Ugly Sites Make No Money
Here’s the newsflash of the century, people continue to look for an easy way to make money online. Here’s the cold hard truth, most of the people making money online are making it by selling stuff to those who are looking for an easy way to make money online. Shocking huh.
People are Lazy
I don’t know what it is about people that they always want to shortcut or think that their is a way to easily make money on the internet. Heed this advice, as soon as it gets easy, every Tom, Dick and Larry will jump into the mix as well creating competition. Once you have competition it gets much more difficult than before. It’s a self fulfilling prophecy of sorts, the easier something is – the more competition it generates. The more competition their is, then the more difficult it becomes.
This is something that most of the BANS world seems to have not been able to pick up on just yet. They are convinced they can just throw up 300 stores and start making money online easily. Here’s a newsflash, it isn’t going to happen, at least not for long. Google will make sure that if you produce a host of garbage thin affiliate sites that they will soon either be buried deeply in the SERPS or removed from the index altogether.
Would You Buy?
Most of us that try to make money online, also often shop online and surf the internet regularly so you are aware of what sites look like and how you react when you first click onto one. An easy question to ask yourself is “Would YOU buy from your own site?”
If you are anything like me, when I click onto a site for the first time, I make some assumptions about that site. One glimpse at it is usually enough to either inspire me to look around and see what they have or to hit the back button and try another search. So what would people say about your site? What would YOU say about your site.
Let’s say for instance you were a Star Wars fan and you wanted to buy little Johnny a Stormtrooper helmet for Christmas. Let’s say that you were to do a Google search and come across say this site what does that site say to you? Does it inspire you to look around? Does it make you want to stay? If you are like me, absolutely not. It’s an out of the box garbage BANS site with no content, no modifications of any kind and really no hope of making any money. If it does even show up in the SERPS it is probably ONLY because it is new and Google for some reason, ranks new BANS sites pretty high for a few weeks but they quickly disappear.
Now let’s say you hit the back button and land on another Stormtrooper Helmets site. Does it inspire a different feeling than the other site on first glance? Are you not a bit more inclined to check it out and look deeper for that helmet for little Johnny? I would hope so, considering the second site is mine. It is far from done as I still want to jazz up the front page and add a lot of content to the blog portion.
My strategy is usually to get a decent looking site up and see how it produces over the first few months, if it does reasonably well then I will invest a LOT more time into it producing content and try to build it into a content rich site that will stand the test of both time and a Google human review if it ever were to come.
Wordpress + BANS
As you can see by the Stormtrooper site it is a Wordpress blog with a BANS store integrated into it. This is a hot trend as of late and I am experimenting with it as well. I will say this, it is getting a lot of credit from a lot of BANS sites lately but to be honest, I don’t see it as all that necessary. It is just as easy to build a quality content laden site using a BANS template as it is with WP.
Many members are running around the BANS forums crying about Google hating BANS sites and that the sky is falling and if you don’t change now you are screwed blah blah blah. It’s pretty stupid if you ask me, because Google has NOTHING against BANS sites. What they do not want in their index are thin affiliate sites. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a BANS site or one of the other hundreds of Ebay affiliate store scripts out there that exist.
If your site offers nothing for users other than auctions then Google is going to punt it. Plain and simple. I want to repeat, you can build a very high quality BANS site as easily as you can build a high quality WP/BANS site too. It just requires one thing……work.
Conclusion
I know a number of well known bloggers and so called black hat sites promote a number of shortcut ways to make money. Put up 100 sites that make a dollar a day and you’ll become rich overnight. It’s a crock of crap, because what they don’t tell you is those first 100 domains will probably be de-indexed and then you need to put up another 100 sites.
Domains aren’t cheap, especially now that Google is punting anything e-commerce that exists on a .info domain. I used to subscribe that theory of building a bunch of sites that could produce a few bucks a week but it wasn’t for me and fortunately I very quickly modified my strategy. I would rather have 20 sites that produce a few thousand a month than 100 sites that produce a giant pain in the ass.
I am considering starting to develop sites for people who aren’t quite sure how to go about building their own. I don’t know if that is even something that would be in demand but it’s something I am thinking about. My BANS store mentoring process is proceeding nicely and Kel has tackled the hardest parts of building a BANS site and is in the home stretch. I will post an update on that soon.
So in conclusion, do you think people would want to have sites built for them or are they going to continue to look for the easy way out? Also let me know what you think of my Stormtrooper site….bear in mind that it is far from done and I would expect to have 30 or 40 content rich articles on it within the next 60 days.
Stormtroopers Rule!
