Build a Niche Store – BANS – For Sale!
5 October 2009
16 Comments So Far, Join In!
Wow – As if the Month of September didn’t bring enough news… Adam and Kelvin have made the long awaited decision to Sell Build a Niche Store, N1Way, and several other ideas they had in their pockets!
Check out the Build a Niche Store auction on Flippa
From Adam and Kelvin:
After much deliberation BANS, N1WAY and a host of supporting domains
and project concepts have been put up for sale.We’ve done as much as we can in niche site building and are looking
for an enthusiastic individual or team that wants to build on the 3
year foundation we’ve put together.
This is BIG NEWS – and it should be a VERY interesting auction to follow!
Previously Published Articles You May Like to Read:
- Build a Niche Guide from the BANS Crew
- Build a Niche Store Upgrade from 2.0 to BANS 3.0
- More Free Build a Niche Store BANS templates – Come and Get Em!
- Understanding the Value of Build a Niche Store Being Sold
- Build a Niche Store Guide Due Out Today!
- Build a Niche Store Website is Down
- CobraStang – Ready Made Niche Website For Sale!
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I have been doing my part to "Build the Internet" since 1994, when I built my first website! Since then, I have built hundreds of niche websites for myself and many others, focused on design, applications, ecommerce, search optimization and internet marketing.
As soon as I saw that email I knew you would write about it and I couldn’t wait to see what you would say.
Whoever buys BANS would have to have pretty good plans for it, but I can’t help but wonder where else BANS can go? Sure, new owners could add to it so the script pulls in Amazon items, OverStock items, etc, but unless it becomes much more user friendly for the design-aspect, I really don’t see a future for it. Wordpress is soooo much easier to use. I will forever have a soft spot for the BANS script but I prefer Wordpress these days.
That being said, I wish Adam and Kelvin luck in selling it.
All I can say is WOW!. If you read the description of their offering, it looked like they had big plans for future development, including their recent N1WAY guide. Then wham, all of the sudden it’s up for sale. You really wonder what happened. I think it’s a mistake to only give potential buyers 10 days and less to come to a decision on whether to buy it. They should have set a 30 day limit and really let the buzz build. It also gives an opportunity for more people to secure financing for it. Very short-sighted on their part. BUT, I wish them well, and want to say thanks to them for the opportunity that BANS has provided me!
Do you you think this is a comment on BANS itself or where K & A see the EPN program heading? (or perhaps neither)
@ All –
I think this is a GREAT MOVE by Adam and Kelvin!
They simply recognized that they will no longer take BANS any farther, and like they have said in previous emails, they DO want to see it go farther, they just don’t have the desire to do it themselves!
By opening the marketplace to others who may want to take it a new level, they may have opened the door for a brighter future for BANS,
Mark
Got to agree with that Mark. The platform needs to be developed and the potential for a competent team of developers should be pretty awesome.
I think the pricing model will have to change though. I can see an opportunity to take datafeedr on and take this brand of affiliate marketing to the next level.
I can’t help feeling things have stagnated a bit over the last 12 months and it would be nice to see a next generation app in this market sector.
It’s hard to imagine what a “next level” for BANS could be, given what ebay has done to its affiliate program. I don’t see a lot of growth for it in the CPC format, and since BANS is a hard-wired ebay product, I don’t see a lot of growth in their affiliate marketing products either. There are a number of competitors to BANS that pretty much make it obsolete IMO.
And the CPC world is pretty much locked up with Google and their more attractive payouts. I get $2-$3 per click with my Adsense ads, so why would I even bother with the $.05 per click that ebay offers?? Just doesn’t make sense.
Maybe there are folks who’s websites will do as well or even better under the new system, but my niches tend to be high commission/ lower volume and aren’t going to pay anywhere near as much as they used to. And I don’t think I have the interest in pursuing the kind of niches that might do well in the new scenario – I’m having a hard time imagining what kinds of products those are. I don’t want to spend lots of time feeding and nurturing niche sites I have no interest in or understanding of.
Frankly, I think Adam and Kelvin are late to the party. They should have tried to sell BANS a year ago, when there was still an underlying product supporting BANS. Who’d want to pay much for it when ebay has killed off its affiliate program and there are more user-friendly alternatives to BANS?
I look forward to seeing what the new owners, if sold, will do with BANS because as of right now I don’t have much use for it. If only K&A put the auction on eBay I would have bid through one of my related BANs stores to get that better quality click epc, like 0.12. Oh well.
I think that anyone who thinks that BANS is dead or dying is not considering that it is a software product. It’s certainly possible to upgrade and update the BANS product to decouple it from ebay and add much more functionality. Just depends on whether the new owners will decide to invest in it or not.
I have to agree with Alice. I’ll always have a soft place in my heart for the Bans boys, but they waited too long to sell this puppy.
I knew you would write about it Mark.
Are you going to buy it?
I hope so.
w.
IMHO, this could be translated as…
“BANS has plateaued and it’s time for us to cash out and move on. Let the next guy/gal deal with the over-saturation of the product in the marketplace.”
Smart move on their part, should have done it sooner.
But as W.C. Fields said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”
You know, if you look at the affiliate landscape today and try to envision what would be required to make a Niche site work TODAY (SEO, content, etc..), BANS would not be the place where I would start. Nor would I even consider adding or revamping it. I’d start all over with a different approach focused on content.
BANS was great up until the recent changes with EPN. I’m not even sure phpBay cuts the mustard right now. I would totally forget about eBay (or Amazon) as an affiliate option and start looking a new approaches to affiliate marketing. Even Google is making it tougher for affiliates to rank well. On top of this are all of the various “Get Rich Online” schemes that are pushing PPC, etc.. I just think the affiliate channel is over saturated right now… I’m focusing in on content for now and will add affiliate links when appropriate in the future.
Hey Mark,
I knew that would be hot topic of discussion on your blog.
What to make of the latest news that the BIN is gone and the starting price is lowered to 100K? This is now becoming a “doable” deal for a larger number of folks. This is a puzzling move and the last couple of moves by K&A seem ‘knee jerk”. The last being the buy in now, or the price goes up for the N1WAY guide, and reversing that position. I would have thought extending the duration of the auction to allow prospective buyers time to put together, business plans, financing etc would have been a logical first move if things were slow on the auction. This almost says there was ZERO interest at the starting price. Wonder what the rest of you think?
[...] Build a Niche Store – BANS – For Sale! [...]
[...] and Kelvin had a lot of choices to make, all of them hard choices! If you recall, they decided to sell Build a Niche Store, then they changed their minds and decided to stop the sale and instead, build a Niche Site [...]
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