Ronald Su dot Com

I’ve Made Double My Money Back

A reader sent me a message asking how difficult it is to make back the money of my Build A Niche Store script purchase. I guess a lot of other readers are also interested. It is extremely easy to make the money back. How fast you want it back depends on you.

More Effort = More Money

You can make the full amount of the $97 purchase back within 2 weeks if you follow the instructions provided by many BANS experts. Depending on the time and effort you put into your niche sites, you may make the money back in 2 weeks or it may be 2 months. If you put a lot of initial work into your sites, you are pretty much guaranteed for success.

Traffic Is Key

The best part of operating your niche stores with BANS is that it is very search engine friendly. It doesn’t require you to do a lot of advertising at all. All you have to do is link to your niche sites from some established sites on the net, then traffic will come. If you want more money, you need more traffic. To get more traffic, you need to get your links out to as much sites as possible.

Everything is up to you, how soon and how much to make money from BANS. I didn’t really optimise my sites that much and I totally didn’t follow the instructions provided by the experts, but I still managed to make the money back plus more within a few weeks. Its really that easy.

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Tags: bans, Build A Niche Store, experts, make money, money back, profit, traffic

eBay Abandons Commission Junction

I didn’t read my emails during the weekend because I went to Victoria BC for vacation. Did some photo shooting and relaxed a little. Today is back to school and work day all over again. Opened up my mail box while in Account class and found out there were a lot of things happened during the weekend. Most of the emails in my box were news alerts and reports on the Bear Sterns amazing buyout by JPMorgan. Two dollars a share? I pray good luck to their shareholders. Another chunk of emails were about the crash of the Build A Niche Store server. The email said the server was hacked and brought down. It didn’t affect me, but I heard most BANS owners couldn’t access their admin panel for a long time. The most surprising subject is the news regarding eBay moving their affiliate efforts in-house.

The New eBay Partner Network

eBay will take back its affiliate network from Commission Junction (CJ) as of April 1, 2008, which is the beginning of next month. I guess eBay noticed the growing number of affiliates since the launch of BANS and wanted to cut the middleman. All BANS owners must be aware that eBay will reward all affiliates moving to their partner network by increasing April commission by 5%. So get ready for the move now!

Pros And Cons For The Switch

I don’t see any real issues for eBay taking back control over its affiliate network. My only concern with the switch is that eBay may not be ready to match the same level of support as CJ. CJ has a pretty good support system and generally replies for questions really fast. I was once an eBay seller and I knew how crappy eBay is in terms of support. They don’t really care about you unless you’re their power or platinum sellers. The good side for the switch should be more control and customization for affiliates. It should also improve in sales tracking as links are directed straight to the eBay site.

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Tags: affiliate, bans, Build A Niche Store, cj, commission junction, ebay, in-house, partner network, pros and cons, sales

Build A Niche Store Upgrades To Version 3

A few days ago Build A Niche Store has updated its software to version 3. Since I have a couple niche stores running with the BANS v2, I should really look into the upgrade. For those who don’t know what BANS is and why you need it, you can read my post “How Much It Costs To Build A Niche Store” from last month. It is basically a platform for us to build our niche stores on. A better example of what BANS does is it allows us to startup a supermarket without having to build it. All we have to do is tell the supermarket what type of items to be shown on the shelves.

Automatic Sitemap Generation 

Release V3 of the BANS software doesn’t really give you a big surprise. There are 3 add-ons I especially like from the new release though. The first one is the automatic sitemap generation. Before the new release, if we want to have a sitemap for our niche stores, we have to do it manually. But after you upgraded to V3, a complete sitemap will be automatically appeared on your store navigation.

Affiliate Link Cloaking 

Another feature that I like from V3 is the ability to cloak your affiliate links. Without this feature, when your visitor hovers over a particular item from eBay, it would display “http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-37018-2978-0/1?AID=1042…” the string goes on forever and the visitor would know he is about to land on an eBay page after the click. Now, with cloaking, the hover will show “http://www.buyasuseee.com/item/NEW-ASUS-Eee-PC-8G…”. It looks more professional and the chance of the visitor clicking it will be higher.

More Control Over Individual Pages 

The last feature I like is the improved admin interface. Aside from the cleaner look and feel, the new BANS allows more control over each individual pages. We are now able to create content before and after the listings on our store pages. Also, we can set different banner or Google ads to be displayed on different pages.

A Cleaner and More Functional Interface 

If you are already using BANS and haven’t upgraded to V3 yet, I would recommend you to do so. The upgrade is very straight forward and the instructions should be sent to your email by the Build A Niche Store team. However, after the first day the new release went live, people found some issues with link cloaking. The BANS team acted fast and provided the fix without the same day. You can download the fix here. Simply overwrite the existing file inside.

