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?
.

 

[Angela C]

Last night I put banners on my sites and this morning I have impressions from programs other than US which is the only one I set up. Do I need to set up additional programs for the other countries?
Angela

 

[metronome]

@dadomains

wow, your skiweardirect.com is pretty good lookin, imo~~

 

[bondjpf]

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?

To me your're just sending them to ebay without planting a cookie.
Do you have cloacking on?
Why don't you list the items on your store?
People want to see the items when they arrive at your site.
This is about planting a cookie so that even if they don't buy that item they will buy something else and you get the sale, if the cookie isn't overwritten during the 7 day period.
Change your site so that it shows items not only categories.

 

[SonnyCooL]

@dadomains

wow, your skiweardirect.com is pretty good lookin, imo~~

yah agree with u ......
one of the best, it look so professional ...

 

[DADomains]

Thanks for the nice comments. I would like to say I created that site, but I bought it already made. Sadly though the site was apparently making over $100 with CJ before I got it and when I switched it to EPN... nothing. My luck buying it at the exact moment of the switch over from CJ to EPN.

Yes, the links are masked in the .htaccess file. If it helps to figure out what is going on here is one of the redirects

Redirect permanent /boys-snow-pants.html http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?type=3&campid=5335863297&toolid=10001&customid=&ext=boy*+snow+pants&satitle=boy*+snow+pants

Thanks for looking into this.

 

[onlinedomains00]

I agree the ski site looks great... it is an off season site, but it doesn't show any ebay items directly, which may be hurting you.... You said you were making $100 per month before the switch to EPN, did you change any of the content besides the coding for the look of the site, and now you get $0 revenue.

 

[DADomains]

No, the content wasn't changed at all. The only thing that was changed were the redirects for all the links to the new EPN ids, as in the code example above for one of them.

Also I know its not ski season right now but looking beyond that, 445 clicks is 445 clicks. I would like to think that I should have had at least one sale by now. Plus add to that that people have been complaining about bad reporting with the new system and I have to wonder what is going on.

 

[bondjpf]

I've checked and from june 8 to june 23 there are about 2000 sales of ski goggles.
So this niche still works.
Something is not right with your site.
I suggest that you turn off cloacking and then don't drive the user out of your site when he clicks the categories, make him or her, click the items on your site.
You will see that eliminating some variables you will have a better picture of what's wrong and the results will come.

 

[DADomains]

I've checked and from june 8 to june 23 there are about 2000 sales of ski goggles.
So this niche still works.
Something is not right with your site.

Well, I dont know if that is good news or bad news. Good news is that I might be able to fix it then. Bad news is that I might have been able to fix it 3 months ago and not lost lots of money!

I suggest that you turn off cloacking...

Do you mean don't use the link redirects and let the user see that the URLs lead to Ebay? How would that help?

..and then don't drive the user out of your site when he clicks the categories, make him or her, click the items on your site.

Not sure what you mean. Do you mean don't open the ebay site in another browser window? Again, not sure how that would help me. Do you mean there is a way to have them browse the auction while still within the ski site?

I appreciate all the suggestions but I am such a a noob at this I am afraid I may need more clarification.

And oh yeah, how/where do you get such detailed past sales info?
EDIT: I just realized you probably used Ebay's completed auctions list, right?

 

[TLDnetworks]

BANS Sucks. Don't waste you time.

(20 and growing)

 

[onlinedomains00]

BANS Sucks. Don't waste you time.

(20 and growing)

any other info to back up that statement?

 

[BorderPatrol]

BANS Sucks. Don't waste you time.

(20 and growing)

What a well thought out and intelligent post.
Care to share why, perhaps contribute to the thread?

 

[Timewarp]

How much more obvious does his sarcasm have to be before you guys get it?
Maybe if he had ten winking smilies and stated he had 400 BANS stores and growing?
Helllloooo?!

 

[bondjpf]

How much more obvious does his sarcasm have to be before you guys get it?
Maybe if he had ten winking smilies and stated he had 400 BANS stores and growing?
Helllloooo?!

Well, I dont know if that is good news or bad news. Good news is that I might be able to fix it then. Bad news is that I might have been able to fix it 3 months ago and not lost lots of money!


Do you mean don't use the link redirects and let the user see that the URLs lead to Ebay? How would that help?


Not sure what you mean. Do you mean don't open the ebay site in another browser window? Again, not sure how that would help me. Do you mean there is a way to have them browse the auction while still within the ski site?

I appreciate all the suggestions but I am such a a noob at this I am afraid I may need more clarification.

And oh yeah, how/where do you get such detailed past sales info?
EDIT: I just realized you probably used Ebay's completed auctions list, right?

