I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting lately and one thing that I found success in was when I started making minisites and thought of expanding into many different websites which I felt was lucrative. But, as I look back, I should’ve seen the bigger picture, that it’s really bound to go down the waste and here’s the reasons why minisites or owning many websites are bound to fail:

SEO work

The number one reason for me is SEO (Search Engine Optimization). We always believe that whatever we do will become successful (otherwise we wouldn’t have done it), and we feel that we’ll have everyone’s support somewhere along the way. But it doesn’t work that way, you have one unique website, tomorrow, you’ll probably have hundreds or millions of clones (Friendster vs. Facebook etc.). Today, you could be the top of the search results for a certain topic and tomorrow, you could be at the bottom. I had success with my minisites and some of my websites for quite some time but, along the way, competitors worked harder (they got more backlinks, they got more articles, they became better). My websites were pushed back and I saw it all go to the 3rd page when I stopped working on SEO for less than a month. These days, everyone knows SEO, there are books and so many resources that is all about it. You slack off one bit, your competitor overtakes you by a good number of positions. That’s how stiff competitions are especially now that people are looking at niches (less and less opportunities).

Focus on improvements

Once you were to get traffic and followers, the problem is when you have plenty of minisites and websites, you’re time to improve and develop the sites are less (as your time is distributed amongst plenty sites). It’s really easy to copy a website, but to make it better than the rest is another question, you need time and deep focus to make it extremely better for users to appreciate. But, in my case, I remembered the difficulty I had was looking at what types of websites was going to be successful, it was difficult to say therefore what I did was to spread things around and see where I can be successful but didn’t work out that way. In the end, when my focus was there, I realized that I might be undervaluing what my skills can do and how much I should be able to earn, so I decided to move my focus elsewhere (offline businesses).

Traffic is everything

Traffic is really everything, you need to really focus on that. Study your Analytics very well as they are your best friend and your weapon to become better. But traffic doesn’t come cheap, it comes at a high cost of developing your website, making users happy with your website and investing in many SEO campaigns. Without traffic, your website is nothing; no advertisers would even look at your website.

Put your eggs in one bigger basket and keep adding more eggs until…

I know that the saying usually goes “do not put all your eggs in one basket”, but, in this case, I would say otherwise. By putting more eggs in one bigger basket, you get to focus on just one basket and monitor your eggs better. Same goes for websites, focus and build in it, just look at Amazon, Facebook, Twitter etc., they focused on one website and made it successful. If you feel that you can handle more then you can add more websites, focus on one and make it successful before you move on to another.

Reflecting back is what I do right now to really understand and keep all my learnings in me right now. I’d like to apply what I learned to the businesses that I would do in the future. It would be nice to hear what you’re lessons are in doing online businesses.

Other Articles you might also like:

1. Increased my Google Adsense CTR to 4% overall on all websites / minisites
2. Making Websites for Women is Profitable (Thru PPC and Affiliate marketing)
3. Big bad blogger was bound to emerge, My Advice to businesses about bloggers

Writing Great Minisite Contents

Minisite Contents will be your main source of traffic thru SEO, what’s important is that we all learn how to write effectively for Search Engine purposes, as well as, for your visitors as well. What you need to really think of when writing is that you should know how to target the right keywords and add supporting keywords to further increase its effectivity.

Step 1: Know your Keywords

You first need to understand the keywords that you’re targeting, you need to know which keywords you should mainly target and the supporting keywords. In this example, for the domain PrinterCart.net, You’d want to obviously target the main keywords, Printer cart and Printer carts. Other keywords, such as Printer Ink cart or HP Printer cart, are supporting keywords that should help you out in targeting and getting the getting ranking in Search Engines.

Step 2: Research, Research, Research…

Take time to research and find out more about the topic you’re writing. Normally, experts recommend that you write based on your interest, this way you write great content as you share your own expertise. You really need to think about your visitors when doing so, remember it’s your visitors that you really write for and what visitors will value. So find out as much as you can and put yourself in the shoes of a visitor, ask yourself, is this information enough?

Step 3: Start Writing

After Researching, you’re now ready to start writing the contents. Whenever I write contents for minisites, I always follow a my own set of rules which is simple yet it does the job quite well.

1. People vs Search Engines

Remember that we should be writing for people than only for search engines. Even if you get the traffic from Search Engines, when people read even just the first sentence it will already be a “Read or close the window / tab”. What we want is that visitors spend as much time as they will / can in our minisite. That way, we can encourage more clicks in PPC ads and encourage repeat visits.

