BANS Today

Googlebot & .info domains for Build a Niche Store

Written by mbpage on May 31, 2008

This is more of an observation at this stage but I decided to build a store using a .info domain.  There has been a lot of speculation about the value of .info domains and the treatment of them by the mighty google and this is interesting.  The store has been live since 15 May but has still not been indexed by google.  I have built a further three stores since on either .com or .net domains and all of these have been indexed!

Make of that what you will.  One domain isn’t enough to draw conclusions but it adds further to the evidence that .info domains do indeed get treated differently.  Google robot is visiting the site but it currently appears sandboxed.

Build a Niche Store Secrets - Lesson Learned 2

Written by mbpage on May 30, 2008

This series is going to take some time given that todays post is not part of my original list either. My personal view is that to make decent money with Build a Niche Store requires an undertaking to build many stores. If you decide to build multiple stores you will need a hosting account that can handle these requirements. Many people, including myself, use Hostgator. I went for the Baby Croc plan which is pitifully cheap for what you get. However, there is a problem. The Baby Croc plan consists of a main domain and a number of add on domains (not sub domains) . So what’s the problem and what did I learn?

The problem is that all the sites are connected and this means that if you have a problem with one e.g. you get accused of spamming and the domain is suspended then all your sites get suspended. Big ouch. The reseller account is only $25 per month and protects you from the example given. I actually had a big problem yesterday which took down all my sites for a couple of hours. Had I had the reseller account then only the one site would have been affected.

As a result I am in the process of upgrading and I’d recommend you do the same. In the long run you’ll be more than glad you did. There are numerous additional benefits which you can see using the Hostgator comparison charts.

Todays lesson is a biggie. All I can do is say I really wish I had opted for the Hostgator Reseller Account at outset!

Update:

I should also add that having so many sites no the Babycroc plan has also dramatically reduced the speed at which I can edit individual bans pages which take approx 15-30 secs each to load.

Build a Niche Store Secrets - Lesson Learned 1

Written by mbpage on May 27, 2008

I have named this series Build a Niche Store Secrets because everything I will reveal is what I wish I had known when I first started building niche stores. The biggest challenge with starting a series like this is choosing a starting place. What is the number 1 most important thing to get right? Truth be told there are many and in reality you have to learn as you go along and then go back and incorporate changes into existing stores. If you wait until you learn everything you will procrastinate forever and that is no way to build profitable virtual real estate.

I have around 27 stores right now and looking back at the first half dozen or so I put together reveals a catalog of things to change, do differently etc. So where would be the best most number one place to start be?

Believe it or not I’m going to choose no. 20. That’s right it wasn’t even on my original list. Lets call it awareness.

To succeed with BANS you have to be aware that it is a slow process. Whilst most stores enjoy some quick early sales failure to build on your initial work will lead to sales drying up. I estimate that each store requires 3-6 months of graft to reach it’s full potential (maybe longer). BANS success has four basic requirements:

1. A Unique Store
2. Good Keyword Selection
3. A Link Building Strategy
4. The regular addition of new store pages

By unique store I don’t mean something nobody else has thought of; I mean it shouldn’t be an out of the box BANS store. You know that gray template and the standard store pages that match ebay product categories. If you just put up a store like this it will be no different from many others and it will not make many sales.

You should know what keywords you are targeting - more info on this in a future post - but let’s say for example you are selling GPS. You wouldn’t want to target GPS as your main keyword because it is too general. However something like Cheap GPS or Used GPS is more likely to be used by someone looking to buy and therefore makes for a potentially better keyword with less competition.

By far and away the most important aspect of succeeding with BANS is links. Building links is the main criteria for determining your ranking in the search engines and for generating traffic. Get to no. 1 in google for the term “used gps” - not necessarily as hard as many would suggest - and you will make good money.

Finally you should be constantly developing existing store pages and new store pages based on your keyword research and by reviewing the search stats of you hosting account.

Please do not ignore the importance of what is written here because it isn’t very long or doesn’t appear very detailed. This really is gold.

• If you do not create a unique store you will fail.
• If you do not understand keyword research you will fail.
• If you do not understand how to build links effectively you will fail.
• If you do not develop your store pages and add new store pages you will fail.

On the other hand if you master all four of the basic requirements you will generate good profits regardless of how competitive your chosen niche is. As I said above though be prepared to give it time and work hard on each of your stores for an initial 3 to 6 months.

Needless to say I will cover each of these four requirements in more depth in future posts.

How to Succeed With Build A Niche Store - 19 Things I’ve Learned

Written by mbpage on May 22, 2008

Today I’m starting what appears to be a large series of posts on How to Succeed with Build a Niche Store.

