BANS Today

All in one SEO Pack - Meta Descriptions

Written by mbpage on August 25, 2008

One of the most popular wordpress plugins is the all in one seo pack.  I have been using it for a while but noticed that the meta descriptions I created were being ignored by Google.  Usually an indexed page is represented by Google as a snippet.  The snippet is a combinaiton of the meta title and meta description.  The meta description should be no more than 155 characters long and is your opportunity to include sales message to encourage a user to click on your link.  A good meta description is essential if you are going to succeed with Build a Niche Store.

Rather than showing my meta description Google was displaying a random selection of menu items and page text making the snippet look spammy and imo discouraging a potential visitor from clicking my link.  For this reason I had reservations about using wordpress in combination with BANS.

I searched long and hard for a solution to this problem posting requests for help on several forums.  I also asked fellow BANS bloggers and also contacted the plugin author but no one had any suggestions.  Frustrated, I started experimenting with the plugin settings and after two or three weeks of experimentation I have found the solution.

If you use this plugin, and every wordpress user should, and want full control over the Google snippet then you simply turn off the autogenerate descriptions option.  Doing this requires that you enter a meta title and meta description manually but the result of having a meaningful meta description makes the effort worthwhile.  The biggest advantage though is that you make more sales!

Free BANS Templates

Written by mbpage on August 19, 2008

Sometimes I’d like to post more often but I refuse to produce content just for the sake of it. I only write when I’ve got something worth saying and I hope that’s appreciated. I have kept away from the BANS forums recently due to the negative rumors that abound. I prefer to keep focused on what I’m doing rather than worry about the latest “BANS is finished” story. Thats not to say I hide my head in the sand but negative stories can consume time more than anything else I know.

Anyway I popped over and found that Kelvin and Adam have released some really classy BANS templates and what’s more they’re free. Dave (Soggy) and Mark (meetmydomains) are working on creating versions that support wordpress integration so to me the futures never seemed better.

If you haven’t checked out the new templates yet make your way over to the BANS forum and check them out.

US Hosting UK Sites

Written by mbpage on July 1, 2008

This is a big lesson learned.  When I first decided to use Hostgator to manage my websites I made a number of inquiries about the likely effect on UK targeted BANS stores being hosted in the US.  Everyone assured me all would be fine (I asked questions in a number of forums).  As things have turned out it is not fine.

If you host BANS stores in the US targeting another country then you must use a local domain rather than a .com or a .net.  Why?  Because you will not get in the local google index.  Say I have golfclubs.com a UK store hosted in the US.  Google will not index it in Google.co.uk only Google.com which means more than 95% of UK searchers will never find your site.

To get around this you must either host your .com in the UK (expensive) or buy a .co.uk domain hosted in the US.  Google will then identify it as a UK site and include it in the UK index (so I have read and am about to test).  Now there is an option in Google Webmaster tools to state which country your site is targeting but in my experience this does not work.  All my UK sites are currently indexed in Google.com and not one in Google.co.uk despite setting this flag more than 8 weeks ago in some cases.

So if you want to be found in a specific variant of Googles index either host in that country or buy the correct domain name for that country.  I hope that’s clear.

Finally, the gap between this and my last post is as a result of a  well earned break.  I don’t like to announce these things before I take a vacation and I had hoped to post whilst I was away but I couldn’t get a wireless connection so in the end I decided to just let it be.

Build a Niche Store Secrets - Research Yes Forensic Investigation No

Written by mbpage on June 13, 2008

Todays Lesson learned, number 5 I believe, is getting to grips with niche store research or not depending on your preference. 

When I initially started to look for niche stores to build there was plenty of advice available.  All of it seemed pretty good but no matter how hard I looked I coudn’t find a niche that ticked all the boxes.  Either search volume was too low, competition too high, too many other BANS stores, not enough demand, poor sell thru rates and so on.

I’ve just built my 35th store and that is the first one that I’ve identified  that met all the criteria mentioned above.  Lets see if it becomes a top performer over the next couple of months!

So where does that leave us?  Well, in the beginning I spent a couple of days looking for the perfect store and getting nowhere.  In the end I just built a couple, one did great the other not so great (too small a niche).

