Rankwell

It doesn’t really matter why you bought that domain is it being used? Did you know that domain parking companies like SEDO make millions of dollars and all they do is sit on other peoples domains, perhaps even yours, imagine what the combined value of all those domains are even if they were only being partially utilised!

A mini site is a small web site with a single purpose or topic, the site sits on its own domain which is often keyword to the topic or purpose. Such sites have many uses ranging from assisting other sites to being an independent resource scheme, in this article we hope to cover some basic of mini site strategies which while simple show that using mini sites is not only more profitable then parking them but provides massive benefits to our other sites as part of a long term strategy.

Mini empires

Most web site owners have one or two main sites that they run, be it a large information portal to ecommerce store these sites often provide the owner with their main source of online income. Mini sites or satellite sites as they are in this scenario provide dedicated landing pages for users we wish to attract to our main site.

Each satellite site is targeted at one product or information type, with the goal to sell or push the user to the main site. The key to satellite sites is to get them ranking well in search engines for that specific target product.

A satellite site is simply a couple of pages dedicated to the product or service ideally with a targeted domain name. Each satellite pushes a singular product area on the main site in an ecommerce scenario the buy now buttons would add the item to the shopping cart and take the user to the product area on the main site, Information portal would link through to a broader section on the parent site.

The key with building a satellite empire is to target high search terms with satellite sites using Wordtracker, or Google trends such tools can compare which of your main sites products has the largest number of searchers which can be used to determine which products should receive their own satellite.

Buy to Sell site development

Just like property markets buying domain names with the intention to sell them is becoming big business the mini site is the perfect development tool in this scenario. The developer buys a domain name, either new or pre-existing and then develops a small site with 5 or 6 pages does some basic link building, allows at least 90 days to go past then they hopefully are ranking well for the keywords they are targeting and sell the domain with content for hopefully with a healthy profit.

This type of mini site is highly effective but is very much like property development, the key comes not so much in the structure but the décor keeping the content bland and informational makes the site appeal to as many customers as possible the perfect content is the writing equivalent of magnolia. Prospective buyers are unlikely to be keeping the content anyway but by creating a mini site and getting it ranking will bring in far higher profits then just selling the domain. When selling such sites it is often tempting to use places such as Digital Point forums to sell the site however it may first be worth contacting those sites that rank around the mini site in the targeted keyword. Such sites have an interest not only in the subject but also will not wish a new party entering their field and may well buy the site simply to block any such competition. Buy to sell mini sites are a very effective way to make money on the web but again like the property market have pitfalls the key like satellite sites is to research the area you are entering you wouldn’t want to try and sell a replica weapon site immediately before or after a ban on such items for example.

Publicity machines

While there are many more strategies with mini sites the final one discussed here is perhaps the broadest the publicity machine such sites are designed to promote a company, product or service normally there sites are gimmicky and aimed at people who would not normally visit the main site. Such sites are different from satellite sites in that they are not aimed at pushing traffic to the main site rather containing the traffic. These sites are also normally a pretty short term affair up for only a few months. Examples of publicity mini sites includes; competition sites, free tools and Christmas promotion sites. In many respects they have a similar design to a satellite site though where a satellite is for all intense and purposes a part of the main site, with similar branding and feel for a seamless transfer while the publicity machine has few limits when it comes to style and look.

A publicity machine site is good way to gain links, for example if the main site is a mortgage company then the publicity site could be a small site detailing the top 10 most expensive houses in the world. People are far happier to link to this site then the corporate site and so the mini site becomes a good source of links.

When it’s over

Satellites, publicity sites and even buy to sell sites which have not managed to be sold have a final purpose. In the publicity machine strategy we discussed the possibility of using our mini site as a non corporate face to attract links the problem is the links are pointing at the mini site not our own site luckily most web servers have a method to let a browser and search engines know that the content has moved to a new location. The server technique is called a 301 redirect (the 301 refers to the code that is sent from the old server to the browser or search engine bot) with it we can tell users browsers and bots that the site content has moved. With our strategy we simply move the content on to the corporate site rebranding as needed and redirect the old site both people and search engines visiting will arrive at the content on the corporate site any links pointing to the mini site would also count towards the page which the users are being redirected to.