From 5 Star Affiliate Program’s blog:

For some BANS (Build a Niche Store) owners, it’s been a pretty tough last few months. Back in August eBay expired hundreds of affiliates, many reportedly had BANS sites. Now according to many affiliates “Google has been either penalizing or out right de-indexing BANS sites from the SERPS.”

…Google finding the footprint of all the standard BANS templates and possibly penalizing them.

The last quote is the most interesting part because I stated this issue back when I first started making my Build a Niche Stores. The footprint can be a lot of things but specifically the templates. There are a tons of these sites out there and Google knows it isn’t providing good content to the end user, especially if they are just bridge pages to eBay. Sometimes even with content Google may deindex your BANS site. The solution is what I came out several months back, a unique Build a Niche Store design.

I created PremiumBANS.com in order to combat the saturation of these types of stores. PremiumBANS is a set of templates made for Build a Niche Store owners, to combat the repetitive nature of the typical BANS layout. With the new version they have diversified their templates and provided 3 default templates that are fairly unique. Now the problem, once everyone updates their version and Google sees the same foot print again – it may be de-index from the SERPS.

Having a unique design definitely will allow the consumer to click through and be more enticed to purchase an item, meaning money in your pockets. Do not look like everyone else, be different from everyone else. PremiumBANS also allows you to create more of a store like atmosphere and not just the data feed of eBay. Giving it more contrast and more of an option when shopping online.

But Ian with the PremiumBANS themes, will it not get saturated and Google will start to de-index these sites as well?

You maybe right but I highly doubt it. My reason is because people are cheap. Webmasters are cheap. They will not spend or invest money to be unique. They already bought the Build a Niche Store script, they are not looking to spend more money on templates. But to be a good marketer you need to be different and stick out from the crowd, get noticed. Here is a sample of 2 of my stores:

Big difference from the traditional templates. Each one of these templates I provide gives a sense of uniqueness to the virtual store and to your consumers. It provides choice and curiosity to the end user. Remeber Google hates sites that are not user friendly, they hate duplicated content, and they hate repeated sites. Looking different can get you up in the search engines pretty fast, just have a different footprint – template wise. PremiumBANS can help you look different, get you in the search results, and more money in your pocket.

Related posts:

1. Build a Niche Store 3.0
2. Tis the Season to Build a Niche Store
3. Monetize Your Build a Niche Store

I am doing this because last year, I did well and would like to see if I can surpass it. I think this year or the upcoming months it is more about sales than offers. Users are in a buying mode no matter how bad the economy, lesser gifts and presents maybe but they still buy. Promoting offers at this time can still be powerful but I do not think it will be as powerful as selling physical items.

So with my new BANS site up and running, I still need to create some content and graphics, there is a lot to be gained. It is very easy to create your own store and just implement ebay and amazon items within your layout. If you do not know what Build a Niche Store is:

Game Improvement Irons Store Build A Niche Store (BANS) is a store / website development platform which enables you to create content based sites that generate income through the eBay affiliate programs.

BANS has recently upgraded their platform and has a brand new interface. It has more of a web 2.0 taste to it but I think there is too much white space and the colors are too light. Whatever. Their new system also works with 2 affiliate services, PepperJam Network and the eBay Partner Network. They have 2 separate scripts for each network to better service you. I personally use PJN because of the reporting.

Creating your own store or even e commerce site is time consuming, why. There are a ton of people out there that want to sell their items and eBay is a trusted company and brand. If you started your own building the type of atmosphere, brand, recognition can be very time consuming. Having this on the fly makes life much easier and faster. I have talked about BANS in the past and my experiences even with video and an out of the box experience. With all that I still decide to create a Build a Niche Store because of it’s simplicity. I can pull thousands of products with just an eBay category number or a simple generic keyword.

Though BANS is already monetized to help you earn from the eBay network, you can monetize it even more with data feeds, widgets, Adsense, chitika, and so many other aspects. Just do not clutter your store, remember it is a virtual window to eBay – it acts as a landing page or bridge page before the consumer reaches ebay.

