Knitting and Sewing
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ARE MINI-SITES THE ANSWER?
   
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Kids, Chores & More
Are you a frustrated parent who sometimes finds it is easier to take the garbage out yourself than to keep nagging your son? Do you wonder what kind of .....
Are you a frustrated parent who sometimes finds it is easier to take the garbage out yourself than to keep nagging your son? Do you wonder what kind of .....
Mini-sites come in different flavors but all have one
significant element in common. Each site is very tightly focused
upon selling a single product or service. No Flash. No graphics.
No links out. No banners or advertising of any kind. Nothing
that detracts from the site purpose, which is to make the sale.
The Pure Definition
In simplest form a mini-site consists entirely of a sales
letter and order form. That is, your visitor either buys or
clicks the Back button. Your site offers no other option.
Suppose your current site is focused on selling ebooks and
software to help people raise their kids. Each product is a
candidate for a mini-site dedicated entirely to selling it.
You might do well with, "How To Build A Sewing Site," or
anything specific of interest to some. Maybe show how to remodel
your kitchen, build a plane or boat. But a mini-site dependant
upon keywords such as "site design" or "site promotion" isn't
going to make it because there is simply too much competition.
Affiliate Programs
In some cases, pre-selling your visitors before sending them to
the sales pitch on an affiliate site can work wonders for your
conversion ratio. In others, you're better off simply generating
a click to the site.
If pre-selling is a good idea for a program that is paying
well, then a mini-site consisting of only a page or two can work
well. You may need only your enthusiastic endorsement of the
product on a single page. Or you may want to add another
providing an in-depth review. All content points to links to the
sales pitch on the program's site.
This works, but as above, the major task is in drawing targeted
traffic. If this can be managed, then this is also a good model.
Selling Hot Products
To take the notion of selling as an affiliate program one step
further, you may want to consider selling currently hot items.
For example, back up a couple of years and anticipate the
interest in MP3 soon to burst upon the scene. Make the right
pick, find the best affiliate program, and you may have a winner.
This approach works only for those who already know how to sell
most anything. Without a background in selling effectively,
particularly on the Web, it's best to leave this notion to those
who do.
Profits To Be Expected
Your purpose in building a mini-site is to generate profits.
However, you are not looking to make a living off the site.
Quite the contrary. You simply want to generate a separate
income stream. And $200/month may be all you need. Given one
such site, the trick is to continue producing others, adding to
total income with each.
Claims Of Time
In notes about building mini-sites, one claim made often really
bothers me. That you can toss such a site together in an hour or
two. This is not even close to feasible for most.
Pros may be able to quickly gather parts of existing sales
pitches with information from the affiliate program or the
manufacturer of the product. Then, in short order, cobble
together a sales pitch that works at least reasonably well.
Still, I don't know anybody who really can manage this in an
hour.
To me, time is part of the cost equation. It takes time to put
together a slick sales presentation. More to define an
advertising campaign. And even more to track costs versus
results.
Generating Hits Is The Hard Part
Okay. You've got a good product, a neat sales letter, and an
order form. All is looking good. Now how do you draw targeted
traffic to read your pitch? This is the critical issue, for
profits depend upon success in doing so.
Yahoo and other directories will ignore you. And response from
search engines will be limited. Their visitors are not looking
for sales pitches, so yours may not show up.
Many who demand that a mini-site be only a sales pitch and
order form are excellent marketers who have been quite
successful. Thus they have a large list of followers, many
interested in reselling what is offered. They produce a sales
letter, announce it to their list, and sales follow almost
automatically.
Since few have such lists, options are reduced to advertising.
Personally I feel the pay-per-click search engines are the best
starting point. GoTo.Com can bite pretty hard with their fees.
While less significant, there are many smaller engines of this
type that can be used for experimentation. For a list, see
You Can Lose A Lot Very Quickly
If your mini-site is generating say $200/month and it's costing
you $100/month to advertise, you're in a risky position. For
one, you need to commit serious time to make sure your
advertising costs remain reasonable. If you don't, you may take
a look one day and discover you're spending $300/month to
generate $100/month. Not exactly profitable.
Only when confident that an $M investment will consistently
yield $N, will you be able to delete the tracking time factor
from your costs. What M and N need to be will vary with the
individual. However, many will be content with spending
$50/month for $150/month profit, provided results can be
expected to be consistent for a reasonable amount of time.
The Potential Is Grand
A good mini-site can be a steady income producer. It's
something we all should consider doing. For myself, the models
above seem insufficient. I prefer what might be called a themed
mini-site. While the evidence is not conclusive, there are
indications that search engines like such sites.
In this model, beyond the sales pitch there needs to be good
content closely related to the theme. I haven't tried this as
yet, but plan to do so. I like the fact that I can generate hits
from search engines with this model, then experiment with
advertising and pay-per-click search engines to generate even
more targeted traffic.
The Best Starting Point
Just go and sign up at BizMinisites.Com
(Or read the sales presentation
at ) It's not much over $3/month,
and you don't even need a domain name.
There's no better way to go. It's an offer that can't be beat.
It's the brain child of one of my favorite people, Sydney
Johnson, author of "Make Your Net Auction Sell." (See
for my review
of this outstanding work.)
Is This For Everybody?
Yes and no. Skills are required. If you do not have them and do
not have the time to develop them, then I'd wait a time. But
this aside, the answer is yes. Here's what you need.
> Go for a one page site with an order form, then work with the
pay-per-click search engines to generate hits. If you lack
bucks, pass on GoTo.Com in getting started.
> If you go for a themed mini-site, in addition to the above,
develop search engine friendly content pages. (For notes about
building content pages that rank well, send any email to
contentpage@sitetipsandtricks.com .)
In either case, risks of time and costs are minimal. And
potential is unlimited. So take the shot! _________________
For an earlier article on mini-sites, please see
About the author:
Bob McElwain, author of "Your Path To Success." How to build ANY
business you want, just the way you want it, with only pocket
money. Get ANSWERS.
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