Build A Niche Store

Build A Niche Store Expectations

Posted by admin

I was just surfing the Build A Niche Store forum, specifically the critique my site area. One thing that I noticed over and over was the lack of content and over doing of ads.

Don’t expect anything out of your BANS site if you don’t put in time developing content. Content is king. Content will provide you with a far better return on your time than plugging in ad after ad.

When someone comes to your BANS site, the first thing they should notice are the auctions you are promoting. Then they should notice your content. Then, after they view the auctions and content do they pick up on your ads. You ads should be the third thing in rank of importance and dominance.

Lastly, I saw a post that someone was complaining that they did not get any commissions off of 500 impressions and 14 clicks, for the month. WOW, reality check needed on aisle 1. It takes countless impressions and atleast 100 clicks on average to make a sale. That’s just my rule of thumb.

So, if you get 200 clicks, you can pretty much count on 2 sales. Again, that’s just based on my sites and results I’ve seen. But zero sales off 14 clicks should be expected.

Build A Niche Store Case Study - Day 2 Affiliate Programs

Posted by admin

OK, so yesterday we picked our niche of used Titleist Pro V1, built the store, added some content and started a PPC campaign to test out the niche.

Today is not going to be that exciting because Google did not activate my PPC campaign until this morning, so I don’t have any good traffic numbers to share just yet. That will come tomorrow.

However, there are some things we can do today. We can seek out some additional revenue streams for our site. We will look toward the Golfsmith,  TGW and GolfBalls.com affiliate programs. If any of those look promising we can add their banners to the site. If not, it may be time just to put up some Google Adsense.

Check back tomorrow and we will go over the PPC results and check on our click/sales reports within eBay.

 

Build A Niche Store Case Study - Day 1 Template, Content…

Posted by admin

OK, we have made a ton of progress today. We picked a niche an installed the store. Now we will modify it slightly and add some content. Then I will create a PPC campaign to jumpstart the traffic to the site.

Also, it’s important to note my PPC technique. I always say that this is an auction site in my ad. Don’t try and con a visitor into coming to your site. The only person you are hurting is yourself. Tell them upfront that they will be viewing auctions. Save everyone some time.

Also be sure an install your Google Analytics. The reports speak volumes about your visitors and what they do on your site.

Be sure to check back tomorrow to see how our first day went!

Build A Niche Store Case Study - Day 1 Site Build

Posted by admin

OK, now that I have my niche I’ll go ahead an build my site out. Click on the video below to check out how launched my Build A Niche Store.

 

The end result can be found here: http://prov1.mygolfcoursereview.com/

Build A Niche Store Case Study - Day 1 Niche Selection

Posted by admin

OK, I have been getting tons of questions about Build A Niche Store. The main question everyone is wanting to know relates to BANS performance. Does it really work? How long does it take? Is it right for me?

So, to answer all of those questions I am going to do a 3, maybe 4 week case study on Build A Niche Store.

The following is a breakdown of how I will approach the case study and building out my BANS site.

Week 1 - Choose niche, build site and do rapid testing.

Week 2- Determine profitability and decide to move forward or choose another niche.

Week 3- Hopefully full tilt push with increasing profits every day.

So, let’s get started!

I need to choose a niche. Hmm, you guessed it. Let’s start with something golf related. Now normally, I go through a 2-3 hour selection process. I’ve outlined that in a previous post.

For the purpose of this case study, I’ll just select a category at random. I want to prove to you that any niche can be profitable using BANS. The only catch is that I have to know a little about the subject.

And that niche is Used Titleist Pro V1 golf balls. I love Pro V1’s, and they are my ball of choice.

Now, I did some checking and normally this niche would be a little risky because it is low traffic according to Keywordtracker. However, using GTrends I see there are only +/-4,000 competing pages. That’s good. Not only that, but the average sale is around $150. Also, very good. So, I hit 2 out of 3 requirements. Good enough for this case study. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, check out How to find a good niche for your Build A Niche Store?.

Honestly, I have not done any competitive research for this niche. All I know is that I use Titleist Pro V1 and I buy used Titleist Pro V1 on eBay. I’m no different than most, so I’m sure other are buying it as well.

