4 of my newest mini-sites

[Alien]

I have recently finished creating 4 new 'mini-sites' which all feed off and extend from other related main sites I have. They will also form a 'mini ring' network too I hope.

They are:

Moving House

Harassment

Noisy Neighbours

Anti Social Behaviour

Any comments, feedback etc, thoughts on monetising these as well as possible would be much appreciated - all I've done so far is whack Google ads on the top/bottom of each page and the sides, etc.

4/5 additional new mini sites also in the pipeline and will post these when complete.

Thanks everyone.

 

[websaway]

mini sites feedback

Love them, excellent.

 

[Alien]

Thanks for your comment, websaway.

 

[IanTurner]

I like them - my advice would be to avoid putting too many domains into a network/ring try and keep it down to a maximum of a dozen.

They also look like feeders for you main forum site and in this regard they can work very well. If you can make a little money from them and they increase the overall monetisation of the main site then that would be the way I would look at going forward, they'll probably last a lot longer that way.

 

[bensd]

I like them - my advice would be to avoid putting too many domains into a network/ring try and keep it down to a maximum of a dozen.

Whay would you say that?

 

[squarerobot]

Whay would you say that?

Google sees link networks as a way to try and artificially enhance the page rank of sites and may penalise you for it (generally, this only happens if you are in a very competitive sector and a competitor reports you to Google's web spam team and they see fit to give you a manual review).

 

[bensd]

Google sees link networks as a way to try and artificially enhance the page rank of sites and may penalise you for it (generally, this only happens if you are in a very competitive sector and a competitor reports you to Google's web spam team and they see fit to give you a manual review).

It also depends if you have them hosted on the same IP...

 

[IanTurner]

Experience, I've seen networks of sites build and look to be doing well in search engines only for the whole lot to pretty much disappear overnight.

 

[bluemaian]

Some very nice sites there

 

[Alien]

I like them - my advice would be to avoid putting too many domains into a network/ring try and keep it down to a maximum of a dozen.

They also look like feeders for you main forum site and in this regard they can work very well. If you can make a little money from them and they increase the overall monetisation of the main site then that would be the way I would look at going forward, they'll probably last a lot longer that way.

Thanks Ian for the advice and tips, much appreciated. I'm going to add another site later today, so will post it for feedback once complete. Google Ad income from all 4 sites is looking very good so far.

Some very nice sites there

Thanks bluemaian!

 

[orchardapple]

really like the 'moving house' site. look more like an actual website to be honest.

 

[Alien]

really like the 'moving house' site. look more like an actual website to be honest.

Thank you OA - yeah, this site developed into a larger chunk of info than I first realised and I'm pleased with the end result.

 

[Alien]

Here's my latest addition to the collection:

Bonfires

Feedback/comments welcome as always, thank you.

 

[orchardapple]

just a thought I'd look to have all the sites based on a white background

 

[Alien]

just a thought I'd look to have all the sites based on a white background

Interesting point, thanks. I guess a white bg is always one of the easiest to read against, but I'm trying carefully to get a bit more variety.

My latest addition: CCTV Law is against white though.

 

[crabfoot]

Er mmm ... white backgrounds, black text.

I've heard people say "this is good" before, but I'm not sure I like it.

There was a range of "easy-eye" paperbacks thirty years ago, printed on pale green paper to be easier to read.

And back in the days when a 16 colour monitor was a luxury item, most of the software that involved text processing displayed white text on a blue background, with yellow on blue as second choice. There has to be some rational explanation for that, when it was used on everything from WordPerfect to programmers' compilers.

Just lately, I've gone over to using pale pastel green or peach shades, and I like those. I'm doing that because I was beginning to associate "a white background" with "a parked site".

Can anybody explain the rationale?

 

[stender]

Experience, I've seen networks of sites build and look to be doing well in search engines only for the whole lot to pretty much disappear overnight.

I can verify this from personal experience. I had several site using the same template on same ip crosslinking on a few. All were ranking well then all disappeared overnight. Not sure how they linked them beit, ip, analytics a/c, adsense but all went that were of same template. content was different which smelt of manual removal, as others were left.

 

[Alien]

Er mmm ... white backgrounds, black text.

I've heard people say "this is good" before, but I'm not sure I like it.

There was a range of "easy-eye" paperbacks thirty years ago, printed on pale green paper to be easier to read.

Interesting comments crabfoot. Black text on yellow paper was (still is?) used for partially sighted people too, never white as it's too 'glaring' etc.

This is my last addition to the 'network' for now: Neighbours From Hell - really pleased with this one.

 

[bluemaian]

you mention that they are all going to be part of a network? Are they all on the same hosting? are you using wordpress, blogger for these?

 

[orchardapple]

Er mmm ... white backgrounds, black text.

I've heard people say "this is good" before, but I'm not sure I like it.

Just lately, I've gone over to using pale pastel green or peach shades, and I like those. I'm doing that because I was beginning to associate "a white background" with "a parked site".

Can anybody explain the rationale?

You have to remember who you are designing these sites for, is it for you or more importantly customers? if its to satisfy personal criteria/preferences then your looking at it from the wrong angle and run the risk of very high bounce rates/low conversions etc

I dont think its any coincidence that pretty much all the major websites are based on a white background, from a personal perspective cant think of any website i'd design other than on a white background for that very reason