2. Bold

Search Engines value different texts in a website depending on what it’s tagged with. What search engines really give weight to, are words that are bolded. What you need to do is to bold the keyword that you’re targetting to ensure that search engines know what you’d want them to give more weight to.

3. 3 – 5% keyword

Before I used to think that for me to get great traffic, all I need to do is to keep repeating / stuff my article with the same keyword over and over. However, instead of doing myself good, I’ve just got myself ranking lowly in the search results. The reason for that is that Google penalizes websites that overstuff their websites with the same keyword. What you’d need to do is to only repeat the exact keywords you’re targeting only 3 – 5% of the article’s Word Count. For example, If I was targeting “Printer Cart” in a 100 words article, then I can only repeat it 3 – 5 times in the article.

4. Supporting Keywords

Since you can only repeat keywords by 3 – 5%, what you need to do is to focus on looking for synonyms / similar keywords for the word to even help it up. For example, in PrinterCart.net, you could add words like Printers, Printer Ink etc.

5. Adding and Naming Images

Images are also crucial to a minisite, what you need to do is to look for stock photos available (Free Stock Photo Website, SXC.hu) and download images from there. What you need to do next is to rename it first to the keyword you’re targeting. For example, I’d name an image Printer-cart.jpg when I upload to PrinterCart.net. There are a huge number of traffic that I get from image searches from Google, and it will also help you in your quest for SEO.

6. Linking to your other Posts

Internal linking is important in a website to rank highly in SEO. What you can do is to find keywords in your current article that best describes your other article and link it to the other. For example, If I have “HP Printer Cart” in my 100 word article, and I also have written about HP Printer Carts, I need to convert it to a link to the article about HP Printer Carts. And as you have the YARPP (Yet Another Related Post Plugin, in Part 3)  plugin for WordPress, it automatically generates it for you at the end of every post. If you

7. Adding Videos

If you can, you could also find supporting videos that can help you bring more value to visitors. The best thing is that videos are free and can be embedded to your minisite, all you have to do is to copy the embed code, Go to the “HTML” tab in the “add new post” page and paste the code where you want it to appear. As your goal is to bring value to your human visitors, adding videos to support your article is just a great way to give more value.

Step 4:Filling up the necessary Fields

After filling up the Title and writing the content for the post, don’t publish your post just yet. You need to fill up 3 more fields to make sure that you make the most of it in Search engines:

1. Fill Up All-in-One SEO

It is important that you fill up the All-in-one SEO fields on the bottom of the post box. This will help you to optimize your page to Search Engines and get higher rankings. You need to fill up 3 things:

• Title – Copy and Paste from above
• Description – I usually copy and paste the whole article from the content, but it would be best to have a 1 paragraph summary of your whole post in there.
• Keywords – Depending on the keywords I target, I would usually add in all the keywords separated with a Comma ( , ).

2. Add Post tags

From the All-In-One SEO “Keywords”, I just copy and paste all the keywords and add it as my post tags.

3. Categories

It would be a great way for you to exploit this to your targeted keywords, this could be done by using the main keywords as your categories in your posts. Again, more for SEO benefits.

Step 5: How much Content / Articles should I add?

One of the questions I had when making a minisite was how much content / articles do I need in a minisite? I cannot fully say how many will be enough this is because of many factors. For example, you could have 3 really long articles of 1000 words each that ranks highly than a minisite that has 10 short articles. The point here is to think “Quality over Quantity”. However, you do have to think that competitors are going to come one day and you better prepare yourself for the worse. What’s typical is about 5 articles per minisite, however I go a little bit further and add 20, this way I have a buffer and in case competitors come along, I know my minisite’s prepared.

Step 6: Add Minisite Pages

You need to add pages in your minisite (Under Dashboard, Pages > Add New), the purpose is to add credibility and allow visitors to contact you. These are the necessary pages that you need:

• About Page – What I usually add in my minisites is a 1 paragraph description and its purpose. This is to add credibility to your minisite.
• Contact Us Page – You can use the Contact form 7 plugin to make this. All you have to do is to Add a new page (Pages > Add New), and place the code “[contact-form-7]” in the post box. Preview the page and you have an instant contact us page.
• Terms of Service / Privacy Policy Page - These pages are meant to protect you from legal cases that could arise, while it is also a legal requirement in certain countries. But what’s important is that people say that it is something that Search Engines look for and gives weight to.

Example of Terms of Service Page:

Terms of Service
By using and/or accessing the Site, you are agreeing to comply with and be bound by the following Terms and Conditions (the “Agreement”). Please review the following terms of this Agreement carefully. If you do not agree to this Agreement in its entirety, you are not authorized to use this Site in any manner or form.

