Greetings!

It is Saturday again!! A cold and wet day here in London, but the parties must go on .

Earlier in the week we heard the news of a minisite service provider closing shop. Well I’m not in any celebratory mood, though many of you may think that I would have reasons to be, neither am I in any “I told you so” mood.

I tried my best not to follow the tide by focusing on mini sites this week, but I guess the currents were too strong.

I personally only started reading domain blogs after I launched this one here at eBuinessDomains.com in September last year. And well, thank God I didn’t, because somehow, even till this day, I believe you read more nonsense than anything else. I will leave it up to you to judge my blog. The ignorance surrounding web development is no exception.

Lose the Mini Site Mentality
The domain industry is the industry in which we say “its all in the name”. Sadly when it comes to web development, domainers got it wrong.

With mini sites, the term alone creates a psychological death to the business model. Why “mini”? If we say that content is king, why do we focus on keeping these sites “mini”?

Another mistake that domainers made was to refer to the development of websites as domain development. That again, creates some sort of mental block to whatever success that could be acheived.

I won’t waste time expanding on the above, as most people would still not get it even after 10,000 words.

The Problems With Mini Sites
Mini sites themselves are not the problem. It’s like the Internet. Some people use the Internet to conduct business, stay in touch with friends and do online banking, while some use it to commit fraud, watch porn and incite hatred. The problem is not the thing, but rather how one goes about using it.

Where domainers are concerned, their business concept/model where mini sites are concerned is severely flawed. Well, in my opinion, that’s not even the case, as most domainers developing mini sites don’t even have a business plan as such.

Problem Number One – Mini Sites CANNOT Be A Replacement Model for Domain Parking
Domainers are trying to use mini sites to replace the domain parking model. Over the past three weeks I wrote a series on the domain parking model. You can click to read Parts One, Two and Three.

Domain parking is a numbers game. The more domains you have, the more money you could make, potentially. Domain parking is a set and a forget technology. Simply register the domain, park it and make money.

With web development, it is not a numbers game. It is a game of passion, persistence, determination, resilience, creativity, originality, and the list goes on.

You would not have passion and determination with mini sites. If a domainer makes an attempt at a mini site today and it fails, he would simply move on to the next. where is the passion or determination for success? However, if you were building a brand, you would have a more die-hard attitude to ensure that the one project succeeds, no matter what.

Websites, just like children, need tender loving care. If you wouldn’t be able to raise 10 kids, then you wouldn’t be able to develop and manage 10 websites unless you are running a fully resourced media company.

Problem Number Two – Enslavement to Domain Parking Mentality
Almost all of the problems will stem from the fact that domainers are enslaved to the domain parking mentality (model).

So, problem number two is their addiction to stats. Almost every time you see a domainer discussing mini sites, they spend more time quoting those little useless stats. They will say, oh, the domain is the exact match of X term that gets X amount of searches in Google.

No one is entitled to organic search traffic. No one. And as such, no matter what tricks you try, organic search traffic is never guaranteed. If you are depending on organic search traffic for success, then you have effectively thrown yourself at the mercies of something that you have no control over. Your business plan is flawed, as you have zero control over any form of success.

Problem Number Three – Lack of Business Acumen
Domainers who develop mini sites based on stats are not businesspersons. This is the clearest sign that they have no business acumen.

In business, you need to have control, over everything. You need to have control over the direction your business takes, the revenues, the costs, the growth, etc., etc.

Building a mini site and inserting a few Google Adsense spots is not taking control. If don’t see yourself advertising and actively promoting your business then you are simply trying to feed a dead cat.

Also, If you decide to grow traffic through advertising, what would you be advertising? What would you be selling? Google Adsense? If Google closes your account, the only thing that would be left standing is a bunch of senseless articles. The World Wide Web doesn’t need another mini site. It needs another web destination.

Problem Number Four – Domainers Don’t How To Monetize Websites Beyond PPC
Domainers notoriously have a lack of confidence. I am amazed at how people spend so much time, and money to build websites that will make them an average of $2 per month. Why, why, why? God only knows.

What is so funny is how they go around shouting and dancing when their revenues increase from $1.50 a month to $1.75. I really don’t get it. A typical example would be a blogger writing a post regarding one of their mini sites. If you are lucky he will admit that revenue is jut at $1.75; then you get a whole bunch of idiots saying things like:

”Wow, the site is looking good!”
”Thanks for sharing, you are genius.”
”How did you manage to increase your revenue from $1.50 to $1.75 in just 30 days?”

One word: Pathetic!

Don’t they realise that one single website can earn them as much as $2 million, or even $20 million a month, if it is branded properly? Focus on the big picture.

Problem Number Five  - Content is Not King, Passion is
I read earlier this week where a blogger was criticising a mini site service provider for the “poor content” (article) and the lack of promotion of the mini site after it was created.

I was just laughing. That is where the mistake is, where domainers expect a set and forget auto-pilot road to riches from mini site providers. Well, to be fair, some of these mini site service providers are pretending to provide these services in a bid to fleece ignorant domainers out of their monies. So they should take some of the blame. The reality is, there can be no automated roads to riches with web development.

If you are developing a website and you can’t write the content yourself, then you will have serious problems. That is why you should not focus on the volume of content, but rather your passion for the subject or niche. If you are passionate about a topic, it will be only natural for you to write compelling content.

Website visitors are not stupid. They will become your biggest fans when they see that you have a passion for the subject matter.

A web designer or developer should only provide the website. If you are not prepared to maintain the website, add content regular and actively promote the website then you are better off applying for a job at McDonalds.

I could go on, and on, and on. However here are a few other articles that you might find interesting (most recent first):

Domain Development - What Will You Build Today?

Mini Sites - Domains Dressed For Success?

Domain Development: How to Make Money From Your Website

The Art of Domain Development

With that been said, we will be launching our own web development services in the near future. We will share more on that in due course.

Have a great weekend!

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