Mini-site experiment

[harkster]

Because of other projects I have been neglecting my mini-site development but stumbled across Drupal at www.Drupal.org while looking for a replacement to Joomla which has such a tough learning curve.
After looking at some of the things others are doing I decided to give it a shot using Drupal at www.DodgeTurbo.us.

In addition to Drupal I use a (free) rss script from www.neoprogrammers.com for building the news feeds.

Drupal +'s -- easy to learn, built in forum, easy to allow registered users to contribute content via 'my blog' should the site take off, easy to create SE friendly URL's and can be installed from cPanel

Drupal -'s -- not a large selection of templates, terms are a bit strange sometimes not as 'rich' as some of the other CMS packages but...

I would like some input from y'all such as good, bad, ugly or who cares or...

This took me about a day to modify a template to my liking and about 3 hours to populate with the current content not counting sitting and thinking time. I will be adding more stuff but the hard part is done. The thing I like about this is that in a flash content can now be added, deleted or moved. Off to submit to SE's and scatter some links about.

 

[iMODO Man]

1. Mini sites with an rss feed i.e one thats constantly changing do not tend to get too badly affected in googles listings - provided the static text on the page/meta tags/page title and other html text isnt a duplication.

2. The two article "mini site" providers which seem all the range on this board are providing either a hard code code or a hard coded feed. Both of which show duplicate content of 000's of other sites.

Who knows how many websites are already using it?

Go see for yourselves. Here

 

[harkster]

I just popped in to see what is going on. There are several things I would like to reply to but am busy with a client site update. Process and upload around 4000 images for an upcoming auction.

Some of the things being discussed here are why I named the thread Mini-site experiment. Yes there is a danger that at some point in time rss feeds may become a problem but if that happens there will be some big sites hit as well.

Content is best and original content IS indeed king. My problem right now is that I can produce one of these sites in a few hours but my writing skills suck big time and because of this I make of use Wikipedia type stuff but no caned articles. I can't justify the 10-20 cents a word to have content written for these projects when the failure rate is so high. I been using rss feeds for some time as a way to have the spiders (hopefully) see fresh content as in www.TopZuneSites.com. I often find myself clicking to read something as I am doing maintenance or whatever when I would not think of going to Google and doing a news search or having a desktop feed on that subject.

Now for Adsense ad placement. I recently read somewhere about having your ads blend in the content and believe they are right on. In fact I had a site with big glaring Adsense which overpowered the content (A 120+- page site with loads of usefull content) and when I changed the colors and moved the content where your eyes will see the ads while reading. Ad background same as the page and link/text colors which are used site wide. The click rate went way up.

Must get back to paying work.

BTW just looked a bit ago and DodgeTurbo got some clicks yesterday. I hope it wasn't someone here clicking just for the hell of it. Has been visited by BigG, MSN and an unidentified spider.

 

[whitebark]

Hark you just wrote five solid paragraphs - that is one page already done! It's easy! Like you said - take a wikipedia article as a starting point if you must and go from there.

How long did it take you to write your latest response - two or three minutes? Don't sell yourself short!

 

[mlmleads]

Whitebark your argument against PPC-sites is no more valid than the same argument against ANY website period, adsense or not IMO.

The fact that a site can lose rank or drop all together is just a fact of life.

So if you are going to rely on PPC for a steady income stream diversify, diversify, diversify. (Use multiple ad feeds, Google, YPN, Bidvertiser, etc..)

Try multiple developments. Make a few mini sites yourself. Who cares if they look bad at first? With practice comes some experience and eventually can turn out nice sites.

The best part of mini-sites is you can do anything you want to keep people coming back. If you have a site selling golf equipment. Put a flash game on it.

If you have a site about NASCAR put a free email service on it for the racing fans.

There are a lot of ways to get a ton of people to come back to an otherwise "worthless" site.

With these virtual nick knacks will come natural relevant inbound links as well.

GL and remember that in life but especially in web SEO nothing is always or never.

 

[iMODO Man]

Yeah, or black hat the whole process (if thats your bag).

