Nice topic. RSSMini or MiniFolder are very nice, but they just don't see to get the kind of traffic you would expect. I don't think it's a duplicate content problem. I think most of the feeds that are being run on the sites are different enough to pass, but I think the lack of proper optimization is what hurts them. It could also be that Google knows that sites with the RSSMini sites are what they are and so discounts them.
I've added an RSSMini to a search engine site and I see now it looks like it's been banned:
http://www.sundewsearch.com/plant-news/ The last time I looked it was a PR0...
My MiniFolder
Natto site is still PR0, but it's not too old yet and I think I need more links to it.
Check out my OJDL.com site. You can see the link to the free script it uses. If you have a lot of files, you can use this script to make a pretty cool site very easily. The script makes its own "menu" of files and folders. Create nice keyword folders and you build in some optimization. Notice how the ad topics follow the folders. Heck, I have to find some martgage application forms or something else...
Some affiliate programs provide you with pages for a site. I have one like that and while you might think that using the same pages as a number of other sites would not work, it is for me, at least so far:
www.Big-Zoo.us Of course if you customize your site, you can insure you don't get hurt for running a duplicate site. On this one I have made some changes, done some optimization, and you will notice that I'm ALSO running AdSense, so if someone hits the site and doesn't want a phone card, I may still make a few cents off them...
And my last secret that I will share is press releases. PR make very good content and there is no problem with copyright issues. What I do is use blogger for some sites like
www.security-guard.org, and use the PR to create posts. It gives me lots of content that is fresher than article sites, and if I create a unique blog post title, I don't duplicate any other PR posts that may be out there.
Most of these things work pretty well as you can see from the PageRank of the sites, but to be honest with you I am not making much money from them. I have not mentioned my two best sites that make about 80% of my monthly site income. Both sites are very different, but the thing they have in common is that they both have lots and lots of content. Consultant-Directory.com and Bizprolink-Internet.com.
Like link building campaigns [Because I have a dedicated Link builder of my own] OnPage SEO etc.
