Comments on: Update on Mini Site & Launch of New Site http://www.elliotsblog.com/update-on-site-graduate-websit Domain blog featuring domain investing strategy, domain valuation, and domain development commentary from Elliot Silver, founder of Top Notch Domains, LLC. Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:57:22 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 hourly 1 By: Mark http://www.elliotsblog.com/update-on-site-graduate-websit/comment-page-1#comment-7554 Mark Sun, 23 Nov 2008 21:10:05 +0000 http://www.elliotsblog.com/index.php/1380/#comment-7554 Hi Elliot: Just curious, why don't you put the hotel affiliate ads that you put on Burbank.com also on BerkeleyHeights.com? Mark <strong>***UPDATED BY ELLIOT***</strong> Hotel affiliate requires css in the back-end as well as other things to set up. I don't think many people are looking for hotels, and to make a few extra $$$ (maybe) I would rather just Adsense it. Hi Elliot:

Just curious, why don’t you put the hotel affiliate ads that you put on Burbank.com also on BerkeleyHeights.com?

Mark

***UPDATED BY ELLIOT***

Hotel affiliate requires css in the back-end as well as other things to set up. I don’t think many people are looking for hotels, and to make a few extra $$$ (maybe) I would rather just Adsense it.

]]> By: Kevin http://www.elliotsblog.com/update-on-site-graduate-websit/comment-page-1#comment-7547 Kevin Sat, 22 Nov 2008 05:16:15 +0000 http://www.elliotsblog.com/index.php/1380/#comment-7547 I've learned one thing for sure about SEO, there's a lot of "SEO Gurus" that have an agenda and make money from it by making it sound more scientific than it is and go around bashing small site developers all the time. I have a site that has been in the top 10 listings out of 7 million for 3 years. It's under 5 pages, but has very relevant information to the domain's keywords. It's a 4 word domain. From this site I've generated revenues continuously and more importantly gathered an extremely valuable database of over 1,500 extremely wealthy investors. The domain cost me $7, the mini site about $150 of my time. I've never considered myself an SEO Guru, nor will I. I just follow Google's core mantra, and build sites that provide a good user experience and in doing so get good rankings. I’ve learned one thing for sure about SEO, there’s a lot of “SEO Gurus” that have an agenda and make money from it by making it sound more scientific than it is and go around bashing small site developers all the time.

I have a site that has been in the top 10 listings out of 7 million for 3 years. It’s under 5 pages, but has very relevant information to the domain’s keywords. It’s a 4 word domain. From this site I’ve generated revenues continuously and more importantly gathered an extremely valuable database of over 1,500 extremely wealthy investors. The domain cost me $7, the mini site about $150 of my time.

I’ve never considered myself an SEO Guru, nor will I. I just follow Google’s core mantra, and build sites that provide a good user experience and in doing so get good rankings.

]]> By: Mike @ WannaDevelop.com http://www.elliotsblog.com/update-on-site-graduate-websit/comment-page-1#comment-7543 Mike @ WannaDevelop.com Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:23:40 +0000 http://www.elliotsblog.com/index.php/1380/#comment-7543 The chase for content is really an endless one, you must realize that you cannot and I guarantee you will not dominate all keywords related to sushirestaurants.com even if you do develop it and a year or two from now which is just an example. The geo-approach many domainers are now doing is good but you must also realize that you cannot and will not rank for any keywords within Finance, Real Estate, Travel, etc.. There are already 100s of sites already competing within those sub-niches, for example local CITY/STATE brokerage firms... Local travel agents, expedia... Local job boards. People, get your sh*t together and try to focus... Some of the above posts make me laugh as it actually gives people hope but reality is that it is too much work and not worth it. Focus on just the few main keywords with the most traffic. That is where all the money is and majority of traffic... If you get longtail search, that is just an added benefit and nice little surprise. You cannot get it all in very competitive niches within 300-500k+ monthly searched niches. Amount of pages on a site don't really matter. While 10 may be too little... That is just your own opinion.. Google has ranked countless sites of mine within 100k+ searched terms right at the top and I've secured the rankings for years now... Now it doesn't take a genius to figure out that if you have 10 pages of content and you are not getting anywhere lets say within 1 month you should add more content and do additional seo, but when does it stop? 100? 1000? heh... SEO 101, start with the basics and work as you go... it is a long process The chase for content is really an endless one, you must realize that you cannot and I guarantee you will not dominate all keywords related to sushirestaurants.com even if you do develop it and a year or two from now which is just an example. The geo-approach many domainers are now doing is good but you must also realize that you cannot and will not rank for any keywords within Finance, Real Estate, Travel, etc.. There are already 100s of sites already competing within those sub-niches, for example local CITY/STATE brokerage firms… Local travel agents, expedia… Local job boards.

