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.

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.

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.

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.

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.