Build a Niche Store with a Blog Update!
Well – 30 days ago, I wrote a post about my Custom BANS Template with the Build a Niche Store entry and a Blog incorporated into the backside. In the post, I promised I would provide follow up for the next few months so we can see how the combination works together. I am very happy to say… it has been wonderful thus far!
First 30 Day Report of the Fine Designer Shoes site
Just to refresh everyones memory, the site in question is the Fine Designer Shoe site I used as one of my 12 week empire stores. The site uses a custom template I put together along with several code modifications to eliminate any footprint of the BANS code to search engines and makes use of several basic SEO strategies that were built in to take advantage of the page titles. Not counting the 8-12 hours I put into the template itself, I have a total of about 3 hours into this site! I installed it, built the first group of main store categories, installed the blog and template and walked away!
Today, being day 30 of the site… I am revisiting the site and adding a group of subcategory pages, focusing on one of the brands in the main store menu. Along with adding more store pages, I am going to start manually posting to the blog from here forward. 3-5 posts a week, related to the new store pages and the niche in general, should help this store with more traffic and higher rankings over the next 30 days!
Key Metrics
Combined CJ/EPN Earnings: $44.90
Traffic:
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2283 Unique visitors (includes referred visitors)
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11,222 pages (4.89 pages/visitor)
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Average 66 unique visitors a day (Growing daily)
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1009 Search Engine referred visitors!
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More than 100 pages indexed in Google
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More than 50 pages in both Yahoo and MSN
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More than 30 Indexed, Inbound Links from other sites!
Total Costs: $31.86
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Domain Name $0.66 ($7.95 divided by 12)
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Hosting: $0.25 ($24.95 divided by the 100 sites we have on this specific hosting account)
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SubmitEdge Directory Submission: $15.00
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Custom Article: $16.00
30 Day Net Gain: $13.04
While it is still too early to know much for sure, the first 30 days of metrics on this site tell me it should be a high performing site within the next few months! It has seen a high rate of indexing already and the spiders seem to come several times each day. The site ranks well (top 20) for several of the terms I am targeting, and has a wide range of words I can use to form custom categories.
My short term goal for the next 30 days is to increase sales by 50% to $70.00. Along with the earning increase, I want to increase my visitors from 66/day to 100/day. I will do that by:
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Finding the TOP Selling eBay stores and replacing some of my current ads to their store banners.
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Focus specific store categories on the search traffic already coming in to feed the engines and visitors MORE of what they already like!
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Write my own blog posts surrounding the same terms as above.
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Submit the new site pages to directories and other popular shoe websites.
My long term goal for this site is to achieve $1000/month in earnings within 12 months. If I follow this plan, success will follow… I’m sure you have all noticed that my goals are very small and very achievable at this point! This is done on purpose and meant to increase the site popularity and earnings slowly. Just like a solid foundation on a building, one step at a time is the best methods for growing your Build a Niche Store Empire!
On a completely separate note – I have received more than 500Â requests from people wanting the template set (BANS and Blog) I used on the site. I have tried to explain to everyone that this template is very customized and requires quite a bit of code work to function 100% the way it is designed. That said… If anyone wants this template, the cost is: $300.00 -Â I think I just heard all of the gasps out there…. so I should explain what you get with this template.
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Limit of 15 sales – Thats it!
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I will install the Entire template system onto One (1) Site for you. I recommend you choose a site that is already established and optimized versus a brand new site that you are still working on.
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I will handle the installation of your site blog through your cPanel.
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I will install the BANS Search MOD to your site if not already done.
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I will install the needed plugins for auto-posting of blog posts and find the RSS feeds for the content.
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I will install and configure the AutoLinks plugin and prefill the top terms associated with your developed niche site.
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I will configure your existing BANS site to work seamlessly with the Blog and vice-versa. This is handled through a separate include file, that I will provide instructions for the times you update your BANS site.
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I will generate 4-6 custom images for the header image rotation, linked to their corresponding store categories.
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I will provide you with backups of your original site files if needed.
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Anytime BANS updates, I will provide free updates to the files changed for the use of this template system.
I am limiting this to only 15 buyers so I can limit the footprint of the template on the web. As a buyer, if you choose to reconfigure this template and use it on other sites, you are welcome to do so. All I require, is that you do not resell any of the code or template anywhere else.
I truly wish I could provide this as a free template… but along with the category rotator images, the amount of coding required to make it all work seamlessly with another site is pretty indepth. If you prefer to wait for some free templates, I will have a slow trickle of BANS/Blog templates released soon.
If you are interested in purchasing the site template, customized to your niche site, send me an email via the contact page. I will send along payment information and the timeframe for the completed project. (Usually 4-7 days)
Mark
Previously Published Articles You May Like to Read:
- Integrating Build a Niche Store with a Wordpress Autopilot Blog
- Update on all Build a Niche Store Site Updates
- Build a Niche Store EPN Update Released
- Update Build a Niche Store 3.0 to 3.0 EPN
- Build a Niche Store 3.0 Bug and Update
- Another Build a Niche Store Update Released
- Build A Niche Store Review – Part 1 – My First Store!
