A rebutal to mike031's comments on aeiou.com

[Rick Latona]

Rick I know you've much more experience then me , I was playing with toys under the table when you were involved in internet biz . However I might say that I completely disagree with you .

Copy pasted from WIKI

"" Some scraper sites are created for monetizing the site using advertising programs such as Google AdSense.In such case, they are called Made for AdSense sites or MFA. This is also a derogatory term used to refer to websites that have no redeeming value except to get web visitors to the website for the sole purpose of clicking on advertisements.
""

full article here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scraper_site

The idea behind Minisites is to get more visitors only and only for Adsense , I do not believe that minisites providing any useful content and if they do not provide any useful content I'll classify them as " search engine spam ".

These aren't scraper sites. It's relative content to the subject matter that is original. The purpose of all websites on the internet is to get more traffic. Do you think chickensalad.com has useful content? All of the link building work that we do follows commonly accepted white hat technique. We do not spam.

 

[Theo]

Tony, I don't find clocks.co.uk to be ugly, in the sense that it's a clean design with original, related content and a quick monetization layout that's abiding Google's rules.

The key questions when going for a minisite versus full scale development, is "How quickly, how much?"

Anyone who wants full scale web development for $250 is seriously joking. Full development, from scratch to finish *starts* at x10 that much, with the client having input along the way and all the goodies that full scale development offers.

 

[tonyfloyd]

Do you think chickensalad.com has useful content?

Is this a trick question??

Tony, I don't find clocks.co.uk to be ugly, in the sense that it's a clean design with original, related content and a quick monetization layout that's abiding Google's rules.

The key questions when going for a minisite versus full scale development, is "How quickly, how much?"

Anyone who wants full scale web development for $250 is seriously joking. Full development, from scratch to finish *starts* at x10 that much, with the client having input along the way and all the goodies that full scale development offers.

Theo...ugly in terms of...a domain of that nature...deserves more than a BS mini-site!

it's a waste of a domain.....again...like owning Malibu beachfront property...and building a DUMP on it...why bother??

 

[cleverlyslick]

I agree with tony and rent to a certain extent.we can't forget that we are domainers,not developers.I believe minisites are a good way to capitalize on a domain that's just sitting there until you make a potential sale.granted if developed more than just a minisite it will become more valuable,but you gotta take into consideration that a full blown big website takes more than just html and css coding.you need php scripting,constant maintenance,constant updates,constant seo, and constant everything. In my opinion as a domainer I don't think you can have the time to develop and maintain 100's of big sites all the while trying to find end users,resellers etc.don't get me wrong,i'm trying to develop all my domains but it is a time consuming process.literaly takes me about 16 hour/day to do everything I want to accomplish as far as domain selling and developing.

 

[rentdn]

These aren't scraper sites. It's relative content to the subject matter that is original. The purpose of all websites on the internet is to get more traffic. Do you think chickensalad.com has useful content? All of the link building work that we do follows commonly accepted white hat technique. We do not spam.

For me it's another MFA , and it will never has any success if owner will decide to keep it in same way, this website is not even in top 10 for term " Chicken Salad Recipes " and for term Chicken Salad is only on 6th place.I believe these are really bad results for that domain . Just another example that these kind of websites will not have any success.

Though this website maybe will have success in future , if owner will decide not to froze the blog , but to add content regulary

 

[dn-101]

On a tangential:

I got burned 7 years ago & Goog delisted tons of my domains. Since then I took a totally neutral approach to marketing and let everything sort out by itself. Many sites which were banned reappered. No longer as #1, but more like #10
I run a few large-scale sites. So far very little PR. Occasionally AdWords. But AdWords became prohibitively expensive.
What I observe is that for every visitor I get 3 G-bots and 1 Y-bot. MSN is insignificant. What did happen is that after one year the "natural' traffic increased 40-fold. Frankly, I don't even know what 'natural' means. I cut back on promos, so everything is "natural". Or is it?
Who's the man behind the curtain?
:smilewinkgrin:

 

[bro]

If anyone really wants to play with minisites, then I would recommend taking a look in DP marketplace as most webmasters dump their minisites in there for couple of bucks, so You get a very good idea about minisites while monetizing them with whatever way You want to. of course their names aren't so great, but then again You can replace it with Your quality name and do Your best in SEO.