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Tags: affiliate link, bans, bans admin, bans fix, Build A Niche Store, cloak, google ads, link cloaking, sitemap generation, software, upgrade, v3

A Good Domain Is Worth A Million

Domain names have came down in price from $30 2 years ago to now only $10. Almost everyone can afford to own a domain. Most online activists I know own more than 5 domains. I, too, own more than 5 domains but very few of them are good ones. Since everybody can get domain names these days, it is very difficult to see a top quality one still available for grab.

If you plan to open up a few niche stores, you must find some decent domain names that are specific to your niche so you can get some hits from search engines. Let me give you an example. Couple weeks ago I got an Asus Eee PC as a gift. I was actually very interested at buying one for a long time. I knew it is a very hot item but still not a lot of people got their hands it. I used WebCEO to do some research on it and found that the term “buy asus eee” has lots of searches a day but not a lot of competitions. I then went over to Godaddy.com to find a domain that at least contain “buy asus eee” in it. I typed in buyasuseee.com and amazingly it was still available. I bought it instantly. I uploaded Build a Niche Store (aka BANS) on it and left it empty for a few days as I was extremely busy. After those few days, I checked the stats for the empty BANS site and saw Google already visited and brought in 6 hits with the term “buy asus eee”. This is the power of a good domain and basic research.

You can find good domains too. But it requires some forward looking and some researching. Try to see what will be the next hot thing and look for available domains related to it. Another approach is to find a very specific domain. Let me show you how I find a good domain using this approach. I am a long time Nikon camera user and I am only interested in Nikon cameras and lenses. I go to Terapeak (an eBay research tool) and search the term “nikon”. It has many listings but the sell-through rate is only at around 35%. I look at its related keywords and found that the term “nikkor” has a better rate at around 56%. Nikkor is Nikon’s lens division. It is quite specific because most likely only Nikon or camera enthusiasts will know about it. Now that I have this idea in mind, I go to Godaddy.com and see if there’s any good domain left for a Nikkor Lens niche site. I type in “nikkorlens.com” and it is already taken. I type in “nikkorlenses.com” and it is still available! Let’s try another one for a potential niche store. I search “buynikkor.com” and it is available too! This is just one of the ways to find a specific domain and you may find other ways more effective.

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Tags: bans, Build A Niche Store, domain, domain name, godaddy, name, Niche, research, site, store, terapeak

Blogging About Making Money With Niche Stores

As many of you can see, I am changing the focus of this blog from general business to niche stores. I started to pay attention to the whole niche store business model soon after I started this blog. After reading Shoemoney’s build a niche store tutorial last month (view here), I bought my first niche store domain and bought the BANS script. I began to realize how interesting and amazing the whole BANS concept is. Because I was once a seller on eBay, the build a niche store eBay affiliate business model reminds me of how easy it is to make a profit online.

I started my first BANS project with CellPhoneJet.com. It was fun and easy to set up with the BANS script. The store is currently making some very small profits but it lets me see the real potential of this whole thing. If I build a store with careful research and very specific and targeted niche ideas, it is going to be very profitable.

I also noticed a growing community of BANS owners seeking advices and knowledge from each other. Mark from TheNicheStoreBuilder.com is among the top for providing and sharing valuable information for the community. I hope to use this blog to share my experiences on building my niche store empire. The blog will also help me stay focused and on track on how to effectively make money online.

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Tags: affiliate, bans, Build A Niche Store, ebay, make money online, Niche

How Much It Costs to Build A Niche Store

If you have been active on the make money online blog world, you must heard of the script called “Build A Niche Store“. If you don’t know what it is, please read my post about it here. If you are interested in getting started in setting up your own niche store empire, you must start with planning. Without careful planning and analyzing, you will fail sooner or later. The first thing you might have to think of is the cost of starting up. The saying “you have to spend money to make money” is true if you are serious about making money off your niche stores. Today I am going to tell you in detail of how much it will cost you to build a niche store.

Build A Niche Store Script - there are 2 things that you have to have for building a successful niche store empire, the Build A Niche Store script is one of them. The script helps you spit out niche stores in minutes. It is also very good at SEO and customizing. There are other scripts for such work but BANS is the only I would recommend because it is the easiest and most user-friendly. Your goal is to have more stores in less time. The script is $97.

Web hosting - the other thing that you must have is web hosting. You need a home for your niche stores. Since having a niche store empire is like having a real business, you want your business to be hosted in a safe and reliable place. When your hosting provider is down, your business is down. You need to have a host that is always up and always fast. Most other niche store experts recommend using Hostgator, but I think BlueFur is better. Hostgator is quite fast and reliable but it is a bit crowded. From the months I’ve been using BlueFur I have never experienced downtime and it was always fast from end to end. One hosting is good for many niche stores so you only have to get one. Start with the most basic package and upgrade when needed. Their Mini UNIX package is $6.95 per month.

Domain names - you don’t have to register a domain name for your niche store but it is highly recommended to do so. Your visitors will most likely buy something through your store if it has a related and a well-thought-out domain name. It helps build you a brand and a strong image. A domain costs $9.99 per year through Godaddy. If you use this couple code during your checkout “OYH3″, it is only $6.99 per year.