1. Acceptance of Agreement. You agree to the terms and conditions outlined in this Agreement with respect to your use of the Site. This Agreement, together with the Site Privacy Policy, constitute the entire and only agreement between you and  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE with respect to your use of the Site, and supersede all prior or contemporaneous agreements, representations, warranties and/or understandings with respect to the Site. We may amend this Agreement from time to time in our sole discretion, without specific notice to you. The latest Agreement will be posted on the Site, and you should review this Agreement prior to using the Site. By your continued use of the Site, you hereby agree to all the terms and conditions contained within the Agreement effective at that time. Therefore, you should regularly check this page for updates and/or changes.

2. Requirements. The Site is available only to individuals who can enter into legally binding contracts under applicable law. The Site is not intended for use by individuals under eighteen (18) years of age. If you are under eighteen (18) years of age and/or not a citizen of the United States, you do not have permission to use and/or access the Site.
3. License Grant. As a user of this Site, you are granted a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable and limited license to access and use the Site and associated Site content in accordance with this Agreement.  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE may terminate this license at any time for any reason. You may use the Site on one computer for your own personal, non-commercial use. No part of the Site may be reproduced in any form or incorporated into any information retrieval system, electronic or mechanical. You may not use, copy, emulate, clone, rent, lease, sell, modify, decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer or transfer the Site, Site content or any portion thereof.  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE reserves any rights not explicitly granted in this Agreement. You may not use any device, software or routine to interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of the Site. You may not take any action that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE infrastructure. Your right to use the Site is not transferable.
4. Proprietary Rights. The content, organization, graphics, design, compilation, magnetic translation, digital conversion, software, services and other matters related to the Site are protected under applicable copyrights, trademarks and other proprietary (including, but not limited to, intellectual property) rights. The copying, redistribution or publication by you of any part of the Site is strictly prohibited. You do not acquire ownership rights to any content, document, software, services or other materials viewed at or through the Site. The posting of information or material at the Site by  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE does not constitute a waiver of any right in such information and/or materials.
5. Editing, Deleting and Modification. We reserve the right in our sole discretion to edit and/or delete any documents, information or other content appearing on the Site.
6. Indemnification. You agree to indemnify and hold  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE, its parents, subsidiaries and affiliates, and each of their respective members, officers, directors, employees and agents, harmless from and against any and all claims, expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees, costs and settlement costs), damages, suits, costs, demands and/or judgments whatsoever, made by any third party due to or arising out of or in connection with: (a) your use of the Site; (b) your breach of this Agreement; (c) your violation of any rights of another individual and/or entity; and/or (d) your use of any products and/or services provided from an  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE Service Provider Affiliate. The provisions of this paragraph are for the benefit of  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE, its parent, subsidiaries and affiliates, and each of their respective officers, directors, employees, agents, shareholders, licensors, suppliers and attorneys. Each of these individuals and entities shall have the right to assert and enforce these provisions directly against you on its own behalf.
7. Disclaimer of Warranties. THE SITE AND ANY PRODUCTS AND/OR SERVICES THAT YOU MAY RECEIVE FROM ONE OF OUR SERVICE PROVIDER AFFILIATES ARE PROVIDED TO YOU ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS AND IMPLIED, ARE DISCLAIMED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE PURSUANT TO APPLICABLE LAW (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE DISCLAIMER OF ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND/OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE). IN PARTICULAR, BUT NOT AS A LIMITATION THEREOF,  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE MAKES NO WARRANTY THAT: (A) THE SITE AND/OR PRODUCTS AND/OR SERVICES PROVIDED BY OUR SERVICE PROVIDER AFFILIATES WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS: (B) THE SITE AND/OR PRODUCTS AND/OR SERVICES PROVIDED BY OUR SERVICE PROVIDER AFFILIATES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE OR ERROR-FREE; AND (C) THE RESULTS THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE USE OF THE SITE WILL BE ACCURATE OR RELIABLE. THE SITE MAY CONTAIN BUGS, ERRORS, PROBLEMS OR OTHER LIMITATIONS. WE WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR THE AVAILABILITY OF THE UNDERLYING INTERNET CONNECTION ASSOCIATED WITH THE SITE. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, OBTAINED BY YOU FROM  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE, ONE OF ITS SERVICE PROVIDER AFFILIATES OR THROUGH OR FROM THE SITE, SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY NOT EXPRESSLY STATED IN THIS AGREEMENT.
