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Converting WordPress Templates to work with BANS

Originally, I had intended to complete this as an eBook… as a matter of fact, it is already halfway completed! Well, since starting the Niche Store Builder blog, I have tried my best to offer a free resource to everyone trying to learn more about not only Build a Niche Store, but working on the web as well.

In the Spirit of Giving back to my Readers – I am going to complete this project on my blog instead! Free of Charge!

If you just want to show your appreciation, you are more than welcome to shoot me a donation via the Donate button that will be posted at the bottom of each page in this series, beginning Monday.

Why Give it Away?

Let me start by saying that its not hard once you have the right tools! Sure, you can do this just as easy in notepad, but if you have an html editor, life will be much easier! My intent is to complete the entire series in less than 5 days, which will begin on Monday, August 4th, 2008. Even though it will be done in 5 days, there will likely be 8-10 posts in order to complete the series.

Why am I Building Niche Websites with WordPress and BANS?

Quite simple… WordPress is the easiest to use publishing tool for the web and Build a Niche Store is one of the easiest ways to include Make Money Online with a niche focused website!

Sharing this in a public forum can only help to make it better for everyone involved as we can bounce ideas and themes off each other throughout the process.

Topics in the Series

  9. Build a Niche Store Styles.css
  10. Testing your Work in different Browsers
  11. Publishing your Work
  12. Preserving your Template

If you are not subscribed via an RSS reader, now may be a good time to do so. If you prefer, you can always subscribe via email by using the box in the upper right of the sidebar.

Help Me Choose a Sample Template for the Series 

One of the first things I would ask from all of you… is to suggest the first template that will be converted as part of the series. Tomorrow, I will create a poll and we will vote on which template to do first. After the first template is done and you are all comfortable with the process, we will take a second vote on a more advanced template.

Let the Suggestions begin…

Previously Published Articles You May Like to Read:

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About the Author, Mark Hansen

has written 573 article(s) at the Niche Store Builder site.

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. 

Latest Readers Who Commented on This Article

51 Comments »

  • Thierryf1968 said:

    that sounds VERY interesting, can’t wait for the next posts!

    Reply – Quote
    # 2 August 2008 at 5:34 pm
  • Duane said:

    Great stuff, this will increase your RSS readers for sure and well deserved too.

    Cheers,

    Duane.

    Reply – Quote
    # 2 August 2008 at 5:56 pm
  • Steve said:

    Thank you!

    Reply – Quote
    # 2 August 2008 at 6:47 pm
  • chris said:

    thanks for documenting all this stuff on your blog…you’re a thought leader in my book when it comes to bans & affiliate sites

    since you’re asking for suggestions – how about prosense for a theme?

    http://www.doshdosh.com/prosense-adsense-ready-seo-theme/

    Reply – Quote
    # 2 August 2008 at 7:25 pm
  • Mark (author) said:

    @ Chris – Prosense is a GREAT suggestion!

    Thank you

    Reply – Quote
    # 2 August 2008 at 7:35 pm
  • John Treby said:

    Hi Mark,You are a machine-as a newbie with Bans for the last 2 months with out your posts and help I would still be scratching my head-Thank you for your effort-Much appreciated.

    Reply – Quote
    # 3 August 2008 at 7:27 pm
  • Sean said:

    Help Me Choose a Sample Template for the Series:

    I would like to see a 3 Column Template used.

    But here is one I saw that was of interest. But the ProSense will work. http://www.futurosity.com/wpthemes/

    Reply – Quote
    # 3 August 2008 at 9:28 pm
  • Sean said:

    Help Me Choose a Sample Template for the Series:

    I would like to see a 3 Column Template used.

    But here is one I saw that was of interest. But the ProSense will work. http://www.futurosity.com/wpthemes/

    Reply – http://www.futurosity.com\/wpthemes\/’); return false;”>Quote
    # 3 August 2008 at 9:29 pm
  • Alice said:

    Hmmmm. Prosense may WORK, but it looks like a guy designed it. ;-) It looks very boring. And the brown color is so depressing. But maybe the functionality kicks axx??? [head tilt]

    I too like a 3-column theme, and preferably with the sidebars on either side of the center part. But at the risk of sounding like a nagging consultant, the theme should be one your LAST decisions once you’ve decided on everything else!

    Is there a theme supermarket somewhere that I could check out possible themes? Any sites you’d recommend? I’m looking for themes for some of my own sites, and there are so many between the free ones and the paid themes that my head is spinning…

    Reply – Quote
    # 3 August 2008 at 10:59 pm
  • Susan said:

    I’m not too keen on Pro-Sense because I do not put Adsense on my BANS/WP sites, so I would never use a template with ad blocks built into the design.

    My recommendation would be:
    http://themes.wordpress.net/columns/3-columns/1864/cleaker-21/

    If I understand this template correctly from having read about it elsewhere, the header image can easily be changed so one could add a suitable image to customize for any niche.

    Really looking forward to this training.

    Susan

    Reply – Quote
    # 4 August 2008 at 2:17 am
  • chris said:

    When looking at how much work is still left to do for integrating WordPress & BANS, I can’t help but wondering…what is it that BANS actually provides me after all is said and done?

    Here’s what I mean: in BANS, I like to create custom store pages base on search queries – I don’t rely on BANS just pulling in categories for a given main category id.

    Since I do all that work in BANS to create the pages, now that I’m doing my sites in WordPress, why couldn’t I just create wordpress pages with ebay RSS feeds based on custom search criteria and be done with it?