Keyword research tool - if you want to build a rock star niche store empire, you should invest in a paid keyword tool. You can get by with the free WordTracker trial during the initial stage but when you start to build more and more stores, a good keyword tool will help you big time. Depending on your development style, you can get different tools at different prices. You can spend $329 for an annual subscription of WordTracker but I think that is not the best way to invest your money. I recommend doing keyword research one day per week. That way you only have to spend $7.95 for a daily subscription of Wordze, also a very good research tool. The total amount you will spend per year is $95.40.

These are the basic requirements for starting up your niche store empire. Of course you might spend more on other tools and resources down the road but it is a good idea for planning your budget. If you add everything up, the total cost for the first year of operation is $345.7, assuming you will have 10 stores. That translate to $28.81 per month per store. When you divide it by 10, it is only around $3 per month. Believe me you can easily make that back plus more.

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Tags: bans, Build A Niche Store, costs, domain, fee, godaddy, hosting, Niche, store, Web Hosting, wordtracker, wordze

Selling On eBay VS. Starting a Build A Niche Store

I was once an eBay power seller about a year ago selling silver jewelry and computer parts. It was quite profitable but it was for sure time consuming. From listing to controlling inventory and shipping, I could sit in front of my computer all day. I was also attending school full time, working on an eBay business was not the best way to make a profit. If you are a young entrepreneur and trying to make some fast cash online, start a niche store with Build A Niche Store BANS instead.

Build A Niche Store is actually a script that help you build an eBay affiliate website in 10 minutes.  Of course, if you want your website to make you money constantly, you will spend more than 10 minutes building it. I’ve started my niche store last month and the script is a very user friendly tool that you and me can use with little training. In short, all you have to do is design your store and state what kind of eBay listings to display. You then wait there for someone to buy something from eBay through your store. You will get commission from every sale that eBay gets. It is the tool I recommend for building an eBay affiliate store. There are other tools and scripts for setting up a store but most of them are less user-friendly and require more prior web development knowledge.

Why build a niche store? The answer is very simple. You make money from a sale without actually selling. You don’t have to worry about buying inventory, listing items, writing up descriptions, taking photographs, asking for payments, shipping products, and answering customer complains. The sellers do all those, we are just the middlemen, taking a piece of the pie. There are millions of sellers on eBay and billions of items on sale, think of the potential for being the middlemen. After you’ve finish building your niche store, all you have to do is wait for your piece of pie and move on to another niche store. The most difficult part though, is finding that niche idea. I will be providing more tips on niche ideas and building a niche store in later posts. Stay tuned!

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Tags: affiliate, bans, Build A Niche Store, commision, ebay

Asus Eee PC Carrying Bag and Niche Idea

Today my friends invited me to their house for dinner. I decided to bring my Asus Eee PC with me. The problem is I didn’t know what to carry it with. I have a leather laptop carrying bag but it is too big for the Eee PC. I usually use it for carrying my Asus A8 around like going to friend’s house and the coffee shop. Now I don’t have anything to protect the small laptop during the commute. Since Best Buy and Future Shop don’t carry the Asus Eee PC, it is a it difficult to find a case or bag for it. The only option for now is to buy it online.

 

I’ve done some searching and found out there aren’t many websites that focus on Asus Eee accessories. In fact, there aren’t many websites that are focused on laptop carrying bags. That is a good Build A Niche Store niche idea. The Asus Eee PC will be available in more and more countries and the potential for its accessories market is huge. I have bought a new domain: BuyAsusEee.com. The new Build A Niche Store will showcase Asus Eee PCs and accessories.

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Tags: asus, bans, eee, laptop, pc

Update On Build A Niche Store (BANS) Project

It was been a week since I’ve written about my Build A Niche Store (BANS) project. Boy! It was a though time getting the script installed. It wasn’t the script’s fault though. After days of solution hunting I’ve got through it and finally got something to show. You can view the project site at CellPhoneJet.com, feel free to add any comment or suggestion.

Main page of CellPhoneJet.com, my Build A Niche Store project featuring the coolest cell phone auctions.

After 2 days of customizing the layout and pages, it now looks like a full functional website. However, it still needs some search engine optimizing and original content creating. My schedule for this week is to finish building the website and by next week I can start driving traffic to it. The funny thing is that I have notice Googlebot had already visit the site and received 4 unique hits even though I had never setup a link to it. I’ve already started to brainstorm my next niche store in order to reach my 5 stores in 3 months goal.

Also, I’ve noticed there is an online course on blogging for profit called Blog Mastermind. Read about it in Chris Bloczynski’s blog. I wonder if there will be a university degree in the future called “Blogging” in the faculty of Business.

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Tags: affiliate, bans, blog mastermind, blogging, Build A Niche Store, cell phone, cool phone, ebay, web design, web development