AEIOU No Longer doing Sites

[DnPresident]

Just got the email. They have bigger fish to fry LOL and everyone has 90 days to move their sites away from AEIOU'S hosting.

They will move files/sites to your hosting account for $95 the first and $15 additional. $95 is kinda steep for me.

 

[Makis.TV]

aeiou, what a name!

 

[Alex]

I can't understand how they quit.

They had huge prices, and really quick sites. I do my own customized sites like the ones in my sig or one page sites like Biodegradable diapers - Biodegradable diapers or a bigger one like Bridge of sighs - Bridge of sighs that took a lot more time to develop for less than they did a minisite, still I can't complain really.

I just can't figure out how they did not make a profit. Maybe many customers were unsatisfied. But otherwise I can't really understand.

And I don't like Rick calling webdesign dead. Maybe he did not offer great service for the amount of money he charged.

 

[TestCase]

Huh, kind of funny... Weren't they getting a LOT of press just a few months ago in domainer news circles?!?!? All those articles seemed to tout how great their service (and others) was for creating value for undeveloped dn's.

 

[barefoottech]

HaHa - HaHa -:hearts:
HaHa

Funniest thing I have heard in a LONG while.

HahaHa

 

[Makis.TV]

And I don't like Rick calling webdesign dead. Maybe he did not offer great service for the amount of money he charged.

aeiou minisites are not what we call classic webdesign

 

[enlytend]

They will move files/sites to your hosting account for $95 the first and $15 additional. $95 is kinda steep for me.

Didn't they give their clients ftp access to their own sites ?? Should be a no-brainer to move - the sites I've seen are really simple. Hopefully nobody has to pay again to have the *rights* to their site code???

(Worst case if you don't have ftp access and you want to save money you can probably do what Yahoo's making all the poor Geocities people do - pull up the page, "files -> save page as", repeat for the other 4-5 pages :D! Or better yet, view source and save the source and css files.* Of course then you have some things to straighten out before you upload elsewhere and you'll need a script to process the contact form, but that's no big deal and free's free.)

If anyone does move their sites to their own host, make yourself a privacy policy while you're at it (to comply with Adsense program policies) - none of the aeiou sites I've ever seen had one !

*(this is assuming you were given the rights to your page code from when you purchased the site, otherwise it would be illegal and you would have to bite the bullet and pay the $95)

 

[labrocca]

For those that need a quick solution to backup the website and do not have FTP. You can use a tool called httrack.

HTTrack Website Copier - Offline Browser

That's fast, easy, and effective.


btw...Schwartz's latest post on his blog talks about this.
The Rick Schwartz Domain and Traffic Blog RicksBlog.com...Home of the "Domain King"

Are Minisites dead? I think first you have to ask if they were actually ever alive? Did they ever work?

He asks that and to answer here. I think it's like all things with domaining. They "might" work. From my large portfolio and many attempts at monetizing I can honestly say that some minisites do work. But you have to experiment, know your market, and gear any domain to the most profitable it can be. I am going to give you one of my better minisites that I hand regged and ranks well now.

Free Online Sudoku

Ranks #3 for it's term against some heavy sites and it gets strong traffic. If I had regged this and parked it. It would have been worthless imho. If I had tried to resell this I might only get $50. Instead I am making $50 a month for what was about 2-3 hours of work. That's a good return imho.

Yet some domains do very well parked and others need full development.

So to answer the question "are minisites dead". The answer is no. They are just another method or tool for domainers to use that will help unlock the potential a domain has.

 

[dtagr]

$250 per site plus $95 to move your own site. Wow. Hey AEIOU don't let the door to mini-site development hit you in the ass on the way out.

 

[barefoottech]

HaHa Still can't stop laughing


AEIOU were never really REAL minisite developers
and you ALL deserve what you got from AEIOU.com
$250 for a CRAP CookieCutter SITE
When there was Hundreds of Guys & Gals here at namepros that could have helped with self-development at less cost.

So all I can say is don't blame the Dodgy ex-CarDealer, but blame yourselves.

P.S. Same comments apply to WhyBother Sites

 

[shockie]

Huh, kind of funny... Weren't they getting a LOT of press just a few months ago in domainer news circles?!?!? All those articles seemed to tout how great their service (and others) was for creating value for undeveloped dn's.

they've spent resources promoting themselves around as well in print - not just online media. i've never used them and haven't seen the email. anyone care to share a snippet?

 

[daj]

It was way over-priced, and way over-hyped. Not surprising their calling it quits. RICK LATONA FAIL.

 

[DnPresident]

They did 2 sites for me / actually finishing up with the 2nd.

I've had a pretty good experience with them. Great communication is important to me and they were always easy to get in touch with, friendly, helpful and did what they could to make things right.

 

[blaknite]

So to answer the question "are minisites dead". The answer is no. They are just another method or tool for domainers to use that will help unlock the potential a domain has.

IMHO, what you have with the sudoku site and what AEIOU was selling are two entirely different animals. Whether or not minisites are dead really depends on what you call a minisite. I'm guessing here, but I suspect you probably didn't write the sudoku script on your site in the few hours you say it took to build. That site will probably continue to make money where as I suspect the stuff from AEIOU will suffer a grim fate. You only put a couple of hours in it, but someone spent a week writing the php code behind your site.

A simple rule:
Work in = Profit out
What went into your site was probably 40 hours of labor. You only spent 3 and some fool gave you the other 37 for free. What went into the typical AEIOU site was 40 minutes worth of labor. It stands to reason that they'll run aground much sooner.

I agree that minisites are not dead, but I think what most readers here visualize when they read "minisite" and what you and I refer to as a minisite are quite different. The no work in big profit out model is not only dead, it was never alive to begin with. People paying $250 for 5 pages of text were taking a sucker's bet.

 

[enlytend]

A simple rule:
Work in = Profit out

Very true!

Another very important difference with labrocca's sudoku site: it meets the expectations of the visitor.

If you go to a domain called Free Online Sudoku,what are you expecting to find? Some lame articles and a bunch of ads? No, you want free puzzles! Labrocca's site delivers exactly what it promises, and that's why it works. (Well done .) I'd expect that visitors often bookmark that page and maybe pass along the link to their friends.

This is where, imo, most "minisites" miss the boat, even with a strong domain name - not delivering what the visitor wants. And if they don't see what they want in less than a second, most of your traffic will click the "back" botton.

Adsense / articles can work, but it isn't an effective monetization strategy for everything.

 

[exsedo]

"P.S. Same comments apply to WhyBother Sites"

Whats this new platform? I cant find it anywhere ?

 

[cityforums.com]

This is a mini-site. :O

http://no_url_shorteners/mini-site



This is a fully developped domain.

http://no_url_shorteners/fully-developed-domain


Which would you rather have ?

 

[EJS]

I had 2 good mini site experiences with AEIOU and 2 good experiences with Site Graduate sites. I've sold 3 of the domain names I had developed, and the fourth is Torah.com, which was built by Site Graduate a while back.