Mini-sites, in their various forms, share a common characteristic: they are highly focused on selling a single product or service. They are devoid of flashy graphics, outbound links, banners, or any form of advertising that could distract from their primary purpose - making a sale.
At its core, a mini-site is a simple construct consisting of a sales letter and an order form. The visitor is presented with two options: make a purchase or leave the site. For instance, if your main site sells ebooks and software aimed at helping parents raise their children, each product could potentially have its own mini-site dedicated solely to its sale.
You could create a successful mini-site around a specific topic of interest, such as "How to Build a Sewing Site" or "How to Remodel Your Kitchen". However, a mini-site centered around highly competitive keywords like "site design" or "site promotion" may struggle due to the intense competition.
In some instances, pre-selling your visitors before directing them to the sales pitch on an affiliate site can significantly improve your conversion ratio. If pre-selling is beneficial for a high-paying program, a mini-site consisting of one or two pages can be effective. You might only need a single page with your enthusiastic endorsement of the product, or you might add another page providing an in-depth review. All content should lead to links to the sales pitch on the program's site.
This strategy can be successful, but the main challenge lies in attracting targeted traffic. If you can manage this, it's a viable model.
To further leverage the power of affiliate programs, consider selling currently trending items. For instance, if you had anticipated the surge in interest in MP3 a few years ago, picked the right affiliate program, and marketed it effectively, you could have had a winning formula.
However, this approach is best suited for those with a solid background in sales, particularly online sales. Without this expertise, it's advisable to leave this strategy to the pros.
The goal of building a mini-site is to generate profits. However, the aim is not to make a living off a single site. Instead, the objective is to create an additional income stream. Even a modest $200/month from one site can be significant. The key is to continue creating more sites, each contributing to your total income.
One common misconception about building mini-sites is that they can be thrown together in an hour or two. This is far from the truth for most people. Even professionals who can quickly assemble parts of existing sales pitches and information from the affiliate program or product manufacturer will need more than an hour to create a compelling sales pitch.
Time is a crucial part of the cost equation. It takes time to craft a slick sales presentation, define an advertising campaign, and track costs versus results.
Once you have a good product, a compelling sales letter, and an order form, the next challenge is attracting targeted traffic to your pitch. This is a critical issue, as profits depend on your success in this area.
Directories like Yahoo and other search engines may not be much help, as their users are not typically looking for sales pitches. Therefore, your site may not appear in their search results.
Many successful marketers who advocate for mini-sites to be solely sales pitches and order forms have large followings. They can simply announce a new sales letter to their list, and sales will likely follow. However, for those without such a list, advertising is the primary option. Pay-per-click search engines are a good starting point, although they can be costly.
If your mini-site is generating $200/month and it's costing you $100/month to advertise, you're in a precarious position. You need to dedicate serious time to ensure your advertising costs remain reasonable. If you don't, you may find yourself spending $300/month to generate $100/month, which is not a profitable scenario.
Only when you're confident that an investment of $M will consistently yield $N, can you remove the tracking time factor from your costs. The values of M and N will vary from person to person. However, many people would be content spending $50/month for a $150/month profit, provided the results can be expected to be consistent for a reasonable amount of time.
A well-crafted mini-site can be a steady income producer. It's something worth considering. While the models above may seem insufficient, a themed mini-site could be a better option. There are indications that search engines favor such sites.
In this model, in addition to the sales pitch, there should be high-quality content closely related to the theme. This model allows for traffic generation from search engines, with the potential for further traffic through advertising and pay-per-click search engines.
A good starting point is to sign up at BizMinisites.Com or read the sales presentation at MiniSiteWealth.Com. It's a cost-effective option, and you don't even need a domain name.
This is a great offer from Sydney Johnson, author of "Make Your Net Auction Sell." You can read my review of this outstanding work here.
Yes and no. Certain skills are required. If you don't have them and don't have the time to develop them, it might be best to wait. However, if you do have the necessary skills, here's what you need to do:
In either case, the risks in terms of time and costs are minimal, and the potential is unlimited. So, take the shot!
For an earlier article on mini-sites, please see here.
Never, Ever Release Any Of Your Rights To Anyone
One of the grandest scams on the Web, which goes largelyunnoticed, is for a web-based bookseller or publisher to requiresome rights to your work in exchange for the service to beprovided. Many demand the electronic rights, for example.
The Hits That Matter Most
So you know what hits mean. Unique hits or user sessions,I mean. And you know what CR means. Right? If so, you're ingreat shape, for many people don't. They think they do. But they've got it wrong.
Customer Personality Types: Does It Matter?
Marketing types are fond of classifying people intocategories. Here are four which I took from "Differentiate OrDie," by Jack Trout with Steve Rivkin. (John Wiley & Sons, NewYork, 2000, p15.) Only the first few words of each are includedhere.
