There is a lot of buzz about BANS lately, so I decided to check them out for myself. It stands for Build A Niche Store, and is a complete system for developing niche online stores around eBay's affiliate program.
What interests me most about testing BANS is the success I've had with eBay's affiliate program in the past. eBay is like Amazon in that it ends to convert well simply because it is a household name. And not only do you get paid a percentage of every sale your site generates, but you also get paid $25 commission for every new eBay registration.
Obviously eBay covers a wide range of niches, so there is no end to the potential. You could get really creative with this one. I'm planning to sit down over the weekend and do just that 😉 .
Several people have already asked for my opinion on BANS, so I'll post a full review and also show you the niche store that I create once I walk through the program. Keep an eye out for it here at ClickNewz, as I'll publish full details here in the review section.
Best,
Technorati Tags: bans, build a niche store, ebay affiliates, ebay affiliate program, ebay stores, niche marketing, make money online, create a website, affiliate sites, affiliate marketing
About Lynn Terry
I look forward to reading your upcoming review. I had never heard of this until now but looks interesting!
Ditto! Ideas are already buzzing through my head about which niche I will focus on for my test drive 😉
Interesting! I have not heard about this until now. Can't wait to read your upcoming review and which niche you will do for your test drive.
I am looking forward to it! 🙂
Cannot wait a second longer to read your review
The ebay aff program is very versatile but you need to have fairly high traffic sites to get good CPMs. They also have the text link units which pay .15$ per click which can be far superior to Adsense on some sites.
Oh no, what are you doing to me Lynn? lol I never heard of this before, but after reading your second post about this program I'm now verrrrry interested.
LOL Nell - that's exactly what I said! 😉
I justified my interest in yet another project by approaching it as a product review. But truth be known... I just HAD to try it
I got my copy of BANS last week and have been having a lot of fun with it. Once you get through the first store (which I am about 1/2 way through) I can see this will be easy to set up and fun to design as many stores as you want. I had a bump in the start and went to the great [help] forum and then got a resolution from Adam, one of the guys who came up with BANS. They are working on & getting ready to upgrade - all of which are free. I will be interested to see your take.
Excellent - thanks for sharing your experience Sherri. The members only forum looks like an awesome resource. I look forward to getting involved there!
Well Lynn you've just added another figure into the equation -- I'm really interested in your experiences and recommendations about this -- now I'm trying to figure out whether to go with the Datafeed Import Script you've recommended, the staticblogging thing (also recommended), something called Semiologic Pro (similar, kinda related) and now BANS. And I can't remember if there was something else that was similar / along these lines. (call me overwhelmed)
How to choose? Hard for a relative newbie (a nonprogramming/non-techie, still steeply on the learning curve -- and really wanting to learn) to really comprehend this stuff and how it works -- does any of it work together or they all separate things? I don't know. I look forward to your recommendations!
YOU have the BEST site I have ever come across BTW -- thanks so much for this -- you are apparently a legend and I have seen your name/site referred to so many places now I am glad I came on over.
P.S. Do you subscribe to the ebay market research (cheap for a quick 2 days to what seems expensive) in order to get the nitty gritty of what's selling?
see? ... totally unfamiliar with what's the real deal and what's just wasted $$, especially when getting started. thx
I dont subscribe to that, but will look into it.
As for which solution is right for you, it really depends on what you want to get into. As someone who is new to it all, I recommend you start simple. BANS is simple - but wait for part 2 of the review (part 1 is already published) and follow along first... so you can get a good feel for what to expect and whether it seems like a good fit for you.
BANS is great but I am not staying in USA so I got problem getting my eBay affiliate account approved.
Any workaround ?
Did they decline your request to join the program, David - or were you already an affiliate and got dropped?
Lynn,
I can't keep up with you! This looks really interesting to me.
Can you customize each store to look different than anyone else's?
You sure can! I actually have a 3-part review published on BANS now, which includes screen shots and a link to my own BANS site which I created during the review.
See: http://www.clicknewz.com/1227/bans-review-part-3-developing-a-bans-site/
BUT - check this out first: 😉
WAIT! Dont Order BANS! (Must See This First)
I had no idea that ebay had an affiliate program! I am actually going to check it out right now. Has anyone else had success with this program?
Just a tip on bans for whoever wants it. With bans the way I work it is like this: First I get a reseller account at hostgator so I can host as many sites as I want. Then I purchased 100 domains from godaddy when the dot info domains were on sale for .99 cents. I then uploaded bans and installed all 100 sites.
For each site create just three pages. The index and two more pages. Browse through ebay and look at some of the products to get ideas on long tail keywords that include the brand name. Do your keyword research and check the top competition for your chosen long tail keyword.
If the competition doesn't have many anchor text with your keyword then it's probably a good niche. Even if the have high PR it wont matter if they don't have your keyword as a main anchor text on their backlinks.
Keep each bans site to three pages only. Super focus each page on it's own single keyword.
write some lame content and stuff it with keywords.
Due to the nature of bans sites being refreshed by ebay (when products expire etc...) you should rank well quickly. But as soon as google figures out it's an ebay store you will drop in rankings to where you really belong. That's why it is important, as soon as you set up your first site, to start getting tons of links with your keyword anchor text.
