Tips for Making your Build a Niche Store Load Faster

May 22, 2008 | 8 Comments

Does your site load too slow or do you just want to Speed up the Load Time for Build a Niche Store? In this post about The 20 Reasons you will Fail with Build a Niche Store, we will look at tips for speeding up your page load time!
Image courtesy of: http://blogs.cisco.com/sp/2007/11/

Website speed used to be quite an issue with many users still using dial up internet access. Today and throughout 2008, it is predicted that broadband access in the US market will increase dramatically due to a broadband stimulus bill passed by Congress, designed to make it more affordable and accessible to everyone! (read more) To most webmasters, this means the struggle to balance great content with small file size is quickly diminishing, but what about search spiders, don’t they prefer fast loading sites also? My own understanding was YES… but according to a Matt Cutts (GoogleGuy) post :

As long as Google can load your web pages, it doesn’t really make a different whether the pages load in half a second or 5 seconds

…it makes no difference! Now, if your server times out… that’s another story as nobody can access the site!

Checking your Website Load Time

Rochelle from Niche Store Strategies recently asked, How can we check our site speed if we are on a Broadband connection? In order to see how quickly your site or pages load, there are several resources you can use:

1.  Website Speed Checker - I have used this utility for many years! Not only does it show you the speed with different connections, it also shows you which components of your site are hogging those resources!
2. Alexa - While Alexa offers some detailed stats on your site, it will only have complete stats if visitors were using the Alexa toolbar.
3. Firefox Plugin - While I have used it… it just seems too cumbersome to me!

Aside from the few listed above, you can probably find many other sites to help you find out how long your site loads. Dreamweaver and other html editors actually have tools built in to give you a good idea. Again, my favorite is the first link over at: http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/index.html

In order to understand the speed impact, it may be helpful to know your OWN connection speed. Head over to the Speakeasy Speed Test and choose one of the servers closest to your home. In my case, I chose the Atlanta Server and my speed results were as follows:

• Download Speed: 3087kbps (385.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
• Upload Speed: 504kbps (63 KB/sec transfer rate)

Seeing this reminds me I need to call my ISP and complain that I am not getting the speed I pay for! LOL I also see that I should be loading pages approximately 55 times quicker than a dial-up 56k modem. (56k modem runs at approximately 56,000 kiloBITS - kbps, or 5.6 kiloBYTES - KB per second)

What do I Look For?

For this example, I am going to use 2 of my own sites:

1. Wifi 3.0 Products - This site is not new, but is one of the default BANS templates with little to no optimization.
2. Cabinets for Sale - One of my 12 week series sites with a custom template and header graphic.

Go to the Website Speed Checkerand plug your own domain into the url box. I used the Wifi 3.0 domain first just to see the load from an out of the box site. Even with no logo image, the site comes in at more than 170,000 KB, most of which are the eBay thumbnail images! Aside from those, the main image (which is currently blank) is almost 24k by itself. If you are using BANS out of the box, there is not much you can do with the html page size… you can however exercise some control over the images!

The general goal in the past was to get below 25kb in page size, which is on the far left side of impossible if you plan on using ANY images! Sites in the 75kb-100kb are the norm now and many are MUCH higher due to the targeting of visitors. In other words, if you are promoting a site selling $500 items, chances are good your target visitors will already have broadband also. If on the other hand, you are promoting a penny item, you may want to keep design to a minimum!

Once you have the provided list of files and sizes, you can quickly identify where to optimize!

How do I Optimize my File Sizes?

The first thing to look at are the LARGEST images! In the case of the Wifi 3.0 site, I can see that the logo.jpg file, even though it is blank, is more than 23k in size. I can reduce this easily by going to an online Image Optimization utility, placing my image url in the source box and letting it do its own magic!

In this case, since it is a single color file, there are no real gains in file reduction. Using the logo from the Buy Cabinets site however, I can reduce me image size from 16k down to 7k, without any image quality loss!

1. Place URL of logo in url field
   (I used: http://www.buy-cabinets.com/themes/sepia/images/logo.jpg)
2. Click on Optimize
3. Right-click over the top image (Your original logo) and choose SAVE to your hard drive with a unique name. This will be your backup image!
4. Review optimized images starting at the bottom. Most often, the highest gain in file size equals the lowest quality image. I chose the 2nd from the bottom with a value of Quality: 20 and almost 55% in image size reduction!
5. Right-click over the top of the optimized image and save it to your local hard drive.
6. Login to your BANS store and replace the original logo with your new one!

The next thing to consider are the number of auction listings your site displays. More products equals longer load times! I try to stay as low as possible while still showing a satisfactory amount to keep the visitor looking! Anywhere from 10-20 is a good number to stick with… I truthfully think you are wasting space showing more than that on a single page anyhow!

The third and most often overlooked load time killer are banners that come from other domains! On the fine designer shoe site, I use several banners from a third party affiliate company. I have seen these banners take 5 second or longer to load themselves, which also delays the overall page load time! I have an option to save the banners and load them locally, but I would sacrifice some of my click tracking capabilities. I have notified the affiliate manager and hopefully, we can get that taken care of!

