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About Us 2007 is when I began creating niche stores. Many kind and giving people shared their knowledge with me, making it easier to improve my sites. I have gathered much of what I've learned and put it here, on this site, as a way of giving back. It is my hope that this site will help you improve your niche stores and sites, too. ~ Rochelle
Blogging Compliments Build A Niche Store Sites
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Rochelle in Lately I’ve been moving away from complete Build A Niche Store (aka BANS) sites and moving towards BANS and blogging sites. Sometime soon I’ll post how to set up a WordPress blog (it’s very simple) and explain how to work blogging with niche stores.
Until then, for those of you who may already know how to set up a blog, take a look at the template that Mark over at www.thenichestorebuilder.com has created. He has made a template (with more to come) that incorporates both BANS and blogging.
What does this mean? It means you can have one site that has both a blog and BANS store on it. You can do this without Mark’s template, and simply have two different looks. The blog will have one template and the niche store will have another template. But if you use Mark’s template you will have both the blog and niche store using the same template. Therefore, they will look as though they are on the same site (which they are).
As I said, check it out: BANS/Blog template. I’ve installed this template and have to say that Mark has done his typical excellent job. Yes, you have to pay for this template, but you can install it on as many sites as you want. And, if you aren’t comfortable installing it yourself, you can pay a little more and have Mark do it for you.
If anyone installs this template please share your thoughts about it.
Rochelle
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7 Responses to “Blogging Compliments Build A Niche Store Sites”
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I bought Mark’s template and installed it on http://www.todaysdslr.com. This is my first operational site where I have the blog on the root and BANS in a folder so I am very excited to see how well it does compared to having BANS on the root and the blog in a folder.
The installation was very easy. I’ve been messing with instalations for about a year so I was able to make the needed changes to the files for my specific site and get them installed. Mark’s directions were great and there was only one small error in the directions. It was “In step 3 of the install, number 3 – you state “click on SAVE on the right………” The page also needs to be published for it to work!”
Cosmetically, I do have a small problem with the layout. The “niche store categories” are in the far right column on the blog and store and I’m afraid this may give my visitors some difficulty navigating throughout the site. Secondly “out of the box” when a visitor is in the store there are two home links that go to different places. I have to go into the code and figure out how to change those links to store home and blog home. I don’t know code AT ALL so that will be interesting.
Overall this is a great start for Mark. I can’t wait until the orange theme is done.
To the commenter above, I like your site but the Target.com banner isn’t going to do you many favours in my opinion. I clicked on it because I wasn’t sure if I could believe my eyes.. I had no idea Target ran affiliate programs.
Honestly re: themes while it seems like a good idea, I personally wouldn’t spend money on it. I’ve made $100 this month from stores with literally no design touch-ups whatsoever. One page has had 22 clicks and $48.50 income. It’s because the plain old design creates no visual distractions and the visitors solely can see the auctions. I’ll be putting headers up soon but that’s about it.
The nice thing about blogging with BANS vs. just BANS is that you can add content into the blogging side instead of BANS side. This is a benefit because Google and other search engines seem to really like blogs and index them pretty quickly. So by adding content to a blog instead of BANS site you can get your entire site indexed much quicker.
Plus, by adding content via the blog you can add all the content you want but schedule when it actually is posted. I love being able to schedule posts!
A site like Paul’s is perfect for blogging because he plans on adding a lot of content related to DSLR cameras and how to use them.
That being said, I agree with Jonk that the target ad isn’t a good choice. Paul, the target ad is very general. If you really want to include advertising look for something digital camera related. You might even be able to find an ebook at Clickbank that you can promote.
Rochelle
Thanks Jonk and Rochelle.
Target is part of the Google Affiliate Network (formerly Performics)
I am about ready to quit all banner ads from the large retail stores. They don’t generate very much revenue and steal a lot of clicks from the real intent of these sites….ebay.
Yes, I also have some basic bans sites that are generating money and I have done nothing to them except install them. BUT Google seems to have decided that straight/basic BANS sites (especially .info) should be de-indexed so the fad is over.
I will recommend BANS to anyone as a part of an overall plan to develop an internet income but to keep bans working you will have to continue developing new sites ALL the time OR make authority sites with bans tied to it.
With this site and my toolboxhero site I am developing an authority site. A site where the visitor feels comfortable and wants to come back again and again. Jonk, Toolboxhero is also generating more than $100 a month (on $5 to $50 dollar sales) and it is growing steadily. If I continue to develop the “authoriy” side of the site it should generate a nice income all by itself in six months to a year.
Toolboxhero has already got some publicity on the web. I have been asked by one of the largest ad agencies in the US to sit on a advisory panel because I am a “heavy tool blogger”
Toolboxhero has over a dozen keywords on the first page of Google search already and everyday I get good traffic from Google Organic search. And it is growing nicely.
Todaysdslr is a work in progress and Rochelle has the right plan. Over the next month I will build a keyword introduction/article for each of the bans sections and create a couple of dozen quality articles and set them to randomly post (4-7 days) to the blog.
I take pride in my work. I’m not here JUST to get rich quick. My personal plan is to develop a repeatable and consistent income. So the nice themes work for me.
Speaking of indexing. I spent a few days setting up todaydslr. Once I was happy that the site was ready to be indexed I commented on a major blogger’s site. Within 4 hours Google came and indexed the whole site. Google Alerts show good penetration after only two days. (If you don’t know about Google Alerts see Rochelles post about setting them up)
Enough rambling for now
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Wow, quality comment Paul. What I’m doing is using my site that is already an authority site to push my pages. Am happy to have this accidental leg-up. Plus am building for Australia.
I agree Rochelle, I love being able to schedule posts.
I’m familiar with Google Alerts, love my google alerts..
Hi – I also installed Mark’s template on a new site – and played around with the graphics to change the color a little. I haven’t yet put much content into the blog, but will report back on progress as I start to develop this. ….
Margaret
Tahnks for posting
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