    Does BANS even matter in this scenario? I thought I’d throw this out there – we get all hung up on details on how to integrate the two but if we believe that wordpress is the way to go as the main content system for affiliate sites, why not use wordpress all the way?!?

    Reply – Quote
    # 4 August 2008 at 11:41 am
  • Nadiya said:

    I’m really excited about this. I have to say again that I would not have been able to do this on my own and am fortunate enough to have access to all your teachings and insights and have helped me survive and grow in this market – thank you again Mark!

    Reply – Quote
    # 4 August 2008 at 4:50 pm
  • Pandu said:

    This is a great resource for making money from BANS. I subscribe by email. Thanks

    Reply – Quote
    # 7 August 2008 at 4:30 am
  • matt said:

    When are you going to finish this series, i;ve been following, and done everything, just waiting now for the header, footer and style.css to be completed

    :)

    thanks

    Reply – Quote
    # 13 August 2008 at 9:16 am
  • John Pash said:

    Thanks so much for this! I can’t afford $300 for some of the BANS/WP templates out there. And they’re not even that nice looking. With this, I can choose my own template and go from there.

    Reply – Quote
    # 18 August 2008 at 8:34 am
  • Mark said:

    Greetings Mark,

    This is a great series and I have enjoyed reading it. The 22 minute video tutorial you created is also very helpful.

    I find myself wondering if you will be writing topics 9-12. I’m very anxious for the CSS topic since I converted a template but it has CSS issues and I do not know how to fix them. Doh! ;-)

    Thanks again for a great series and giving your time to help others succeed.

    Wishing you all success,

    Mark

    Reply – Quote
    # 11 September 2008 at 1:42 pm
  • Mike said:

    I am not sure when the series will be completed, or where to ask this question, but hopefully someone can help me.

    I got up to the point where I go to the WP admin and create a new page and label it shop. However, I didn’t see anything in the video about how to create the permalink that directs people to the shop. And I did not have an option for choosing the theme. I am definately on page, not post or links.

    Can someone tell me what I am doing wrong.

    Reply – Quote
    # 16 September 2008 at 1:53 am
  • Mike said:

    I am still not quite sure as to why the wordpress admin screen for create/manage pages on this video is different then mine. However, If someone is having a similar problem. I searched the internet today and found a solution…thoughbeit different from the one used in this series.

    I had to sort through a large number of links that were not very useful, but then I finally came upon this link: http://txfx.net/code/wordpress/page-links-to/

    It is a wordpress plugin that allows you add an external link, and is very similar to the one used. Also, there are other ways to add external links, but this was the easiest

    Reply – Quote
    # 16 September 2008 at 9:49 pm
  • Mark (author) said:

    @ Mike -

    The admin looks a little different due to versions and just different color schemes probably.

    When creating your store link, you can just “Add a Page” in wordpress. FIRST, you have to change your permalink settings to a static, friendly url. (Watch todays posts at: http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/installation-and-base-wordpress-configuration.htm)

    After you have static url’s, you can add a shop or store page, then simply edit the permalink right in the page editor admin.

    I will cover this tomorrow as well.

    Mark

    Reply – Quote
    # 16 September 2008 at 10:03 pm
  • Bill said:

    Mark…let’s say your permalink is:

    http://www.mysite.com/shop/fuzzybluewidgets

    and you WANT the permalink to be:

    http://www.mysite.com/shop/widgets/fuzzybluewidgets

    how do you do it?

    I have tried to edit the permalink but it appends it to:

    http://www.mysite.com/shop/widgetsfuzzybluewidgets

    Loses the slash…which doesn’t allow me to do what I wanted to do.

    Any thoughts?

    Reply – Quote
    # 16 September 2008 at 11:12 pm
  • Mark (author) said:

    @ Bill -

    IF BANS is your /shop/ directory, you need to create a new category named /widgets/, then make /widgets/ the parent category of the fuzzybluewidgets store page.

    IF you DONT want the /widgets/ category to appear in your main menu, just make the page inactive. It will still work fine, just wont show in the menu.

    If all of this is NOT part of BANS, you need to have a category somewhere in the mix to represent the forward slash /, otherwise the mod-rewrite does not know what is going on.

    If you want to shoot me the url and admin via email, I would glad to test out a few things.

    Mark

    Reply – Quote
    # 17 September 2008 at 9:48 am
  • Tony said:

    Hi Mar,

    I am in the process of integrating a WordPress front end with the BANS store and I have a couple of questions.

    1. Your ‘How To’ series seems to run out at No. 9. Did you complete the rest or is there another area you need to go to?
    2. In one of your tutorials you refer to the WP_Premium free template. This is an extremely cool looking template, but the link on you page no longer works (well it actually works but the template can no longer be downloaded). Do you have a copy of the template which you can e-mail out or can you recommend a free template with very similar look and functionality?

    Thanks for a great series of tutorials. You certainly set things out well for us .PHP challenged people.

    Tony Long

    Reply – Quote
    # 15 February 2009 at 6:33 am
  • mfalk75 said:

    wow, that was really helpful..thanks! I converted a template successfully and all seems good. One problem, why does the sidebar footer, etc load so slow. On the rest of my blog its real fast like its being stored and remembered to load fast. On the BANS side it takes like 10 seconds every time a page is loaded. Any thoughts?

    Reply – Quote
    # 30 April 2010 at 11:28 pm
  • Mark Hansen (author) said:

    Could be a lot of reasons… if you want to send the url to the contact form, I can help better.

    Reply – Quote
    # 1 May 2010 at 8:46 am
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