May 9,
2004Mini Site or Content-Based Site?
by Herman Drost
Are you in a dilemma whether to create a mini site or a content-based web site for your
new product or service? The purpose of creating a web site should be to attract visitors
and convert them to paying customers. Is a mini site with a few pages enough to do this or
should you spend more time and create a content-based web site which contains many content
pages?
Let's look at some of the Pros and Cons:
Mini Sites
Pros
1. Easy to set up - you don't have to be a programmer these days to create a mini site.
Web site templates or software allow most of the work to be done already.
2. Little time - you could create a mini site within one day if you have your entire
content ready to go.
3. Laser focused on selling one product or service - a mini site can simply be one long
sales page with an order button at the end.
4. No distractions - customers are distracted by other options on the web site. With no
banners or links to other sites, the customer can be directed to purchase immediately.
5. Inexpensive to create - if you use a free hosting account (not recommended), you
would just pay for
registering a domain name  . Paid hosting services for a mini site can be
acquired for only $30/year.
Cons
1. Difficult for search engines to spider - a web site containing many relevant pages
of content will tend to rank higher in the search engines than a one page mini site.
2. Lacks pages of content - mini sites often lack in-depth information about their
product or service.
3. Difficult to increase link popularity - getting links from other web sites increases
your link popularity. Webmasters form other sites want to link to a web site which
contains valuable information that expands their visitors experience.
4. Less traffic - less pages means fewer chances for people to find your site in the
search engines, thereby limiting the amount of traffic your web site receives.
Content-based web sites
Pros
1. Search engine friendly - creating a content-based page for every targeted keyword
will enable visitors to enter from numerous points within your site.
2. Easy to acquire links from other sites - webmasters want to link to web sites that
will expand their visitors experience by providing more information (ie articles) or
simplify their tasks (ie software).
3. Become an authority on your product or service - adding pages of content related to
your product, helps people to make an informative decision before purchasing.
4. Lots of traffic - creating lots of keyword focused pages and acquiring incoming and
outgoing links to and from other sites generates lots of free traffic.
Cons
1. Too many options - customers can become indecisive if their are too many options to
choose from.
2. Too many links to other web sites - this may take visitors away from your site and
not return. Ideally you want to keep them at your site.
3. Can be expensive to build - content-based sites can cost thousands of dollars to
develop if you take into account the cost of graphics and/or hiring someone to build it
for you.
4. Takes a lot of time to develop the web site - building content-based pages takes
time. It may take several years to create hundreds of content-based pages.
5. Attracts "tire kickers" - visitors want to look around to glean free
information but may never buy.
Conclusion:
Before you decide on what type of web site to develop, first think of the purpose of
your site. If you just need a sales page and want to drive targeted traffic to your site
using paid advertising (ie paid per click search engines, ezine ads) then a mini site
could be sufficient.
If you plan on becoming an authority on your product or service and want to attract
lots of free search engine traffic, then a content-based web site will serve you better.
Alternatively, you may create a combination of the two ie begin with a mini site,
leaving room to expand it to a larger content-based web site in the future.
About the Author
Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW) owner and author of http://www.iSiteBuild.com , Affordable Web Site
Design and Low Cost Web Hosting Subscribe to his “Marketing Tips” newsletter for
more original articles. subscribe@isitebuild.com
. You can read more of his in-depth articles at: http://www.isitebuild.com/articles .
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