People, get your sh*t together and try to focus… Some of the above posts make me laugh as it actually gives people hope but reality is that it is too much work and not worth it.

Focus on just the few main keywords with the most traffic. That is where all the money is and majority of traffic… If you get longtail search, that is just an added benefit and nice little surprise. You cannot get it all in very competitive niches within 300-500k+ monthly searched niches.

Amount of pages on a site don’t really matter. While 10 may be too little… That is just your own opinion.. Google has ranked countless sites of mine within 100k+ searched terms right at the top and I’ve secured the rankings for years now…

Now it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that if you have 10 pages of content and you are not getting anywhere lets say within 1 month you should add more content and do additional seo, but when does it stop? 100? 1000? heh… SEO 101, start with the basics and work as you go… it is a long process

]]> By: Develop Domains http://www.elliotsblog.com/update-on-site-graduate-websit/comment-page-1#comment-7534 Develop Domains Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:24:33 +0000 http://www.elliotsblog.com/index.php/1380/#comment-7534 This is great! I’m doing the exact same thing for a client that is targeting the Houston area real estate industry. So far we have 20 blogs that resemble that minisite and is proving extremely successful in gathering countless local leads. If anyone needs help developing a minisite, feel free to contact me. Dan This is great! I’m doing the exact same thing for a client that is targeting the Houston area real estate industry. So far we have 20 blogs that resemble that minisite and is proving extremely successful in gathering countless local leads.
If anyone needs help developing a minisite, feel free to contact me.
Dan

]]> By: Too Many Secrets http://www.elliotsblog.com/update-on-site-graduate-websit/comment-page-1#comment-7531 Too Many Secrets Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:54:18 +0000 http://www.elliotsblog.com/index.php/1380/#comment-7531 @Mike & Scott, Based on our experiences, @Rob is 100% right on this. If you want to compete with others, then a mini site won't cut it. Our experience is that 1000 pages tuned with good titles, internal linking with good anchor text and deep linking from external sources will get you in the top 10 and keep you there. I'd consider 'sushi restaurants' to be a competitive and 'sushi restaurants in san francisco' to be non-competitive. So if your domain is sushirestaurants.com and you have a mini site on it like Page does, you're not going to rank for the competitive term of 'sushi restaurants'. Mini sites work well for non-competitive niche keyword phrases and many people have built 100 or 500 of these mini sites to make $1 a day. But if you've got a great domain like sushirestaurants.com you are kissing a lot of money goodbye with a mini site. - Richard @Mike & Scott,

Based on our experiences, @Rob is 100% right on this.

If you want to compete with others, then a mini site won’t cut it. Our experience is that 1000 pages tuned with good titles, internal linking with good anchor text and deep linking from external sources will get you in the top 10 and keep you there.

I’d consider ’sushi restaurants’ to be a competitive and ’sushi restaurants in san francisco’ to be non-competitive.

So if your domain is sushirestaurants.com and you have a mini site on it like Page does, you’re not going to rank for the competitive term of ’sushi restaurants’.

Mini sites work well for non-competitive niche keyword phrases and many people have built 100 or 500 of these mini sites to make $1 a day. But if you’ve got a great domain like sushirestaurants.com you are kissing a lot of money goodbye with a mini site.

- Richard

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