Anyone tried Build A Niche Store (BANS) for eBay instead of Parking ?

[Seabass]

http://www.buildanichestore.com/

I like the concept b/c it is not dependent on Google or Yahoo for success, otherwise I would probably heap it in with all the other MFA programs out there now. This is based mainly on ebay

Has anyone tried this yet? It builds a store for eBay, plus you can add content and adsense, etc... It seems it would be a good solution on carefully chosen domains. On some domains, I can't see it working at all since they don't fit in tightly with any eBay auctions, but others are a perfect match. Many sites look good and surprisingly seem to give some real value to the surfer unlike the millions of crappy automated MFA sites.

Here are some examples I found:

http://www.turboguides.com/
http://www.usgoldcoinauctions.com/
http://www.homegrownsushi.com/

And, after doing a little research it appears many folks are making money doing this. How much? It is hard to say since the info. out there seems limited since not everyone wants to disclose their income, but a few have showed their earnings on various sites and blogs. I could see this working, but all of the working sites I have seen are based on really lame domains.

I just wonder if anyone has tried it on a great generic domain yet, or an expired domain with big traffic, and what were the results - especially compared to parking?
.

 

[enlytend]

so they want that all of the visitors that come to our ebay affiliate site know that what they are going to click, buy, etc are connected to ebay?

It's more than just that - read the second post of the 2nd link I posted. However they have been and still are being awfully vague, and telling people that their standards were changing in advance would have been the Right Thing To Do. I'm not making any additions or changes within their program until I see where this is going - I'm sure I'm not the only one!

Letting visitors know your links go to eBay will improve your conversion rates anyway. Think about it:

If your visitors don't know where they're going, they MAY be pleasantly surprised to wind up on eBay... then again, they may not (especially if they were expecting or hoping for something "different"). They may even lose trust in YOUR site for not informing them.

If you tell them where they're going, they have an informed choice and those that THEN choose to click through will convert at a higher rate because you've filtered out nearly all the clickthrus that would have immediately "bounced" off the site (i.e. poor quality traffic).

One of their posts suggested that the "cookie stuffing" may be prohibited in an upcoming TOS revision.

 

[metronome]

One of their posts suggested that the "cookie stuffing" may be prohibited in an upcoming TOS revision.

I am not really sure what cookie stuffing is, but I thought it is illegal tho...

 

[yandig]

I am not really sure what cookie stuffing is, but I thought it is illegal tho...

One method is adding code which causes hundreds of affiliates' links to be added to your cookies when you visit a site. Then, if you purchase anything from that affiliate, the site owner gets credit (and revenue) without the shopper even realizing that they purchased through an affiliate program.

It's not currently illegal according to EBAY's terms, but they are working on changes to eliminate revenue payouts on those kinds of sales.

 

[Seabass]

Okay..... this is sounding a little less drastic than what I had been reading.

It seems to me the are just now explaining things better and talking with a softer tone somewhat.

 

[yandig]

Is anyone having trouble with their BANS sites today? My sites at hostgator are timing out, with the ebay product links not showing up at all. (see the last link in my sig)
BANS sites at other hosts are working correctly. Anyone else having this problem with hostgator?

Never mind - working fine now.

 

[Steven]

I'm so confused.
Does BANS do cookie stuffing or no?
:S

because aren't there 3 major site owners being sued by ebay for cookie stuffing?

 

[luffo]

Is anyone having trouble with their BANS sites today? My sites at hostgator are timing out, with the ebay product links not showing up at all. (see the last link in my sig)
BANS sites at other hosts are working correctly. Anyone else having this problem with hostgator?

Never mind - working fine now.

Yeah there were many people having this probelm.

I guess your host is also hostgator.

Yes, its working fine now..Finally

more info on this problem is at the BANS forum ( http://www.buildanichestore.com/forum/showthread.php?t=33272 )

 

[Timewarp]

I'm so confused.
Does BANS do cookie stuffing or no?

No it does not, BANS is totally legit affiliate marketing.
The cookie is set when the person clicks on a product and goes to ebay, thats fine and how things are supposed to work.

I dont think this recent shake up of the ebay affiliate program ever mentioned BANS specifically, they also seemed to have only closed a small fraction of the total accounts and even reinstated some of those so Im not so worried anymore.

Id say the main concern with BANS is getting dropped by Google for being a thin affiliate site and that has nothing to do with ebay or bans specifically. The trick to avoiding this is to add some original content besides the ebay listings.

 

[zabijaq]

Doesn't BANS make You googlebanned?

