Niche Store Marathon

icon1 Posted by Rochelle in Misc. on 05 18th, 2008 | 7 responses

21 niche stores in four days.

That’s what I just finished doing. I made 21 Build A Niche Stores (BANS) over the past four days. Whew!

Now, you may be asking why I did this. Good question! Starting in September of 2007 I began purchasing domain URLs with the purpose of building niche stores on them. I ended up collecting almost 30 such URLs. But I didn’t build a thing on them. I parked them and left them alone.

These URLs were whim purchases. I did zero research before I bought them. I just thought they sounded good. But the more I learned about BANS the more I came to realize these weren’t good domain names. They were too broad. Now that I know what I’m doing I’ve come to realize that I much prefer a narrow niche than a broad one.

So I ignored these URLs. The thing is, they wouldn’t leave me alone. They gnawed at the back of my mind. They taunted me for wasting money on them and then letting them collect dust.

Unable to take their taunts anymore I decided to suck it up and make something of them. And that’s just what I’ve been doing. Never did I think I could whip out multiple niche stores in a single day but I did. And, boy, it feels good to have given them proper homes! They are happy little URLs now.

Truth be told, they aren’t very good niche stores, at least not all. Some may end up making me decent money but most of the URLs I probably won’t renew when their anniversaries roll around. Better, though, to make some money than none.

They have little to no content, and most will stay that way. Some I rather like and will continue to develop them further, but mostly they are done.

And with that, I am taking a much-needed break from building niche stores. I promised my husband that when I finished with these URLs that I would organize my computer room (believe me, it desperately needs it!), as well as other parts of the house that I’ve been neglecting.

The one thing I learned from this (other than that I can crank out BANS sites if I really want to) is that I will buy URLs when I am ready to create niche stores, not before. And no more impulse URL purchases!

Rochelle

7 Responses to “Niche Store Marathon”

  1. Shawn says:
    May 18, 2008 at 8:34 pm

    Aged domains with keywords being the best possible way to go, it isn’t required to have keyword focused domains. All it will take is alittle extra work and time.

    If you haven’t checked it out, look at bloggerunleashed.com

    It’s not my site, but I’ve learned alot from Vic.

    Shawns last blog post..Bleach Manga Chapter 2 – Starter

  2. Alice says:
    May 18, 2008 at 9:58 pm

    Rochelle, I am just about to embark on the same marathon you’ve just done, except that I don’t think I have quite as many url’s to dress up…

    I too picked some really cool url names before I knew what I was doing. Then I learned a little bit, and felt discouraged because I’d wasted money on them. But I’ve been doing a lot of reading of some of the top online money makers and the consensus is, if you do the right work, ANY domain name can be a winner.

    Which makes sense. This isn’t a get rich quick scheme, so it should require time and effort to be successful. If all it took was a popular keyword in the url, we’d all be rich by now!

    I don’t know if I can knock out as many as you did in the same time period, but I’m encouraged now and will put those lazy url’s to work.

    BTW, I love Vic’s site. He’s a bit over the top sometimes, but he’s got great info and insights that have been really helpful to me.

    Upward and onward!

    Alice

  3. Macbook says:
    May 19, 2008 at 3:22 am

    Go girl!

    I wish I had the time to crank them out that fast!
    I am planning 100 by the end of the year – and am still on number 3!

    I am mainly working on a “master template” to apply to all of them first, so they don’t look like obvious BANS stores.

    Keep up the hard work! – and get on with sorting the room! ;)

  4. James Mann says:
    May 19, 2008 at 8:16 am

    Wow you’re a busy bee to say the least.

    On the subject of keyworded domains. I wouldn’t worry so much about that. In my opinion, based on buying domains since about 2001, it’s not that much of a success factor.

    My first BANS site was created on a website power promoters site I purchased for website promotions and ads. I found that having hyphens between each word was a pain in the behind so I shelved it for a while.

    Then when BANS became available, well when I actually purchased the script I decided to use that domain. It is a few years old now but the keywords in the name have nothing to do with the topic but it makes me a bit of money.

    I would concentrate more on making the domains unique. So many others are just popping out BANS sites one after the other but they are generic to say the least so in my eyes they are just becoming more clutter online.

    My second BANS site is a garden site and the domain is just hbb2obm which was another marketing site I started. I found I was way over working myself and shelved it as well. Then dragged it out for a garden site and it makes me money without it being a keyworded domain.

    Not to say that keyworded domains aren’t going to benefit you I am just saying it’s only one factor.

    I only have 4 BANS sites right now but I am planning on making more. I have just been having trouble getting my script to work since the move from CJ to eBay.

  5. SEO Diva says:
    May 19, 2008 at 5:47 pm

    21 domains – wow, that’s a lot of work!

    I think keyword domains help some with SEO, but they’re not everything by any means.

    When you have an online site like BANS, you’re not really marketing a brand so the domain name itself won’t necessarily matter to many searchers. Some will look at the domain name, but most just read the title and if it’s what they’re looking for, they’ll click on it.

    SEO Divas last blog post..Co-Author Your Blog

  6. Rochelle says:
    May 25, 2008 at 11:24 am

    Alice,

    How is your BANS marathon going? Keeping you busy?

    You, James, and SEO Diva are making me feel much better about my poorly chosen domain names. I will work on making them focus on whatever I chose for them and hope for the best. On the plus side, some are already getting traffic and Google has indexed most of them (a few were deindexed for reasons I can’t figure out while they were parked. Grrrr!)

    BTW, what is Vic’s site? I don’t think I’m familiar with it.

    Rochelle

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    December 18, 2009 at 7:26 pm

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