Blinkweb vs Weebly

June 25th, 2008 · 11 Comments

I have new comments concerning my original Blinkweb post:

I’ll keep this short. (when have I ever made any of this shit short?) No really, I promise. (tough it out. IM is all about broken promises) I tried Blinkweb this weekend. (I didn’t dig deep enough. told you I was lazy) So far it’s crap. At least for what I’d want to use it for. (actually it’s not crap) Try Weebly.com instead. (they are the same) The tools are far better. (not really but I still like Weebly a little better. must be the templates.) Sure you’ll have to agree to rev share 50/50, but something is better than nothing. (Blinkweb doesn’t appear to have this problem. Adsense is far more customizable which may not actually be a good thing) Plus you’re not building these sites as anything more than to feed your other sites some links. (who knows? maybe you’ll become rich building 100 of these little jewels) Though I think all things considered, I’d just assume build Squidoo lens. (actually I’d rather go mtn biking, watch my daughters play softball or ride a snowboard)

I don’t think either is better than the other at this point. Choose one, build something and get links. I built this little Weebly site on wine gifts in less than 10 minutes. That includes a little rewrite and changing templates 3 times to see what’s what. I busted this Blinkweb site on beginning photography tips out in about 30 minutes. I had two separate elements, a blog and a page, which slowed me down.I bet the next one I build can be completed in about 15 minutes since I now know what I’m doing.

They are the same builder. If I didn’t know better I’d say Blinkweb ripped off Weebly. There is nothing much different except Blinkweb has the blog and salespage. But Weebly allows you to add more pages, more easily in a sidebar. It doesn’t look like you have to rev share with Blnkweb so that is a huge thumbs up.

I was quick to dismiss Blinkweb. So shoot me. I can find value in each. I do not, however, find either one any easier than Squidoo. It’s still all about content. I am curious to see if either one gets in the SERP doghouse like Squidoo, and maybe Hubpages, seems to have a tendancy of doing.

Tags: Weblog

11 responses so far ↓

Dave O // Jun 25, 2008 at 10:15 pm

My head is spinning when it comes to blinkweb, weebly, hubpages, and squidoo. How are they better at providing links than a blogspot blog?

I am still new to all this and am trying to digest all the info out there.

Thanks,
Dave
Splork // Jun 26, 2008 at 6:40 am

Hey Dave. They are just another way of getting links. In a perfect world, with plenty of time and motivation, you would build a blogger blog, lens, hubpage, blinkweb and weebly site to serve links to your “money/authority site.”
Maybe your “money site” is at Blogger. Groovy. Build sites at Blinkweb, Weebly, etc. to send links to your Blogger blog.

Don’t let all the info out there confuse the issue. I’ve been there and I know the feeling well. Just create/obtain content (video, text, photos, etc) and simply deliver it to people. There are a ton of delivery systems out there. Your job is to deliver the content and help people find it. That’s it.

Hopefully this isn’t over simplifying things: If you are working a niche on string beans you’ll probably have one main site that you want to funnel people to. It could be a static site built with an HTML editor or it could be a Wordpress blog. Even a Blogger blog. But you could have a lens with 1,500 words on the joys of string beans at Squidoo with a link pointed at your blog. An additional blog at Blogger talking about how to grow string beans with links back to your main site. A hubpage detailing how to eat string beans with a link back to your main site. Maybe 3 more hubpages, each on the different ways to harvest the string bean. You could build little mini-pages at Weebly with photos of string beans. Maybe at Blinkweb you have tons of string bean harvesting videos…yep, with links back to your main site. Some of the “auxillary” sites, pointing to your main site could be monetized with an affiliate product or Adsense. But mainly you are getting authority and traffic to your main site. Hope that makes sense and is not confusing.
John Matenkosky // Jun 26, 2008 at 4:51 pm

Nice job on the string bean niche, Splork… let’s take it a step further… since we’re selling string bean seeds on our main page, let’s say we have just green and yellow to keep it simple.

If the main site is http://www.stringbeanseeds.com, how would you deal with the varieties: sbs.com/green and sbs.com/yellow? yellow.sbs.com and green.sbs.com? ysbs.com and gsbs.com? somethin’ else?
Splork // Jun 27, 2008 at 6:26 am

Personally I’d probably just hang the varieties off the main site as subdomains. I do as much with niches like home improvement. I hang basement remodeling, decks, porches, etc. off the main targeting extremely specific keyword phrases.