 

[Timewarp]

Doesn't BANS make You googlebanned?

Like I said you run the same risk as any thin affiliate site but thats not specific to BANS. Lots of people use BANS without being googlebanned.

 

[Steven]

No it does not, BANS is totally legit affiliate marketing.
The cookie is set when the person clicks on a product and goes to ebay, thats fine and how things are supposed to work.

I dont think this recent shake up of the ebay affiliate program ever mentioned BANS specifically, they also seemed to have only closed a small fraction of the total accounts and even reinstated some of those so Im not so worried anymore.

Id say the main concern with BANS is getting dropped by Google for being a thin affiliate site and that has nothing to do with ebay or bans specifically. The trick to avoiding this is to add some original content besides the ebay listings.

Thank you for the clarification

 

[Mrans]

I want to start with BANS.
But I dont know what should I do at the first.
First I should register in ebay or I should buy BANS???

 

[Traveler]

I want to start with BANS.
But I dont know what should I do at the first.
First I should register in ebay or I should buy BANS???

You should get approved to eBay affiliate promgram (EPN) BEFORE you buy BANS! From what I have read lately people are having a tough time getting in the US program (it has the highest commisions).

In the mean time you can develope a niche site and add useful content and start doing proper SEO. If you get approved by EPN then you can add a BANS site later. Also, you could build your site in Wordpress now and if you get approved at phpbay later on.

 

[metronome]

ha, my BANS made less sales this september>.<

 

[onewordonly]

Doesn't BANS make You googlebanned?

My car website built on Ebay rss (not bans) had good search engine traffic and it made a few ebay sales then I checked my google listings and they have all gone which is too bad. I guess I need to add a blog and some content etc.

 

[Traveler]

My car website built on Ebay rss (not bans) had good search engine traffic and it made a few ebay sales then I checked my google listings and they have all gone which is too bad. I guess I need to add a blog and some content etc.

Not a bad looking site but with no unique content it is really nothing more than a parked page. Get some good content pages and some backlinks and you might get back in the serps. Good Luck!

 

[onewordonly]

Not a bad looking site but with no unique content it is really nothing more than a parked page. Get some good content pages and some backlinks and you might get back in the serps. Good Luck!

ok thanks for the kind feedback, it sounds a good idea, I will start tommorow...

 

[Seabass]

My car website built on Ebay rss (not bans) had good search engine traffic and it made a few ebay sales then I checked my google listings and they have all gone which is too bad. I guess I need to add a blog and some content etc.

That's really a nice site. It looks a bit better than most BANS sites I have seen and I bet it converts better to sales.

At least you still have some base direct navigation traffic coming to the domain for now. It's a nice generic domain name and has to have a trickle of uniques.

 

[SonnyCooL]

My car website built on Ebay rss (not bans) had good search engine traffic and it made a few ebay sales then I checked my google listings and they have all gone which is too bad. I guess I need to add a blog and some content etc.

BANS doesn't make ur site ban, if u know how to use it ....
But a front page full of AD will cause ur site ban (yah site full of AD mate, especially Adsense),

 

[onewordonly]

That's really a nice site.

thanks Seabass for the comments.

BANS doesn't make ur site ban, if u know how to use it ....

Yes I know that ( as mentioned my site is not built on bans but a custom rss script) but I'm thinking of the Ebay RSS content been seen as duplicate sometimes or maybe its the F1 RSS feed I have as it seemed to have been dropped after I added the F1 RSS feed but that is probably coincidence ... anyway I agree, less ads, more content and I should have more luck I hope. thanks for the feedback.

 

[portugalkix]

Hello! Recently my host was down for about 1 day and i had lost all my SERPs and with the keyword " cars parts for sale " I was in the first 10 results. But know, i am on pae 5 . I tried to promote the site more, but still nothing. What else should I do? My site is :
carspartsforsale.com

I hope that someone can help me .

Regards,
kix

 

[diddie]

1 day offline doesn't get you out from first results, unless you were not strong on this position

 

[Traveler]

1 day offline doesn't get you out from first results, unless you were not strong on this position

Yup, if you have solid rankings and your site goes down for a day you will be fine.

 

[gwkg]

Is anyone successfully running BANS on a .info site?

 

[Traveler]

Is anyone successfully running BANS on a .info site?

Good question, you should probably ask in the BANS forum. Someone running a few hudred BANS sites on dot infos got deindexed.

At this point, you can't just spam BANS and expect to turn a profit. However, you can use it along side developed sites or sites you plan on spending sometime on.

Thin affiliate sites = no google traffic