My Niche Site Renovation
I mentioned last time that during my hibernation I have been concentrating on building my niche sites and trying to grow my online income substantially. I stopped blogging for a while in order to do just that and during that time my SOP has changed somewhat.
I used to be an avid fan of the BANS software package and I guess for some people I still think it could be what you need but it isn’t for me. I don’t think anyone will be surprised to hear that Google has a thing lately for thin affiliate sites and one could argue that EPN certainly is not a fan of these either. So that said I want to build very robust, content rich sites. My measuring stick is STILL…the site must be able to add value even if you removed the auctions.
Other Options
The BANS software does not stop you from producing a content rich site and it’s easy enough but it’s clunky and definitely not the best setup, so I went looking for options. I first turned to a hybrid BANS/Wordpress type setup. These worked great and I have a number of sites that use this kind of setup and they work reasonably well. A wordpress blog for the content and the BANS store for the “store” portion of the site. It made sense to me and if you want to see what one might look like then check out my Stormtrooper Armor site. Content, store…good stuff right.
One of the shortcomings of BANS is that it is very easy to produce hundreds of pages of auctions and that’s ok but all of these pages are really nothing more than duplicate content and can create “issues” for niche site builders. So I spent hours making sure that every single store category page had unique meta tags, unique content on every page, 200-300 words etc. This all took a LOT of time.
No surprise….I am not one to complain about time invested but it seemed to me that I was doing double the work to build a content rich site. A very content rich blog as well as a content rich store with unique meta tags. I’m a mule and I can build a way on a store mindlessly for hours, so no harm no foul right.
Wrong.
The Epiphany
I don’t know where I suddenly came to the realization that my stores could easily stand on their own without the “store” portion of it but suddenly it did. If you look at the Stormtrooper sites you can see that not only do I have a “store” but I have auctions under every article……how much more targeted can you get than to have an article that just drew search engine traffic….the visitor reads the article or review about what they were looking for, gets to the bottom and boom…..a convenient ebay item that is traditionally much less than what they would pay elsewhere.
Does this convert as well as the “store” you might ask, yep you bet. A few weeks watching traffic stats on Google Analytics and you will see that visitors typically arrive on your content pages, then if you have a well designed site they might click into your store and purchase. The fewer steps to buy and the easier it is to plant your “cookie” then the better off you will be.
My latest site, which is still under construction, is Bicycle Seat Reviews. I am an avid cyclist and love riding bicycles to stay in shape. So it’s a niche I love and can write endlessly about if need be. If you look at this site setup then you won’t find a store of any kind, at least not yet. It’s nothing but a good old Wordpress blog and a phpBay plugin. I am experimenting with an Amazon plugin as well so visitors have a choice of Ebay OR Amazon. Some visitors despise Ebay and distrust them, some don’t like Amazon and for those that don’t like either I have Google Adsense.
The difference between the two sites is night and day. The WP/BANS combo is clunky and a giant pain in the arse to setup and modify templates on. You often have to change TWO CSS sheets to make visual changes and it’s just slow and clunky compared to Wordpress standalone sites. If you aren’t familiar with the phpBay plugin, you can add auctions that are keyword driven directly into a Wordpress blog post. It takes literally about 5 seconds per post.
Quick, simple, not even close to as much duplicate content and HOURS saved modifying templates and writing content. No more having to write 300 words of content on every store category page, the posts are your content and adding the auctions literally takes 5 seconds!
Oy…the hours I could have saved in the beginning but life goes on. I just got the bicycle seat reviews site indexed about 4 days ago and it made it’s first sale yesterday. A reader purchased one of the exact seats that are shown at the bottom of one of the reviews. Targeted buying traffic……cool considering I haven’t built the first link to the site yet.
Conclusion
So that’s it for now…..that’s the big epiphany I was referring to last post. I have gone from a site taking a week to build to being able to build a decent looking site in about a day, complete with a lot of content. The bicycle seat site as it sits has about 5 hours invested in it, INCLUDING the content! Don’t get me wrong, it’s not done but it’s on the way. I will continue to add reviews and build links every week over the next year or two and build it into an authority site.
If you want to know more about the phpBay plugin, just ask or I will be writing an in depth review of the plug in sometime in the very near future. It’s top shelf and makes building an Ebay affiliate site a piece of cake, assuming you are halfway competent with Wordpress.
Until next time….Best Regards.
Great post. You are very right with your thoughts on BANS. While I still use WP/BANS sites, I do have one site that is just a blog with the PHPbay plugin. I write a good post about a product and feature a listing or two below. I’m testing it with the free plugin first, before buying and I’m going to see how it does. It seems to be getting more traffic than my sites that include BANS, but the domain is a bit older and the niche is a little more focused, so I can’t compare them “apples to apples”.
BANS sites are time consuming. I’m now trying to get over 300 words on a store page, plus keeping up on blog posts. If a site has 25 store pages, that’s A LOT of writing!!
I will be interested to see how you do with these newer websites going forward. Looking forward to reading more about them. Your Stormtrooper website is very nice!
Jonathons last blog post..Where To Find Niche Content
Great looking sites!
