MiniSiteGallery.com

XSitePro v2 is just out. Now, everybody is promoting it. Me included…

Why I am promoting XSitePro? Because I have it. I use it. And I know that it really is a good software.

And I am going to admit it right here, I am an affiliate (have been since version 1). And I earn commission from the sales. It’s what I do to make a living…

So how do I tell you about XSitePro without appearing like a cheesy salesman?

It’s hard…

Let me tell you what I am going to do. I am going to tell you all the bad things about XSitePro first, before telling you why you should get it.

So here goes…

XSitePro - Who don’t need XSitePro…

It’s a funny place to start. But I want you to know right away if this is for you or not. If this is not for you, then you can steer clear from it.

Who won’t need XSitePro…

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I spent the last few days putting this short report together. Maybe I am taking too much time for a short 30-page rambling. I guess I am not a pro writer. I know that some of you can put together a 30-page report in just a few hours, clean, error free (no grammatical errors). I guess, that’s just the time that I need then… almost a week.

But anyway, I want to share with you about how to increase your online sales. So I sat down and started tapping the keyboard on my notebook. I thought it was going to be a 10-page report, but it turned into a 30-page ebook.

In the ebook, I shared a few tips and strategies on how you can increase your online sales. I talked about copywriting, crafting offers, PPC, web design… oh yea, also the Biggest Open Secret to increasing online sales.

I managed to put in some examples in there. The good ones, the bad ones, and the stupid ones.

I think you can finish this in 10 minutes. And I hope it’s going to be enjoyable read.

When you are done, please leave me a comment, send trackbacks from your blog and refer others to download it too.

One last thing, a shout out to Stephanie Trahd - thank you for editing this report for me.

THE PROBLEM WITH EBOOK COVER SOFTWARE

eBook cover software that I have seen in the past, the graphics that they generate were never up to par. Though claiming to use a 3D rendering engine, graphics created by ebook cover software are always very flat in color, very poor in lighting effects, and also very rough around the edges.

Your product graphic deosn’t look real at all. So you never really get to have that nice, photo-realistic ebook cover graphic.

I can name a few names, but I think you can easily do a few Google search and find them.

That is why I have always used Photoshop for my ebook covers. With Photoshop, you can apply filters, styles, effects and you will have a nicer, more real looking ebook covers.

AN EBOOK COVER SOFTWARE AS GOOD AS PHOTOHOP?

But in the past two weeks, I have been checking out another ebook cover software. I make it appoint to check the sample output graphics before I check out the software more thoroughly. What I saw surprised me. It is nothing like what I have seen from any other ebook cover software.

My first thought was, “No way! They must have use Photoshop, GIMP and Paintshop Pro for this.”

But that was just my thought. I still don’t know the truth. So I thought I’d check it out. I downloaded the trial version and tried it out. And what do you know, they do generate nicer ebook cover graphics. I am so happy with their e-covers that I upgraded from a trial version to a full version.

And the software is called Box Shot 3D.

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MiniSiteGallery.com is powered by WordPress, both the gallery and the blog. And recently WordPress released another new version, the 2.5.

There a lot of new improvements in WordPress 2.5, including nicer, more intuitive interface. But that’s not why I upgraded. You see, you need to follow with the currently supported version, with any software you use, especially if your business depends on it.

Upgrading to a new version can be a hassle. I was worried about plug-in compatibility. I have a few plug-ins that I use right now that is critical to make MiniSiteGallery to what it is right now. You may recognize some of them like the submission form, the ratings,etc… But I thought I had to give it a go to really know what could go wrong.

After looking around for awhile, I remember that I installed my WordPress at MiniSiteGallery.com using DreamHost’s One-Click Install. Yep, we are one DreamHost, an excellent web hosting if you ask me. So I looked back at my control panel if there anything like a One-Click Upgrade…

What do you know? They do!

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It’s official, Luvlee is the winner for the MiniSiteGallery.com Design Contest. She bags a $500 cash prize, and also prizes from sponsors, Viral Sales Generator (from Peter Koning), WP Affiliate Guide (from Teli Adlams) and 30-Minute Backlinks (from 30-Minute Backlinks).

In case you are wondering what I am talking about, launching MiniSiteGallery.com about one and half month ago, I announced a mini-site design contest. It’s a way for me to get more mini-site templates into the gallery. The contest attracted 12 new mini-site templates from 11 designers. Not bad to start a gallery. Together with my own templates, there are 14 mini-site templates that you can download and use for free.

For the contest, I leave it all to the website visitors to decide the winner. And Luvlee is the clear winner.

