Questions and Answers about Build a Niche Store

August 26, 2007

There has been quite a few emails lately from Build a Niche Store users. Some of the most common questions are listed below with very general answers. If you have other questions about BANS - feel free to ask!

Q: How much time does it take to install a Build a Niche Store site?
A: Assuming you already have the domain name registered, installing the BANS script to a site can take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour. I have the ability on my server to keep a default copy in a unpublished folder. When I add the domain to my hosting account, I simply copy the ghost directory over to the new BANS address structure and start the install.

Q: How do you track sales for each Build a Niche Store site?
A: During the setup of the site, I use a unique PID for each different site. This allows me to track sales through commission junction at the site level. Go into your CJ account, and add a new website. Once you have described and categorized your site, a unique PID is generated., but it is still related to your primary account. Use the unique SITE level PID for each BANS store.

Q: How Long does it take to Optimize a Build a Niche Store?
A: Well - this is a loaded question that can be broken down into a few different categories. Overall, I will spend approximately 4-6 hours researching the niche market and developing an initial set of key words and phrases. Once I have completed the installation and have the store looking the way I want, there are several steps involved with search optimization of a Build a Niche store site.

Q: OK! - What is the time involved in the total SEO process?
A: The time spent on your niche market can depend on sevaral factors.  Listed below is MY method - it may not work for everyone! :-) Good reading and indepth guide at: How do you optimize a Build a Niche Store. The short list and estimate below does NOT contain a different SEO method, which should be called Promotion!

• Niche Market Research: 1-3 Hours.
  If the demand is there… by now I have an initial set of 500+ words, phrases and long-tail phrases I will target.
• Phrase Research: 2-4 Hours.
  After I have my initial list of phrases, I will start the process again and narrow the list to the top 100 based on relevance, length, competition and overall popularity. I usually end up with about 50-100 phrases that will ultimately be the targets of the site.
• Menu Building: Initially, less than 1 Hour
  In the Build a Niche Store admin, I begin by deleting ALL categories that are not supported by my list of phrases. If there are some that are on the fence - I run a search in my BANS public store for a single related word and look at the number of results. If it is less than 10 products - I delete it! It will usually take less than 1 hour to delete the categories with no real relevance to my niche market. At the same time, there may be some category names that I want to ADD to the structure! (Keyphrase Rich Targets)
• Advanced Menu Building: 2-3 Hours.
  Once I have drilled down and eliminated all categories I will not be using, I start by renaming the store generated page titles into keyword rich titles. I have a process that I do the MAIN categories ONLY for the first stage of SEO. These are parent categories that are farthest to the left in the store pages section. I will return and complete the first level subcategories after the site is intially indexed. This process will be repeated every couple weeks until the site is done.
• Writing Keywords and Phrases: 5 minutes per category.
  This could be a very cumbersome process, except I already have my long list of phrases and keywords. I have already eliminated those that were irrelevant, and by looking at the category tree within the BANS store, I have an idea of additional keywords that may fit within each category.
• Writing Descriptions: 5 Minutes per category.
  Since you already know your phrases and keywords - it should take only 5 minutes to form a short descriptive paragraph or sentence, explaining what this category contains. I always start and end with my highest target LONG TAIL PHRASE. For example: If the target is “Carrier Air Conditioners” The description may be: Carrier Air Conditioners at Wholesale Prices from our discount Carrier HVAC website! Visit today to buy your Carrier Air Conditioner!

Q: How long do you spend Promoting your BANS Site?
A: I am fortunate enough to have several websites that are already highly indexed and visited several times a day by search engine spiders. Once the site is ready for search engines - I post one or two links here within this blog, then I post 2 other links at PageRank 5 websites I manage. I leave those links for about 1 week or until I see that the three big search engines are starting to index the site. To this point, I have done nothing else to promote the BANS sites I have.

Q: How do I (you) find a PR5 or ANY site to get a link from?
A: That is a very good question with no easy answer! I used to go into Google and search for “My Keyphrase” + “Add your Site” or something to that effect! This will return a list of sites that are asking you to add your site to their pages! Check the pagerank of not only the site, but the page your inbound link will be on, in advance of the request… If all else fails - I have a son in college who is always asking me for money! LOL - I will give him 10 target phrases and pay him $100 for 10 inbound links for each phrase - regardless of PR, as long as the sites are in the Google index. Thats just $1 per link for 10 links each, with unique anchor phrases. He can usually have it done in a week or so…

Q: How will I know if the site is being indexed?
A: There are many ways… If you look through your site logs, just look for Googlebot, or Yahoo Slurp, or msnbot etc. Once you see these search bots coming and going, you can pretty much be sure they found you! I use a little tool I developed myself forthis task at: Cool Google Index tool. Alternatively, for Google, you can just do a search for:

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=-adfhadfhadha&as_sitesearch=www.yourdomain.com (Change www.yourdomain.com to yours!

I will continue to post popular Build a Niche Store questions in this post - bookmark it and revisit often!

Mark

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