How To: Optimizing Your Income with BANS
May 29th, 2008
In my last post, I introduced you to Build a Niche Store (BANS), which as you probably noticed from my post, it is a product that I’m very passionate about. That post got a little long, so I decided to save some tips for using BANS for a follow up post.
First, I’d like to start with establishing a mindset for using BANS. Unlike keyword sniping where you are looking specifically for an under-utilized niche that has potential with Google AdSense, with BANS you need to focus on niches that have products associated with them. In other words, you wouldn’t want to set up a niche store for construction equipment, as people generally don’t go to eBay to purchase construction equipment (at least I don’t think they do because the shipping prices would be 3 figures!). You also wouldn’t want to set up a store for services. What is something that people go to eBay to buy? More specifically, what is something people would research first, then buy on eBay? You can go for a small product that will get a lot of conversions, or a big product where 1-2 commissions a day might make double or triple figures. This is something to keep in mind while doing your keyword research.
Once you’ve gotten that part down, here are some additional tips for getting the most out of BANS:
- Link Building Helps – Just like with keyword sniping, it can only help to generate links. Things like adding your sites to directories and leaving comments on high ranking blog posts in your niche can both go a long way to generate traffic.
- Auction Settings – When choosing how to display your eBay auction ads, you’ll want to display lowest bid items first. That will entice bids and earn you more money. Depending on the product, you may also want to only display “Buy it Now” auctions (which you can control from the admin panel).
- Get People to eBay – Just like how Amazon Associates works, you want to get the traffic to eBay. You make $25.00 if people create an eBay account and you can get paid if people bid on other auctions than the one you referred them to as long as they got there using your referral link.
- Create a BANS Subdomain – Depending on the type of website you currently run, you could setup a niche store subdomain on your existing blog to help get more sales. This method would be ideal for a product review blog or some kind of blog that deals closely with something on eBay.
I know that some of you have been using BANS for awhile. Do you have any other tips for those new to Build a Niche Store?
how can i add my website url on facebook for back link? 
Great work man! I only use SEO for firefox and SeoQuake 
No, Gravatar does not have an affiliate program. 
Does Gravator have an affilitate program? 
Great list. All the important ones covered. I've made my own Top 10 list at the following;
http://thatimportantblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/10-best-greasemonkey-userscripts-2009.html
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The biggest step I have taken with my BANS sites, other than trying to make them unique is to get as many backlinks as I can get.
I am also adding content to the categories I find that sell on eBay. I only add a couple of pages of content a month but that seems to keep the search bots coming back and indexing deeper.
I am very interested in doing this.
I have not read your previous post but it is lined up in my tabs to do so…….
Thanks very much. Please keep writing on this subject as I am definitely going to take a lot of your advice. I trust this site and like the info you give.
I’ve a couple of BANS sites but have been hesitant to put more time and energy into them (or more) given the comments in BANS forums about payments dropping since ebay went internal with their affiliate program. Are you experiencing any change in revenue since the switch?
Thanks!
@ Kirk – I’ve only been on the BANS train for a few months now, so I wasn’t able to get a good feel for the traffic/clicks before the switch. With that said, I think there is always a period of adjustment and eBay probably does not report everything the same, etc.
Kyle, have you made back your BANS investment yet? I don’t have any problem dropping coin on a “system” if I know someone who has made some cash with it. The problem with many reviews is that you don’t know how genuine they are – do people really like BANS, or are they just pushing affiliate signups? I know you won’t BS so I’d love to hear your experience.
@ Llama – I understand your hesitation completely. I have found success with BANS, though I haven’t quite gotten the full amount back yet (getting close). The main appeal to me is it fully builds the website and MySQL database for me, so I can make a site in under an 100 (including keywords, optimization, banner, etc.). Any extra time is spent building featured pages, link building, etc.
As I said in my post, I personally do use BANS a lot. I believe I am up to 15 BANS sites now, and I try to add 1-2 new BANS sites each week. Some work really well, some don’t work as well, but the lack of success on those I chalk up to bad niche research. I use tools like Micro Niche Finder which work great for this type of research, but some of the BANS sites were launched on domains I had sitting in my account going unused, so I decided to get some use out of them before I sell the domains off. They weren’t purchased with the intention of developing. If you target a small niches with BANS, I think they can and will be a big success for you. The most important thing is patience. I tell myself I’m planting seeds. If after a month you’ve gotten minimal traffic to a few of the sites, add some pages/content or work on link building. It may take a month or two before they become consistent earners for you. If some sites don’t end up making good money, don’t renew them after a year. Hopefully the ones that are making good money will more than offset that cost. Some may fail, but overall the others should become good income producers.
I’ve always tried not to do to many affiliate links on this site because I don’t want it to appear like I’m trying to sell you or anyone something. I actually use everything I’ve ever promoted here, and I added that link above to one of my BANS sites (Diamond Investments) so that you could not only get a visual, but see an example of a BANS site. They don’t look identical to that out of the box, but it is mostly stylesheet/color changes from the standard BANS Templates. Hopefully that shows that I use BANS and believe in BANS.