I don't use cloacking at all, didn't had a problem my self but others are experiencing some errors. I just let them see the link. I people really want the product they still click so it doesn't matter.

What i mean is that you need to show the items on your store like many do. Don't open any other window in ebay. For that they would go directly to ebay and buy.
You need to offer them the listing on your store. They click an item and go to ebay by clicking on that item.
You can see some examples on my sig.

To get a feeling of what has been sold go to data.terapeak.com .

 

[TLDnetworks]

How much more obvious does his sarcasm have to be before you guys get it?
Maybe if he had ten winking smilies and stated he had 400 BANS stores and growing?
Helllloooo?!

:lol:

You bet. If I had the time I would have 400 going. Sarcasm, yes, but who needs more competition? Don't really care to share all the niches, but I have built mine based on names I had rather than niche research. Even that has proven to be more profitable than parking for me. Names that had zero traffic/rev as a parked page now rank and get tracffic; Thousands of $? not yet, but far more than the alternative.

Did have a sale on DiningFurnitureStore.com yesterday $18.76 in commission - first sale in 3 months on that store since opening , but paid for the yearly reg +, and the site is still not completed yet.

Couple samples;
NamesLess.com
WheelsandRimsStore.com
psp2Deals.com

 

[DADomains]

I don't use cloacking at all, didn't had a problem my self but others are experiencing some errors. I just let them see the link. I people really want the product they still click so it doesn't matter.

What i mean is that you need to show the items on your store like many do. Don't open any other window in ebay. For that they would go directly to ebay and buy.
You need to offer them the listing on your store. They click an item and go to ebay by clicking on that item.
You can see some examples on my sig.

To get a feeling of what has been sold go to data.terapeak.com .

Ah, I see. Like I said the site was making $100+ before the EPN switch so I have been reluctant to change it's format in any way. But I am willing to try anything at this point. Thanks for all the advice. :great:

 

[Seabass]

.....just sold two headlight kits for a 93' MARK VIII' at $195 each and a 7 inch Talking Elmo for .75 cents - on the same fishing site.

I'm definitely selling at least over 50% items that have nothing to do with fishing.

 

[SonnyCooL]

.....just sold two headlight kits for a 93' MARK VIII' at $195 each and a 7 inch Talking Elmo for .75 cents - on the same fishing site.

I'm definitely selling at least over 50% items that have nothing to do with fishing.

then u have a nicely attracting site ....

 

[bondjpf]

.....just sold two headlight kits for a 93' MARK VIII' at $195 each and a 7 inch Talking Elmo for .75 cents - on the same fishing site.

I'm definitely selling at least over 50% items that have nothing to do with fishing.

Hehe, isn't that great.
I'm really glad your're making money. This proves that bans works and it's a lot better than parking for a few of us.

 

[SonnyCooL]

i use cctld and it get index by google in 3day ....
.com one day, much better then parking for me too ..

 

[Slick Domains]

You bet. If I had the time I would have 400 going. Sarcasm, yes, but who needs more competition? Don't really care to share all the niches, but I have built mine based on names I had rather than niche research. Even that has proven to be more profitable than parking for me. Names that had zero traffic/rev as a parked page now rank and get tracffic; Thousands of $? not yet, but far more than the alternative.

Did have a sale on DiningFurnitureStore.com yesterday $18.76 in commission - first sale in 3 months on that store since opening , but paid for the yearly reg +, and the site is still not completed yet.

Well said. Another thing people are missing is that we don't get financial compensation for you buying it. We are trying to help the domain community in these hard economic times. I have a few domains that I wish I hadn't bought, but they've already paid for their registration fee with a single signup for eBay. I may end up renewing them in the long run. And Poker Domains, if you can find a small enough niche, convert really well!

 

[DADomains]

... And Poker Domains, if you can find a small enough niche, convert really well!

Hmmm... didn't think of poker as a good physical product type of thing. What could be selling on ebay that makes that category so great? Cards and chips? Must be selling a lot of them I guess.

 

[Slick Domains]

Hmmm... didn't think of poker as a good physical product type of thing. What could be selling on ebay that makes that category so great? Cards and chips? Must be selling a lot of them I guess.

Like I said, you got to think small. Card guards do well, chip sets (which can go for 3 figures regularly), specialty decks of cards, poker visors, etc. People don't think to check eBay for this kind of stuff, so you get a lot of signups as well, which are $25.00 each.

 

[TLDnetworks]

Like I said, you got to think small.

Exactly - the keyword to the deal is NICHE. As long as there are at least 100 items listed, it could be a profitable niche. Think Targeted visitors.

 

[Billy!]

Anyone got any BANS which say "This Domain Name Is For Sale"

Cheers

Stuff it, I am $4500 in debt and a mortgage to pay ... $97 aint gonna hurt ... just bought it!