Example taken from the whypark example site:

The advent of the computer, as anyone can tell you, certainly brought with it benefits of such proportions we could never have previously imagined them. But, as with anything, the good always comes with the bad. The computer, while handing us the world, has also exposed us to the dangers of it. Part of the danger, exclusive to the operation of computers, is exposure to viruses that can wipe out our hard drives, render our software unusable, and in some cases, completely eradicate normal function of our computers. For most of us, who store personal, professional, and even legal information on our computers, virus exposure can be devastating. Luckily, most people employ the use of antivirus software that protects our computers from attack

Now translate into french and back again into english

The coming of the computer, does not import to us everything, though certainly brought with it problems of such proportions we could not never have imagined previously. But, as with every issue, the bad is outweighed by the good. The computer, while we are transmitting to the world, has also exposed its dangers. Part of the danger, exclusive to the operation of computers, is the exposition of viruses that can eliminate our hard drives, create unusable software and, in some cases, completely eliminate the normal function of our computers. For mostly of us, that store personal, professional and legal information on our computers, virus exposition can devastate wellbeing. Fortunately, most people employ software antivirus tools that protect our computers of the assault

Now thats original content. You may paypal me your donations for that little snippet of gold.

Either that or, for all you guys that think you can buck a multi billion dollar industry with really lame (what id call "grey hat") techniques, simply realise that you CANNOT monetise the stuff dogs do in the street without realising that your "mini site" pavement to gold is something the major seach engines have thought about long ago and made strong provisions to combat it.

Im not posting this stuff anymore, no-ones listening..

 

[whitebark]

Whitebark your argument against PPC-sites is no more valid than the same argument against ANY website period, adsense or not IMO.

Huh?

Anyone who wants to disregard what I have said in regards to duplicate content can do so at their own free will. Don't act surprised when you get no inbound traffic from the search engines, and when you get stuffed into the supplemental results or dropped all together. If your domain has natural or existing expired traffic you might do alright.

Internet users are sick of adsense websites, and the search engines are responding by doing what they can do - making them unseen as best as possible. Your average everyday website doesn't have to worry as they don't litter their page with ads, use rss feeds in place of real content and fill out the rest of the site with duplicate content. And if they do, then they are not making a real website now are they?

And of course that could apply to any website using just about any advertising program - I never contended otherwise - I just want to make people aware that they should understand what they could expect from using duplicate content in their pursuit to make a 'mini-site'.

If you read the adsense terms of service - it is only a matter of time before they fully put action behind their words. That is no made for adsense websites - something else that should be considered when spending money to buy these canned websites. Save your money and invest a little time and money and have them done right the first time. You will make much more in the long run. And if you get your domain banned from using duplicate content - good luck selling it for what you think it's worth.

Im not posting this stuff anymore, no-ones listening..

I hear you Chuck - I suspect you hold a number of websites yourself.

 

[highlifelight]

Quick question on minisites though: What is the most economical way to host such a dinky domain?

 

[NameClerk]

Quick question on minisites though: What is the most economical way to host such a dinky domain?

Many hosting providers allow multiple domains to share the same hosting account. This allows you to have as many websites/domains as the account's bandwidth and diskspace limits allow.

-Bill

 

[harkster]

How long did it take you to write your latest response - two or three minutes? Don't sell yourself short!

Nearly half an hour. First, I am a c5-c6 quadraplegic and type with a pencil entwined in the fingers of 1 hand (43 years post injury -- ain't complaining -- just a fact of life). That is why some of the things I post seem disjointed as my mind is much faster than my 1 pencil hunt and peck system. It is sort of like a problem trying to sync your laptop with your box. When I type something and go back to read it never makes sense/flows and I have to rewrite it (usually several times) but as I say 'THATS LIFE IN THE SLOW LANE'.

Since some commented the Dubai site was dull and the theme wouldn't let me do a header image like I wanted I got pissed and completely changed it using another theme.

 

[enlytend]

type with a pencil entwined in the fingers of 1 hand

I could see that making content (or post) writing quite a chore! Have you ever considered (or tried) voice recognition software like Dragon?

