Well, the newness has worn off, and the problems have set in.  Granted, it was not “build a niche’s” fault…it was my fault.  I know that Google is adament about content, but I failed to add enough.  That’s right, I got Google Slapped there too.

You have to add content to your pages in your Build a Niche store!  Do it right, and this will certainly be profitable to you.  Now, I am at a point where I am going to have to find me a new niche, and secure a new domain name.  Go slow, build slow, and make sure your site is up to snuff with what Google likes.  You do not want to have a ton of “affiliate links” on your page without having strong content.

I made the mistake of making huge sites that had a ton of products.  I have a ton of products, and ton of pages, but I didn’t go in and add valuable content to the site.  In the next go around, I am going to add one page at a time, and put the content on as I go.  This will ensure that I get good search results, and that I get valuable traffic via Google.  The fact is, a Build a Niche Store will not work if you don’t have some traffic coming from Google.  In the short term, I was building up quite the income through the Build a Niche Store model, but I obviously got greedy in my design.

So, it is back to the drawing board for me.  Don’t make the same mistakes I made!  I am going to keep my current sites up for now, but I may cut them out when my domain fees are due.  I’ll get something new, and start over.  I am also going to toy around with “regular” websites, and add in the ebay code to try and see if I can do it even better on my own.

Good luck in your online endeavors!

Well, I have had the BANS software for a couple of days now. I haven’t had a lot of time to play with it, but I do have my first site up and running. I was amazed at how quick and easy it was to get set up and running. It only took me about an hour to read through the manual, and install the first site, and have it customized just the way I wanted it. That even included finding a picture and creating a custom header logo.

I have not had a lot of time to really start trying to get traffic to the site, but I am hoping that Google will pick it up soon. I picked a niche that seems to have a lot of searches, so I am hoping to optimize the site to bring in a lot of free search traffic. I have been working (along with my wife) to create some content for the site. I think that will be an ongoing part of the process…much like writing a blog. Content is king…or so they tell me.

As I have been researching the BANS concept, one thing that I kept seeing was that the process can be very addictive. I think I see what they mean now. There are so many great options available, you will be tempted to jump in and create another store. I have several in mind already, and I am sure it won’t be long before I am back at it, trying to get another site set up.

I have been reading a lot of promising accounts of using the BANS system, and I am hoping that I can duplicate it. Many people set up 20+ stores, and then try to optimize them for the search engines. That is my goal right now. I am shooting for 20 stores, all optimized to draw in search engine traffic. I am going to try to refrain from paid search for now, at least until I see what kind of conversion rate I can get. If it is high enough, I will certainly consider using the paid search engines to bring in a bit more traffic.

You will probably get a lot of updates around BANS for a while, as that is what is consuming my “online” time for now. I hope this information will help you get started!