The system is literally a 5 minute install and make life simple. Again, I have about 4 and just about finished on 2 more. Once that is done promotion time for the sites.

Related posts:

1. Monetize Your Build a Niche Store
2. Build a Niche Store 3.0
3. eBay Dropping CJ.com: Now What Build a Niche Store?

You have purchase a Build a Niche Store Script or BANS for short and are now making some money from your stores. The income being produced from your virtual stores are not sufficient enough to even get you a cup of coffee in the morning! You try to test different color designs, different layouts included in the script, different niches from eBay – BUT NOTHING IS WORKING!

Within the Build a Niche Store script you have the option of pre selecting from 9 pre made templates within the Build a Niche Store Admin. These specific templates are easy to customize and perfect for new beginners such as your self. You launch your site and you are now making some money from your store. You are over excited because you are making a couple dollars here and there. You do more testing but your income slumps!

Build a Niche Store is the best thing that has ever happened to you and even the internet! What if I said there is a flaw with the script? There was an error in the production of the script itself? There was a malfunction in every niche from eBay’s every category? What if I said you are losing money from every visitor that visits your site? Would you have still purchase the script? Would have still promote your store/s?

There is one huge problem with the script and it stops potential buyers from continuing to purchase or even click on your eBay feed link. This specific problem is everywhere with every niche but can be overcome. With the Build a Niche Store it is over saturated, no one wants to buy from any Build a Niche Store, eBay is actually losing money because of this script!

What if I told you the error can be easily fixed, the niche you are in can be easily taken over, the money can be flowing more rapidly into your pocket? What would you think?

The Problem:
Build a Niche Stores are everywhere, it is such a powerful script everyone can now open up their own store and have millions of merchants selling on their store with no problem. They take care of the shipping, the transaction, the delivery of the item, etc. We simply provide a virtual window to those potential buyers. The biggest issue with this powerful script is the repetitive layouts throughout the internet! The problem with this is potential buyers does not get aroused enough to continue to your store because it is so noticeable. SOOO noticeable that buyers just click away from your store, not even giving your store a chance of a click!

You spend all your time promoting and maybe even paying hundreds of dollars to just make a couple dollars. All the time you put into marketing your new store becomes wasted time. You now do not know if your store will succeed with the vast majority of stores out there.

The Staff at Build a Niche Store Did Not Think of how Viral their Script Became! Now, the shopping/e commerce industry on the internet is over saturated!

The problem with these store all over the internet is they all look a like. A user is only given 9 pre made templates, which is obviously being used by someone and somewhere else. What if a person does not understand any coding, they are stuck with the dull grey scale layout.

Let us take a look at some Build a Niche Stores users have created:

As you can see the basic concept is the same, as well as the design. The concept will always be the same and boring, since Build a Niche Store is running base on an eBay feed BUT the design and feel can be easily changed to assure the buyer/s.

The Solution:
What if we can give you a brand new store that DOES NOT LOOK like all the other Build a Niche Stores? What if we change and alter the code just a little bit to look more like a professional store? What if we can change the total look and feel to automatically feel it has a brand of its own? What if we can create a Build a Nice Store that does not look like a Build a Niche Store?!

The problem is in the design and repetitive templates which is repeated throughout the internet. Repetition on the internet is bad, especially for internet surfers and buyers. If at any chance a buyer thinks something feels ‘funny’ they leave without hesitation. This means a lost sale and you lose money!

Fixing this saturated problem is simple, we need to be different from the rest of the Build a Niche Community. Now I will show you 2 new sites that are using the Build a Niche Store system, let me know if you can tell if it is a Build a Niche Store Script from the above rest.

Can you see the live excitement with just these 2 templates? It draws away from the lousy feeling of the other 4 Build a Niche Store Templates. The feeling of JUST these two templates will encourage your buyers to purchase because it has the feeling of brand, the organization is simplified but sophisticated at the same time. You can quickly sense the difference of the templates and your potential buyers will feel the same as well.