Can I OVER Optimize?

Yes… humans are visual by nature! We LOVE to see pictures! Even though search engines prefer text, if you remove all images in order to make the site load quicker, your page views will likely suffer at the same time!

Always consider your target audience! Chances are pretty good that those shopping online are broadband users or are shopping from a workplace versus a dial up from home. You may not need to optimize at all!

On a completely separate note…

In my reading romp last night I stumbled over to Alan’s site, Affiliate Confession, and found out that he won a great contest earlier this week! Along with the brand new Macbook Air he won, he was sent an extra Nike Golf Polo from Market Leverage which he is giving away to one person.

The best part of all this is just how easy it is to enter! You just visit his site and leave a comment on his post about winning the contest! He is going to randomly choose a winner next Weds. around noon.

Win a Nice Nike Golf Shirt

I have mentioned Alan and his blog in the past and today, he has been added to my blogroll… His site content is right up our alley as he is both an Affiliate Marketer and a BANS user! Now you have a chance to get a free shirt! What could be better?

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20 Reasons You Will Fail with Build a Niche Store

May 14, 2008 | 16 Comments

I’m always asked… How can I Succeed with Build a Niche Store? Over the past months, I have devoted many posts to ways you can find success with BANS, so I thought I would write this post explaining the 20 Reasons You Will Fail with BANS!

I will follow up with a new post every day, explaining how to overcome every one of these reasons! It may be a good time to Subscribe to my feed for email updates!

1. You think Affiliate Marketing will help you Get Rich Quick!
   Face it, there are no Get Rich Quick schemes… everything takes time!
   Read more about Growing DollaGreens!
2. You Expect StockBroker Earnings on a ShoeString Budget!
   You cannot build a business with no budget! While building an affiliate empire with BANS is not expensive, it cannot be done for free!
   Read More about: Affiliate Website Budget
3. You Don’t Research Your Niche!
   Everything starts with Research! Just like every other aspect of a business, you have to do some basic research. Read More about: Knowing your Niche Market
4. You Don’t Focus on Your Niche!
   Just as bad as not researching your niche, straying from your niche market can be just as bad! Why confuse your visitors with information or Ads unrelated to your target buyers?
   Read More about: Feeding your Target Visitors
5. Your Spend Too Much Time on a Niche Paying Pennies versus Dollars!
   If you can toss up a $10/sale site (0.25 cents commission) in a market with little to know competition, do it! Don’t however devote countless hours to the site expecting stellar earnings!
   Read More about: Finding the Right Niche Market (coming soon)
6. You have Too Much Content on your Sales Pages!
   If you have a sales page on your BANS site with more than 150 “Related” words above the listings, put that junk on a content page! Just because you have the ability to add content to sales pages does not mean you have to do overdo it!
   Read more about: Building a BANS Site that Sells! (coming soon)
7. You have Too Little Content on Your Site!
   If you install Build a Niche Store and don’t spend time adding targeted information based content, you might as well pull the arm of a slot machine!
   Read More about: Adding Relevant Content to your Niche Site & Niche Store Writer Review | Dealing with BANS Duplicate Content
8. Your Site Looks like an Advertisement!
   Do you have more banners and ads than you do product listings?
   Read More about: Don’t bite the Affiliate Program that Feeds you! (coming soon)
9. You Have Too FEW or Too MANY Categories on your Site!
   Unless your site is about USB Humping Dogs- you wont survive with 1 sales category! Likewise, having 750 pages in your sitemap is only good if they are all about your niche market!
   Read More about: Keeping your Site Niche Focused! (coming soon)
10. You Don’t Make Changes to EVERY PAGE of Your Site!
    Simple… If your site has 100 identical pages to another site, both lose!
    Read More about: Make your Affiliate Site Stand out from the Crowd! (coming soon)
11. You Don’t Promote Your Site, Even Just a Little!
    Would you Build a physical store in the middle of North Dakota, 500 miles from ANYONE, without at least advertising that it exists? If you don’t promote your site just a little, why bother building it?
    Read More about: A Poor Link Strategy is better than None at All!
12. You Don’t Check Your Site Logs!
    Links bring spiders… Spiders and Content bring visitors… Do you know is if any of the above are coming at all? Using Site Logs to Generate MORE Traffic!
    Read More about: Understanding site logs for an Affiliate Website
13. You Check Your Stats TOO Often!
    How many times each day do you login to and check stats/earnings? Unless you ran a special promotion of some type, once a day is almost TOO MUCH! Besides, seeing that you earned $100 in a 3 days is alot more promising and encouraging than earning $3 at 8am, $2 at 10am, $6 at 9pm…. repeat every day!
    Read more about: Eliminating Distractions so you can get Work Done!
14. You Think this is Too Hard for Someone with no Programming Experience!
    If you can read this post - you can Build a Niche Store and start earning money! You didn’t know how to ride a bike until you tried and even then, you needed training wheels and fell off a few times!
    Read More about: Affiliate Marketing made Easy, Even a Caveman can do it!
15. You Give Up Too Soon!
    This should have been #1, #4 and several others in the list of reasons you will fail! If you have not followed your plan for at least 6-12 months, you won’t know if it would have worked or not! Heck, it takes 9 months for a baby to come into the world… you MUST have staying power!
    Read More about: 12 Months to Financial Independence with Affiliate Websites
16. Your Site loads Too Slowly!
    Count the “Mississippi’s” as your site loads. If you get to “5 Mississippi” you are losing more than just visitors, search engine spiders don’t like you either!
    Read More about: Ways to make your BANS Affiliate Site Load faster!
17. Your Target Keywords and Phrases are Too Generic!
    Are you targeting common one-word terms like “phone” or “car”? If so, grab a ticket, get in line and come back in 15 years! Oh yeah, keep working on your site the entire time… and you may get in the top 100 before you come back!
    Read More about:Longtail keyphrases for Affiliate Websites
18. You Don’t Have a Plan
    Would you build a house with no blueprint? How about assembling that new christmas gift monster truck for your 3 year old? Without a plan, you are just wasting your time! Even a simple plan can help you succeed!
    Read More about: Simple Plans for Affiliate Websites
19. You Don’t Follow Your Plan, or are unwilling to change it!
    Following a set of guidelines assures you that everything needed to succeed is done at every step of the way! You can’t put on the roof until the walls are built! Just as important, if your not willing to flex a bit, every house is going to look exactly the same!!
    Read more about: Affiliate Marketing changes every Day - Do You?
20. You Don’t Even use Build a Niche Store!
    If you are not using Build a Niche Store to launch and grow affiliate websites, why? Why wouldn’t you want to use one of the easiest and most effective ebay Affiliate Software programs on the market? With more than 27,000 eBay categories and an unlimited amount of Niche Markets within each category, What are you Waiting for?

