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Posted by Rochelle in There are some really easy ways to make mistakes when creating niche stores. I’ve done most of these myself. Some of what I’m going to write about here has been mentioned in another post but I’m rewriting it now and expanding on it because I fear that some of you may be making the same mistakes without even realizing it.
BTW, I’m using a new program to create the images I use in my instructions. Thank you, Uncle Carl, for tipping me off to this program. I love it!
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Common Mistake: Leaving spaces in URL name
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| What this mistake looks like: | |
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| What this mistake does: | |
| Leaving spaces in your URL causes strange characters to show up in your browsers URL bar: | |
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| How to correct this mistake: | |
| Remove the spaces. | |
| Severity of this mistake: | |
| Minor. This will not prevent your page from being seen. | |
| Common Mistake: Leaving URL name blank | |
| What this mistake looks like: | |
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| What this mistake does: | |
| This will prevent your new page from being seen. | |
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| How to correct this mistake: | |
| Name your page’s URL, making sure there are no spaces. | |
| Severity of this mistake: | |
| Severe, as unnamed URLs are not seen. | |
| Common Mistake: Not changing the meta tags for the Home page | |
| What this mistake looks like: | |
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| What this mistake does: | |
| Leaving the Home page meta tags at the default settings means that when your page shows up in search engine results people seeing your site’s information title and description will have no idea what your site is about and they won’t click on it. In other words, you won’t get visitors to your site. | |
| This is what people will see in search engine results when your site’s home page is shown that is using the default meta tags: | |
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| How to correct this mistake: | |
| Click the ‘Content’ tab in your site’s Admin and click the ‘home’ link. Change the default settings to unique content that describes what your site is about and why people should visit it. | |
| Severity of this mistake: | |
| Severe. | |
| Common Mistake: Not adding a privacy policy | |
| What this mistake looks like: | |
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There is nothing to show as your site won’t have a privacy policy. |
| What this mistake does: | |
| Not having a privacy policy can lower your rankings in the eyes of Google and other search engines. Now that eBay has taken control of their affiliate program you are no longer required to have a privacy policy, but there are still good reasons to have one. | |
| First, having a privacy policy makes your site look more professional, both to visitors and to search engines. Search engines will possibly increase your site’s ranking simply because you have. | |
| Second, if you display Google AdSense ads then you are required to have a privacy policy and not having one can get you kicked out of Google AdSense. | |
| How to correct this mistake: | |
| Follow my instructions on how to add a privacy policy to your site. | |
| Severity of this mistake: | |
| Moderate to severe. | |
| Common Mistake: Not adding your affiliate code | |
| What this mistake looks like: | |
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| What this mistake does: | |
| Not adding your eBay affiliate ID means you won’t earn any commissions for your site if visitors win bids or make purchases. Why? Because you don’t have any affiliate information to go with the cookie that visitors get when they click to eBay from your store. | |
| How to correct this mistake: | |
| Click the ‘Setup’ tab in your site’s Admin and add your eBay affiliate ID in the ‘Campaign ID’ section. | |
| Severity of this mistake: | |
| Severe. | |
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Rochelle
Thanks for the reminders Rochelle!
I need to get on the privacy policy one. I’ve been putting it off but I guess I better get it done.
Is this a mistake? Moving a page to different location within the site after it has been indexed. The move in question would change the main category and doesn’t that change the url?
With much appreciation,
Jamie
Jamie,
Yes, that is a mistake, but one you can fix. You’ll want to do a 301 redirect for every page you either moved or renamed. Instructions to do this are at http://www.nichestorestrategie.....-redirect/
Rochelle
Hi Rochelle,
I just read your “About” page and I want to congratulate you on your excellent tutorials.
Earnie B.
Earnie,
Thank you
Rochelle
Thanks Rochelle.
Is there a way to find out what pages I’ve moved because I didn’t make note of them at the time?
Jamie
Jamie,
What I suggest you do is go to Google and enter “site:yoursiteURL.com” (without the quotes) and this will show you every page that Google has indexed for your site. Now you can see what pages need to be redirected.
Rochelle
Hi – first time on this blog – I got directed from optempo and this post is really useful. Particularly hadn’t thought about the privacy policy one – I will add – its more content at the end of the day isn’t it! Im also wondering if some of those people missing commission since the move from cj and got their campaign codes right?
Tried to put your Privacy Statement on my site. But when I save the content, it suddenly disapears. Any suggestions?
I can put a few paragraphs in it and it will save the page. But unfortunately not the whole Privacy Statement.
Markus:
You will find a ” ‘ ” in the statement as in “user’s” there may be others. On some hosts this means that that the content won’t save (happens on dreamhost for me) you need to edit out the ‘ and it will be OK
Lissie,
Welcome!
I’ve had the same thought as you about the EPN vs CJ issue but I don’t think that explains all the complaints. Some very reputable, and knowledgeable, people are making the same complaint and I don’t think they have made a mistake with their codes.
Fortunately for me, I haven’t noticed a difference in commissions or ACRUs since moving to EPN.
Rochelle
You are totally right. Haven’t notice this bug. Thanks!