Your Next Move:
The cure in your Build a Niche Store is just being different especially in web design and template organization. Being different is the key to your success. All you have to do is open up the files in notepad and re organize the code. Go to your Build a Niche Store admin and rearrange your style sheet. You then can go to the template wizard and organize the code as well. You need to make sure your DIV tables are in sync with the style sheets of you store.

I DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT!

I understand coding and designing may not be your strongest point. Which is why I am here today to offer you 3 detailed unique designs for your Build a Niche Store. You have previewed and seen the 2 above. I am also including a third template for your store, so the bundle package comes with 3 unique designs! These premium templates are geared to:

• Increase the Brand of your Build a Niche Store
• Give the Secure Feeling and Excitement upon entering your Store
• Allowing you to ad Banners without the Feeling of being ‘Blasted’
• Allowing a trust between you and your potential buyer/s
• The Organized Feeling and Neatness of the links and layouts
• Being Different from Everyone else who has a Build a Niche Store!
• … and Many More!

Each of these 3 designs has the uniqueness and sense of urge to help your buyer attain the trust of your website. You certainly DON’T want to lose potential sales simply due to the lousy-looking designs you use for your store. The bottom-line is that your prospects are seeing your virtual store at a glance, and it takes only 5 seconds for your prospect to either stay or turn away.

The benefits of owning such unique templates for your Build Niche Store:

1. Do not need to spend lot of money to hire designer to designer these templates which cost you at least $250!
2. Build the perceived value of your store where by having a good quality graphics implied that you will have a good quality store and service.
3. No wasted Time – Just upload and change your template!

These 3 templates will out shine among your Build a Niche Store users. Think about it they are still using the low quality grey scale layouts. There is no color or design what so ever with their templates. Sure they can upload a logo, but what is the point if it does not even match your whole theme? The re design of your Build a Niche Store means a big difference in your wallet and means a big difference to your buyers!

Ian, but I see all these BANS Template designers. You are right they do have template designers dedicated to the Build a Niche System, but all they are doing is changing the colors and not the look and feel of the layout. These HTML guys are taking you for granted, they simple change a couple line of code, pretend it took them 3 days to do it and you pay for the SAME STRUCTURE LAYOUT but different colors of the background and hover links. They are just stealing your money.

With these specific premium templates your WHOLE Build a Niche Store is totally different from everyone else! We did not change the color or move a couple line of code, we re designed the whole layout and structure to give you a more unique taste! I bought the Build a Niche Store script to create more income, but when I saw the flaw and it’s popularity around the internet I wanted to make sure I stuck out from everyone else. It took me several days to re write the code and now you can have your own in several minutes! You do not have to learn CSS, XHTML, HTML, Javascript, etc – just download, upload, chose template and you are done!

With the growth of Build a Niche Stores on the internet these days, it pays to be different and unique. With these 3 premium templates you can not go wrong with the style and catchy freshness of the design. You will be proud to have downloaded these 3 premium templates and your buyers will be too! Put more money in your pocket and stop scaring your prospects!

I also know that the $67 $37 I am paying today will save me thousands of dollars in the time and web designers over the long run. I will be short cutting years of trial and error by taking up on this offer.

I also know that I have nothing to lose. You are generous enough to give me a FULL REFUND if I am not satisfied with an 30 Day period.

Related posts:

1. Build a Niche Store 3.0
2. Monetize Your Build a Niche Store
3. Build a POS Store: Update

One interesting part that I notice is widgets. Below is a breakdown of what is to come soon within their network:

• Editor Kit: Add relevant, real-time eBay listings to your website or blog in just seconds with the Editor Kit. Filter your results by category, keywords, other eBay search criteria, and more! Customize the look to suit your needs.
• RSS Feed Generator: Easily generate trackable RSS feeds with dynamic eBay content that provides users with live eBay listing information.
• eBay to Go: Showcase your favorite eBay discoveries directly on your website with eBay To Go. Use any of the widgets to easily display eBay listings, search results or store items across the web.
• Quick Banner: Quick Banner is the new easy-to-use tool that allows you to design customized flash banners that display live listings, with the ability to choose from various templates, sizes, colors, and more. Personalize your content with items ranging from search results, category listings, sellers, prices, and even PayPal listings.

