April 28, 2008
After a much needed week away from working… I have made it back with a huge push to get some work done again! One of the hardest decisions I made over the past week, is to dump many of the non-performing niche stores I have, so I can focus more on the ones that ARE producing results!
Just like the trial and errors of developing categories for niche sites, there comes a point when you decide which categories to remain focused on and which ones to just let stay the course and die a slow painful death, with no further promotion. Whenever I look at one of my Build a Niche Store sites, I go through the logs and see which of the categories are producing the best results. In most cases, it is the old 80/20 rule… 80% of my income comes from 20% of my sites! This is definitely the case with many niche stores and the entire catalog of niche sites Kim and I have.
So, now comes the hard part… which metrics am I going to use to determine the winners and losers of my attention? Its actually pretty easy!
Here’s a couple examples… www.Wifi30.com The site is only 3-4 months old. It was launched and walked away from completely. I mean, I never even followed my first rule of development in making the site unique. (See, I can be just as guilty as everyone else developing niche websites) The domain name is great and one of the up and coming terms that will gain buzz over the next year or so as wifi at the pole becomes more widespread and popular… I stumbled onto the term (wifi 3 point 0) when I was in the airport flying home from my visits to my dad in January (along with several others) and regged it as soon as I got in front of a PC. My decision with this site is to finish the EPN update and spend a few hours taking it to the first level of development, unique categories. In 3-6 months, I will revisit the dump rules again on this site and decide whether to keep or toss at that time.
Next on my dump list is a site that actually did VERY well early on, but has really just fallen off the face of the earth! www.ColonFit.comactually did very well during the first 2-3 months of its existence. It earned the cost of the domain name and directory submission within the first 30 days and the adsense clicks on the site, when actually clicked on, COULD produce fairly high EPC due to the topic. The site has been active since last September and is well indexed with a pagerank of 2 in the Google toolbar. My decision with this site is to add an autocontent blog (aka Splog or spam-blog) and spend another month or two seeing if I can turn it around again.
The two sites listed above are just a very small example of MANY sites I found during my EPN updates. In total, I figure I have about 25-30 sites that will be listed for sale over at eBay for the domain name itself. If they sell… great, if not… I just won’t renew them.
Do you have a strategy for determine which of your sites are keepers and which are just taking up server space?
Mark
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11 Responses to “Back with a Vengence - Time for a Niche Dump!”
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I Made My First BANS Sale!!!
Just wanted everyone to know I made my first BANS sale today!
I did the following to make it happen.
1. Used Rochelle’s “The Niche Store Checklist has been Revised” to create the BANS site. http://www.nichestorestrategies.com
2. Used Marks’s “More Free Build a Niche Store templates - Come and Get Em!” to build the site. http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com
3. Used JTPratt’s “Watch Me Build a BANS Niche Site from Scratch!” to fine tune the site. http://www.jtpratt.com
4 Used JTPratt’s “Best Practices for Setting Up a New Wordpress blog in 60 Minutes or less” to set up a blog correctly. http://www.jtpratt.com
Thanks to all the forum posts at BANS and all the people who commented on the sites listed above.
Come take a look http://www.toolboxhero.com and make relevant comments at http://www.toolboxhero.com/blog. The blog is dofollow so go ahead and build some backlinks.
Next, more backlinks, more BANS stores, and implement more ideas from Rochelle. Mark, and JTPratt!!
Thanks again, Paul
Okay I’ll bite… how do you go about setting up an autocontent blog?
Thanks! :)
I have only started 4 BANS sites to this point. I was ready to start more when the decision to switch from CJ to eBay Partners took place so I put any new creation ideas on hold and stopped everything with my 4 BANS sites.
I wasn’t sure what was going to take place and if I would have to re-install the 4 sites.
I waited for 15 days before even updating to the new affiliate program because of early problems but when I did finally do the update it was less than a half hour to update all 4 BANS sites.
I am having a bit of trouble creating any new ones but I am sure I will figure out what I am doing wrong.
@ Mark
Welcome back, and thanks for the ’spring clean’ info. Looks like you gotta be ruthless.