That being said, it’s now time to build out our site and get our hands dirty!

Build A Niche Store Q&A Round 1

Posted by admin

Q. Can I make money with Build A Niche Store?

A. Yes you can. And that you means you. Anyone with a heartbeat and a little time can make money with BANS.

Q. How long does it take to start making money with BANS?

A. I made $120 in the first 48 hours my first and only site at the time was up.  I’ve put up sites that didn’t make anything for 4-5 days. I even put up a few sites that didn’t make any money. But, I generally start making money within the first 72 hours and it ramps up from there.

Q. How much do you make off your BANS sites?

A. How much does your wife weigh? That’s right, it’s none of my business. But, I will tell you each of my sites has a daily goal of $10 profit. I hit that goal more than I miss.

Q. How many sites do you have?

A. I have 6 that are fully developed. And when I say fully developed, I mean loaded with unique content other than eBay ads. I have 5 more that I am testing. The 5 are about to go into full scale production. Then I’ll create 5 more.

Q. How long does it take you to put a site up?

A. I can put a site up in about 5 minutes. But, I doubt that is what you are asking. It takes me about 3-5 hours to research a niche. Then I spend 5 minutes building the site out. Then I spend 2-4 weeks testing a beta store. If it passes, I’ll launch a full scale store loaded with content. It takes me about a month to develop all my content and get some traction with the search engines. So, end to end it takes me about 2 months to fully develop a money making machine.

Q. What niches are most profitable?

A. Ones that have a deep inventory, high priced inventory, high search volume and low BANS competition. Good luck, that’s part of the game.

Q. What niches are most profitable?

A. Again, you’ll have to figure that one out. A good place is the Build A Niche Store support forums. There’s all sorts of people posting info on their niches. Why, I have no idea. Seem’s kind of stupid to me. I got an idea from one and have since… anyway.

 

Testing Your Niche, Build A Niche Store

Posted by admin

I’m going to save you weeks on BANS frustration with this bit of advice. I’m also going to hack a ton of BANS bloggers off.. Here we go.

Everyone wants you to believe that you have to spend days, even weeks researching a niche. They say you need to spend a day doing this, a day doing that and so on. Use this tool, use that tool. Buy this subscription, buy this software!!! By the time you are done, you’ve spent 2 weeks researching and are already in the hole $200 because of the keyword research tools.

You spend 2 weeks researching, building and blah, blah, blah. Then you know what, the niche fails and you don’t make a cent. So, you get frustrated and you are now out 2 weeks of your life and $200.

My take is this…Do 2-3 hours of research and then dive in. Period. You are not going to know how a niche will perform until you actually start working in that niche. So, here’s my approach.

Niche Testing, Build A Niche Store

• Follow the steps outlined here, How to find a good niche for your Build A Niche Store?.
• Once you have chosen your niche, try and use a subdomain off an existing site to create your test store. This is only going to be a proof of concept, so the domain is not that important right now.
• Get the site up and running, setup correctly and make sure you have your campain info loaded.
• Create some basic content, just a few sentences about your subject and a few of the subcategories.
• Now, advertise like crazy on Google Adwords, Yahoo Search and MSN Adcenter.
• If you picked a good niche, you should only be paying $0.10-$0.25 per click at most.
• Do this for 7 days, so you are investing about $50 in real life research.
• You should be spending $5-$10 per day and getting about 40-70 clicks per day. That is huge traffic.
• Log in each day to your eBay affiliate account and check your stats. You should see between 100-400 clicks per day. If you don’t, it’s a sign that you may need to tweak your ad or people just are not interested in buying.
• More importantly, you should start to see sales. If you don’t, something is wrong. Again, may be a over generalized niche.

Your concern should not be how much you are spending, but rather how much you are making. Don’t worry about the spend, worry about the revenue. If you are making sales every day, that’s a positive test. However, if you are not making any conversions it may be time to cut your losses and move on.

If you have a positive test and your niche is showing signs of potential, then go full tilt. Invest in the domain name, build out some content, stop the PPC campaign and focus on a longterm organic search campaign.

The point is, you need to know if a niche can make you money. The only way you are going to find that out is by choosing a niche wisely with a little research and then get your hands dirty. Get into the niche and see how it works.