8. Limitation of Liability. YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTY FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL AND/OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES (EVEN IF  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES), TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE BY LAW FOR: (A) THE USE OR THE INABILITY TO USE AN  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE SERVICE PROVIDER AFFILIATE PRODUCT AND/OR SERVICE; (B) THE COST OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS AND SERVICES RESULTING FROM ANY GOODS, DATA, INFORMATION AND/OR SERVICES PURCHASED OR OBTAINED FROM THE SITE, THE SERVICE PROVIDER AFFILIATE SITE, OR TRANSACTIONS ENTERED INTO, THROUGH OR FROM THE SITE OR A SERVICE PROVIDER AFFILIATE SITE; AND (C) ANY OTHER MATTER RELATING TO THE  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE SERVICE AND/OR SITE. THIS LIMITATION APPLIES TO ALL CAUSES OF ACTION, IN THE AGGREGATE INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, BREACH OF CONTRACT, BREACH OF WARRANTY, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, MISREPRESENTATIONS, AND ANY AND ALL OTHER TORTS. YOU HEREBY RELEASE  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE FROM ANY AND ALL OBLIGATIONS, LIABILITIES AND CLAIMS IN EXCESS OF THE LIMITATION STATED HEREUNDER. IF APPLICABLE LAW DOES NOT PERMIT SUCH LIMITATION, THE MAXIMUM LIABILITY OF  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE TO YOU UNDER ANY AND ALL CIRCUMSTANCES WILL BE EQUAL TO THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID, IF ANY, FOR  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE SERVICE PROVIDER AFFILIATE PRODUCTS AND/OR SERVICES. YOU HEREBY RELEASE  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE FROM ANY AND ALL OBLIGATIONS, LIABILITIES AND CLAIMS IN EXCESS OF THE LIMITATIONS SET FORTH IN THIS SECTION. THE NEGATION OF DAMAGES SET FORTH ABOVE IS A FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENT OF THE BASIS OF THE BARGAIN BETWEEN YOU AND  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE. THIS SITE AND THE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES AVAILABLE THOUGH USE OF THE SITE WOULD NOT BE PROVIDED TO YOU WITHOUT SUCH LIMITATIONS.
9. Service Provider AffiliateWebsites. The Site provides links to Service Provider Affiliate and other third party Internet websites and/or resources. Because  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE has no control over such websites and/or resources, you hereby acknowledge and agree that  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE is not responsible for the availability of such websites and/or resources. Furthermore,  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE does not endorse, and is not responsible or liable for, any terms and conditions, privacy policies, content, advertising, services, products and/or other materials at or available from such Service Provider Affiliate and/or other third party websites or resources, or for any damages and/or losses arising therefrom.
10. Legal Warning. Any attempt by any individual, whether or not an  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE customer, to damage, destroy, tamper with, vandalize and/or otherwise interfere with the operation of this Site, is a violation of criminal and civil law and  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE will diligently pursue any and all remedies in this regard against any offending individual or entity to the fullest extent permissible at law and in equity.
11. Miscellaneous. This Agreement shall be treated as though it were executed and performed in INSERT YOUR AREA HERE and shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of the Philippines (without regard to its conflict of law principles). Should a dispute arise concerning the terms and conditions of this Agreement, or the breach of same by either party hereto, the parties agree to submit their dispute for resolution by arbitration. Any award rendered shall be final and conclusive to the parties and a judgment thereon may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. Nothing herein shall be construed to preclude any party from seeking injunctive relief in order to protect its rights pending an outcome in arbitration. Should any part of this Agreement be held invalid or unenforceable, that portion shall be construed consistent with applicable law and the remaining portions shall remain in full force and effect. This Agreement is personal between you and  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE and governs your use of the Site and/or any  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE service, superseding any and all prior and/or contemporaneous agreements between you and  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE. To the extent that anything in or associated with the Site and/or any  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE service is in conflict or inconsistent with this Agreement, this Agreement shall take precedence. Our failure to enforce any provision of this Agreement shall not be deemed a waiver of such provision nor of the right to enforce such provision. The parties do not intend that any agency or partnership relationship be created through operation of this Agreement.
AUTHORIZATION BY OBTAINING, OR ATTEMPTING TO OBTAIN, SERVICES THROUGH USE OF THE  INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE SITE, YOU REPRESENT AND WARRANT THAT YOU ARE AT LEAST EIGHTEEN (18) YEARS OF AGE.

Example of Privacy Policy Page:

INSERT WEBSITE URL HERE does not collect any user information. Information is collected by third party business partners only.

Step 7: If you can’t write, Outsource!

