Minisite Services - Opinions Needed

[Ashton]

I wasn't sure if there was a market for this, however after seeing that Graeme's occupied enough with his content writing, perhaps there is a market.

I have actually gone into a bit of detail planning this in the past, however put it on the side as I wasn't sure about the market.

We already have an office available and there are a few of us up for the idea, all we need to know now is if its a good one.

The idea would be to have a custom quote engine which meant the minisite was exactly what you needed. They would be powered by wordpress mostly and could have any of the theme packs and some of the best themes (Woothemes, elegant themes, thesis) to make sure you had a great looking website. Each page would have unique content (probably written by Graeme's team) from a source or researched. You could provide adsense code / affiliate codes.

The idea would be that this would be a much better situation than parking and would allow you to quickly monetise your domains.

For a 5 page wordpress powered site it would be around £50 with lots of extra's bundled in. With bulk discounts reducing that to around £30.

Do you have any suggestions, would you use this service, is the price too much?

 

[Brassneck]

I wasn't sure if there was a market for this, however after seeing that Graeme's occupied enough with his content writing, perhaps there is a market.

I have actually gone into a bit of detail planning this in the past, however put it on the side as I wasn't sure about the market.

We already have an office available and there are a few of us up for the idea, all we need to know now is if its a good one.

The idea would be to have a custom quote engine which meant the minisite was exactly what you needed. They would be powered by wordpress mostly and could have any of the theme packs and some of the best themes (Woothemes, elegant themes, thesis) to make sure you had a great looking website. Each page would have unique content (probably written by Graeme's team) from a source or researched. You could provide adsense code / affiliate codes.

The idea would be that this would be a much better situation than parking and would allow you to quickly monetise your domains.

For a 5 page wordpress powered site it would be around £50 with lots of extra's bundled in. With bulk discounts reducing that to around £30.

Do you have any suggestions, would you use this service, is the price too much?

If it is 5 pages of content (exluding privacy, about us, contact pages etc), then anything under £50 for good quality would be very competitive in my opinion. I would be interested for one.

It might be an idea to put up a site to show exactly what you would be supplying.

Cheers
Stephen.

 

[GreyWing]

Hi Mate,

I'd certainly be up for using the service, a huge amount of my sites have nothing on at all. So to get someone to build them and let me concentrate on other stuff would be great. I think you are right to base it round a CMS like wordpress.

So I would use and take a few off you each week.

 

[denchomsky]

Only thing I would say is that you are installing a weighty CMS for a 5 page minisite that you could build in lightweight HTML and CSS.

You would have to install a new version of wordpress for every minisite, which means a seperate MSQL database for each installation, unless you use wordpress MU, which is not so simple to set up and use for the non tekkie.

 

[Ashton]

Only thing I would say is that you are installing a weighty CMS for a 5 page minisite that you could build in lightweight HTML and CSS.

You would have to install a new version of wordpress for every minisite, which means a seperate MSQL database for each installation, unless you use wordpress MU, which is not so simple to set up and use for the non tekkie.

I would be using MU

I think it would be better for editing + refreshing with it being wordpress...

As for tekkie, I have been a web designer for quite a few years now, know my way around WP etc.

We do have our own in-house CMS that I might use (v light + easy to use) not sure though.

 

[GreyWing]

It needs to be easy to update, thinking of your customer base it is going to be those with little time or little knowledge to do a lot of html.

As those with html and time will already be building their own sites, in my opinion.

 

[peter_w]

You can use the same database for multiple sites. You just have to change the wp_ in the config.

Only thing I would say is that you are installing a weighty CMS for a 5 page minisite that you could build in lightweight HTML and CSS.

You would have to install a new version of wordpress for every minisite, which means a seperate MSQL database for each installation, unless you use wordpress MU, which is not so simple to set up and use for the non tekkie.

 

[denchomsky]

As for tekkie, I have been a web designer for quite a few years now, know my way around WP etc.

Yeah didn't mean you Ashton, thought that the user would have to install the MU themselves, which is not as easy as the automatic wordpress install alot of hosts have.

So would you be hosting all the sites as well then, or would you do the install on the users server?

 

[wb]

How much time would you be planning to spend on each site? Looks like the margins on it will be quite low - based on Graeme's content pricing which is already good in my opinion, just the 5 pages of content will set you back £35.

 

[tifosi]

You can use the same database for multiple sites. You just have to change the wp_ in the config.

I was also going to mention. wpMu functionality is now built into WP3+.

Theoretically! Never tried it in practice so far.

With one of the caching mods server load would be minimal especially if tied into an opcade cache such as XCache.