This represents everything I have learned so far and in no particular order (at this stage) the 19 things I would do differently if I were starting again are as follows. Hopefully, Mark and Rochelle will add some of their insights as the series builds.

• Have a thorough understanding of Keyword Research
• Use Google Webmaster Tools
• Get to grips with Niche Research
• Use Meta Tags for maximum effect
• Use Meta Keywords for maximum effect
• Use Meta Descriptions for maximum effect
• Use H1 Tags for maximum effect
• Invest in Tools
• Backup my Stores
• Buy Aged Domains
• Understand Link Building
• Buy appropriate Domain names
• Buy Templates
• Create Keyword rich content
• Patience
• Ranking in SERPS
• Home Page Content
• SEO
• Keep Records

Wow - that is going to be a growing list for sure. I’ve only be at this since the end of March but I have had the luxury of doing things full time. I estimate I work on BANS and related projects for 80 hours per week presently so it is likely I have surpassed (in terms of experience anyway) many people who can only invest a couple of hours per week in Build a Niche Store projects. I hope you find something of value in this series.

So lets get started …………….. will on Tuesday as I’m taking a break for a few days. Spread the word though because I think this is going to be a great series of posts.

Build a Niche Store - A Mental Day

Written by mbpage on May 19, 2008

Today has been mental.  It all started with not being able to access any of my BANS sites or blogs.  All use Hostgator and this was the first time I’ve experienced any problems with their service.  Still everything was working fine a couple of hours later so I’ll just have to put it down to bad luck.

I’ve been using trial versions of nichebot and wordtracker and as usual I don’t have the time to get everything done.  I’ve also bitten the bullet and bought SEO Elite - yes I’m a sucker for punishment.  Try learning to use that lot in a day whilst fully developing a new BANS store.  Well that’s what I did as well as adding a bunch of sites to Google Webmaster tools and downgrading Adobe Flash to try and resolve problems playing Camtasia Videos.

Haven’t quite got to grips with Nichebot yet but Jim (the owner) is one hell of a guy and supplies some great (undislcosed) bonuses that are truly invaluable.  I’ve learned such a tremendous amount from Jim in a few short days it makes nichebot phenomenal value  If nothing else take advantage of the 14 day trial you will be very impressed.  Combined with SEO elite and the other tools I’ve got no excuses for not increasing my ranking in the serps.

In my next post I’ll start to explore what I’d do differently if I was starting out again and hopefully that will benefit those of you just starting your own BANS empires.

I’m also working on my own BANS Project Template combining the best of Mark’s & Rochelle’s efforts and adding a number of my own customizations.  Hope to have that ready in a couple of weeks.

Build a Niche Store - Keyword Baiting

Written by mbpage on May 16, 2008

As you learn more about a subject you tend to start extrapolating (nice word eh) and coming up with ideas of your own. Well, somebody else will have had the same idea because that’s the way the universe works but I hadn’t read this one anywhere else.

As I am currently testing out Nichebot I have been searching keyword phrases to try to pick up more traffic for my stores. Like many other BANS users I have a Coffee store. One of the phrases I was targeting was Espresso Machines - well there’s a bit more to it than that but I don’t want to give away everything. Anyways, nichebot revealed surfers also search for the following phrases:

• Espresso Maker
• Espresso Coffee Maker
• Espresso Coffee Machines
• Used Espresso Machines
• Home Espresso Machines

So what I thought was why not target each of these phrases on a seperate store page heavily optimized to that phrase. So that’s just what I’ve done. Each page shows pretty much the same products although I have put a negative search string in each to avoid dup content issues (I know that’s a bit paranoid).

Now the only problem with this method is that each of these categories shows on the store page nav bar but with BANS EPN you can turn off store pages. Did you know that pages “turned off” are still indexed so if anyone searches for the phrase they will still find the page through the serps. Now, for the purposes of testing I have left all the pages on but I will set up another test with all the pages off to see I can detect a difference.

Now I think that’s a pretty cool idea so why not give it a try for yourself. We’ll see how things go for the next couple of weeks and I’ll update if I remember or one of you guys reminds me.

Build a Niche Store - Post With No Name

Written by mbpage on May 14, 2008

Sometimes you’d love to write something profound instead of the same old same old. Sadly this is not one of those occasions. Whilst I’ve been learning more about Keyword Research and SEO all I’ve been doing is filling out my existing stores meta titles, keywords and descriptions, adding new pages based on keyword research and doing a bit of link building.

I already use Keyword Elite but I decided to try out some other services starting with the $1 14 day trial of - you know as I sit here I can’t remember. It’s got the word niche in it though :-). Niche Bot, that’s it. It’s a pretty interesting program and I’ll report my experiences in a later post.