I’ve made several attempts at in depth research since but all it does is dampen my enthusiasm for the project so I’ve cut things right down and now all I do is this:

• Browse ebay categories in search of inspiration
• Pick one I like
• Go to terapeak and check out sell thru rates - I look for greater than 40%.
• Check out average sale price - I’m looking for items that regularly sell in excess of $100.
• Check out current auctions and look at bidding activity - Is there something happening or is everything dead.

Thats it.  It takes me about 10 mins and the evidence suggests it works pretty pretty good. Not the most scientific approach I admit, but, importantly it keeps me moving. There is one final check in relation to keywords but I’ll cover that in the next post.

I guess what I’m saying here is don’t over anal-lyze (if you get my drift).  With 35 stores I have stores that looked like they’d fly perform like dogs and stores that I thought would suck that made sales from day 1.  It’s virtually impossible to predict.

BANS Secrets | Learn Search Engine Optimization

Written by mbpage on June 11, 2008

Today we finally arrive at Lesson Learned 4. I believe this will be the most important post I have written so far and taking on board what I have to say today will either make or break you. I don’t mean to over egg this (I do really) but SEO will determine your success or failure with Build a Niche Store. When you first launch a store it seems to get a mini boost from Google for the first 30 days. You can expect some sales but once the 30 days has past the site seems to lose momentum. Without SEO that momentum will probably be lost forever. Witness my Coach store which was my top performer in April but made no sales in May! Sales from my other early stores have also fallen off.

I hadn’t really appreciated this fully when I bought the script and indeed one of the reasons there has been so much time between this and my last post is that I decided I had to understand more about SEO before building any new niche stores. I am changing my store building strategy as a result but I’ll save that for a later post.

Buying BANS means that to succeed on a, lets say, huge scale a full understanding and commitment to SEO is required. It might take an hour to put up a store but you can multiply that by 100 (over the course of a year) to properly take care of the SEO (unless you can afford to outsource that is).

Now one thing I’m not is an SEO expert but I’ve been learning fast. I’ve been tracking down great resources and I’m delighted to provide links to some really quality in this post. The web grapevine suggests the best source of SEO material can be found at SEObook. There are some great tools and freebies but Aaron no longer sells his famed e-book having switched to a monthly subscription model ($100 per month - ouch).

Next in line comes Dan Theis at SEO Fast Start who produces an awesome free e-book that will give you all the info you need to get started. Diving into this will be the BANS eye opener as the reality dawns that putting up a store is the easy bit. It was for me at least and I now have 27 stores to get back to and optimize properly (I thought I’d done an ok job as well). Actually I’m being a bit harsh on myself as I had done an ok job but not a great job. How do I know?

Well a great complementary resource which I came across courtesy of Soggy is Instant Position which will evaluate and grade site SEO on a page by page basis. You can use a limited function of this site for free but sign up for the one day trial to see the additional info that is provided and then decide if it’s worth paying extra for. My feeling is it’s definitely worth 6 months membership. Once you’ve assessed your sites 100 times you’ll pretty much have down what you need to do!

And what about those early stores? Well my off page SEO continues and I expect them to make a come back over the next 2-6 months as a result of my link building activities.

Now that may be a short post but I believe it is the most important post I’ve written to date. To succeed at BANS on a huge scale (as in I want to quit my day job) you need to become a highly competent SEO professional. And the good news is it’s not as hard as you might think. I hope you enjoy the resources.

Lesson Learned 3 - Record Keeping

Build a Niche Store Secrets - Keeping Records

Written by mbpage on June 3, 2008

In case I was a bit vague in my first post of this series I want to repeat that if you wish to build niche stores that generate organic traffic i.e. free traffic from search engines you will not make huge profits over night. It is a slow process that can be achieved but it will take approx 6 months if you are able to work on each store for 1-2 hours per week. Obviously things will take longer if you can only spend an hour per month on each store for example. I’m not posting this to scare you but rather that you understand this is not a get quick rich product. It’s a slow burn and you will be rewarded for patience persistence and hard work.

Lesson Learned 3

I wish I’d known when I started is Keep Records - that’s an exciting one isn’t it. Yes keeping records is boring as hell but you will get in one hell of a mess without them. I think I built around three stores before I started losing track of things.

I am currently developing my own system of record keeping but until it is ready hop over to Mark’s site and grab a copy of his worksheet to tide you over. Mark is a top guy and whilst your there I’d recommend you sign up for his RSS feed as he posts some great info.

