Top five reasons not to use mini site domain development services!

[abhishekjha]

topic: Top five reasons not to use mini site domain development services! Especially Rick Latona's Aeiou... They lie!

here is what not me but a better domainer is telling.

extract: "I've wrote on multiple occasions over the past few month's about all those mini site developers out there offering their specialized services geared towards large domain portfolio holders in particular. I didn't really get into any details or reviews about any one given service or offering, I just covered the basics and exposed the flaws in their strategies and whatever else with what they are trying to accomplish and just in a general why what they do will never work. It doesn't work. It doesn't stand a chance...."

read full details at link: Mini Site Domain Development, Top Five Reasons Not To Use AEIOU, WhyPark, etc...

let me know your thoughts on this!

[newyorkdude]

The page took forever to load. Makes me wonder how smart the page developer is.

Like the page writer, I don't know Rick Latona and don't want to bad-mouth him. So let me just say Latona's prices seem unreal to me. I can't imagine anyone on this board who is from India or who knows India would ever touch any of Latona's pricey goods.

It would have been helpful if the writer had written about other services too. I would like to read what he has to say about DevHub.

[mwzd]

The only reason that particular blogger bad mouths other development services is that he offers competing services.

Don't be a part of the herd, use your own common sense.

I'd trust Rick's service over any multitude of services being offered for the simple reason that he will deliver what is promised, he has too much to lose by not delivering. Take a gander - RickLatona.com | Domains, Development, Auctions and Financing | Welcome to RickLatona.com

[newyorkdude]

I'd trust Rick's service over any multitude of services being offered for the simple reason that he will deliver what is promised, he has too much to lose by not delivering.

Pardon me but your 'reason' makes no sense to me. There are many, many competitors who deliver what they promise. And almost everyone in business has a lot to lose by not delivering. It still seems to me that Latona's prices are way steep, regardless.

[itssri]

AbhishekJha,

Your thread title does not match the discussion you started and I dare say both of them - your title and the 3rd party review referred by you are very wrong.

That reviewer is just bad-mouthing Rick in a way that would seem like he was personally duped by Rick, and he goes on to say in the end that he never met or interacted with Rick. But, he sure sounded like he had an axe to grind. I am surprised that Rick hasn't charged him with libel yet!

That 3rd party again reviews some other services on another page and there are some comments there but instead of engaging in fruitful discussion he obstinately defends his wrong stance (and misrepresented facts).

As far as mini-sites are considered - there can be no reason not to go for them unless you have an actual business plan for the domain. A mini-site is not the end-all for a domain though - it's just a better alternative to plain parking.

Regarding prices, they range from 100 to 1000 and no one forces anyone to buy anyone's service. The customers choose what they like. They also may or may not remain loyal.

The domaining industry is still a nascent industry and it would do good if everyone worked with healthy competitive spirit and got along with everyone else in the domainers and developer communities.

Cheers!

[newyorkdude]

Rick Latona announced he is going out of the minisite business. That announcements puts many of the earlier posts in this thread in a very different light.

[msdomains]

Aeiou's going out business is a surprise (or not) given that their services did not match up to their advertising promises. I got 10 minisites developed as a package based on a discount offer($1695) and they collectively earned a whopping $7 in 4 months! Their marketing manager told me to have patience at first but after seeing the performance when I contacted them that not much changed even a month later, all they said was

There are many things that you can do to increase the traffic to your sites. You can add more pages of relevant content, you could add more links to your site and you can pay for advertising. These are just some things that you can do to increase traffic to your site. With more traffic being driven to your site you should see more clicks and more revenue.

Thank you for your business and please let me know if you have any questions.

So much for support! And 15 days later they are out of business.

[newyorkdude]

WOW!!!! That's a horror story people should know about.

If you are willing to draw attention to yourself you might write an article and post it on some websites that have dealings in minisites. For instance, domaining.com is a daily digest of articles mostly by domaining professionals for domaining professionals. There are other sites with information about minisites.

If you publish your experiences, be prepared for Rick Latona to respond. The exchange of ideas could get heated.

[abhishekjha]

LOL!

msdomains- you provided the sixth reason "NOT to use any minisite development services" & thus make my thread stronger with an end-user feedback.

AEIOU- and thats a ricklatona brand and it sucks coz ricklatona was always a brilliant domainer, not a brilliant webmaster nor a brilliant market research specialist.. what i predicted the end of the minisite development services is almost true and such a rich coctail drinker is out-of-business.

he doesnt care whether google adsense bans rick shwartz with $0 in ads or your minisite doesnt work.. he just got his millions and is happy on his chair at the cocktail stall..

maybe he should do some market research before buying silly domains like aeiou and doing even siller businesses with it which can spoil all his reputation which took years for him to make online.

my next prediction is the end of cctlds.com - see it happen in front of your eyes with a dying community and no buyers of domains- just sellers flaunting how well they managed to spoil their money on a big-shot domain.

my advice: its always better to hire
1>a web developer who makes each and every site of yours a purely attractive & custom-made one(not the ones which minisite services make all of em look all like the same) and try to develop the domain in its full niche(like auction.com should be something more like ebay. games.com should be more like a fully-real gaming portal) rather than an easy minisite or blog.
2>if its a blog then hire ghostwriters every week or on a monthly basis to write copy-scape passed 100% original content on the website's niche, else hire developers to add more games, cool plugins, widgets stuff which your users will like.
3>hire seo specialists once a year to update your site for latest seo customized one to rank higher in search engines
4>hire internet marketers(sem experts) who can manage your advertising campaigns better and you will save a lot of money too in online advertising
5>read webmaster and promotion books, tutorials to learn hoe to code your site yourself and save a lot of money rather than books like 'how to be a millionaire selling domains' & 'how to buy a whole house buying domains on ebay'.

all this will costs thousands but if you were not spoiling money buying a $1 million domain then you could definitely have enough money to develop and actually learn and earn a lot more from fully-developed websites.

learning website development is a lot more fun , challenging & money-making than domaining itself but takes a lot more time & experience than you spend with domains. try it out and see a difference as 'you will be the only person who can make your own dream website the way you want without any money and bring a whole lot of satisfaction to yourself with it... & no body else can do it for you in that same way!'. just try it out and see the difference!

[skyshipper]

Hmm.., well hard not to be critical of the service, however one has to use tact while investing, $xxx for a minisite is just not practical,as without other peripherals (seo,ads,..) its as good as parked! on adsense for domains,or even sedo(*_*)
Liked nYdudes post on minisites using blogger (or wordpress also) and so many parking companies have sprung up which offers similar looking (and better optimised) services for free;the turn of events is not surprising!
Can't blame anyone for offering such a service,it was what it was! just minisites(maybe the words were mirrored or high(er) hopes were attached, to the proactive publicity and sales buzz.(and high price)
But i guess, lessons learnt the hard way,both for buyer and seller?