Here is a snap shot of their dashboard:

To see eBay Partner Network and have a good introduction about their network view video here. I hope to have a good experience with this and hope the Build a Niche Store Teams have the new release of the new script. If you have not already joined go ahead and do so – you will not be mad at all with the new interface. It is very easy to navigate and create.

The only downside I found is the link generator can be a little faster – it does take a while to generate the link. But again I just joined and learning the ropes of this new network! The link looks very similar to the rover.ebay CJ jump link so you will look at it and see that you may be able to edit some of your code for your ebay store scripts (for those programmers) but look at their API if you have not already done so. I look forward to play around with this network for a bit especially once I upgrade my BANS.

Related posts:

1. Affiliate of eBay through CJ.com? What Did You Sell?
2. eBay Dropping CJ.com: Now What Build a Niche Store?
3. eBay is a Seasonal Job for Me

This new in house system should help better help their affiliate with reports, since CJ.com did a poor job on their reporting system. I am even confused on their reporting system.

The eBay in house system is now called the Global Affiliate Platform, not sure if it is the official name. I know they are going to have their system up and running April 1st, according to their blog.

We are excited to announce eBay’s new global affiliate platform: the eBay Partner Network.

The new platform will go live on April 1st, 2008 PST, at which point eBay will no longer be running its affiliate program through Commission Junction. Beginning April 1st, affiliates should register with eBay Partner Network and migrate their links from CJ to the new platform.

But do not worry, CJ.com and eBay affiliate system will run hand in hand for about a month – so the official cut off will be May 1st 2008. So do not worry programmers and other eBay affiliates, you still have time.

I bought BANS and it did real well for me and now I am a little mad about this switch over but excited as well. There are already several blogs speaking about this topic as well. Shoemoney has been telling eBay to drop CJ.com:

…what was the 1 biggest thing they could do to improve the affiliate program? My answer: Drop commission junction asap. He inquired more and I gave him reason after reason as to why CJ was a really bad partner for them. From our bad experiences in tracking, reporting, signingup (we have horror storries that I dont even want to say) basically lets just say it was very difficult to work with them.

But for me this should be easy as the people at Build a Niche Store are going to get this settled and fixed. I received an email prior to this and they are going to work on this issue! Great people! This is good for me because I can just sit and wait for the new script to be uploaded and I can just re upload and over write everything. I just need to think of what to do with the current traffic going there on a daily basis, hmm redirect to amazon?

This news has started a net wide panic amongst eBay affiliates and we wanted to let you know that we are aware of the transfer and that BANS will be updated as required.

Basically there’s no need to worry.

The only problem and I kind of feel bad for the BANS team is because they just came out with a great new system, BANS 3.0. Now it is being changed. Now, I want to know what is going to happen to all those other software developers that created their own system. I wonder how they are taking it, especially the plugin for WordPress. It is a good thing Build a Niche Store is recognizable and is working to help their members!

Related posts:

1. Build a Niche Store 3.0
2. Monetize Your Build a Niche Store
3. Build a Niche Store Sells Itself, Literally

Now they have come out with a version 3. I know the interface will change but what about the default templates? They probably kept the crappy 2 column and 3 column templates. But all together BANS is a useful agile tool to have.

Directly from their email:

A lot of new features have been added to BANS V3.0 and consequently there have been some quite significant changes to what was the User Manual and which has now become:

- Manual 1: Installation Manual: which covers pre-building and installing BANS.
- Manual 2: User Manual: which covers building and developing your niche stores.

Installation Warning:

Updating one of your stores from V2 to V3 will be a simple process (ie minutes) and the guidelines for doing this will be included in the update pack.

At this stage we haven’t determined whether or not it will be possible to jump from a V1.3 store straight to a V3 store but the reality of this will be concluded by release date.

I can’t wait to update my BANS and see what is in store for me. According to the email the interface has changed and they will be releasing some new templates but that was taking too long so they delayed it. It makes sense since I can create my own website anyways; I mean I did it with my first Build a POS Store I mean BANS.