@ Paul,
Nice site!
I was going to take you up on your offer of a backlink but the blog said ‘You must be logged in to post a comment.”
James
@ Paul -
Great looking site!! The only thing I wouls suggest would be to change back to a nofollow in your comments section and add the top commenters plugin instead. (seen in the 4th box, middle column on the right of this site)
I had a dofollow setup myself on a different blog and you will quickly find yourself getting more than 1000 autosubmissions each day, which makes finding the real ones a hassle. The top commenter plugin rewards repeat visitors and links to the top 10 (or 20, 30 etc) people who leave comments, on a rolling 7, 14, 30 day basis. (Very configurable)
Top Commenter Plugin
@ Jon -
I already have a BANS/Blog template package completed, just waiting for the right time and some further testing before I post it. Autocontent is really nothing more than telling WordPress to pull in relevant articles based on terms I decide, then linking specific words to the store.
Mark
Sorry, I had the “Users must be registered and logged in to comment” checked in Wordpress admin area of http://www.toolboxhero.com/blog.
That’s fixed, try it again if you want.
This is my first Wordpress Blog so I’m still learning the little things.
I have a couple of Blogger blogs set up with do-follow hacks and I have no problem with spam there.
Yes I like your idea of using the top commentor plugin. I have it installed and when I start getting a few regulars I’ll activate it.
This particular blog will only have original content.
I also want to tempt other experts into commenting on this blog so I almost have to have it set up do-follow.
This particular blog will also have some very controversial subject matter and almost everyone will be able to comment. That said, I want to “pay back” many of you who have helped me in the last few months by setting up a blog that will link back to your sites.
Footnote: I left a comment at JTPratt Blogging Mistakes blog yesterday. He has do-follow and comment-luv on his site. WITHIN 45 minutes the Google bot showed up and indexed ALL of my site. Within 2 hours, 5 other bots showed up including Yahoo and MSN.
Welcome back Mark!
Nice site Paul!
I am interested in the autocontent as well. I have read most everything posted to this site since late 2007 (before I ever bought bans). Or actually, it might have been the “thekidscollegefund” or something to that effect before it was ‘thenichestorebuilder”.
Anyway, I enjoy it all and find it quite useful. Who knows, in the near future you may have enough users of this site to conduct your own BANS seminars!
Kelly
[…] Back with a Vengence - Time for a Niche Dump! […]
I have only 2 BANS sites.
I made the first one and put alot of emphasis on it with content and skinning (CSSifying) and it looked great. However, it has not made one sale since January. :( I think it’s because it’s not a broad niche and the items are fairly high ticketed items (makes me wonder too, do high ticketed items sell well?)
In any case, while I was looking at my stats, I did see that one portion of the site got more hits/views than other other portions of the site. This got me thinking. Maybe I should make another site that’s more niche. So instead of having http://www.buythisthing.com I’ll have http://www.buythisonespecialthing.com
My 2nd BANS store has been alive since Feb. but I never really took care of it until April. From mid April until now it’s garnered over $80 in revenue. Not “ditch the job” type of revenue, but its a start. I’ve almost recouped my BANS revenue and hosting. This site also has very little promotion (and I can’t tell you how well stumblebupon is doing for me. i highly suggest it). This site isn’t a high ticketed item store like my first one.
I am new to BANS - so new in fact I haven’t signed up yet - so would really like to know if they really work i.e. can you make $1 or $2 a day from a BANS site, in which case if you set up 200 then you can make enough to live off - is it feasible ? Thanks.
@ The Old Vic -
I can tell you that in less than 1 year, we are well on our way to earning a sustainable income on BANS alone. Not there yet, but getting there.
Affiliate websites as a whole are sporadic at best! You may earn $200 in one day and then only $20 for the rest of that week, the trick to it is finding the markets that convert the best, and growing them into more than just affiliate websites with the use of a blog etc….
Yes, it works… but it also takes time and patience. In the end, those who have the ability to stick it out for 1 year will do great, most quit after 30-60 days.
Mark