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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.
Why is footprint such a concern? Take WordPress, for example. There are themes (layouts) that are reproduced by the thousands all over the web, i.e. with an identical design footprint. Google seems to adore them. Are users of the default and popular WP themes at any sort of risk? I don’t think so, but could stand corrected. Even Matt Cutts uses an out of the box theme for his blog. I think the same applies to out of the box BANS layouts.
If I’m correct, it’s been several years now since footprint was mentioned by Google as a basis for banning an entire genre of sites. It’s been so long that I can’t recall the situation that gave rise to such a wholesale banning. However, I don’t think anything like that has occurred since.
Hi Robert -
There’s a big difference between a blog like Matt Cutts providing 100% unique content and an affiliate site displaying content from an rss feed. In reality, there could be hundreds of this template, or the BANS default templates, without ever worrying about the banning issue you referred to, as long as the content itself was unique. I have seen MANY BANS sites using the supplied templates with only minor changes, that do very well!!
My choice to limit the template to 15 is based more on the unique look than any banning issues. “Saturation” may have been a better choice of my words in this case…
Google DOES however identify common findings in websites and discount authority based on the same thing over and over. Matt himself talks about the ways Google can identify MFA (Made for Adsense) sites and removes them from the index daily.
Mark
nice nice! good metrics – it always pays to be different with different layout structure it can mean a big difference
I use out of the box BANS layouts with minimal mods (color & a decent header) because I just want to pack as much content and on-site seo onto a site as I can do reasonably within a given amount of time. Horsing around with different layouts would only detract from crafting the site for max juice from an seo standpoint. I personally don’t think the layout has anything to do with that as long as the content is unique and seo is done right. I’m in the process of building dozens of sites, and need to work in a familiar environment to get them out there fast.
So, I spend maybe a half hour to an hour installing BANS, doing a header and tweaking the layout. I can do this because I have preset css, headers and footers that get the job done. The remainder of my time, and most of it, is spent on developing content, doing a blog and seo.
Hey Mark,
Great post! I was wondering if you could expand on this a bit?
“Finding the TOP Selling eBay stores and replacing some of my current ads to their store banners”.
Are you generating the ad code through EPN. Well i guess i am really just asking how you go about this. I think it is a fantastic idea.
Beau
@ Beau -
Using eBay sellers actually has a few benefits! First, find a popular store in your market – look for HIGH SALES numbers and a high feedback rating. Create your own banner for your site using something they may have in their own artwork of their store.
Go the EPN tools and generate a link to the sellers store… and use it as the url for the banner.
While you are at it – send the store owner an email and TELL THEM you are an affiliate that promotes eBay stores, and want to use theirs as one of your premier banner spots. Ask them questions about the products they sell and while you are at it, ask them if they would like to write anything for you to include on your own site! (Can you say… Instant content pages?)
Most eBay seller are THRILLED to know that someone else is helping promote their site for them and will answer immediately!
Mark
Mark,
Thanks for the follow up. I just recently started building BANS stores and have found your site to be fantastic. Thanks.
Beau
I love the idea of promoting ebay stores – I never even thought of that. It’s so cool – thanks, Mark!
I am curious what the template would look like installed on another site….are you customizing the graphics and colors as part of the install too?
In this post, Mark said this
“Go the EPN tools and generate a link to the sellers store… and use it as the url for the banner.
While you are at it – send the store owner an email and TELL THEM you are an affiliate that promotes eBay stores, and want to use theirs as one of your premier banner spots. Ask them questions about the products they sell and while you are at it, ask them if they would like to write anything for you to include on your own site! (Can you say… Instant content pages?)”
So yesterday I had gotten an email from a guy about an ad I had on USfreeads. My site didn’t have the product he was looking for so i did some searching myself and found that there WAS an Ebay Store that had the items he was interested in. So i took Marks advice from the quote above and made a banner with that ebay store and contacted the store owner. I have to admit i was a little skurred haha, i didn’t know how he would respond. BUT today I got an email from him and here’s what he said…
“Hi Jeff I did check out your website and it looks fanatastic. Thanx also for the plugs to my listings pasted all over, wow! I’m unsure what you’re looking for (from me), but explain it please to a dummy like me and we’ll go from there. :) thanx for writing!”
Soo, i explained to him that if he had ANY info about his products that could drive traffic to my site AND HIS, that I could use it as content page or in a blog on that site… Soooo there you go! Thanks Mark for a great idea!!
Hey Mark its Russ,do you still have any of these blog templates and can I use this same template for any other of my stores?
how much would you charge to do each other site after I buy the first template.
[...] is a phenominal deal and if you are interested, you need to take a look at the post on his blog – The Niche Store Builder. I think he already has about 12 signups already, so you need to be [...]
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