With some new advancements one other feature added onto version 3 of Build a Niche Store is modifying product listings on each store page according to the following criteria: eBay seller id, min and max bids, min and max price and by geographical location. This is a great feature especially the geographical location and sorting it by seller. This gives more or a neatness to the system and overall concept of a store.

Here is a quick sneak peek of what the new interface will look like:

As you can see, there is more of a web 2.0 touchy feel to it, the colors are relaxing and the interface looks very well nourished. I will be shortly downloading my new version and play around with it tomorrow. But if you do not have a Build a Niche Store yet, I suggest grabbing one because it is a really good take on earning money online.

Related posts:

1. Monetize Your Build a Niche Store
2. Build a POS Store: Update
3. Build a Niche Store Sells Itself, Literally

I think users get the Build a Niche Store and just let it be, hoping to get a sale or commission. But there are other ways to earn from your BANS website. I notice a lot have been adding Adsense and I know there are specific issues with Adsense lately, a lot of updates on their end – which I will not discuss in this post. But Adsense is just one way of monetizing a BANS store.

Build a Niche Store is just an eBay feed slapped on to a webpage. It redirects the user to ebay – so can we say your build a niche store is a landing page? I think we can. At the same time why just leave it to just ebay? or leave it just to eBay and Adsense? We can add so many other monetizing widgets to help increase your profits.

With BadCircuit.com I have 6 other ways I am earning money. I use Pay Per Click other than Adsense such as TTZ Media, Chitika, and WidgetBucks. I also use Amazon Widgets, CJ.com Banners, and NeverBlueAds Campaigns. So you can really say my Build a Niche Store is a landing page for affilaites!

As you can see to the left I am monetizing my BANS to its fullest. I think of my Build a Niche Store as a landing page because I am redirecting users to another site where they do their final purchase. So why not create the ‘landing page’ into a page with all affiliates BUT blend in all the other forms of advertising on the website?

My BANS layout is very unique because it resembles a scroll like blog, where the users have to scroll down to view more items. So looking at this web layout there are several factors what the users see first. Upon entering the website they are greeted by my logo in the upper left hand corner then by the 728 banner provided by NeverBlueAds. From there it page seemed like it splits and the user is shown ‘Today’s Top Electronics Deals’ then the eBay feed.

A lot of users read from left to right so the most important factors should be on the left (my own case study). At the very bottom after they scroll they are then exposed to an amazon widget text cloud, which shows popular electronic items from Amazon.

Already, I am giving 4 opportunities to my readers to purchase something or direct them elsewhere. If they do not find anything they like they can search, pick a category or there are other options in the forms of banners and TTZ Media links. There are multiple ways a user can find the item they are looking for and if they do, I am getting paid either by PPC or an affiliate commission.

There are so many other ways to utilize your web layout and monetizing your store. If you are getting good traffic to your BANS, try to increase revenue by adding a couple lines of code to help increase commissions. What you do not want is to just clutter your layout. Strategically place banners and widgets in proper areas of your layout. Your layout is crucial to all your readers, so split test and split test again! Once you know where certain areas are more targeted, use it to your advantage.

For BadCircuit, I just hired a web designer to re-design my layout, creating my Build a Niche Store even more unique and a better user experience. I already know what I want and where I will be placing specific ads and widgets. Take the layout to the left as a good example of strategic placement <- my opinion.

There is a Chitika widget prior to the eBay feeds and there is an Amazon text cloud after – create interaction with your users. There are multiple ways to monetize such a site instead of just using the eBay feed as a source of earnings, expand your horizon and earnings! Think about if you were a user and you arrived at someone’s store; what would you look for, how are you looking at the webpage, where are you looking at, etc.

Just think what you can add to your Build a Niche Store to help it grow. How can you blend other forms of advertising within your store? Soon BadCircuit.com will have a new layout and new design, giving my buyers a better experience – first impressions are important!

Related posts:

1. Build a Niche Store Sells Itself, Literally
2. Build a POS Store: Update
3. My Niche is Slow this Time of Year