I am kinda new to building BANS stores and all this talk about BANS + Wordpress is making me wonder if it wouldn’t be easier and more straightforward to simply us PHPBay which is designed to work in Wordpress from the git go, besides being a few bucks cheaper, bucks I can spend on buying aged domains. I mean it looks like it’s quite a bit of work to integrate BANS into WP, am I wrong?
What are your thoughts on this?
Joes last blog post..This stuff really works – Part 2
Joe – PhpBay is a nice plugin and offers a great value. I incorporate that into my WP/BANS blogs as well but what I like about BANS is you can create a store structure at the snap of a finger.
I have created a few phpBay only WP based niche sites and they work well too……it’s a matter of what you like and what works for you. WP makes handling content a bit easier but also has a very steep learning curve if you are not already very good with WP….so it’s kind of six of one or half a dozen of the other kind of thing.
WP/BANS is fairly complicated right now….no question about it. It’s a snap for people who know how to do it and I myself am still learning it. I have 3 sites up currently that are WP/BANS and so far I have to say I like it….a lot.
Bills last blog post..Ugly Sites Make No Money
[...] Ugly Sites Make No Money, by Bill from The Blog [...]
BANS is awesome, its an amazine concept
Actually, from experience, “ugly” sites DO make money….and I’m not talking about arbitrage sites that spammers put up by the hundreds…
Well Dave…how about you show us one of these ugly money making cash machines of yours.
Hey Bill,
Far from done…what are you nuts? Your Stormtrooper Galaxy site looks like it’s been up and running successfully for 20 years
It is an awesome example first and foremost of what can be accomplished if we engage in that dirty 4 letter word “WORK”.
It’s obvious you have a few skills a newbie like myself doesn’t have yet but when I take a hard look at Stormtrooper Galaxy what strikes me is that ya know what…I could do this…..IF I thought my site through and IF I put the effort into it that you obviously have.
I will say I am more comfortable producing content within the Wordpress platform than BANS but if you say producing a high quality BANS site without Wordpress is just as possible I BELIEVE YOU!
Your Stormtroopers Galaxy site will not only make you money it also sets a benchmark for us BANS owners shoot for. I linked to it recently in a short post I wrote entitled “Wordpress and BANS get Married”. Thanks for your leadership within the BANS community!
Mark M.
Mark | Affiliate Ground Zeros last blog post..End Flaky Bookmark Organzing
Bill – I agree with Dave. There are tons of “ugly sites” that make money… and some good money at that. I would show you but then I’d be revealing too much
To answer your question, there are always people in need of having a website set up for them. You just need to know where to look… I’m doing it for someone as we speak.
Jay
@Jay….yeah I know…everyone has sites that make a ton of money but they won’t show anyone…..your the latest.
Give me a break.
I found one that is ugly as hell but makes a lot of money… mediatakeout.com and look, it’s not even mine!
Jay
Jays last blog post..Current Projects: Testing Out Different Niches, Site Flipping, Design Work, Etc
@Jay – How would you know whether it makes any money or not….I mean look at all of the MMO bloggers that pretend they make money online…..you can’t throw a rock without finding a pretender.
My Ugly sites post is aimed at e-commerce type stores….BANS specifically…..a giant steaming pile of Google Adsense crap is not what I wrote about.
Spreading yourself too thin can be more trouble than it’s worth. Those 100 tiny sites might only achieve a tiny percentage of what they could if you had fewer sites but spent more time and effort on marketing them. Strongly agree with you on that point – on the Internet at least – less is often more – because you can focus everything on just those few sites and make every single one a success.
Entrepreneur Blogs last blog post..Four Tier Annilhilation Review – My Personal Recommendation
Bill:
You and Mark are frustrating me!
I have been at this for about a year. I’m making about $200 per month with BANS sites using some content from PLRPro. I have to admit that my most profitable site YTD is a .info site in an extremely competitive niche. This site was de-indexed by Google several months ago. It still makes good money. My next most profitable site was based on much better niche research using Terapeak. It is a “thin affiliate site”. So, while agree with the new thinking about content and Wordpress integration, I see how others may be having success simply by choosing good niches. My new thinking is to choose extremely narrow niches (maybe even one product). Widgets- Blue widgets- Blue widgets made in 2007. Blue widgets made in 2007 by Santa’s Helpers in the North Pole.Much higher rankings with lower traffic. Just depends on keyword research.
I like your site alot.I wonder if the only way to make money with BANS is to really have a good knowledge of design and programming. I think that may be why people are a little defensive about their “thin sites”. My backgraound is in business ( I own a brick and mortar business). I’m good at reaearch- bad at design and programming. If you decide to design sites, contact me.
