November 9, 2007
Hi Everyone - Again, I feel like I need to apologize for my slow updates here for the past couple weeks. Finding time to catch up on life has not been easy! :-) I am back home for a few days just to get everything in order and I will head back to be with my Father on the 13th - that means I will be up in Springfield Massachusetts when the winner is awarded the Grill Auctions website! I truly look forward to the site being a stellar addition to the winner’s portfolio!
Along with the winner receiving the Grill Auctions site, second and third place will EACH win a full search optimization of the BANS sites they choose!
Lets start talking about different ways to promote your BANS site…
I am asked at least once a day - how in the world do I get the search engines into my niche store websites? All in all, the key to promoting a Build a Niche Store is done in short order! Once the engines DO come in and started indexing, if you have done your search optimization correctly, you can just move onto another project and not worry about it! Revisit the site about once each month to optimize the categories based on your site logs.
I know… I can hear some of you out there saying, but what about squidoo and Digg, and what about submission to directories, and what about link exchanges… what about Google adwords… what about… and on and on. You read it here from me. If you do your SEO correctly, you don’t need to worry about endless hours promoting your site! Now let me explain why…
First - during our research, we found that not many other people are even targeting your terms! You WILL NOT have to work hard if there is little to no competition! Assume for a second that you own a “1979 Ford Mustang Convertible” repair shop in your town… chances are pretty good that with very little advertising, all 1979 ford mustang convertible owners will be there one day to have some work done on their cars. Why, because all the other “Ford” shops are general repair shops, You are a specialty shop! Your BANS store is the same thing… it is a specialty site (aka Niche) in the terms you have targeted! If, in that same town, you choose to market your specialty shop as simply a “Ford” shop, THEN you have alot of competition and have to do quite a bit of advertising to get ANY business at all since you are up against all the others.
But Mark, you ask… how can this be true? Take a look at the www.getaracecar.com website for a quick second. Just about EVERY term I have targeted on that site is in the top 30 of the SERP’s. This results in traffic… to the tune of about 80 unique visitors each day, 75-80% end up clicking through to eBay, ALL in less than 60 days. In addition, since your SEO has focused on targeted Niche terms, you are one of very few or NO other websites in that market, thus… fast page rank! The get a race car site has a page rank 2 in less than 60 days! The last time I visited the site for work purposes was more than 30 days ago!
All being said - I realize that when you get your first store out there, you do still have to get at least one or two sites to link to it in order to get the search spiders there in the first place! How do you do that?
The first way is to take advantage of any other niche sites you may have! Whether it is 1 month or 1 year old, if the search spiders are coming, post a link with targeted “Anchor Text” in your left menu or footer and invite them over! Looking back at the race cars for sale, there are two links at the bottom of the left menu. Grill Auctions and a non-optimized, Dale Jr fan site that I have been meaning to do for awhile :-) (Yes, I procrastinate, but if you read the about me page, you knew that!) Leave the links there for several weeks - it wont hurt a thing!
What if you don’t have an existing site? Go into Google and run a quick search based on your niche market. Lets say: “Gas Grills” + “Add a link” The quotes are important… you only want results on the exact terms. The second or third link is [http://directory.classifieds1000.com/all/swimming_pool] What you know immediately, is that the site #1 - has something to do with gas grills, and #2, it allows you to add a link! If they require you to add a link from your site to theirs, create a content page named “resources” and add a link back to them! Since the site also has PageRank with Google, you know it is indexed! If the first site isn’t for you - skip to the second. The MOST important thing you need right now is an inbound link!
Another way to get an inbound link is right inside of eBay! If you have active listings, which many do, just post link in your about page. they are indexed by the search engines and will find you in no time at all! In addition to the about page, ebay’s forums are indexed regularly! Find the forum that focuses on your niche, write a small blurb about your new site… and there you have it!
Forums - find yourself a forum that focuses on making money, and post a thread about your niche Store efforts. Not only do you get inbound linking, but you also have the opportunity to make an affiliate sale if someone else wants to build their own niche stores!
The bottom line to promoting a properly optimized niche store is that you won’t have much work out of it! When you spend the time on the front-end doing it correctly, the back-end comes easily! Just like any building efforts, it all starts with a solid foundation…
Tomorrow - I am going to discuss what you can learn from your log files! You will definitely want to be a part of that discussion!! In addition, since this series is coming to a close, I would like to ask a few of you to tell me about the stores you may have started based on this series. I would love to see them and see how you have done - you never know, I have been known to send out word-tracker phrase reports and make suggestions for success! :-)
Mark
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5 Responses to “Promotion of your Niche Store”
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[…] Promotion of your Niche Site […]
Hi
As a newbie to BANS websites,I’ve learned a hell of a lot from your blog postings.
It has helped me a great deal.It is very much an upward learning curve for me.
All the helpful ideas about how to get traffic to your sites is an eye opener.Seems there are ways to get targeted traffic at very little cost,as you have pointed out in your blogs.
So good to be able to follow the grills website from the foundations to putting the roof on.
Kind regards.
Kevin
“If you do your SEO correctly, you don’t need to worry about endless hours promoting your site!”
That’s a provocative statement to a lot of people who seem to think you have to make promotion a full time job.
But I think your point about choosing a suitable niche without *too* much competition is a good one.
That said, it seems that competition just keeps growing these days. I don’t suppose it will get any easier as time moves on!
Amin -
I would have to agree completely on the competition getting thicker! Which is the exact reason you want to build your own site to be as unique as possible.
Targeting terms with little to no competition makes the task of promoting and succeeding, mush easier.
Mark
Hi Mark,
Very informative articles, it is very reassuring to have an expert at your side. I have maybe taken on more than I can chew with my site which is http://www.rolexwatchshop.net . There are some big contenders and competition that I am coming up against. But I am determined with the help that you have supplied, to win against the odds.
Dave
http://www.rolexwatchshop.net