I have to admit that I suck at writing, especially if it is a topic that isn’t my interest. I’ve tried writing for several minisites but I noticed traffic to go up and start dropping over time. My writing is simply for search engines and not really for people, so my point here is that we should learn to admit it and start outsourcing. There are a lot of websites out there that offers this service, however I personally haven’t tried it myself as I hired my own writers. But I recommend outsourcing to keep costs down.

This Post is part of the 6 post series on the Ultimate Guide to Making Money Online with Minisites using PPC

• Part 1 – Domain Name
• Part 2 – Installing WordPress
• Part 3 – Configuring WordPress
• Part 4 – WordPress Themes, Minisite Design
• Part 5 – PPC Ads (Google Adsense)
• Part 6 – Writing Minisite Contents

Other Articles you might also like:

1. Part 4 WordPress Themes, Minisite Design: Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC
2. Part 5 PPC Ads (Google Adsense): Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC
3. Part 1 Domain Name: Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC

WordPress

The best thing about WordPress is that it has a very easy and simple admin interface which could be easily learned. But the best thing about it is that there are so many free plug-ins and themes available online that you can use freely and support is readily available and is answered by not only WordPress itself but also other experts who’re willing to lend a hand to everyone. I’ve used wordpress for around 2 years now and it’s always worked out for me.

Step 1: Get a decent WebHosting Company

I personally use A2Hosting ever since I started my online ventures, the best thing with them is that they have unlimited accounts which can pretty much fit all your domains for around $10 (cheaper with coupon codes, only $6.36 per month). Before you go thru and purchase web hosting with them, make sure that you check the web for “Coupon Codes”, this way you could get huge discounts to their services. I was able to save as much as 30% monthly on hosting services when I entered the coupon codes. The best part is their reliability, I’ve never had a problem with downtimes (until recently when there’s a problem with their servers lately which got a good few hours of downtime) but aside from that it’s been smooth sailing. Make sure to really get a reliable and good web hosting service for your minisites, remember if it’s down then traffic can’t go in, no traffic no earnings.

Step 2: Linking your Domain to your Web Hosting

1. Login to your Godaddy account (The top part of the Homepage)

2. Choose “Domain Manager” (It’s on the left side of the page after logging in)

3. Choose a Domain in the list and click “Name server” on the top of your domain list. Choose “I have specific nameservers for my domains” and enter your name server 1 and 2 in the list. You’ll normally get this thru your web hosting provider. For those who have went with A2Hosting, the name servers are 1 – ns1.a2webhosting.com and 2 – ns2.a2webhosting.com . Click OK and the settings should be saved and you’ll get a confirmation email that the name servers have been changed.

Step 3: Adding a domain in your web hosting

I’m not really sure whether all web hosting providers would have the same cPanel interface in their hosting service. But what I use in A2Hosting is cPanel, so after logging in and what you need to look for is Addon Domains. Click “Addon Domains“

Fill up the information details, Enter the Domain, Username (login username to cpanel) and password (login password to cpanel). You don’t need to input the document root as the system will do it for you. Wait until, it successfully added the domain in the list.

Congratulations, You’ve successfully linked your domain and web hosting! **NOTE: There are some delays in linking domains to webhosting, so do give it a few hours or a day to link, if it doesn’t work contact your domain supplier and web hosting provider.

Step 4: Installing WordPress

Don’t be intimidated by the word install, it’s not really that complicated. WordPress calls their installation the 5 minutes WordPress Installation and it truly does take 5 minutes or less (after you’ve done it once). Most web hosting have a feature called Fantastico, which automatically does it all in a few simple steps. I personally don’t use Fantastico and do it manually. Here’s how I do it:

1. Go to WordPress.org and download the latest Free WordPress copy

2. Choose File Manager in your cPanel’s Homepage.

3. Choose “www” on the left side navigation of the file manager page. And choose the folder of your domain (for example, PrinterCart.net would have a folder with the exact name).

4. Once you entered the folder, usually it’s empty as there’s no file in the new folder. Upload your newly downloaded WordPress copy by click the “Upload” button on the top of the file manager. Upload the full exact ZIP file, as the server can extract it for you. Once finished uploading, click the checkbox of WordPress ZIP file and click extract.

5. Usually it will create a new folder called WordPress, what you need to do is:

• Go into the folder of WordPress
• Choose “Select all”
• Choose “Move File”
• Check the directory and delete the /Wordpress part.
• It should empty the WordPress folder and move all the files to your domain’s homepage.

To verify if this actually worked, go to the domain that you’ve added to the list. You should get a “WordPress Error” Page which states that you should install it. If you did see it, then congratulations, you’ve finished setting up your wordpress minisite.