 

[daled1]

Artful

So would you say the ppc-sites are a big improvement over 1plus?

Is that cuz of higher clickthroughs and more traffic?

Is the only way you promote these sites via directory submission?

I have about 10 sites at 1plus that I've submitted to 40 directories each as my only form of promotion and they rarely get clicks, 5-10 a day in total. I don't see much advantage in having a better website as ppc-sites look like they are, if it's super hard to get visitors.

 

[ArtfulWebSites]

So would you say the ppc-sites are a big improvement over 1plus?

Is that cuz of higher clickthroughs and more traffic?

Is the only way you promote these sites via directory submission?

I have about 10 sites at 1plus that I've submitted to 40 directories each as my only form of promotion and they rarely get clicks, 5-10 a day in total. I don't see much advantage in having a better website as ppc-sites look like they are, if it's super hard to get visitors.

daled1,

The PPC-Sites are a big improvement over ANY parking for several reasons:

- they look phenomenally better than any parking pages, including 1Plus
- they have actual content, much of which is dynamic (updated daily)
- you have TOTAL control of ALL the code on all the pages
- you can further customize to your heart's content
- you get to keep 100% of your ad revenue
- you are free to promote them any way you want (no parking TOS)

The down side of PPC-Sites:

- you have to provide and/or pay for hosting
- not all content may be "unique" (but, you could fix it yourself)
- not all content may be relevant to your topic (but, you could fix it yourself)

I have submitted the sites to over 200 search engines and over 150 directories each, but it has only been done within the last week. So, I have not yet fully realized the benefit of those promotions. I am looking forward to more exciting times for: ShopsInLasVegas.com and GolfAndBeer.com.

I plan to get more PPC-Sites as time and budget permit.

I hope this helps.

 

[globefrog]

Hi Artful, I have successfully recieved my first batch of PPC-Sites.com pages. Here is an example: www.freealldebt.com

I have a bunch of other sites I plan on getting done with them, Ones I dont have much time to do anything with yet (I have around 5 projects on the go).

I will take the time to customise some content on these pages and make them as unique as possible and promote them.

I love PPC-Sites efficiency and the system in general. Not to mention great customer services and timely responses.


Cheers,
Aaron

 

[texasgamer]

ppc-sites is the best thing since baked bread. I am a believer! Where else can you get a site that is this good looking for less than $20? Even if it is duplicate content, it is still worth the money just for the template, the custom logo and banner and all the layouts. There are alot of people that struggle to do this type work and have to pay hugh sums to freelancers. You can insert your own written content and then BAM you have a nice site!

And Hark I really like the way you blended the adsense in on dodgeturbo.us
but I think if you could do something with that banner....

 

[ArtfulWebSites]

Hey Guys,

In the inimitable words of Inspector Clouseau: "That is what I have been saaaying!", despite all the nay sayers out there. Their designs are so clean, neat and attractive.

globefrog, your FreeAllDebt.com site looks great, and what a great name. Let us know how it performs. Was it previously parked?

texasgamer, I agree with you 100%. The graphics alone are worth it!

 

[globefrog]

Yeah Joe, this domain was previously parked and gained little revenue and I was restricted with promotion. I am hoping to get some SEO started on this domain in the next day or so (backlinks, submissions etc) and i will keep everyone posted.

 

[harkster]

I truly hope y'all do good with the PPC-sites. What bothers me about them isn't whether the content is unique or not. My problem is is that I can't find the content because it is hidden in all the ads. On most that I have looked at all I can see when the site opens is a header (they are well done and my complements to them), some links and Google ads. Ok the king says getem there and get them to click out ASAP but I fear that these are so glaring that people will leave without taking a good look.
The above is just MHO and intended to be constructive.

Hey gamer dude,
I do need to redo the logo. Was trying to give a feeling of speed with a 'wind blast' but it didn't work.

Been reading everything (over & over) that WhiteBark has to say and because of this I am spending far to much time on www.DubaiFestival.info. Now is a different theme.