I also would like to take this opportunity to thank…
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I can get my ass on fire for this. I am doing a critique on a big website, with huge followings. Before you know it, I am gonna get my own websites being critiqued with all the mistakes I did. But anyway, I hope those who read this, even the people at Freelance Switch, will understand that my intentions are good…

If you don’t know about this, FreelanceSwitch.com is website for freelancers. They have a forum, a blog with awesome content, resources and recently, they released a book about freelancing. The title is How To Be A Rockstar Freelancer. If you are web designer, web developer, graphic designer, etc, you may want to check this website out.

But anyway, back to the book, I am sure the book is great. Honestly, I haven’t read it yet, but this post is not about that… It’s about how well they are selling it from their website. Before I get on with my comments and critiques, I don’t know how well (or how bad) they are selling the book, but at any level, I am sure they can improve.

Let me show you what I mean…

As you can see, I have highlighted four areas (five, one more at a screen shot below).

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DIYeBookCover.com is the first sales letter mini-site. It’s a great example how I use mini-sites to make money online - by selling products.

My first actual website is a content mini-site about computer cases. Then, I tried my hands on list building by putting together a long sales letter squeeze page. Yep, a sales letter just to get people into my mailing list. That was MoneyClicking.net, which is now my blog.

Then later, I created my first product - DIYeBookCover.com.

Back then, DIYeBookCover.com was a set of videos on how to create your own ebook cover using Photoshop Elements 2. And not too long after that, Adobe came up with Elements 3, and then 4. That’s when I stop selling DIYeBookCover.com. I felt that my videos were too outdated.

Anyway, a few months back, I thought I’d repackage DIY eBook Cover with some Photoshop Action scripts and start selling them again. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a set of instructions and commands that you can install in your Photoshop. I recorded all the steps needed to create a bunch of e-cover graphics, and now I am selling them as Photoshop Action scripts.

You can use this script and with just a few mouse clicks, you’ll a nice looking e-cover to represent your product. It’s just a simple 3-step process. Step 1, open the template layout file. Step 2, run the render action script to create your e-cover. Step 3, save it as web graphic.

It’s that easy.

With the new DIY eBook Cover, you can choose to represent your product online in 51 different ways. You can choose e-cover designs ranging from CDs, DVDs, books, ring binders, software box, even iPod and PDA and more…

Apart from that, I also maintain a few of the components from the original DIY eBook Cover. Customers will also get the eBook Layout Strategy Videos and also 51 eBook Cover Templates to get them started.

If you need great looking e-covers, you better check it out now…

[+] http://www.DIYeBookCover.com

Before you get eager about marketing on the Internet with mini-sites, I think you should be clear about the types of mini-sites that you can build. These mini-sites are different, depending on the objective of the site and also the structure.

In general, I consider mini-site as a website that is easy and simple in structure and very narrow (probably deep) in topic.

1 - Sales Letter Mini-Site

This is normally a simple 1-page website (not including download page, support page, etc). It contains a direct response sales copy convincing the website visitors to buy a product.

I am sure you’ve seen a lot of these. You can go to any websites from the ClickBank Marketplace and 99% of them are Sales Letter Mini Sites.

Whatever you do online, ultimately you want to have your own product. You make more money that way. And when you do, this is the type of website you want to have.

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When creating mini-sites, most of the times your mini-site is just a static HTML web page (no fancy content management or dynamically update content). In some mini-sites, you may not be selling something at all.

You could be creating a landing page for affiliate programs, a special web page with video, a special ebook download page, etc…

In the past few days, I created a mini-site, with only a few pages. Each page has a video that I created with Camtasia. And I wanted to know what people think of the video. So I thought that I should add a commenting system to the pages.

When you run a blog, you have the commenting system built-in. But with a static page, how do you add a commenting system to it.

I needed that. So I search around looking for a commenting system.

And I found a great one by GentleSource.com

Check it out - http://www.gentlesource.com/comment-script/

What I like about it is that it’s packed with features. You can set it up with Akismet (Wordpress’ anti-spam system), Captcha image, IP blocking, flood protection, Text Link Ads integration, word filter and many more.

One feature that I hope they add later is AJAX commenting. With AJAX, perhaps the page doesn’t have to load everytime you add a comment. AJAX commenting is something that you see at YouTube.com. You see that you can add a comment, but the video does not reload.

Perhaps I will do another post later explaining what AJAX is all about and how you can use them in your online marketing.

Alright, so I am adding a forum to MiniSiteGallery.com.

After giving it some thought, I really feel that we need a forum that talks all about mini-sites. I hope you feel that same way, and help me out with this. A forum is not a forum when it doesn’t have members participating, discussing, debating about topics.

I started one thread, asking members about what they think with me adding this forum. Why don’t you step in and tell me what you think.

You know what, I remember a book I need to read. It’s by Patrick O’keefe (who is a *really* accomplished entrepreneur and webmaster). It’s all about starting, marketing, running a forum. I’ll be reviewing this book soon (plus reading it for my own projects). Just thought I’d share this for now.