6. Choose “MySQL Database” in the Database list in your cPanel homepage.

7. Add a new database, and name it as you want.

8. After getting a confirmation that you’ve successfully added a new database, open your domain‘s URL. Example: PrinterCart.net and you should see an WordPress Error Message which will prompt you to install WordPress.

9. Copy and paste the database that you’ve recently created to the “Database name”. Username and password is the same username and password that you use to login to your cPanel. While Database Host and Table Prefix needs no changes. Continue to fill up the form until WordPress gives you your admin username and password (which you’ll need to login to your WordPress Account). Once done, you’ll find that you’ll be able to login to your WordPress Dashboard and be able to control wordpress from there.

This Post is part of the 6 post series on the Ultimate Guide to Making Money Online with Minisites using PPC

• Part 1 – Domain Name
• Part 2 – Installing WordPress
• Part 3 – Configuring WordPress
• Part 4 – WordPress Themes, Minisite Design
• Part 5 – PPC Ads (Google Adsense)
• Part 6 – Writing Minisite Contents

Other Articles you might also like:

1. Part 4 WordPress Themes, Minisite Design: Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC
2. Part 3 Configuring WordPress – Configuration / PlugIns : Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC
3. Part 1 Domain Name: Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC

When I was starting out, I’ve went thru so many different techniques of how to make money online with minisites. One thing that I noticed is that everyone has their own way or version on how to do it. But over time I’ve developed my own systematic way on how to make money with minisites using PPC. It is pretty straight forward, you don’t really need a lot of expensive scripts or programs, all you need is a little patience and willingness to learn more about it. Here’s my Ultimate Guide in Making Money Online with Minisites using PPC.

Domain Name

Minisites need traffic to make money off it, one of the best and cheapest way to get traffic is thru Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The best thing about domain names is that even without work, it commands a good Search Engine Position by just the domain name alone. So the first step is choosing the right Domain name that will boost your traffic thru SEO, here are the methods that I go thru:

Use Google Keyword Tool External

Step 1: Search for a topic that you’re interested in

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There are two things that you do have to take note of, one is the keyword and the other is the area. As for the keyword, just type in the keyword in the text area. The keyword can be a general topic and don’t worry, Google will narrow it down for you and find topics for you to choose from. As for the area (Refer to image above: English, United States), it comes down to what domain you chose.

• .COM, .NET, .ORG, .INFO, .ME, etc. are considered gTLD (Global Top Level Domains)
• .PH, .SG, .US, .CA, . TV, .MX etc. are considered ccTLD (Country Code Top Level Domains)

If you chose gTLDs then you simply choose English, United States and if you chose a ccTLD then you have to choose the corresponding country of the domain (e.g. .PH = Philippines). The reason for this is that ccTLDs only command high SEO in the local searches only, for example, digitalcamera.ph will only rank highly in the Philippines. The only advantage of ccTLDs is that there’s a lot of availability for registration and you get to dominate a certain country’s searches.

Step 2: Examine Results

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One of the first things that you have to do is to change the “Match Type” to “Exact”, the reason for this is that Google gives you, as default, broad searches which basically adds up the keywords as long as it was typed in the search bar. What you need are specific searches, people who are specifically typing in Google the exact keyword, in the example above what we’re looking for are people who’re typing “Printer” in the search bar. Remember being specific is what will propel your minisite in SEO. **NOTE: You can arrange the searches from the top searches to the bottom by clicking the title bar of each column. Also, the result may not always be accurate, as for example, searches for flowers might be high in February but low in other months.

Step 3: You don’t need to manually type it in

Scroll down to the bottom of the search results, you’ll find “Download Keywords” button. What this means is that it allows you to download all the results above to a notepad file. After downloading, open the file and all you need to do is Copy all keywords (Select All then Copy — **Shortcut: CTRL / CMD A then CTRL / CMD C).

Step 4: Go to Godaddy’s Bulk Domain Registration

Paste all that you copied from the text file you downloaded to the text area provided by Godaddy’s text area. Check which domains you’d like to register, I personally would recommend going after .COM, .NET, .INFO or .ORG, as I’ve experienced higher earnings from these domains. And click “Search”. **NOTE: You’ll see a lot of Error messages after searching, simply scroll down till you see the box and all the available domains will be listed. Also, steer away from brand names and trademarked names, as you can be sued for using their name.

Step 5: Check results

After searching thru GoDaddy’s results, I found that PrinterCart.net is available. So you need to see how much searches does this keyword get, I did a “Find” function with your browsers (Shortcut: CTRL F / CMD F) and typed the keyword to search in the results to take me quickly to the exact keyword (it’s faster than manually browsing thru the whole list).

