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?
.

 

[onlinedomains00]

If you can add other content as well instead of just ebay ads, and some write up, with a few different pages, and make your site semi useful, you will do much better than any parking program conversions. Even add clickbank, amazon widgets, and aff. banners to extend income sources.

 

[Slick Domains]

If you can add other content as well instead of just ebay ads, and some write up, with a few different pages, and make your site semi useful, you will do much better than any parking program conversions. Even add clickbank, amazon widgets, and aff. banners to extend income sources.

Most of my almost 40 BANS sites also contain 2-3 content pages, several affiliate banners, some Google AdSense, and some contain clickbank/CJ miscellaneous stuff. The problem with this is that it makes it difficult to track income because my BANS sites earn a lot more than what EPN reports. Not really a bad problem to have, but us affiliate marketers like our statistics to just things.

For example, I regularly get $1.00 clicks via AdSense on my jewelry BANS site. I also sell a few superhero busts on another of my BANS sites, which is an affiliate I work directly with.

With that said, even if I only made EPN income, it is a @$$load more than I was making with my domains parked.

 

[Seabass]

I have a question on eBay stats. Do they report commission earnings as the sales are made or is it once a day?

Thanks.

 

[bondjpf]

I have a question on eBay stats. Do they report commission earnings as the sales are made or is it once a day?

Thanks.

Once a day, normally around 17:15 PST, but sometimes it's 3 or 6 hour earlier...

 

[onlinedomains00]

So I just paid my $97 after watching a friend ring in the cash, after switching his parking domains, was expected more than a little zipped folder for $97 to say the least. ..lol

 

[bondjpf]

So I just paid my $97 after watching a friend ring in the cash, after switching his parking domains, was expected more than a little zipped folder for $97 to say the least. ..lol

That's the beauty of it

 

[Slick Domains]

So I just paid my $97 after watching a friend ring in the cash, after switching his parking domains, was expected more than a little zipped folder for $97 to say the least. ..lol

Congrats! It requires some work, but I think you'll love it. Just give it some time. I would also allow 20+ days before seeing any statistics/clicks. It can take awhile for a full indexing.


As far as stat reporting, I think it is like a 30 hour delay? Someone above said 3-6 hours, but I don't think I've ever seen same day statistics.

 

[Angela C]

This is from the user manual.

"Affiliates can expect to see clicks and impressions posted to the interface within approximately 4 hours. Transactions (i.e., winning bids, ACRUs) will be posted by midnight the following day. Please note that eBay Partner Network is based on Pacific Daylight Time."

Angela

 

[onlinedomains00]

I setup my first site today, didn't get a chance to add any written content, but got the ads, and logo up... it is a cellular phone domain which I reg in 1999, thought it would be the best, becuase it gets a lot of traffic, and cell phones are a hot purchase online, will keep board posted on conversions compared to parking.

 

[Slick Domains]

I setup my first site today, didn't get a chance to add any written content, but got the ads, and logo up... it is a cellular phone domain which I reg in 1999, thought it would be the best, becuase it gets a lot of traffic, and cell phones are a hot purchase online, will keep board posted on conversions compared to parking.

Congrats! Yeah, it sounds like you've really set yourself up for success by taking a strong keyword domain that already receives traffic. You'll now have pages indexed as well to increase traffic.

Please keep us updated!

@ Angela - Thanks for the quote. Yes, I meant income reporting. I guess clicks are fairly quick to show up. I usually check in the morning when I get up and again before bed and that is it. I would guess they update income generated 2-3 times per day.

 

[Seabass]

Congrats! It requires some work, but I think you'll love it. Just give it some time. I would also allow 20+ days before seeing any statistics/clicks. It can take awhile for a full indexing......... .

What you are saying is matching up to my experience. At about the 20 day mark I started seeing many more sales. It's almost every day now I am getting some kind of sale. Sold a $45 Quantum fishing reel per today's stats.

Once a day, normally around 17:15 PST, but sometimes it's 3 or 6 hour earlier...

Thanks bondjpf.

I setup my first site today, didn't get a chance to add any written content, but got the ads, and logo up... it is a cellular phone domain which I reg in 1999, thought it would be the best, becuase it gets a lot of traffic, and cell phones are a hot purchase online, will keep board posted on conversions compared to parking.

Yes...... please do keep us posted, and I'll keep doing the same

I need to make some more time for more sites b/c this seems to be working and it is "work" that is more enjoyable than parking.

Parking is boring me to tears these days - especially with nothing crazy and exciting happening anymore, unless you call falling PPC crazy and exciting. :lol:

 

[onlinedomains00]

Anyone have any success with amazon widgets on their bans pages?

 

[metronome]

ok...I installed the BANS, but I dont really understand how to check my earning on ebaypartnernetwork.com

all I see on the dashboard is all 0 on impressions and clicks. what is this impressions and clicks anyway?

my domain name has daily type ins, but I don't know why it doesnt shows

does this EPN has their own PPC program or something? since it doesn't show
right now, I am using another PPC program and put the codes on the top, bottom, left, right ad (on the ad area, in the bans admin panel)

 

[DADomains]

What you are saying is matching up to my experience. At about the 20 day mark I started seeing many more sales. It's almost every day now I am getting some kind of sale. Sold a $45 Quantum fishing reel per today's stats.

