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Hi, and welcome to this short course on the hows and whys of mini sites. We will cover a variety of topics in this course, from exactly what a mini site is (and why you should be interested in them), through finding a topic, building the site, and getting traffic to the site.
Be sure to read all the way to the end of the course. Not only will it pass on useful information that you can take away and profit from, but I have a special bonus at the end of the course for people who read all the way through.
But lets start at the very start, and look at what exactly a mini site is.
As the last part of the name suggests (site), a mini site is a regular web site. As the first part (mini) indicates, it's just a small web site.
While the term used to be used for any small web site (perhaps less than 20 pages), these days there are two terms in common use.
A micro site is a very small site - it has only 1-4 pages. The most common type of micro site is one with a sales page, an ordering page, and perhaps a page for an FAQ, privacy statement, disclaimer, etc.
A mini site usually has 5-15 pages. This is the type of site that we are interested in (why will be explained in more detail later in the course).
These page counts aren't a hard and fast definition - they are just a general guide. After all, it seems a bit silly to say a 15 page site is a mini site, while a 16 page site isn't ;-)
So, what is so great about a mini site. And, more importantly, how do you profit from one?
Usually, mini sites are built around promoting a single item (or group of items) you are an affiliate for. Throughout the site are links to the affiliate program. The main aim of your mini site is to get visitors to click on your link and visit the merchants site.
How do you get people to click on your link? You have to PREsell what your affiliate link points to.
There's no point trying to sell the product - that's what the merchants site does. If a visitors sees you selling on your site, then clicks on the link and hits another sales pitch, they are going to be turned off.
Instead, you have to make the link seem natural. You might talk about a problem, then mention that you have found product X to be helpful. Of course, product X is a link to your affiliate site.
Or you might write an article (tips, how-to, etc), and include several links to your affiliate site within the article.
I should hastily point out that you must not lie. And you must not claim you have tried the product yourself if you haven't. At the very least that is dishonest. In the worst case, it could land you in a lot of (legal) trouble!
So now you know what a mini site is, how do you go about picking a topic for the site? That's what we cover in part 2 of this course ;-) So click on to continue reading!
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(By the way, if you want to get a jump-start on this material and go to the "source", take a look at Phil Wiley's "Mini Site Profits". Phil is the master of mini sites. He has over 20 of them [more by now - that count was back in April 2003], and he makes more from them in a day than he did in a week at his old job with a newspaper!) |
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