You tackled the content on your own, versus outsourcing?
Care to share how many sites like these you’ve got planned in your future?
@Jonathan – Thanks. I hear ya on the BANS sites…..in order to have a chance of staving off the Google de-index you need to have extreme amounts of content on every page and even then it often won’t help. This type of setup has FAR FAR FAR fewer outbound affiliate links and almost no duplicate content.
@Amplifier – Yes…I build my niches around niches that I know and have a lot of knowledge about. I’ve tried the outsourcing route and it always needs to be rewritten and simply isn’t very good in my experience. As for the number of sites….who knows….I bought 3 more domains yesterday that are also bicycle related so at least 3…
Good for you! Sounds great, and keep on truckin’! Best wishes for your success.
Tameras last blog post..Incredible Subsidy Tidbit.
@Tam – Hey there Tam….long time no see. I went MIA for a while but glad to see you still knocking out the content.
Wow. Your sites are very cool. I bought the bans software but i got denied into the ebay affilaite program! haha! Am I allowed to return the bans software?
Ben Morenos last blog post..I Enrolled at Keller Graduate School For My MBA Today
@Ben….yes you can get a refund but if you’re serious about making money online then the Ebay affiliate program is still a good one. What you might consider doing is building a very high quality site and submitting that to EPN….most noobs throw a site together and submit that to get the process going but when EPN sees it they throw up and hit the deny button.
Just a thought.
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Wow, what a cool content-rich site you have, Bill. I’ve tried to join EPN but was rejected recently so I guess I could only take the Amazon route. This article is definitely useful for me right now as I’m moving away from my generic blog and focus on building niche sites. Would most certainly love to hear your link building strategies…..
Yan
Blog for Beginnerss last blog post..Duplicate Content: Penalty or Policy?
Nice to see some fresh posts here. Your bicycle seat site looks great! Some of my slapped together eBay sites have generated income but I’m leaning in the same general direction of offering better content with each site.
What do you think about copyright on images for sites like these, I am using some images direct from the product supplier. Think it is a dangerous thing to do? Anyway, welcome back. Looking forward to more.
Davids last blog post..Mountainsmith Modular Hauler
I got annoyed with BANS and gave up on ebay, I think I might give it another go with the phpBay plugin.
Tom – StandOutBlogger.coms last blog post..SMART Goal Setting For 2009
@David – As always glad to see you again…..I am a big fan of that site you linked to. I like that amazon plugin…it’s more finished than Wade’s version right now. It looks great.
@Tom – Yeah I am annoyed with BANS too. I crutched a few sites along with WP/BANS but at the end of the day….it’s not necessary. I am adding a “store” to the Bicycle Seat Review site but I have the pages hidden for now until it’s more finished and I work out the structure.
I can replicate the same thing I was doing with BANS. BANS is faster but I wouldn’t use the site wide Meta tags and I would always put content on every single page of every single category…..so building a few Wordpress pages is just as easy.
BANS has a place and it is a good software program but it just isn’t for me anymore. I prefer Wordpress.
Hey man
Just found your blog through Google !!
This place is packed with great content brother. My blog is just 13 weeks old but I think its going well, I do not use the ebay plugin yet though so that is a good pointer you have given me !!
Its very interesting to read about your sites, I’ll be dropping by often to hear how they are getting on
Speak soon
Dean
Dean Hollands last blog post..Radio 1 show and our businesses !
Wow you built that site in 4 hours??? That’s impressive. Now, I’m a rather new blogger, but it takes me upwards of 2 hours to make a good 1000 word post, so I’m seriously impressed. Can’t wait to hear more on the Bicycle Review site.
insideWebmasters last blog post..Do You Really Need A .com Address?
How much money are you making online?
Good luck with that. I’m sure it will still be good, since your doing the right thing almost all the time.
Your sites look really good, great examples of how to best incorporate highly-targeted eBay affiliate links.
I had some success with BANs but only 2 of the 10 sites I built seem to be generating income. PHP Bay does seem like a good alternative. But as a coder I will probably look at writing my own code to parse the eBay RSS feed.
Any idea how many sites like the ones you built would be needed to make full-time passive income? Say like $5000 a month?
Webmasters last blog post..Buying a House in Japan
is that you on your banner? hahaha kidding. i love the design of your blog! when i was still 10 years old and started webpage making, almost all of my sites had a wood background. i think it’s cool! haha
how to write goods last blog post..From the heart
I am further intrigued! Why hasn’t your latest post on wtf got any comments?
Nicole Prices last blog post..Discount Art
Bill,
Thanks for all the information you have provided. I will track the bicycle seat review progress. About images and content. I took a look at the Brooks website to see if I could find the images you use. I found some, but not all of them. I imagine you gather your images other vendors of the product. Is that the case?
Also, you make mention of unique content several times; do you rewrite copy that you find on the internet? Certainly, you do not have saddle-time on all of the saddles you intend to review.
Thanks again,
Joel
i think you have lot of sites how you get time to build content and links for all the blog sites. not buttering but how could you manage all the work would post about it ??
it is a good platform of related this nice topic with have a good article…..
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