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).
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 I felt that my videos were too outdated.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…
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.
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.
So here comes March 2008. A few designers have submitted their designs to be judged by you.
In the month of March 2008, I want you to rate the designs you see in this gallery. Because by 1 April 2008, one of these designers will walk away with $500 cash prize. Not only that, but also a copy of Viral Sales Generator, a copy of 30-Minute Backlinks and a copy of WP Affiliate Guide.
So, I want you to be honest and rate as many design templates as you can. There are about 15 designs right now. I do hope you can rate all 15…
Who wins … it depends on you…
Teli Adlam is a friend I know from way back when I was in TurningIdeasIntoDollars.com. She really is a WordPress pro. I can bet that you can ask her anything about WordPress and she’ll have a solid answer for you…
Teli just contacted me that she’s contributing WP Affiliate Guide to the Contest prizes. WP Affiliate Guide consists of guide, videos, private site access to information on how to use wordpress to build affiliate sites.
WordPress really is a great tool and a powerful content management. Of course it requires a little learning curve. But if you can tame this beast, you can really have a great tool to build optimized affiliate sites faster than ever. And the best thing, WordPress can also help you with traffic.
So, the winner of the Mini-Site Design Contest will also get this. On top of that, there’s also the $500 cash prize, 30-Minute Backlinks and Viral Sales Generator.
Well, it seems like the designers like to wait till the very last minute…
As the dateline approaches for the Mini-Site Design Contest, I am seeing more and more mini site templates being submitted. Apart from my two mini site templates, as of now, you can also see eight others which are
I expect to see a few more before the dateline closes.
What happens after the dateline closes? Well, you can still submit your designs to be showcased in MiniSiteGallery.com. In fact, I welcome them. But it won’t be running for the contest. I am sorry, I laid out the rules clearly. If you want to submit your design, you better be quick.
Oh yeah, and I will also activate the voting and rating plugin. And I need your help to be the judge.
So … who do you think will win?
Here’s good news.
As you know, I am doing all that I can to promote MiniSiteGallery.com Mini-Site Design Contest. And along that line, I have secured two more prizes from sponsors. These prizes came from Michelle MacPhearson and Peter Koning.
Michelle MacPhearson has contributed her latest product, 30-Minute Backlinks. Selling at $100, this product will show you how to build a massive network of one-way links from high Pagerank sites. All that you need is just 30 minutes. And no technical knowledge is required.
Peter Koning has contributed Viral Sales Generator. Viral Sales Generator is a web software to power the creation and maintenance of a viral membership site. With Viral Sales Generator, you can create a website that offers free memberships, offers one-time offer and reward members for more referrals. What’s great about Viral Sales Generator is its in-depth reporting tool, administration panel and user-friendly member’s panel. Viral Sales Generator is what I use to power my OptinDesign.com.
Alright, I need to get more mini-site templates into this gallery. So I am doing a mini-site design contest. And the late entry date is on 29 February 2008. Mini-site templates submitted after that date will still be included in the gallery, but not for the contest.
After that, I will activate the voting plugin for website visitors to vote for the winner. Last voting date is 31 March 2008. And on 1 April 2008, I will announce the winner.
Recently, I just emailed my list and invited them to join this contest. And I am trying to get more exposure from friends and colleagues too. I also mentioned about sponsorship if anybody is interested. And just this morning, my friend Peter Koning from Viral Sales Generator is contributing a copy of that famous software.
In case you don’t know, VSG is what I use for my OptinDesign.com.
Oh yeah, on top of that, I am also putting aside my own $500 for cash prize.
You can read more about the contest at the gallery.
You can also learn about mini site template submission guideline at my submission page.
Oh yeah… I am still open for sponsors… write in if you’d like to be like Peter Koning to know about that.
