Mini Websites are typically small (1-10 page websites). The main use of mini websites is for affiliate marketing, where small sales sites (mini-sites) are specially created to sell/promote a particular product or service.
Why Mini Websites?
Most webmasters rely on search engines to deliver them free traffic and hence customers.
In the early days of the web the main source of revenue for webmasters came from affiliate programs and banner advertising.
Search engines, in particular Google, favour content heavy websites. Therefore in order to get reasonable amounts of web traffic webmasters would create large content based websites
This website building model is still practised today and is the one I and many others use. However; heavy content websites (100+ pages) take time to build.
If you have a product that has a short sales life its impractical to build a 100 page website just to promote it. Hence the birth of the mini site, which is a website constructed around either selling or promoting a single product, service or event.
Mini WebSite Problems and Solutions
The problem with these type of sites is that, because they don't have much content, they don't usually rank very well in the search engines. Therefore they cannot rely on free search engine traffic and need to be promoted by other methods - the main ones being:
- PPC (pay per click) advertising
- Press releases and other offline methods
- Email/Ezine announcements.
- Articles.
Uses and Design
The main use of mini web sites is for selling/promoting a single product , service or even event like a rock concert. They are also used for customer/product support and feedback.
They consist of a home page + optional pages
Optional pages are typically:
- Order page
- Contact page
- Legal page
- Testimonials
- FAQ (frequently asked questions)