In case you haven't guessed I an info fan. Just purchased AsiaTraveler.info which may become a 'super' mini as there are lots of countries there. I also own AsiaTravel.co.in.

 

[ArtfulWebSites]

So would you say the ppc-sites are a big improvement over 1plus?

Is that cuz of higher clickthroughs and more traffic?
...

Sorry, it took me a bit to get all the latest numbers together. Here goes...

My Results as of Feb. 28th with PPC-Sites compared to Parking:

As of Feb 28rd, I have had my 2 PPC-Sites: ShopsInLasVegas.com and GolfAndBeer.com up live for 10 days.

I have had a total of about 165 domains parked at: iMonetize, NameDrive and 1Plus for about 5 months.

The 2 PPC-Sites in just 10 days have achieved 76% of the views, 15% of the clicks, and 55% of the revenue that were accumulated by the 165 domains in 5 MONTHS.

 

[Badger]

I have had a total of about 165 domains parked at: iMonetize, NameDrive and 1Plus for about 5 months.

The 2 PPC-Sites in just 10 days have achieved 76% of the views, 15% of the clicks, and 55% of the revenue that were accumulated by the 165 domains in 5 MONTHS.

As a point in fact Artful, you joined 1plus at the end of 06, your first site live on 12/29/06..?? Be grateful if you could clarify that in your numerous posts..

Sorry you feel they are a BIG improvement and also "phenominally better" than what we deliver. However, in our defence and for those reading this for the first time, some examples of our various templates can be viewed here:

Golf.sc
118321.net
ellepop.com

The adsense is that of our users and the pages are fully customisable. All domains in our system are indexed by google within a few hours and listed within days. Most have a few hundred pages listed.

We are also quickly building a straight parking platform with templates like this :

FastLending.co.uk
ISRO.co.in

We are also developing our own technology that will monetise your domains automatically i.e. our system will recognise domains that show news and with many indexed pages listed and switch these over to parking. Vice versa, the switch will occur for parked domains with little traffic over to news/blog.

We also provide a free whois privacy service a free domain sales platform and sold our 200th domain for one of our users just last week.

There is no charge in parking your domains at 1plus, our fee is we rotate our banners on your domains 1 in every 10 page views.

3 months ago we also decided to completely re-write / re-brand our entire site to include many new features and this is now 80% complete. Im tempted to show you our work thus far but I'll save this for now.

 

[ArtfulWebSites]

Sorry Badger

Badger,

First off, please realize I in no way intended to demean your service. I know you are well intentioned, and are trying hard to provide us with a unique and useful service. I also realize you have been bogged down lately with the new 1Plus overhaul. I certainly wish you the best in that endeavor, and look forward to trying it myself.

At the moment I have a fair majority of my domains at 1Plus, having moved them there from the other under-performing parking services. I certainly like the control and customizations that 1Plus provides over traditional parking.

Also, understand, I bear no malice (unless I am attacked unjustly), and tend to state the facts as I see them. What may seem derogatory to some, is just my dispassionate relating of the facts.

All that being said, I can not ignore the comparison with PPc-Sites...

As a point in fact Artful, you joined 1plus at the end of 06, your first site live on 12/29/06..?? Be grateful if you could clarify that in your numerous posts..

That's why I said "ABOUT 5 months". I did start with 1Plus later than the others. So, its been 3 months with 1Plus. Still, that's compared with 10 DAYS using PPC-Sites.

Sorry you feel they are a BIG improvement and also "phenominally better" than what we deliver.

I am sorry to say, I do believe the PPC-Sites are much better than what I have access to at 1Plus: the 2 news templates, the old ugly parking templates, and, yes, the new blog template, which looks much better than the old one. Evidently the "new templates" you tout on your home page ("test Drive" and lower right thumbnails) are only available to UK users (I'm in the U.S.). Here are some representative examples of my sites at 1Plus:

MyCollectionLister.com - Morning News
PlaystationOnlineDealer.com - Evening News
ShoppingGnome.com - Blog

I don't like the old, ugly parking templates (the only ones available to non-UK users), so i don't use them.