Step 6: Asses Searches and Competitors

To assess how many competitors you have, do an exact search of the keyword in Google Search. This can be done by adding the Quotes (“”) to the searches, in the example above, searching for “printer cart” rather than printer cart. What you really need to know is how many results are there in the search engine. There are many discussions and rules on how to go about doing it, but I personally have my own way. My way is:

• Searches: Must be 3000 and above
• Competition: Must be 100,000 and below

I’ve assessed that domains that I registered that matches the criteria above gave me great results, while the ones that don’t, don’t earn as much.

Step 7: Know how much Cost Per Ad clicked (Earnings on ad clicks) for PPC

Go to Google’s Traffic Estimator Sandbox, you’ll see the page similar to the image above. Type in the keyword with the Quotes (“”), and select all countries and territories on the bottom (except if you chose a ccTLD, then chose the specific country).

Look at the column of “Estimated Avg. CPC”, that’s pretty much how much a click can earn you. The question is, Is it worth my Time? The answer to this can only answered by you alone. Think about how much money are you looking to earn per minisite, Here’s my personal formula:

Traffic X CPC X 5% (Average CTR) = Earnings per month

 

In the case of Printer Cart, it is 4400 x $1.71 x 5% = $376 / month. But you see I’m estimating that you get all the 4400 traffic, so that’s the maximum earnings you can reach each month with the domain, PrinterCart.net.

This Post is part of the 6 post series on the Ultimate Guide to Making Money Online with Minisites using PPC

• Part 1 – Domain Name
• Part 2 – Installing WordPress
• Part 3 – Configuring WordPress
• Part 4 – WordPress Themes, Minisite Design
• Part 5 – PPC Ads (Google Adsense)
• Part 6 – Writing Minisite Contents

Other Articles you might also like:

1. Part 3 Configuring WordPress – Configuration / PlugIns : Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC
2. Part 6 Writing Minisite Contents: Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC
3. Part 4 WordPress Themes, Minisite Design: Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC

As I started to focus on contents, not only for search engines but also for human visitors, I’ve started to see a huge difference in traffic as well as PPC revenues. I’m starting to see almost a 4X revenue increase in my PPC revenues.

It has been a struggle for me to achieve it and have tried and tested many different methods to achieve it. It was only till recently that I finally learned what I have to do to get it done.

Content is King

The problem with a lot of PPC revenue websites is that their content are not that polished and the worse part is that it is designed for SEO and not for the humans that is the one who’ll be clicking on the ads. Recently, I made a decision that I should focus less on building new websites but instead focus on a few and really put quality contents in the site. It might take a while before you see the effects of it on SEO, but sooner and later traffic will start to grow and revenues will start pouring in. It might look like a sacrifice but it actually is helping yourself.

The greatest thing is that it’s not only about the revenues, but I’m starting to see a lot of people finally appreciating, commenting and thanking us for the wonderful content. Now that’s something money just couldn’t buy.

Other Articles you might also like:

1. 2010 PPC Revenues starting to increase?
2. I’ve completely stopped buying domains and start focusing on developing
3. Where are the Filipino Domainers?

A lot of people, like Domainers, web developers and internet surfers, would say that minisites ruin the web by polluting it with contents and simply monetizing by advertising that is page full. But, Search Engines still love minisites and give us the proper credit that we deserve for making one.

Minisites are not all bad

As a minisite maker, we spend time and money to build the minisite up for us to make money. What we normally consider as a minisite are those that are built with a pageful of ads, but responsible minisite makers do make it a point to get you to appreciate the content. There are a lot of responsible minisite makers, as a matter of fact, it’s arranged so nicely that it doesn’t even look and feel like a minisite. Minisites are not all bad, just see why search engines love our sites, it just provides great information to those who search. Do think about this, without our minisite and with a limited information in wikipedia, how do you find more relevant information online? We provide that gap, we spend money in outsourcing web design, graphics and professional writing to make quality minisites, but we need to earn money to get money back and to profit (it is a business after all).

If you hate minisites then try going to wikipedia for information but you do have to appreciate the fact that search engines appreciate us and as long as we provide that relevant content we can get our websites out there.

Other Articles you might also like:

1. Which type of minisite earns more money, ugly vs beautiful nicely designed minisite
2. Developing Minisites: How to develop a good minisite for your domain names
3. Part 4 WordPress Themes, Minisite Design: Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC

Domain Shane’s one of my favorite read because he gives a good realistic view of what he experiences minus the sugar coating (I’m not saying everyone does). He gives the negatives, as well as the positive of being in the domain game. Domain Shane’s recent post has really set a good view of what domaining is.

