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.

 

[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

 

[advaita]

Yes point taken - but I'm not - I was using the form on your site.

 

[Badger]

Yes point taken - but I'm not - I was using the form on your site.

ok, well anyway, PM me, email us or use the form on the site and I assure you of a response.

And sorry for the temporary hijacking of the thread guys, my bad, normal service will be resumed shortly .

 

[harkster]

As starter of this thread I feel qualified to say this.

Lets make an effort to keep it constructive and not become a pi**ing contest. Don't mind getting off topic but...

Badger,
Nice looking parking templates.

I have a few names at 1plus. I am starting to get a few hits and a click or 2. They are all new names with no past history/traffic so not to bad after a couple weeks. And I still need to tweak them some more.

 

[GILSAN]

Artful,

Do you (or anyone else) have any idea of the aproximate size of your mini-sites from PPC-Sites.com?

How many of these mini-sites can I have if I sign up to a Hosting plan with 200-250 Gb in space and 2000-2500 Gigs of Data Transfer, even taking into consideration that they can be expanded upon.

Thanks

 

[NameClerk]

Artful,

Do you (or anyone else) have any idea of the aproximate size of your mini-sites from PPC-Sites.com?

How many of these mini-sites can I have if I sign up to a Hosting plan with 200-250 Gb in space and 2000-2500 Gigs of Data Transfer, even taking into consideration that they can be expanded upon.
Thanks

I haven't actually done the math but you don't have anything to worry about in that regard. If you ever owned enough mini sites or received enough visitors to test those limits, you'll be making enough cash that it'll be of little concern. You'll gladly get a dedicated host at that point.

Hosting videos is another story. Even then, you'd need a lot of visitors to exhaust your bandwidth limits.

-Bill

 

[globefrog]

Im with Bill on this one. I have around 100 projects on my server which is about the same specs are yours Gilsan and the PPC-Sites ones are very minimal.

 

[ArtfulWebSites]

Artful,

Do you (or anyone else) have any idea of the aproximate size of your mini-sites from PPC-Sites.com?

How many of these mini-sites can I have if I sign up to a Hosting plan with 200-250 Gb in space and 2000-2500 Gigs of Data Transfer, even taking into consideration that they can be expanded upon.

Thanks

I now have 4 PPC-Sites and they range in size from 6.2 to 7.5 MB and about 650 files. So, you could have about 260 sites in 200 GB of space.

 

[GILSAN]

Thanks,
That clarifies my question. Now I have to decide were to Host.

I´m still undecided on the following: Lunarpages, Hostmonster ixwebhosting and Godaddy.

Good luck with your mini-sites.

Thanks.

 

[ArtfulWebSites]

Thanks,
That clarifies my question. Now I have to decide were to Host.

I´m still undecided on the following: Lunarpages, Hostmonster ixwebhosting and Godaddy.

Good luck with your mini-sites.

Thanks.

You might also consider: HostGator and PowWeb, especially if you will have multiple sites.

 

[harkster]

Thought I would throw out an end of the month update.
Both DodgeTurbo.us and DubaiFestival.info

Over 300 uniques for DodgeTurbo and enough clicks to justify continuing. Some referrals from Google & MSN.

Near 400 uniques for DubaiFestival and also enough clicks to justify continuing. Also had referrals from both Google and MSN.

<rant>I am frustrated regarding content. Of 4 people (NP mambers) who contacted me regarding content only 1 followed through and was promptly paid. I thought an agreement had been struck on Dubai content but suddenly communication ceased (I had agreed to the price). 3 others did not reply to my responses to their PM's.</rant>
Ahhhhh I feel much better now.

Enough sites each returning a small profit finally starts adding up.

I think this is interesting. In looking over stats for the month I see that 1 site earned high $XX with an average of $0.719/click.