However, in our defence and for those reading this for the first time, some examples of our various templates can be viewed here:

Golf.sc
118321.net
ellepop.com

Sorry, Badger, I could not view ANY of these 3 sites. They all timed out.

The adsense is that of our users and the pages are fully customisable. All domains in our system are indexed by google within a few hours and listed within days. Most have a few hundred pages listed.

True the Adsense revenue from 1Plus is all ours, but so is it also with our PPC-Sites. I have not seen hundreds of pages indexed in Google for any of my sites using "site:DomainName.com" or "Link:DomainName.com". How can I get that??

We are also quickly building a straight parking platform with templates like this :

FastLending.co.uk
ISRO.co.in

First one looks REALLY nice. Wish I could use it now!

We are also developing our own technology that will monetise your domains automatically i.e. our system will recognise domains that show news and with many indexed pages listed and switch these over to parking. Vice versa, the switch will occur for parked domains with little traffic over to news/blog.

We also provide a free whois privacy service a free domain sales platform and sold our 200th domain for one of our users just last week.

There is no charge in parking your domains at 1plus, our fee is we rotate our banners on your domains 1 in every 10 page views.

3 months ago we also decided to completely re-write / re-brand our entire site to include many new features and this is now 80% complete. Im tempted to show you our work thus far but I'll save this for now.

Certainly can't wait for all of that to happen (been waiting since December), and I will definitely give the new features a good go.

I have not given up on 1Plus, and continue to hope that you will have great success and we will have the opportunity to share in it with you. I still consider you among the good folk in this business.

 

[advaita]

Badger - I have 3 or 4 sites with 1stplus - the one that has been there the longest is ecreativitynet.com - they get very few visitors, as far as I can see as there doesn't seem to be any easy way of seeing statistics on 1stplus, although that may be my fault for having poor domain names, but one thing I have found is that I never get a reply to my email questions, which I find very odd. I would be interested to hear if other people have any success with 1stplus i.e. does anybody visit and click on the ads.? I like the look and the idea of the sites and i would be interested to find out from other people if it's worth persevering and trying to park some better names there.

 

[Badger]

Doh.. This is one of main reasons ive stopped posting about 1plus.net - because every threads ends up a 1plus support thread.. If you wanna PM me any questions I'll deal with them. Mails to admin @ 1plus.net and contact us forms will be answered, i assure you.

 

[mskdhero]

Sorry, it took me a bit to get all the latest numbers together. Here goes...

My Results as of Feb. 28th with PPC-Sites compared to Parking:

As of Feb 28rd, I have had my 2 PPC-Sites: ShopsInLasVegas.com and GolfAndBeer.com up live for 10 days.

I have had a total of about 165 domains parked at: iMonetize, NameDrive and 1Plus for about 5 months.

The 2 PPC-Sites in just 10 days have achieved 76% of the views, 15% of the clicks, and 55% of the revenue that were accumulated by the 165 domains in 5 MONTHS.

I'm willing to bet that all if not most of that "success" is from people on namepros clicking on your site to take a look at what a ppc-sites site looks like. I know that I myself have clicked on links to both your sites numerous times while doing research on 1plus and other parking services. If you can check your stats, it'd be nice to know what portion of your traffic comes from search engines and typeins, vs how much comes from forums that you post your 2 examples on.

 

[advaita]

Doh ... this is the reason I asked my question here in Namepros, because every time I've sent an email to 1stplus I've never received an answer. Plus I only managed to set up my sites in the first place because somebody here on Namepros posted a very helpful and no doubt time-consuming post about how to configure the page, not thanks to any support I received (not) from 1stplus or your FAQs..

 

[Badger]

Doh ... this is the reason I asked my question here in Namepros, because every time I've sent an email to 1stplus I've never received an answer. Plus I only managed to set up my sites in the first place because somebody here on Namepros posted a very helpful and no doubt time-consuming post about how to configure the page, not thanks to any support I received (not) from 1stplus or your FAQs..

if your sending emails to 1stplus, i see why you may be having issues.. DOH :p