Sales have been frustratingly slow so far this month. With 25 stores I was hoping to crack $250 in May and whilst things have improved from my dismal showing a few days back I’m still just shy of $40. $210 is a big ask so perhaps I’ve been over optimistic.

BANS - Toolfest

Written by mbpage on May 11, 2008

It’s interesting all the tools you come across as an internet marketer and I have to say many of them are fantastic at what they do. Sure there’s some crap but you can usually get your money back if they don’t work for you.

I am resisting the temptation to buy more tools at the moment until my income rises to a reasonable level. Right now I’m going to do a dump of the tools I use (many are free) and tools I’d like to try out. I have included links below so you can check them out for yourself. Where I use a product myself and I’m more than happy to put my name to it I have included affiliate links. If I haven’t tried it then the link is direct.

I use:

• Terapeak
• Free Wordtracker
• Wordtracker GTrends
• Submit Edge
• Free Directory Submitter
• Free Article Submitter
• Keyword Elite
• UsFreeads
• Profit Lance - Best Internet Marketing Training at a great $77 price
• Wealthy Affiliate - Great Internet Marketing Membership Site

I want to try/buy:

• Revenue Domains Exposed
• 30 Minute Back Links
• 3 Way Links
• Bookmarking Demon

I just discovered:

• Socialmarker - a great free alternative to the increasingly flaky Onlywire

Trust me it took some time to put all those links together. I hope you find them valuable. If have any comments or recommendations of your own I’d love to hear from you.

BANS Update - Plenty of Traffic No Sales

Written by mbpage on May 9, 2008

Yesterday was wiped out due to family commitments but that didn’t stop me thinking of new ways to generate profits online. I think I’ve finally begun to understand keyword research properly and it was interesting to look back over my sites to see some of the howlers I’d made in the early days (lol 5 weeks ago). I’m sure in another 5 weeks I’ll think exactly the same.

Sorry I digress. In short I purchased Keyword Elite about 2 months ago was completely overwhelmed by it and seriously thought about asking for a refund. My gut told me otherwise and I have continued to nibble away at it and I am, at last, starting to realize some of the potential that is on offer. I also make use of Free Wordtracker and Gtrends (until it broke a couple of days ago) but next week I am going to embark on a trial of 5 or 6 different systems to see if any complement Keyword Elite.

Why not just stick with Keyword Elite - because I have to continue learning and I do that best by trying out different tools and generating new ideas. The one thing I know for sure is that Freewordtracker and Gtrends cannot compete with paid services and whilst they are useful if you’re going to take on and beat the competition you will need a paid for service or two! Give Keyword Elite a go - it comes with an 8 week money back guarantee so if it isn’t right for you get your money back :-).

I said on Tuesday I was going to build one new BANS site per week from now on and today is Friday and it isn’t finished. You know what I’m doing next!

And finally I should address the article heading I guess - might help with regards to relevancy. The first 9 days of May have been awful with sales of just $6. Traffic has been ok with plenty of clicks thru to ebay but either no one is bidding, no one is winning or ebay is robbing me. Depending on my mood I make one of these three choices. Have a great weekend.

BANS - Phase 2 Developments

Written by mbpage on May 6, 2008

After a break for a couple of days it’s back down to it today. I completed phase 1 development on all 25 of my stores and have decided that I will add 1 new store per week from now on.

A Phase 1 development means:

• Store built
• Template chosen
• Sitemap filled out for at least 10 store categories
• Build 100 back links - Outsourced to Submit Edge (Side note: Check out the great value 25% bulk order discount from Submit Edge).

I don’t know about you but I find myself torn between short term earning strategies and long term on an almost daily basis. For my phase 2 work I’ve struggled to decide whether to create additional store pages, write articles or create adverts. A combination of the 3 is ideal but there just isn’t time in the day. So what to choose? Well I do like a bit of variety so I’ve chosen to choose one of the three strategies per store and work on each for 1 hour at a time.

To explain what I mean Phase 2 strategies will look a bit like this:

• Store 1 - Check logs, keyword research, add store pages
• Store 2 - Create a couple of adverts to generate new traffic
• Store 3 - Keyword research, create a content page
• Store 4 - Start building links to other store pages
• Store 5 - Check logs, keyword research, add store pages

And so on.

The advantage of doing this is that I will be able to monitor which brings the fastest short term gains whilst still developing stores on a long term strategy - almost the best of both worlds.

There are a couple of things I’d really like to learn so if anyone can point me in the direction of some resources I’d love to hear from you.

1. How to integrate a blog into a BANS site.
2. How to have the blog auto populate - I notice Mark at the nichestorebuilder doing this - please share the secret it looks very effective.
3. How to create an ebay custom search link for insertion in adverts i.e Click here to see our range of Coach Hampton Handbags - this would take you to a custom search within the BANS site displaying those goods.