This sheet records all the key information to your store and you should use it to make notes on actions taken to develop stores. It helps keep track of links, articles, content, bookmarking, directory submissions, store pages and the status of your store.

Boring it may be but good record keeping will be critical to your success. Ignore this lesson and you will lose your sanity once you have more than 20 stores.

Build a Niche Store Secrets - Lesson Learned 2

Written by mbpage on May 30, 2008

This series is going to take some time given that todays post is not part of my original list either. My personal view is that to make decent money with Build a Niche Store requires an undertaking to build many stores. If you decide to build multiple stores you will need a hosting account that can handle these requirements. Many people, including myself, use Hostgator. I went for the Baby Croc plan which is pitifully cheap for what you get. However, there is a problem. The Baby Croc plan consists of a main domain and a number of add on domains (not sub domains) . So what’s the problem and what did I learn?

The problem is that all the sites are connected and this means that if you have a problem with one e.g. you get accused of spamming and the domain is suspended then all your sites get suspended. Big ouch. The reseller account is only $25 per month and protects you from the example given. I actually had a big problem yesterday which took down all my sites for a couple of hours. Had I had the reseller account then only the one site would have been affected.

As a result I am in the process of upgrading and I’d recommend you do the same. In the long run you’ll be more than glad you did. There are numerous additional benefits which you can see using the Hostgator comparison charts.

Todays lesson is a biggie. All I can do is say I really wish I had opted for the Hostgator Reseller Account at outset!

Update:

I should also add that having so many sites no the Babycroc plan has also dramatically reduced the speed at which I can edit individual bans pages which take approx 15-30 secs each to load.

Build a Niche Store Secrets - Lesson Learned 1

Written by mbpage on May 27, 2008

I have named this series Build a Niche Store Secrets because everything I will reveal is what I wish I had known when I first started building niche stores. The biggest challenge with starting a series like this is choosing a starting place. What is the number 1 most important thing to get right? Truth be told there are many and in reality you have to learn as you go along and then go back and incorporate changes into existing stores. If you wait until you learn everything you will procrastinate forever and that is no way to build profitable virtual real estate.

I have around 27 stores right now and looking back at the first half dozen or so I put together reveals a catalog of things to change, do differently etc. So where would be the best most number one place to start be?

Believe it or not I’m going to choose no. 20. That’s right it wasn’t even on my original list. Lets call it awareness.

To succeed with BANS you have to be aware that it is a slow process. Whilst most stores enjoy some quick early sales failure to build on your initial work will lead to sales drying up. I estimate that each store requires 3-6 months of graft to reach it’s full potential (maybe longer). BANS success has four basic requirements:

1. A Unique Store
2. Good Keyword Selection
3. A Link Building Strategy
4. The regular addition of new store pages

By unique store I don’t mean something nobody else has thought of; I mean it shouldn’t be an out of the box BANS store. You know that gray template and the standard store pages that match ebay product categories. If you just put up a store like this it will be no different from many others and it will not make many sales.

You should know what keywords you are targeting - more info on this in a future post - but let’s say for example you are selling GPS. You wouldn’t want to target GPS as your main keyword because it is too general. However something like Cheap GPS or Used GPS is more likely to be used by someone looking to buy and therefore makes for a potentially better keyword with less competition.

By far and away the most important aspect of succeeding with BANS is links. Building links is the main criteria for determining your ranking in the search engines and for generating traffic. Get to no. 1 in google for the term “used gps” - not necessarily as hard as many would suggest - and you will make good money.

Finally you should be constantly developing existing store pages and new store pages based on your keyword research and by reviewing the search stats of you hosting account.

Please do not ignore the importance of what is written here because it isn’t very long or doesn’t appear very detailed. This really is gold.

• If you do not create a unique store you will fail.
• If you do not understand keyword research you will fail.
• If you do not understand how to build links effectively you will fail.
• If you do not develop your store pages and add new store pages you will fail.

On the other hand if you master all four of the basic requirements you will generate good profits regardless of how competitive your chosen niche is. As I said above though be prepared to give it time and work hard on each of your stores for an initial 3 to 6 months.

Needless to say I will cover each of these four requirements in more depth in future posts.