October 6, 2008
Revenge Of The Minisite
It seems to me that blogs are becoming more and more the norm when it comes to setting up a niche based website. The problem with using a blog is that, unless you invest some time in configuring the right template, layout and settings, you offer the visitor far too many choices.
Just look at this blog.. there are lots of navigation links, there are links to other sites in the sidebars and almost every post contains an external link.
Blogs are great for building relationships with your readers, they are an excellent branding tool and they will certainly help to build your credibility as an expert within your chosen niche.
However, the blog was not designed as a selling platform.
Perhaps we have become too lazy, or maybe we've come to be far too reliant upon the blog as our tool of choice when setting up new sites?
If you want to sell a free ezine subscription, if you want to sell a free report or if you want to sell an ebook.. then you need to provide your visitor with a much more linear path to follow than offered by the blog.
So, the next time you want to offer your visitor with an offer you'd prefer that they don't refuse please consider the Minisite.
The minisite is designed to sell. When the reader lands on your site, you need to grab their attention with a benefit rich headline, you should draw them into your sales copy with a story, make them curious, build their interest and then persuade them that your offer matches their desire. Finally, close the deal.. tell them exactly what you want them to do!
Your Minisite can include a squeeze page, a simple sales page or a combination of the two. If you want to increase your sales revenue you might consider adding a One-Time-Offer.
It's easy to set up a minisite these days, there are lots of graphic designers who will create a minisite for you, you can use one of the many minisite templates that are available or you can do it yourself with the Minisite Kit which contains all the elements you could possibly need to build your own minisite.
Comments on Revenge Of The Minisite »
WordPress Made Easy » Blogs versus Minisites - do you make this mistake too? @ 1:34 pm
[...] is called Revenge of the Minisite from John Taylor and brings up something I was aware of and recommend to client's but have [...]
It's an interesting pickle really. Blogs are easier to setup and maintain but mini sites drive traffic to the funnels you want. That's one of the reasons that I love using traditional blog packages like WordPress to power Mini Sites, it gives users the best of both worlds.
Hi Christopher,
I like the use of the word "pickle"
I appreciate your comments, but I still feel that using a blog rather than a minisite is over-engineering the solution and will vastly underuse the power of the blog.