I have to agree with Bill here. Speaking as a surfer/shopper – when I stumble across an amateur-ish looking site, I immediately hit the back arrow. That’s not to say that an ugly site cannot make any money, but it will be limited. Surfers on my more polished sites spend much more time on the sites and click around within the site. I expect they are picking up more bookmarks too.
Great looking Stormtrooper site, by the way. In a few months, I would love to see some historical traffic and revenue numbers similar to what you’ve provided in the past.
@Andrew – Thanks Andrew…I will do that. Since it’s public and out there anyways I can share revenue. I will tell you this…it got off to a strong start and indexed like 30 pages overnight but then dropped them all but 2. It has crept back up to about 12 pages as I write this.
Google traffic is starting to trickle in but not really ranking well for much yet. One sale so far which happened to be an ACRU so after 3 days…..it’s made about 30 bucks. Off to a good start.
@ Rob – hit me up via my contact page so I have your email address and we can talk. I am by NO means a programmer and my background is business too. I am a sales manager by day and a wannabe niche site empire builder by night.
Let me know what you have in mind and I would consider it. If you want to bounce niche ideas off me as well I will give you my honest opinion. You have little to fear from me stealing it, I have so many niche ideas already that I am building that I will be waist deep for months and months.
Good niches are not my problem…..hours in the day is my real problem. I would use caution in the extremely narrow niche…..even ranking #1 a lot of times it brings no traffic…depends on the item though. My offer stands.
@Jason – I completely agree. I have long since abandoned the “Vic” philosophy on BANS sites. I am building fewer sites that are of much higher quality that could withstand a human review from Google.
At least I hope they will.
Very interesting.
I think I might now go and redesign my main blog.
it is true that poorly designed pages make no money… or atleast a lot less than they would with a beautiful design…. either way, BANS is great.. its the easiest way to start an online business
Free Stuff Onlines last blog post..Richkiss.com (Meet Rich People Online)
Can’t agree with you any more. Ugly Sites makes no money what so ever. Even if a good looking site with lack of content still catches the eye and get the reader to visit back.
Syed Balkhis last blog post..5 reasons Why People don’t read your blog and how you can fix it
Hi
Great site!
You mention you use wordpress + BANS. I do too, however, I have BANS on the main page of my site with the wordpress blog in another directory “/blog” do you think this is fine?
I hope it is as all Im really using the blog is to ad keyword focussed content to the site to help in search engine rankings.
What I am asking is, is there a difference in having a BANS site with wordpress in a directory as opposed to a wordpress site and having BANS in a directory?
Thanks for your help, I’ll check back later to see if anyone can answer.
Cheers guys
Scott
You’ve done a great job on your Storm Trooper site. I think the template you are using is a good choice. I have used this template myself and it has a very professional look to begin with but you’ve made some really nice changes to it to individualize it.
Paula from Affiliate Blog Onlines last blog post..Blog Posting Frequency: Are you a slave to your blog?
Interestingly, I was reading an article on Datmoney.com where it talks about how some ugly sites are making all the money. Well, I’m glad I could see two sides of a coin. Anyway, in any case, I couldn’t agree more with you.
Yan
Blog for Beginnerss last blog post..20 Possible Ways to Optimize Your Blog
That’s quite an informative post for me. I am quite new to BANS even as a concept, even though I have been with wordpress for a while now. I however agree totally in principle with you that having a few good sites is far better for the long term than it is having a million sites that are substandard.
It is important that your blog is visually appealing. Because in study after study on sites, that use radical color combinations, or use other extreme elements in the end don’t have the success that they should.
SeanMs last blog post..Pepper Cherry Hybrid Project
Nice article. I would like to say the title of article in another way “Only rich & valuable content pays”. It is good if you are using wordpress+BANS, this will help you in improving your search engine optimization.
Still I have to try this option.
SynArticless last blog post..Sling That Baby – Why Baby Wearing Is A Smart Choice For New Parents
What is ugly to some is pretty to others.
Its all a matter of personal choice.
many people will continue to look for an easy way out. but in a way, that’s alright because that creates an opportunity for those who produce quality stuff.
koujis last blog post..haiku poem: nature (sand)
I not sure is my design consider ugly or not, I download from other, and modify my self to different color.
true. the aesthetics of a site are quite important, especially if you intend for people to want to part with their cash.
koujis last blog post..haiku poem: poverty (goodsearch)
P.S. people are lazy because society has taught us to be that way. We want everything instantly and this why many people fail when trying to make money online. Good post
I quite disagree mate, UGLY sites make hell lot of money. UGLY sites have the highest CTR too.