You’re not going to be able to develop all your domain names!

I absolutely agree to what he has to say, recently I had to learn it the hard way. We all want to monetize our domains, but what we find is that we can only do that if we were to do tons of small minisites which isn’t really going to make so much money. What I saw was that somehow time spent building the website is relative to the earnings of the website (taking into account its a good domain with low competition). I’m considering dropping a lot of domains to ensure that I make the most of my revenues, it’s useless to keep domains that don’t make much money unless its really a good domain with low competition. For those who are looking to start in domain investing, make sure that you focus in a few investments than invest to too many domains that you have no way of monetizing.

That’s what I like about the Domaining industry, people are friendly and they offer really great insights to the industry. So be realistic and focus on a few than get a lot that have no value.

Other Articles you might also like:

1. Which domain names should you develop first?
2. Partnering Web 2.0 Developers develop Domainer’s Generic Domain Names
3. Why now is a good time to develop your domain names

One of the biggest mistakes that I believe I made when developing minisites is that I focused less on the actual content and spent more time on other things like designing a website. But now I realized where I missed out and have started to focus on making better and unique contents that I believe has started to get me ranking better.

In SEO, they say content is king and that’s what’s important especially for a minisite to rank well in Search Engines. Yet not a lot of people focus on contents (I’m personally guilty of this), I’d focus on designing the website and adding ads in while I should’ve been more focused in writing contents.

Professional Writers can add value to your minisite

Also, one thing that I realized is that Search Engines somehow account for how much people appreciate your website. Those minisites that used to rank well for me that are not appreciated by readers have dropped off from the Search Engine rankings while the ones that are great continue to rise between the ranks and is now getting more traffic than I could have imagined. It does take time for it to grow or to fall, and you have to be patient to know how it will go.

I’ve started to go back to some of the minisites that are doing well and hired a professional to write for me. It’s important that there’s a market that searches it and a good website design and content that would welcome them to spend more time and click on the ads. With that you’ll get a good number of traffic and you’d do well in SEO.

Other Articles you might also like:

1. Part 6 Writing Minisite Contents: Ultimate guide to Making Money with Minisites using PPC
2. Making Great and Useful Websites
3. Search Engines want regular fresh contents, are minisites still a good idea?

When I first started in the world of domain development, I explored a lot on minisites as it is something easy for me to do. Honestly, most of what I’ve written for my minisites are crap, bounce rates are as high as 80%. Revenues from PPC was high when it first started but slowly declines over time as Search Engines disregard the minisite.

What I learned in writing Minisite Contents

What I learned is that the content that you provide must somehow be useful and can reach out to readers. The content needs to be fresh and unique and not just something you ripped out of wikipedia. I made some minisites by ripping bits and pieces from Wikipedia, and guess what, it ranked well at first but now is non existent. When I had a professional write for my other minisites, it didn’t rank too well at first but as time went by, it got higher and higher that it is starting to amass good traffic to the minisite. It prompted me to add new contents to the site as it continues to do well.

So next time when you do develop minisites, do make sure that what you write is something that not only search engines can appreciate, but something that readers will love. End of the day people, its the people that makes the traffic numbers and not search engines. Search Engines simply directs them to what they believe are quality contents.

Other Articles you might also like:

1. Domain Name Development: Is minisites for the long term?
2. Domain name development: How fast can ccTLD Minisites earn money?
3. Domain Name Development: Essential list of WordPress Plugins for your Minisites

What became really scary was that when you start, you just can’t stop getting domains. In my mind, I’ve been thinking that the next domain I register is going to be worth millions one day as a similar domain was sold at X amount. I have then invested thousands of dollars to domains.

– Domain Investment has taught me a lot –

What was really great about this investment in domains, is that I got to push myself into learning how to design and develop websites which I couldn’t do so much in university. The amount of knowledge in developing I picked up in a year is much more than the 4 years of Computer Science Degree. Today, I have made several websites, such as my new Free Acting Jobs Classified Ad website and other WordPress Minisites and soon Websites.

I’ve never regretted any of my decisions to enter the world of domain investing, it helped me learn so much that my investment has been justified. Where I am right now, is how I’ll be able to profit from it. My target is to increase my earnings to a point that it is profitable and I’m able to make a good living of it.

Other Articles you might also like:

1. Which domain keyword topics have you invested in?
2. Domains with Dash “-” vs Domains without
3. Rather than park your domains, Redirect domains