Other people might create the different colors of beans as their own mini authority site on different .coms, ideally on different hosts with links back to big mama. Each mini authority site would have links into it from hubpages, squidoo, etc. If I had a niche that I really liked, that could be built out like that, it’s what I would do.
kc // Jun 27, 2008 at 1:20 pm

Splork, you’ve mentioned you bought both link luv post builder as well as utility poster. You’ve discussed the merits and the reasons you bought the 2 similar s/w.

Similarly, you mentioned you mentioned you have both BANS as well as STORE STACKER… could you also highlight the whys and the merits of the 2 similar s/w? I am sure your views will be helpful to those sitting on the fence, like me, looking for the right buy… thks.
Splork // Jun 27, 2008 at 1:52 pm

BANS was a freakin mistake. Straight up mistake. I got caught drinking the BU kool-aid and was trying that method. It didn’t work for me. I use StoreStacker to build stores off blogs and XSP sites. It’s adequate but realize that the templates are slim. And they are not very easy to create or modify. I like that SS gives you options other than simply eBay. Your expectations for either should be tempered. You can’t expect to create a store and visitors show up to buy. You have to do all those crappy things necessary to get traffic that you would for any other property on the web.

That said, eff them both. I haven’t really built a SS in a month. I’ve built a ton of Blogger blogs with the eBay widget or Shareasale “Make a Page” or CJ’s “Showcase Builder”. It’s every bit as good as BANS or SS. Easy to modify. Quick. Cheap. Take a read at Optempo and Frank’s discussion about the EPN Toolkit Widgets if you’re interested.
kc // Jun 27, 2008 at 4:03 pm

Thanks Splork. For your info I have been reading your blog for abt 2 years now. I dig your forthrightness and the analytical discussions here enough to bookmark it and purchased the recommendations thru the links in this blog sometimes. Your postings have indeed helped me in my internet journey more than I can ever thank you. On the other hand, and I reckon like other IMers too, I have recd MANY emails from self professed, supposedly biggies or so- called internet “authorities” (but actually blood suckers) thru opt-ins. To which I casually delete without openning to read abt their recommendation/s of the day. In particular, I am wary of the hype and crap by famous marketeers touting their “special” templates/ “expensive” training programs that are in fact branded garbage if you know what I mean
Splork // Jun 27, 2008 at 5:15 pm

Thanks for reading kc. Hope I’ve been able to help a bit.
David O // Jun 28, 2008 at 10:15 pm

Just wanted to echo kc’s sentiments. The only MMO sites I have on my RSS is Court’s, Griz’s, and yours. So your in good company. I am very much a noob to IMing but I could spot BU a mile away.

Fantastic example with the string beans. I have a sniper site and was wondering how to expand the sniper site to include other related keywords (grow it sideways). Maybe subdomains are the way to do it?

Thanks,
Dave
Splork // Jun 29, 2008 at 7:37 am

I don’t think subdomains can hurt. All I know is I make money with subdomains. I have some that are hanging off a general domain. Each subdomain has nothing to do with the next. And then I have some that are related liked the home improvement crap.

Honestly all this amounts to two things for me: Finding a product that people will buy and finding a keyword that I can snipe that will drive people to the site to buy it. It doesn’t matter if my site is Blogger, Wordpress or XSP, domain or subdomain. I target a product/subject and I get links with a few very specific keywords. It works.
Mark // Jul 11, 2008 at 8:24 pm

This has got to be some of the more useful and honest information I have seen on the subject of internet marketing. I have been so confused for like 8 months now trying to actually make only $5 a month on my battery of sites! I’m at $1 a month and not one affiliate sale yet! I don’t think this is as easy as it is made out to be. You need like 8-10 hrs a day to work on this stuff. Maybe I just have too many sites.

I get so confused as to what I should have, what blogs, what lenses, how many of each, how to connect them with links and when and when not to duplicate content on each! Surely some content is duplicated?

Is the goal just to have a bunch of one page type sites or blogs, lenses, etc. that all basically serve little purpose but to dish up a little information, and then link back to a main and larger site?

What if you just build like 50 Blinkweb one page sites, each one on a related but different keyword, make each a subdomain of the main site and link them back to your main site. Would this be banned at all, or would this work to build your page ranking and traffic?