How else would you explain the popularity of MYSPACE
MBAs last blog post..rushi_abm Intro
Great information for newbies like me…You are probably right. Builidng 100 ugly sites hoping for a dime a day is not good. But what if the 100 sites is each a great and informative site ?
Our Food Recipess last blog post..Blueberry Swirl Cheesecake
Great post, I agree with a lot of what you said.. you’re right, generally most people are lazy and want a quick answer.. I think there is just no substitute for good original content. Keep up the good work.
Daniel Hunts last blog post..Making Money from Domain Names – Part 2
You should always strive to make the most attractive site that you can possibly make. Unfortunately, some peoples idea of attractive is….well…ugly. A Project Manager at my “day job” forced his coders to create one of the absolute worst sites visually I have ever seen. When some comments were made about it he responded with “Well, I like it”. Sure enough it went to production. And it is ugly to this day (Note: one coder refuses to put it on his resume because it is so bad).
CubeWarriors last blog post..25% Done
There are some sites that really make me want to beat up the computer!
I think people should realize that the look of the site matters a lot too in the end. There are many people who just gets pulled into the site if it has good design and a proper structure.
I think what you mean to say is sites that don’t deliver value, make no money. As a copywriter, I know that words are what matter when it comes to selling, not web design.
Now, I’m not saying web design is not important. It is. Believe me, I spend thousands of dollars on my sites. But the design is only there for the overall user experience, not the selling.
If you look at John Carlton’s Simple Writing System website at http://www.simplewritingsystem.com/, you’d see that it’s hideous – even when compared to online sales letters. Yet it’s a best selling product, that as you can see, is already sold out.
And the cost of the product? I can’t remember the exact number but it was more than $2000!
Maybe in some cases, people are so anxious about starting a site, and they really have no idea where to turn for design. Some people might have a problem toying with CSS to adapt a free blog theme. Others can’t justify spending money to have one custom-made. I do agree with you that the look of a blog is just as important as the content. Fortunately, as more theme designers are coming out of the woodwork, there should be plenty of free themes to go around. Great post!
Hehe, you’re raining on alot of people’s parades!
I’ve actually seen a bunch of ‘ugly’ sites that allow their owners to pocket some decent change………however, I’ll agree with you as a rule of thumb.
Whenever I will have my banner for my blogs or anything which needs visitors for online earning, I see to it that the banners are catchy.
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Great header on your site. I have used bans for over a year now and have been very successful. I recommend this software to everyone!
I think people think it easy to make money online as they are lead to belive that by a lot of people selling the dream. e.g. how many adverts have you seen….”make $15000 in a day” etc….. Makes it sound easy!
Stormtrouper site is awesome BTW! Cant suggest anything to improve it, you’ve got it nailed!
So true, if the site looks professional it builds trust with the visitors.An ugly site can have the best information, products and services but it doesn´t help much.Another thing that turns people off is excessive adverting.A blog full of banners and nothing else is not cool.
Tom Lindstroms last blog post..How To Publish An Ezine With The Help Of Auto Responders
I have to agree with you. Once I get to a site that’s really ugly, I’m done with it after a second.
I believe the trend will shift toward ppl having a uniquely built site in order to stand out amongst the blogosphere. There’s already enough look-a-like sites don’t you think?
BTW: you might wanna update your CommentLuv plugin…I don’t see any CL ‘recent posts’ link
I have to agree with you. It’s worth the time to put forth a little effort to make your sites look somewhat professional.
My BANS sites don’t come anywhere near the quality of your stormtrooper site – I follow the 80/20 rule. But just by doing a quality banner and background then tweaking the css to match, you’re ahead of most who use BANS out-of-the-box.
Great article and awesome job on your site!
Kellys last blog post..The Definition of Serendipity
Ive seen some ugly sites that makes money, but what is ugly to you might be appealing to me.
robert entrepreneurs last blog post..Create E-books For People Who Actually Want to Buy Them
I cant stand ugly websites! I like nice and clean ones.
This post drives home a good point. People aren’t very likely to buy from a low budget website. If a site looks like it was slapped together by someone that is taking his first web design class people are not very likely to make a purchase.
Gerald SEO Tips Blogs last blog post..7 Deadly Blogging Mistakes
“Would YOU buy from your own site?” is the number#1 qiestion one should ask when he/she thinks they’re done building a site -which in my opinion is never truly ever done because a real site is always constantly evolving.
The StormTrooper site looks great to me and I think it’s the same reason for most other decent sites: the graphic images (with content of course but thats just standard operating procedure)!