Congrats Seabass! Looking to get into this myself as well. If you don't mind me asking what was your cut of the $45?

 

[bondjpf]

ok...I installed the BANS, but I dont really understand how to check my earning on ebaypartnernetwork.com

all I see on the dashboard is all 0 on impressions and clicks. what is this impressions and clicks anyway?

my domain name has daily type ins, but I don't know why it doesnt shows

does this EPN has their own PPC program or something? since it doesn't show
right now, I am using another PPC program and put the codes on the top, bottom, left, right ad (on the ad area, in the bans admin panel)

Hi,
To see impressions you have insert ebay banners on your site.
Clicks are the ones people click on your products. Do a test on your page and click on your products just to see it it's working.
Then wait a few hours to see if those clicks appear.
Remember EPN updates clicks on a 3 hour interval, like: 07H05, 10H05, 13H05, etc
To see clicks and other info, just go to reports, then choose Campaign and then you have your reports for the day or other range you choose.

 

[metronome]

Hi,
To see impressions you have insert ebay banners on your site.
Clicks are the ones people click on your products. Do a test on your page and click on your products just to see it it's working.
Then wait a few hours to see if those clicks appear.
Remember EPN updates clicks on a 3 hour interval, like: 07H05, 10H05, 13H05, etc
To see clicks and other info, just go to reports, then choose Campaign and then you have your reports for the day or other range you choose.

ah, so they do have ebay banner.
how come I dont see it on EPN area...hmmmmm
thanks for clues btw

 

[bondjpf]

ah, so they do have ebay banner.
how come I dont see it on EPN area...hmmmmm
thanks for clues btw

Yes.
Go to Tools and then choose Creatives, you'll see several banners you can use.
Also you can try and select Widgets.

 

[onlinedomains00]

Just a quick question, the stats portion of the EPN when do they update the part where this person clicked on this and bid and won this etc... like I hear people saying they know what people bought, where would I see this, and is it done once daily?


Thank You

 

[bondjpf]

Just a quick question, the stats portion of the EPN when do they update the part where this person clicked on this and bid and won this etc... like I hear people saying they know what people bought, where would I see this, and is it done once daily?


Thank You

For that you need to go to Transaction Download.
This is updated once a day

 

[Seabass]

Congrats Seabass! Looking to get into this myself as well. If you don't mind me asking what was your cut of the $45?

DADomains, here are the eBay stats for the item sold - if you can read it.

2008-06-24 2008-06-25 Winning Bid (Revenue) 3.79 1 eBay US 58338948058 ...............com 10005 RSS Generator Home 2008-06-23 06:25:56 380039075843 19081993 1 45.00.

If you notice it says "Winning Bid (Revenue) 3.79", of that, I get $1.90 - so roughly 50%.

Sometime later this morning I received more stats that said I sold a tackle bag which netted me another .60 cents for yesterday. I'm not sure why that sale did not come in with the fishing reel sale, but it is there now.

So, that's $2.50 for yesterday on that domain. I did not make any Google Adsense cash or anything else on it yesterday. However, the exciting part is that $2.50 is much more than 100% increase over parking - right off the bat basically

If I can find time to scale this across to even 2,000 of my domains I could see how that could add somewhere in the range of an extra 1.5K to 4K to my bottom line above and beyond parking income per day - again, right off the bat. Then any SE traffic will be even more gravy . Still..... this is a BIG assumption since I am still a newbie at the BANS thing and only have one site up for just under a month.
.

 

[Angela C]

Now that I have a better idea of what I'm looking at in the transaction detail...

To date, on sales of $68.48 I've earned $10.18. Add in 1 ACRU that takes it to $30.09 for 2 domains in 3 weeks. That works for me!

 

[Seabass]

Now that I have a better idea of what I'm looking at in the transaction detail...

To date, on sales of $68.48 I've earned $10.18. Add in 1 ACRU that takes it to $30.09 for 2 domains in 3 weeks. That works for me!

Way to go Angela! And I bet you can only go up from there with more indexing.

eBay should jump on this and try to lure domainers away from G and Y with promotions. I'm surprised they have overlooked us. Having a third competitor in this domainers market would be healthy for everyone.

 

[DADomains]

DADomains, here are the eBay stats for the item sold - if you can read it....

That's great news. Happy to see that you are getting some activity. My reluctance to jump on the BANS bandwagon is due to the fact that I have a site set up for EPN that has been performing terribly.

In the span of almost 3 months time, this site has received a total of 445 clicks, with only 2 bids, and zero income! Very discouraging. I am wondering if my account is falling thru the reporting cracks like so many others are complaining about on the EPN forum.

So my thinking has been why bother setting up a bunch of BANS sites that might be in a similar situation? But it's good to hear of other people fairing better than me, which is why I asked for more details.

 

[bondjpf]

Can you share the site?
Maybe we can see what's wrong.
Send PM if you don't want to share it.

 

[DADomains]

Can you share the site?
Maybe we can see what's wrong.
Send PM if you don't want to share it.

Sure, it's the first site in my sig.

Granted it's currently an off-season site (at least in my part of the world)... but zero sales with 445 clicks?