I talk to a lot of people who have been told what I like to call “Minisite Myths” or general exaggerations about what to expect from a MiniSite. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of MiniSites and know from experience that you can absolutely generate nice income from MiniSites…it’s how you get to the income that many of the myths come-into play.
So if you’re starting to develop domains in your portfolio, or if you’ve already been developing and don’t know why you’re sites aren’t making any money, one of these myths might have something to do with it.
- If You Build It They Will Come. I call this the “Field Of Dreams Myth” and I think it’s probably the most common one that I see when contacted by readers. There is this idea that if you put a 5-10 page website on one of your domains it will suddenly rank well and begin getting traffic and revenue. I’ve heard a number of people say to me, “I paid the developer $500 and the site doesn’t even make a dime after six months!” I ask them what they’ve done and they usually act surprised, as if the domain and the site were all it took. It takes more than just putting a MiniSite on your domain to make money, sure you can get lucky but expect to do more if you want to rank well and make money.
- You Can Use An Auto-Blog or Content Spinner To Rank Well. Gone are the days where you can just spin tons of articles or run an auto-blogging script or plugin to rank well. You can still find lots of articles online about how much money you can make putting your content on auto-pilot, many are outdated or simply lying in order to sell their service. You need high-quality unique content to create sites that will rank well over time.
- Having An Exact-Match Domain Will Guarantee First Page Placement On Google. Exact-Match domains can allow you to rank better in search engines but they won’t do it alone. If you’re trying to rank well for any somewhat competitive term you’ll have to get some real backlinks and social media mentions. Google is hip to most of the old techniques used to game the system, it’s no longer about tricking Google but instead creating long-term value. The major benefit an exact-match domain has is a typically high CTR and since CTR is part of Google’s ranking algorithm this could in turn improve your rank.
The moral of the story here is that many people thinking making money with MiniSites means just putting a MiniSite on your domain. The MiniSite itself is the foundation for your business. You need to get high-quality backlinks, create lasting partnerships and drive the business to hit your goals.
I like to think of it as if I’m opening a physical business out on some lone side-street in the middle of nowhere. This really is where your site starts, it usually won’t have any traffic, nobody knows it exists. If you started a physical business you wouldn’t just sit in your store and wonder why nobody knows about you, you’d get the word out! You would create relationships with the community, advertising in places your customer goes. Take the time to build the business, don’t just expect the business to profit simply because it exists.
Pro Domainer Sidenote: Of course if you have a domain name with a nice steady stream of type-in traffic (over 10,000 uniques/month) a MiniSite is all you need to make money. That being said, you’ve probably already been bringing in money parking, in most cases you’ll be able to significantly increase your revenue by creating a good site with Affiliate or Lead Generation offers.
Do you know any other MiniSite Myths you’d like to debunk? Want to add to the conversation? Comment and let your voice be heard!