Think about it? The sites that usually catch immediate attention are the ones with clear/glossy graphics. This can only be balanced by having what I call “addictive content” which is why some ugly sites do succeed.
Market Secrets Bloggers last blog post..Being Part Of A Group
I have numerous ugly sites and they rake in the cash. What you have to realize is that people are addicted to clicking. Ideally, they want to double click. So we web masters need to provide a solution for their hunger to click.
So, the ugly site that doesn’t waste any time getting rid of ugly visitors via an Adsense or whatever click is a model of excellence that we need to embrace as a business model in my humble opinion. Of course, I could be entirely wrong.
Andys last blog post..How I make some money online for free
Firstly, I just *love* the design of your blog..
I have a couple of really ugly sites that make money, I think people click on the ads to get away from the ugliness of my site, it’s the only thing I can think of..
I definitely prefer to have really nice looking sites, and would love it if I were more gifted in this area
Penny Butlers last blog post..Your PageRank can DIE with Wordpress – 17 Ways to Optimize SEO
Great tips man. This will be really helpful for me to earn more money. I am subscribing to your posts right away.
Solid Bloggers last blog post..Top Blogging Secrets To Success
Quite a controversial title. However, Plentyoffish.com is one of the ugliest sites I’ve seen and it made over 10 million dollars last year.
Looks aren’t everything
Cheers,
Glen
Glen Allsopps last blog post..3 Stories That’ll Make You Think Twice
Im not in total disagreement but I know of some real ugly sites that make quite a bit of money. Im sure if those sites were more well optimized or looked better they could probably raise their profits. But you are right…most of them are lazy!
Matt Helphreys last blog post..Develop a Link Building Strategy
Hi Bill,
With respect to the question that you posed, “would you buy from your own site” – all I can say is OUCH!. That’s a total “in your face” reality check kind of a question.
It is, however, a very great question to ask. I am going to keep asking this “hard truth” question everytime that I tweak my own site.
Online Marketing Promotions last blog post..Pros And Cons Of Buying An Internet Business Instead Of Building One From Scratch
Most of my adsense only sites are VERYYYYYYYY ugly.
I am considering changing them… but I would need some sort of Geo-IP for ebay or phpbay, because ebay is the ONLY thing other than adsense I could use… and then I don’t even know if it would make any money. One in particular I am speaking of does $30/day in Adsense with 1500 or so uniques daily.
Great post. To answer your question, yes. I do think that many people would pay to have sites made for them.
I think this will become even truer in the next couple of years. Only the very successful of the past will survive (drudge, for example).
Gennaros last blog post..8 Presidential Inauguration Locations To Visit
Yeah you are right, people are lazy.
But with platforms like wordpress and bans, there’s no excuse for building ugly sites
Rob
Hard way to get some cash online LOL
Probably get informations online to get some cash more have chance to run
Damn.. posting 100 sites per week or so are a lot of work. By the way, I didn’t know what BANS was until I went to look it up. You might want to write “Build A Niche Store (BANS)” when you first discussed about BANS up top.
Kai Los last blog post..Should You Write Long or Short Blog Posts
Very good Post about Usability.
A Product sells only and if only it has a good wrapper.
I have also a site made with smartappsportal.com and I focus on its design for creating new leads easily.
They provide nice tech support and it is easy to use also. But I tweak their design for better first Impression.
Nice Post, I liked it.
Thanks
Don’t judge a book by its cover and so they say. Sometimes, I have to agree that ugly sites doesn’t make money, but sometimes this concept is wrong. I mean you don;t go after a site just because it has a pretty lay-out, you go to a site because of the quality content it brings to you. But then again, first impressions do tend to last, so why not try making your site attractive yet professional for your readers?
Hi,
Thanks for the tip.
I will try change my blog and try to make better and more attractive.
Best regards,
Felipe
Felipes last blog post..Grandes Jardins em pequenos espaços
I must agree with Tryrone Shum. Some people do not go for one site just because it has a cool lay-out but because of the content and services it offers. However, as we all know, a perfect dish needs all the complete ingredients to acquire the perfect taste. In Business we must recognize all factors that will entice people to be customers.
Hi! Your Star Wars Trooper Galaxy site looks wonderful. I’d also like to start using the Revolution theme for my websites. I was using BANS for a while but switched back to Phpbay Pro. Is the process of integrating WP & BANS easy to learn or am I better off just sticking to WP? Thanks, David
.-= David @Discount Website Hosting´s last blog ..Hostgator Review =-.
I think there are many people who would like a site built for them. Heck, if I could afford it I would outsource the majority of tasks for my site, and the design would definitely be one of those things.
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