Should You Build a Niche Store or just use Ebay Partner Network?

 

 

 

 

 

Not too long ago I wrote about the Affiliate Program called BANS or Build a Niche Store on how I experimented with developing all of my domain names into mini sites with the aim of writing strong keyword content relevant to each domain. I also mentioned that it works for some webmasters and it doesn’t for others. In my case it was the latter.

At the time when I used BANS It took me around a month to get all of my domain names developed and ready for a simultaneous launch date,  and I wrote good content on each BANS Site I created, probably consisting of between 600 and 1000 words for each domain.

I set up each site using Google Adsense ads, and some other ads such as a sedo banner on each page, and finally launched all of my BANS, once I was happy with each site.

I then sat back and waited patiently, I would look forward to each morning getting out of bed, and having my breakfast as I looked at my EPN Stats, hoping that some of my mini sites would be pulling in the dollars thanks to this fantastic affiliate program Build a Niche Store, but much too my disappointment I made nothing, out of the 150 or so mini sites I made…. it was just a waste of time, the only money I made from BANS was by referring a person to the BANS program and I got a commission of $47USD via ClickBank, and that commission has since dwindled down to around $10, because Clickbank debits your account $5 a month if your not making commissions.

The reason I made nothing was because not because I did not have good content, but many of my domain names I was using were de-indexed by Google, and my traffic stats dropped dramatically and I was just relying on type in traffic.

I have also heard rumours that ebay has closed some peoples EPN accounts for using BANS, but that is something I cannot verify, even after searching on google for people who have had their accounts closed.

I decided to drop the BANS program and then repark all of my domain names at sedo.com, I was making more money from domain name parking that what I did using bans.

It’s now probably around a year later and I no longer use BANS, and have moved on to other areas such as EPN and still Adsense.

As I just saw someone say on a forum about BANS, is it really worth going to bed at night in a cold sweat worry that you’ll be banned from Google or Ebay?

Since using EPN on my websites it has helped towards doubling my monthly online website earnings. Where as before I was relying on just Google adsense to make a side income, now I rely on both Google Adsense and EPN.

The first month I used EPN, I had actually made more money than that what I earned for the same month using Google Adsense, so I just wish I new about EPN a long time before I found it.

EPN is in my opinion one of the best affiliate programs on the Internet today… why? Because Ebay is one of the most trusted and well known online Internet companies in the world.  Everyone has trust in Ebay and I am sure most people have either bought or sold on Ebay in their Internet lifetime.

Many people are also abandoning Build a Niche Store as well as Domain Name Parking programs and are finding it financially viable to create their own mini sites, using free blog programs such as wordpress.org, which is what I am currently using for most of my developed domain names.

It is so simple, after you find a webhost for your domain and the domain is resolving correctly to the new servers, then just sign up to wordpress for free, download the zip file, then upload the files in less that a few minutes by using a good ftp file transfer program, I use ipswitch file transfer one of the best ftp programs around.

Once you’ve uploaded the files to your server, then all you do then is run the install wizard and your site up and running it’s then time that you start writing good content that is relevant to your domain name. Don’t just write a few entries, try and self discipline yourself to write daily entries on the new mini site, doing that will help your new site to attract new visitors and potential ebay sales via your site.

Creating your own mini sites is no different to using BANS, except you won’t get your domain name deindexed from googles search engine (banned from google), providing you don’t break any of googles rules. It may take a little longer, but will be worth it in the long run.

Some things will likely confuse you when using EPN, such as on your dashboard it will tell you your daily, weekly or monthly commission earnings, but when you download your daily, weekly or monthly commission earnings report in either notepad or excel format, that report will likely be much more in terms of the commissions you have made.

This is because  the downloadable reports don’t show what YOU make, it only shows you what EBay has made.

That is the only thing that confused me when I first started using EPN, and when I saw how much I thought I was making, I got really excited, but when I got my payment it was less than what the report said.

I emailed EPN to clarify my payment, and they replied back to explaining that Ebay recieves 45% commission and you get a 55% commission.

No matter what I am greatly impressed with Ebay Partner Network, and as I said previously, it is one of the best affiliate programs I am aware of.

 One of the best things about EPN is that there are so many ways to implement EPN on your website, as follows:

Text Links

RSS Feeds

Custom Banners

and much more, it is so simple even a 6 year kid could work it out.

Another great thing about EPN is If you refer your site visitors to ebay via your EPN links, those visitors recieve a 7 day Ebay cookie set to their computer, so if they or any other users of that computer buy something on ebay, you will get a commission.

Below and above a some screenshots of my earnings, last month I made $306, not a huge amount of money, but my EPN earnings have been growing by the month, $306 is better than nothing, and it definately helps pay the mortgage, and keeps the healthy food on the table!

 I won’t promise you the world, but listen to me, it might be just worth your while to sign up to EPN, it’s free and it’s a great program, and it gets the big thumbs up for me!

 

 

Authors Note:

If this post does not interest you, feel free to visit our other websites as follows:

LostTreasure.com - The Australian Metal Detecting Blog

BeautUtes.com - The Australian Ute Forum

BluePeople.com - The Depression and Mental Health Forum

RuralStar.com.au - Free Australian Classifieds - Event Listings & Articles

RuralStar.com/blog - The Rural Australian Blog

Comscout.com - Cheap $9.99 Domain Name Registration

Do you need a good reliable web host for your Domain Name to create a website? I highly recommend you try out HostGator.com, I have been with this Website Hosting Company for many years, and they are the best on the internet!