 

[Rick Latona]

For me it's another MFA , and it will never has any success if owner will decide to keep it in same way, this website is not even in top 10 for term " Chicken Salad Recipes " and for term Chicken Salad is only on 6th place.I believe these are really bad results for that domain . Just another example that these kind of websites will not have any success.

Though this website maybe will have success in future , if owner will decide not to froze the blog , but to add content regulary

It's a fairly new site. Give it some time. It was number 10 last week.

Is this a trick question??



Theo...ugly in terms of...a domain of that nature...deserves more than a BS mini-site!

it's a waste of a domain.....again...like owning Malibu beachfront property...and building a DUMP on it...why bother??

Clocks.co.uk is my domain. I only bought it a few days ago. My choice in getting something live was to put a mini-site up or park it. Which would have been a bigger waste?

In a couple of months it'll have great rankings and maybe I'll have some larger site idea for it.

This strategy has worked pretty well for me so far. It wasn't a question of launching some huge site or parking it. There's another option. Many of my own mini-sites are only temporary. They do their job to get the rankings while we are working on other things.

Tony, I don't find clocks.co.uk to be ugly, in the sense that it's a clean design with original, related content and a quick monetization layout that's abiding Google's rules.

The key questions when going for a minisite versus full scale development, is "How quickly, how much?"

Anyone who wants full scale web development for $250 is seriously joking. Full development, from scratch to finish *starts* at x10 that much, with the client having input along the way and all the goodies that full scale development offers.

Thanks Acro. For me it's an issue of parking vs mini-site. Not mini-site vs full-scale. I don't go full-scale unless I'm really ready for it. Mini-sites make more money and get you ranked if you want to go full-scale.

It's a no-brainer.

For ex. I own kostanyan.com ( empty website regged my last name ) , but I still rank on top 15 in google . And the reason is that search keyword match the domain's name and thats all

Understood but we work on much more competitive keywords than kostanyan.

 

[tonyfloyd]

Rick.....when i buy beachfront property....i would rather build a mansion on it...than a shack....until i get around to building the mansion....just my views.....domainers that try to develop is not a good mix.....u are either a domainer...or a developer....like in the asset management world.....u are either an asset gatherer...or an asset manager...you can't do both....

these are just my views....

 

[gmac17]

first off I am absolutely fascinated at the post that started this all. I can't wrap my head around the tone and aggressive nature of it - very interesting, and detrimental imo.

Mini sites have their place and there is nothing wrong with them. Should a site with 5 pages not exist because it isn't completely in depth? Of course not. Is it MFA just because it isn't an in depth site? Not really.

I have a handful of minisites that do between $200 and $3,500 per year in revenue. Nothing spectacular but the site that makes $3500 takes me probably 5 hours a year in maintenance.

 

[Deleted member 70408]

Bingo....because most domainers are LAZY and CHEAP!!!...

It's because I'm busy as F*ck. Should I stop building Lowell.com, Burbank.com or my blog to work on a second tier site? Uhhh no. I spent a few hours adding to a mini site, and it worked out well.

Not to attack you, but how many top tier domain names do you own to judge how domainers should spend their time, money, and efforts? If you don't mind, please share one of these top tier domain names.

If you aren't in a position where you need to allocate time to particular high value domains, you can't say how someone else should do it.

Not all beachfront property can take a mansion, and if your beachfront property is in an area where there are a bunch of ranch homes, you are just pissing your money away by building something that won't bring a return. How about if you already own 10 more valuable mansions or property? How would you decide what to build, where to build and when to build? Too many variables to give an opinion if you aren't in the position.

 

[Tom K.]

also i forgot to mention
mini sites bring you direct advertisers when you have a network up and running you get business from people wanting to advertise on your sites.
and thats where the real money is.

BINGO!

Minisites (aka microsites) are used by many legitimate (big and small) companies to laser target specific niches, products, etc. This concept has been around since before domainers discovered it.

The argument "Should we do a minisite" is totally different than "How we do a minisite" and should not be confused.

-DS

 

[tonyfloyd]

It's because I'm busy as F*ck. Should I stop building Lowell.com, Burbank.com or my blog to work on a second tier site? Uhhh no. I spent a few hours adding to a mini site, and it worked out well.

Not to attack you, but how many top tier domain names do you own to judge how domainers should spend their time, money, and efforts? If you don't mind, please share one of these top tier domain names.

If you aren't in a position where you need to allocate time to particular high value domains, you can't say how someone else should do it.