For each bans site I create I write three articles and submit them with article submission software. While that's happening I use Bookmarking Demon to grab about another 400 links from bookmarking sites. After that I use directory submission software to submit like crazy. Then I use real link finder or comment demon to find relevant blogs to comment on for links. Then....I'm done. I move on to the next site.
What's the outcome? I aim to make $1 per day per bans site. I get about 10 to 30 uniques a day once my links are counted. Bans converts way better than amazon or anything else.
If you work super targeted longtail keywords you should definitely receive some trickle traffic...but it is super targetted traffic that converts.
A buck a day...make 500 of these bans sites and get your links and you WILL make money.
Sorry for the long post but there's so much BS out there that I just wanted to give everyone a sound business model (for free) for a change ...and for the hell of it. I have done my good deed for the day.
Any questions about keywords or bans just stop by my blog (in this link) and I will gladly help out.
Thank you for the outline. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems like a very short-term business model to me. Particularly with lame content and keyword stuffing.
I would recommend building out a large content-rich website using the BANS model, and then adding additional sources for monetization such as other affiliate programs, info products, etc.
Hi Lynn, this is a long term business model. If you build a large content rich website with great content you will starve. All that stuff you hear from the "a-listers" is a bunch of shit. Never mix your monetization on one site. Readers don't convert. If you put affiliate links and other distracting ads on your site you wont make any money period.
Same goes for any other site. Look, if you have adsense on your site then work adsense. Dont put affiliate ads along side of adsense. Use different sites for diff monetization. e.g. you CTR will suffer if you are showing more that just adsense. Same is true with bans.
If you make a big website with lots of diff products google wont really know where your site stands. If you want authority for a certain keyword the whole site needs to be focused.
About the content. With BANS the point is single. We want visitors to click to ebay. That's it. No one cares about the content, they are not browsing the net looking to read about these products, they are looking to buy. Get them to your store and get them to click to ebay.
In the Make money online niche there is a lot of bull shit being slung around abuot how to make money online. %99 of it is garbage. Forget about the "great content" and diverse monetization. You'll never make any money period.
I did a test with 20 of my bans sites. On ten of them I wrote good content, and on the other ten I wrote absolute garbage. Not total spam but just lame keyword stuffed content. Guess what? The crappy content sites outperformed the "quality" content sites.
I dont want people to read my bans content. I want them to click out as soon as possible. If your bounce rate is less than %90 then you are doing something wrong.
If you tell your readers to "I would recommend building out a large content-rich website using the BANS model, and then adding additional sources for monetization such as other affiliate programs, info products, etc." then both you and they wont make any money. I make money online. I'm not an "A-lister" or even close, but I know what I am doing and talking about.
In this business it's all about links. Keyword stuffing just helps out a little.
If you have been doing things like stumble to get readers and writing "great content" you will have a nice online journal and some online friends...but you wont make any money.
All these guys like John Chow and Darren from Pro blogger...they don't make money on those sites. They make their money on other sites. And the money they do make on their MMO sites is from scamming people like you into believing you need "feed readers" and "great content". You don't. Readers dont convert.
Mixing monetization on bans. Someone comes to your site. They see some of your affiliate links and other ads and they get turned off. Or they go to ebay and look at the prices and then they remember there was an ad on your site. They might go back to your site and click your affil link and chances are they wont buy.
You think this sounds like a short term business model but you obviously dont know how to make real money online. I know you dont because to a guy like me it is obvious. People who really make money online ( and yes outside the MMO niche) know not to mix adsense with affiliate links or bans with affil.
If you have any questions about finding the right keywords then give me a shout and I'll be happy to help you out as you definitely need it. You have been entirely duped by the "A-listers" into believe all the myths about making money online.
I don't have a real blog that I post to with lots of readers and all that so I'm not trying to "get readers " to my blog that I link to here. I'm just trying to help you poor clueless folks out so you don't waste your time doing bans the wrong way. I already did that.
Leave a comment on my blog link or email me for any questions and I will gladly help you out.
By the way Lynn, if you go to my blog there's not much to read. It's just a place where you can leave me a comment or question. The "work at home" or "make money online" niche has no money in it. So I focus on my real money making sites. There are no ads or affiliate links on my blog. I just used it to experiment with and to help get my new sites indexed. So I'm not selling anything or looking to make any money by pushing bans of whatever. Nothing. So please let me know if you have trouble with bans. You can make money with bans but you need lots of sites.
sorry for the double post.
We're just going to have to agree to disagree on a few of those points.
That's cool Lynn we can be civil. 🙂 I wont lie though, I LOVE arguing about this stuff! It's like how politics is with some people ya know?
Now Lynn, please tell me why you disagree with the system I use and on what points do you disagree exactly?
I am sure we can agree that there is more than one successful business model for bans sites or any site for that matter. I actually do it this way and make money. I promote my sites just enough to make about a buck a day from each site on average. It's time consuming but it's easy to duplicate. It's easy to rank for long tail keywords if you know your basics...make a buck a day and build hundreds. This way you get paid quicker. Are you having success with BANS with another system? Is it working?