Which type of minisite earns more money, ugly vs beautiful nicely designed minisite

I’ve so far developed around 10 minisites and all in wordpress, and what’s been really interesting is that there has been debates over the look of the minisite affecting its performance or earnings. The most surprising thing about it is that some people argue that ugly minisites actually generate more revenues than a nicely designed minisite. Here’s why…

… Minisites are basically a website that is dedicated in giving information that is directly related to the domain name keyword, it is ‘commonly’ made up of around 3 – 5 pages of contents (my case is different, I have around 20 – 30 pages). Here’s the debate for ugly design:

When people see an ugly designed minisite:

• They think that it’s only a portal on which you have to click on the links to get to where you want to get to.
• They mistakenly click on the advertisement due to the advertisements are close to the content

While a nicely designed minisite:

• Are so neat and well decorated that advertisements are secluded and is far from the contents (less clicked)
• Having an advertisement section will let people know that it is advertisements and will promote less clicks
• Advertisements blend in that it’s not noticed too much

It was very interesting for me to find out about it, as I always wanted to design my minisites nicely. I would spend at least a good 2 weeks to work on my minisites and invest heavily on graphics and design work. As I have experienced my first ever minisite was getting good click earnings for me which is not designed better than my others which weren’t clicked as much.

– Ugly or Nice, it’s all about the profits –

My arguements for nicely designed minisites:

• Sooner or later, ugly designed minisites aren’t going to get as much revenues, because people are going to learn about it and will find it spammy and won’t click on it (my personal theory).
• It’s nicely disguised as a blog or a 2.0 resource website that it shows credibility (more repeat visits)
• Gives more value to readers (they can actually enjoy the content)

End of the day, it’s all about time spent and how much profit made. So whether it is an ugly old design or a modern nicely designed website, it comes down to how much it can actually earn you. What’s important is that you’ve invested your time and money, it’s about time that the website returned the favor back to you and yield you profits.