Not all beachfront property can take a mansion, and if your beachfront property is in an area where there are a bunch of ranch homes, you are just pissing your money away by building something that won't bring a return. How about if you already own 10 more valuable mansions or property? How would you decide what to build, where to build and when to build? Too many variables to give an opinion if you aren't in the position.

Elliot....not looking to bash your buddy Rick....i see you had very nice things to say about him.....anyways....that's my point...u did not throw up minisites on Lowell..Burbank..etc....nor did you try to get "cheap" and throw up a $250 quick BS site....you did it right....look...i've had many domainers approach me about developing sites.....some generic one word .com's.....and they all look for "cheap" development on these sites....this is what i can't figure out......do that on your 2nd....3rd tier names...etc....but when i see domainers look to develop a million dollar name with a $250 quick "cheap" minisite......that to me is "LAZY" and "CHEAP".....makes sense??

 

[Theo]

A mini/micro site is not a slap up job with your adsense id plugged in for good measure. Nor does having a myspace page qualify as development experience

I happened to land onto several sites developed by Rick Latona's team before it hit me that they were being produced with domainers in mind. From a developer's standpoint, they do their job quite well. From a domainer's standpoint, they are the next step up from PPC parking, right before full-scale development.

 

[tonyfloyd]

A mini/micro site is not a slap up job with your adsense id plugged in for good measure. Nor does having a myspace page qualify as development experience

I happened to land onto several sites developed by Rick Latona's team before it hit me that they were being produced with domainers in mind. From a developer's standpoint, they do their job quite well. From a domainer's standpoint, they are the next step up from PPC parking, right before full-scale development.

Theo...I agree with you....what stumps me is when you see these type sites on names worthy of much more......that is my reasoning for the "LAZY" and "CHEAP" comment

 

[Theo]

Tony, it all depends on the timeframe and one's state of mind, number of ongoing projects and personal time. At TRAFFIC/Orlando the notion was "develop up to three web sites" - I think one can develop more, the task of prioritizing it all is what takes longer time.

 

[Deleted member 70408]

Elliot....not looking to bash your buddy Rick....i see you had very nice things to say about him.....anyways....that's my point...u did not throw up minisites on Lowell..Burbank..etc....nor did you try to get "cheap" and throw up a $250 quick BS site....you did it right....look...i've had many domainers approach me about developing sites.....some generic one word .com's.....and they all look for "cheap" development on these sites....this is what i can't figure out......do that on your 2nd....3rd tier names...etc....but when i see domainers look to develop a million dollar name with a $250 quick "cheap" minisite......that to me is "LAZY" and "CHEAP".....makes sense??

Tony - you missed my point. I did build a mini site using AEIOU on a secondary geo domain name (compared to Lowell and Burbank). I didn't want to take away my focus from my primary sites. I grew the traffic and revenue, and sold the domain name a couple months later.

 

[Seraphim]

Theo...I agree with you....what stumps me is when you see these type sites on names worthy of much more......that is my reasoning for the "LAZY" and "CHEAP" comment

I understand the need to create small niche sites for both first and second tier domains, regardless of individual value. A small website with some backlinks will blow the doors off of any parking page with regard to revenue. As you know, two to three "real" fully developed sites can be a handful, leaving most folks with little time for anything else. Hence it would be "lazy" to not squeeze every lemon in your portfolio via small yet well planned niche development. This is my strategy, and it works well.

 

[tonyfloyd]

Tony - you missed my point. I did build a mini site using AEIOU on a secondary geo domain name (compared to Lowell and Burbank). I didn't want to take away my focus from my primary sites. I grew the traffic and revenue, and sold the domain name a couple months later.

Exactly...Elliot....and u missed my point.......you did this on a SECONDARY.....not on your prime real estate.....this is my "LAZY" and "CHEAP" reference to those domainers.....the ones who build minisites on PRIMARY sites.......understand better now?

PS - no need for cursing....

 

[mjnels]

Exactly...Elliot....and u missed my point.......you did this on a SECONDARY.....not on your prime real estate.....this is my "LAZY" and "CHEAP" reference to those domainers.....the ones who build minisites on PRIMARY sites.......understand better now?

PS - no need for cursing....

who are you to say this is not Rick's "secondary real estate" ?

the guy resales a lot of domains.... why not put up tons of mini-sites in the meantime rather than just plain ol parking.