S

 

[Ashton]

The idea would be that its a hassle free solution to moving away from parking and getting a minisite.

The point of it being a custom solution means that the client can have as little or as much involvement as they like - if they want to do nothing, they can. If they want to do the SEO, they can. If they want to monetise the site, they can, and so on.

For the content we would probably use sourced articles bringing it down to £4 per 500, and perhaps sort out some bulk arrangement with Graeme after we have established how many articles needed etc (otherwise we would just hire a copywriter)

 

[peter_w]

Ashton,

Let me know if you get this up and running and I'd be happy to provide some Guinea Pig domains

 

[retired_member16]

I you assume that you have sourced the content and are using a prebuilt theme on WP, then how long does that lot take to put together? 30 or 40 mins tops?

Isnt is therefore easier to do yourself?

 

[Ashton]

I you assume that you have sourced the content and are using a prebuilt theme on WP, then how long does that lot take to put together? 30 or 40 mins tops?

Isnt is therefore easier to do yourself?

That is something we are not decided on, we aren't content writers so would prefer to leave that to the professionals. We would be focused more on spending our time monetising the site (implement the affiliate links, seo, etc) than writing content. Though there is no reason further down the line not to hire someone for this or do it ourselves (time permitting). Obviously we want the best for the customer and I am not confident enough in my writing skills to be able to provide high enough quality content.

The more we can reduce the costs the better, we would probably be scripting as much of the install as possible to optimise the process. The further we get the time down, the more we can lower the cost and obviously whilst it might not make a difference for a few domains, over a large portfolio it would.

Eventually we would like to get it to a stage where it becomes a tool and we can sell it as such and at such a low price it makes much more sense than doing it yourself.

Whilst this may sound epik like, it wouldn't be. The content would be unique and the sites of a much higher quality (and lower cost) than epik's platform. Ideally it would be a 2 step process:

1) Add a domain to your account and tell us how you want to monetise it and the topic
2) Point name servers to us.

You pay a small fee for the content, and a small amount for the site creation and your done.

We see minisites as a much more viable option than parking with a potential much higher return.

 

[retired_member16]

I think my point has been missed.

I wouldnt pay over £20 for a mini-site, mainly because I know its a piece of piss to put some sourced content onto a site and have it up and and running within 30 mins.

At that price, its not financially viable for you to do it for me (from your POV) - therefore if you were to go down that road I cant see that many from Acorn would be interested? Maybe im wrong?

 

[Ashton]

It would be £20 for more than just the minisite - hosting, seo, and more extra's. I will finish the list and get it on here soon

 

[retired_member16]

It would be £20 for more than just the minisite - hosting, seo, and more extra's. I will finish the list and get it on here soon

I will take £200 worth.

Can you zip em up when they are done and send them over.

 

[denchomsky]

It would be £20 for more than just the minisite - hosting, seo, and more extra's. I will finish the list and get it on here soon

What would happen if it wasn't financialy viable for you 1 year down the line and you decided to shutdown operations (or for some other reason)? How would you transfer the sites and content over to the owners servers?

Lets say you are hosting 1000 sites, it would be a mammoth task to do this with a wordpress setup.

If it was Simple HTML then you could just zip it up and send it over...simples:grin:

I have always said that wordpress is overkill for a 3-5 page minisite.

 

[Ashton]

What would happen if it wasn't financialy viable for you 1 year down the line and you decided to shutdown operations (or for some other reason)? How would you transfer the sites and content over to the owners servers?

Lets say you are hosting 1000 sites, it would be a mammoth task to do this with a wordpress setup.

If it was Simple HTML then you could just zip it up and send it over...simples:grin:

I have always said that wordpress is overkill for a 3-5 page minisite.

Each person will have the hosting for a year before it comes to renewal (which will not be a rediculous over-priced renewal!) so the hosting is seperate and paid for. If it is no longer financially viable, then we will cease creating new accounts and just let the old accounts carry on as long as they need (since the hosting is paid for already and renewals will be paid for by the minisite owners)

Each site will have its own cpanel and have access to the db admin so can make a backup - as necessary.

I do understand the advantages of plain html, but that brings us down to how easy the site is to use for non html competent clients. We could use something like pagelime for the site management but that in itself would make it more complex.

This will all have to be part of an agreement between ourselves and our clients.

Do you have any suggestions towards this? I know it would be a real pain to lose all your minisites you had bought!

 

[domainseller200]

Well I think this is a great service offered by Ashton.

Having dealt with him a few times in the past, I look forward to seeing some of his results on this, as I am sure his customers wouldn't be disapointed with his work or attitude