Mini Site Profits Ebook Review - Phil Wiley

I bought a copy of the Mini Site Profits ebook today from Phil Wiley for $67. One situation I've seen when searching for a review or any discussion of any online marketing ebooks is that they're almost always just sales letters for the ebook rather than an actual review of it. I'm a Clickbank affiliate, but I am not promoting a link to Mini Site Profits. This is an honest review from a real affiliate webmaster in the business.

What I Liked About Mini Site Profits

The strategy outlined in Mini Site Profits is a clear and easily accomplished strategy. I suspect that some of Google Cash's inspiration came from this ebook, and it's entirely possible that with the recent changes in Adwords policies at Google that people are running back to Mini Site Profits for reference in a world where you can no longer buy traffic and send it directly to a merchant.

The core idea of the book is that you can build a mini site in a short period of time and create profits from it, especially if you do a great job of preselling the product. A minisite is defined in this book as a site that sells only one product or promotes only one affiliate program. Wiley sub-divides these mini-sites into micro mini sites, mini themed content sites, and value added mini sites. He gives a formular for creating mini-sites that do a great job of preselling affiliate programs, but I won't go into detail about that here other than to say that it might apply to some products but it could very easily not be appropriate for other products.

What I Would Change About Minisite Profits

Mini Site Profits was apparently published originally in 2001 which makes the ebook almost five years old. Unfortunately, in the affiliate marketing business, information can grow dated very quickly, and that would be my major criticism of this ebook. The information on search engine optimization is clearly dated--in fact there are several references to GoTo.com, which of course no longer exists. There are other references to smaller PPC engines that are no longer in operation.

What was most disappointing were the example sites, the majority of which are no longer online. I understand that ebooks are sometimes a product of when they're written, but when paying $67 for internet marketing information, you hope to find something that's been updated. Some great examples of ebooks that are constantly being updated are Aaron Wall's SEO Book, Planet Ocean's Unfair Advantage, and James Martell's Affiliate Handbook.

There are screenshots of some of the example minisites in both the examples section of the book and in the success stories section of the book, but many of the example websites are no longer online. This makes me question the effectiveness of the Minisite strategy. If it was a strong internet marketing strategy, I'd think most of those sites would be too profitable to let fall by the wayside. Or at least the majority of them would be. (That being said, I can understand that situations change, and a product that would be available and popular at one time might well become unavailable and not-so-popular later.)

Recommendation

To be a really worthwhile value, Mini Site Profits would need to be completely updated with example sites that are still live and with information about search engines that is current and up to date. I do not recommend this book at a price of $67, although if you're a raw beginner, you may find some value within. I think Google Cash would be an ideal value if you did decide to buy this book as a companion volume to it. The synergy of the Google Cash techniques and the Mini Site strategies might make a very good start to an online business for you. But if you have the money to spend, I recommend going with another product like Sitesell, James Martell's book, or even a good seo book and/or a Webmasterworld supporters subscription.