Over the next 2-3 weeks, I will be running all 20 of these reasons in their own posts! Don’t Fail with Build a Niche Store when you don’t have to!

Mark

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Kickstart Earnings from Day 1 - Revenue Domains Exposed

April 15, 2008 | 11 Comments

There have been MANY questions in the blog and the forum on 2 very specific subjects. What other methods can we use to monetize websites, and How do you find GREAT DOMAINS for the purpose of BANS or other forms of affiliate marketing. As many of you already know, BANS is not the only way to make money online and I have a few blogs that are monetized with AdSense and a few other small ad networks, including the eBay Partner Network.

Brian Johnson, a reader of this blog and a successful BANS user, sent me an email last week asking me to take a look at a new e-book he published, called Revenue Domains Exposed. First and foremost, this is the first time I have reviewed or promoted ANY kind of ebook on this blog! I have however read many… with the hopes that they may useful to you, the readers. You have not seen any of those reviewed for a good reason! Read more

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The Best Way to Build a Niche Store

February 10, 2008 | 9 Comments

OK - So I am going to break the series for second or two and jump in to share something I wrote the other day on the BANS forum in relation to one of the best ways you can build a niche store.

Lead-in. The user had just put up a store and was asking quite a few questions about customizing the look of the store. There is nothing wrong with wanting to customize the look store, but in general, it should be one of the LAST things you do! I personally have 3-4 templates I use to push out almost ALL sites with a 10 minute graphic change to one small section. For me and some of you, making this change at the beginning is not an issue… but for someone just getting into Build a Niche Store or someone with limited knowledge of html, graphics etc, changing the look of your site should be the LAST thing you do!

I have found that the most common mistake of people getting into affiliate stores or build a niche store, is that they hope to buy the script, pop up a store, name a category, dress it up a little… and then just collect the rewards! With search engine intelligence the way it is today, those days are gone… This is no different than any type of business where your results (ie: earnings) are going to be a direct reflection of your efforts! Whether those efforts involve organic research as I discuss here or PPC advertising, which we will discuss later, you still have to make an effort in order to succeed!

Let me explain by comparing this to building a house. Read more

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Niche Site Directory - Get your site listed Today!

January 2, 2008 | 11 Comments

Hello Everyone and Happy New Year!

Not much has changed in respect to the situation with my fathers health. His health has gone from bad to worse and we are just trying to pull together as a family and surround him with love and care during these last days. I came home just before Christmas to be with my wife and children (7 of them kids running around) through the holiday. Tomorrow, I will be heading back to Massachusetts and staying as long as needed. The break was definitely needed…

So… what has 2008 got in store for the Niche Store Builder and all I have lost complete touch with? First, I’ve not been completely out of service… just somewhat slowed down to a crawl. I have found a great little link cloud application (Freebie) that allows visitors to post one-way links from your site to theirs. The catch… they have to contribute a small fee to get that one way link! Not you though… since you are member of this blog - it is free to you for the next 8 days!

Here is how it works - and the benefit to you! Read more