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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
Which is Easier – BANS or phpBay Pro?
Posted by
Rochelle in 
Recently I received an email from someone wanting to know what the learning curve would be for either BANS or phpBay Pro. Since he is probably not alone in wondering this, I’m sharing my answer here. (BANS = eBay items, phpBay Pro = eBay items.)
First, it is rather tough to give a definitive answer, since each person’s level of knowledge and experience will differ. But, assuming you are completely new to both BANS and WordPress blogs, I would say that BANS is easier to get started with. All you need to do is follow the installation instructions and start creating sites.
That being said, you don’t want to do that, or your site will look like 98% of every other BANS site on the Internet. Yes, it is possible to customize your BANS site, and some outstanding BANS sites exist. However, doing so takes a lot of time (the more customized the site, the better for you, but the more time and knowledge needed).
phpBay Pro, on the other hand, takes a bit more knowledge to get started, but is MUCH easier to work with once you get the basics down. Customizing a WordPress blog is a breeze, as there are TONS of themes to choose from, many of which are free.
In the long run, I would say working with phpBay Pro is much easier than BANS, once you learn the basics of phpBay Pro and WordPress blogs.
BANS does not require any additional software, such as WordPress. phpBay Pro requires WordPress. But, while working with WordPress is just a little challenging in the beginning, it is pretty easy once you get the hang of it. And, WordPress blogs are THE way to go, in my opinion. The more I learn about Internet Marketing, the more I believe this. They are so easy to customize. You can do just about anything you want with a WordPress blog.
So, there it is, my opinion on BANS vs. phpBay Pro. I should probably add that you can also easily incorporate phpZon (= Amazon items) and phpOStock (= Overstock items), as well as the excellent Search2Post plugin (= results from any of phpBay Pro, phpZon, and phpOStock). This clearly gives you additional options which BANS simply does not have.
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11 Responses to “Which is Easier – BANS or phpBay Pro?”
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Thanks for a good review. I’ve built bans stores and customizing them can be a challenge, trying to not make them look like the other hundreds of bans stores out there.
I like the idea of phpbay Pro. Do you have a sample site you’ve made that you could share?
I understand if you do not want to give away one of your possible niche sites.
Randy
Randy,
If you go to http://www.phpbay.com/customers.html then you will see a large number of stores that have been made with phpBay Pro. I think that would be better, as you can see how many different people have approached creating sites with the plugin.
Rochelle
Very interesting, I’ve been thinking of switching. BTW your phpbay ad on your site takes you to the affiliate log in page. you may want to fix that.
-Shawn
Shawn,
Thanks for letting me know about the bad phpBay Pro link. For some reason, I can’t use a redirect with them without it ending up at the affiliate login page. I have fixed it to show the actual URL.
BANS holds a special place in my heart, since that is what I cut my teeth on for affiliate marketing. But I fear that it needs to be updated in a big way to make it competitive again. I checked the BANS forum recently, and there hasn’t been a message from the creators about possible updates since last August…
Rochelle
I’ve been thinking of ditching BANS entirely, it was great at the time, but times are changing and BANS isn’t keeping up. I noticed that the “phpZon” and “phpOstock” links just go to the home page, are they no longer being offered?
Thanks,
Shawn
Shawn,
As of right now, phpZon is still in beta status, and is only being sold to current phpBay Pro owners. If you have phpBay Pro, then log in to where you downloaded phpBay Pro and you should see an option to purchase phpZon.
The author intended to have phpZon completed by now, but he had a personal situation come up that has taken his time away from this. I have no idea if/when he will complete phpZon, but it is a great product given that it is only in beta.
As for phpOStock, the authors are currently updating the software. Overstock recently changed their affiliate provider to Commission Junction, so phpOStock needs to be updated to reflect this change. Again, I don’t know how long the change will take.
Rochelle
Hmmm… With Michelle’s new introduction to the field, is phpBay still a better choice than DFr? I’m comparing the costs of both and I’m a bit curious as to your reaction to this new option.
-S
Shawn,
Excellent question. I had been aware of Datafeedr for a while but never tried it. Last week, I tried it, and liked it so much I have already upgraded my subscription. Talk about an easy way to make affiliate stores! I’m anxious to see how Michelle will recommend promoting Datafeedr affiliate stores vs. the promotional strategies already presented within Crowd Mountain.
Apparently, Datafeedr is working on incorporating Amazon and eBay. Once they do that, I think they will rule the affiliate marketing world, at least, for those willing to pay for it.
I don’t have much of an opinion yet, as far as earning. I’ve created one Datafeedr store, per Michelle’s instructions. It hasn’t earned a dime because it just got indexed two days ago. I’d be glad to share my thoughts as I get more experience with it, if you’d like.
As to the cost, if we promote our stores properly, I think we can easily earn back the cost of membership to Datafeedr.
I’m curious as to your thoughts on it.
Rochelle
Hey Rochelle,
Was curious to know if you had an opinion of Datafeedr yet and if you’ve made any money with it or ditched it.
Thanks,
Shawn
Shawn,
At the moment, I’m on the fence with Datafeedr. I absolutely LOVE the ease of which you can make an affiliate store with it that goes beyond Amazon, eBay, and Overstock, but I haven’t made a dime yet.
To be fair, though, I haven’t promoted any of my Datafeedr sites, and I have two where I need to do that. They are brand new sites, so I realize it can take a while for the search engines to like the sites. The other sites that I added Datafeedr to are sites that I have that are basically crap and I added Datafeedr to see what would happen. Surprise! Nothing has happened. But, I’m not promoting those, either.
So, in a nutshell, I need to give Datafeedr a fair chance before I come to a decision, which I haven’t yet done (give it a chance, that is), which is also why I haven’t written about it. I’ve been working my tail off trying to get my house completed before the one-year anniversary of it being flooded, so things like site promotion have taken a back seat. I probably won’t be able to do what needs to be done for at least two more months, which is how long I predict my remaining flood repairs to take.
Does that answer your question properly? If not, let me know specifically what you wanted and I give it another go. But, I’m leaving this morning for a trip and won’t be back until late next week, so if you don’t hear from me right away, that is why.
Rochelle
Regards for the well-written page. I’m virtually at attempts at the moment! And so i will want to go off without the need of reading all I’d like. But I have extra your web-site to my RSS feed so that I can provide my time to go undertaking website.