web/YouTube Video), and Amazon Associates ads on the websites. " CCBTutorials·com has more CJ.com and Amazon links. In addition, it generates project work too whereby churches hire us to migrate/build/automate using CCB API. And yes, the 16 sites are still worth the squeeze. Hope this helps.

 

[Hypersot]

@Alvin Brown ,

it does help, thank you.

Just in case it helps:
ccbtutorials shows the https 'lock' only on Chrome.
I tested on Firefox, Vivaldi, Chrome and Epic Browser (Epic is completely clean of add-ons with only the VPN and https-preference turned on).

Note that I just type the domain name without any http or https in the url.
Note also that Epic Browser has an in-build https-preference plugin where it automatically switches to https. Even with that on the domain stays on http.

Screenshot is from firefox:

 

[Alvin Brown]

@Alvin Brown ,

it does help, thank you.

Just in case it helps:
ccbtutorials shows the https 'lock' only on Chrome.
I tested on Firefox, Vivaldi, Chrome and Epic Browser (Epic is completely clean of add-ons with only the VPN and https-preference turned on).

Note that I just type the domain name without any http or https in the url.
Note also that Epic Browser has an in-build https-preference plugin where it automatically switches to https. Even with that on the domain stays on http.

Screenshot is from firefox:

Show attachment 236007

Interesting. How about now? Although you may have to clear cookies.

 

[Hypersot]

@Alvin Brown ,
tested without clearing cookies, both Vivaldi and Firefox immediately switched to https even when I specifically entered an http in the url.

 

[bashvr]

Awesome info. Mini sites are sure the way to go. I have about 60 dot.com keyword heavy domains that deserve a minisite that can be monetized while simultaneously having a "this domain is for sale" sign up somewhere on the page. I also don't like the commissions the big guys like afternic or sedo take from a sale so I think handling the transaction yourself is the way to go. I'm in the process of acquiring a domain to act as the parent site where I will list all my domains for sale on, along with an seo optimized description and make them clickable so users can also see the mini sites I've built them into / the potential I've shown. However, would that make me a link farmer? lol (I'm new to this hah)

 

[bashvr]

Really appreciate the various viewpoints expressed here – I have learned a lot, about AI-generated content and Google in particular.

This is one of those things I have always wanted to try, creating some minisites, even picked up a few names I saw primarily for that, but never get around to actually creating some. So this is based on perception, not personal experience, but....

I suspect the sites that work best are ones where if you simply Google or Wikipedia the term, the answer is not very comprehensive. That is your minisite, even if short, adds significantly to the content. The issue, of course, is that quickly Google will access your site, and maybe hard to stay unique. Anyway, it seems to me that rather niche topics might work best.

No matter how much you use AI to assist, I think the site needs a personal touch. So write about something you know and feel you have something to say.

I suspect it is like startups, most fail but a few succeed beyond any expectations. So route is probably to try 10 or so minisites, then after 6 months, narrow to the 1 or 2 that seem promising.

Thanks again for all the information in this discussion.

-Bob

Very much agree. I must say I am a fan of your site namesthat.win and it's inspired me to create the same style of site to list all of my domains. Like you, I've also chosen a keyword optimized name that I found on expireddomains.net and saw it gets almost 1k searches a month. Hoping for some organic traffic!

 

[Duk]

Not anymore, you can generate a 1000 page site with ChatGPT in 15 minutes. There's even WordPress plugins you can use.

I expect this is already happening en masse. If I had free time I would certainly be experimenting with ChatGPT manufactured MFA sites.

No way you can do that. You have to read every single article at least, to check for coherence and relevance. There is no way you can pop out a 1000 pages site in 15 minutes, you do not read that fast, none does.

 

[Alvin Brown]

Spot

Really appreciate the various viewpoints expressed here – I have learned a lot, about AI-generated content and Google in particular.

This is one of those things I have always wanted to try, creating some minisites, even picked up a few names I saw primarily for that, but never get around to actually creating some. So this is based on perception, not personal experience, but....

I suspect the sites that work best are ones where if you simply Google or Wikipedia the term, the answer is not very comprehensive. That is your minisite, even if short, adds significantly to the content. The issue, of course, is that quickly Google will access your site, and maybe hard to stay unique. Anyway, it seems to me that rather niche topics might work best.

No matter how much you use AI to assist, I think the site needs a personal touch. So write about something you know and feel you have something to say.

I suspect it is like startups, most fail but a few succeed beyond any expectations. So route is probably to try 10 or so minisites, then after 6 months, narrow to the 1 or 2 that seem promising.

Thanks again for all the information in this discussion.

-Bob

Spot on, @Bob Hawkes I often will start 3-5 projects a year and fill in all the vital pages (i.e., Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, About Us, Affiliate Disclaimer, Contact Us, Home page, Author Bio) as well as GSC and GA. I might add 3-10 articles based on search results. I then allow them to sit for at least 6-9 months. If their stats show signs or are signaling an upward trend in GSC/GA, and are between pages 2-3 on search results, then I double down and invest in more content. If not, they sit until the one or two weeks a year that I add content to ALL sites.

In addition, one area to try with AI-Gen content is a geo+keyword (or inverse) and focus on lead generation (i.e., think plumbing, roofing, etc.)