We are slowly moving into a time where Google likely will be doing more and more hand reviews and with the influx of out of the box Build A Niche Stores that are serving as thin affiliate sites it is time to start dumping the "look" of the BANS store. Although there are 9 different templates with the out of the box stores, they are very identifiable. Even though you might be in the class that is properly optimizing your stores and adding content, your look of your store might get you deindexed in the near future. Also any store submitted to DMOZ is probably getting rejected at first glance. I highly suggest going forward you consider designing your own Build A Niche Store template or buying a template that adds uniqueness. Sure I sell templates and so do others, but make sure when you buy templates they still do not resemble a standard BANS template. If you decide to build your own template there is a tutorial right on the BANS site. Adam and Kelvin have talked about incorporating new templates in the standard BANS download in the near future, but there is no time table on a future release. Uniqueness in not only content but design will put your stores at the head of the class. Now let me clarify that just putting a new template on an out of the box BANS store with no unique content or SEO will not help you make more money. You can read about the feedback of the templates I have modified for BANS, here. You will notice they do not look like a BANS store template and are easy to play with. I will also sell them individually if you contact me by private message or email. I am also working on a new set that will be ready next week.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Does Your Store Look Like A Build A Niche Store?
We are slowly moving into a time where Google likely will be doing more and more hand reviews and with the influx of out of the box Build A Niche Stores that are serving as thin affiliate sites it is time to start dumping the "look" of the BANS store. Although there are 9 different templates with the out of the box stores, they are very identifiable. Even though you might be in the class that is properly optimizing your stores and adding content, your look of your store might get you deindexed in the near future. Also any store submitted to DMOZ is probably getting rejected at first glance. I highly suggest going forward you consider designing your own Build A Niche Store template or buying a template that adds uniqueness. Sure I sell templates and so do others, but make sure when you buy templates they still do not resemble a standard BANS template. If you decide to build your own template there is a tutorial right on the BANS site. Adam and Kelvin have talked about incorporating new templates in the standard BANS download in the near future, but there is no time table on a future release. Uniqueness in not only content but design will put your stores at the head of the class. Now let me clarify that just putting a new template on an out of the box BANS store with no unique content or SEO will not help you make more money. You can read about the feedback of the templates I have modified for BANS, here. You will notice they do not look like a BANS store template and are easy to play with. I will also sell them individually if you contact me by private message or email. I am also working on a new set that will be ready next week.
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10 comments:
I have read in more than one place we should submit to DMOZ, so I'd be interested to hear more about why not. Can I assume it's because all us new BANSers are being told to submit there, and therefore it's full of thin sites?
Bunny,
DMOZ is tough on affiliate sites in general, especially on BANS sites that look like BANS sites. I submit all my sites and forget about them. You never know when one might sneak in. It is a quality backlink to get should you get it. It can take 5 years to get a submission approved sometimes.
These work great and are exactly what I was looking for. Keep up the great work.
Mark
Saw these on the member forum. I purchased these through your link so I hope you do get credit.
If google is cracking down on BANS stores - and presumbably not ebay plugins - wouldn't it be better to put the work into a wordpress installation with bay php or phpbay?
I am getting a little concerned I am wasting my effort setting up and learning about BANS (can't say money, as I've already made my money back) instead of using that time and energy on something else.
Dead Rebel,
Google is not cracking down on BANS stores, they are cracking down on thin affiliate sites, if a BANS store is thin with no content, then it will likely eat it. BANS is not the problem, webmasters that build thin sites is the problem.
Dave
Soggy,
That is good to hear really. As my wife says, there is nothing worse then searching through the sites that don't really have what you are looking for on google.
But.
Aren't all these WP/Bans sites even thinner affiliate sites?
Obviously I understand next to nothing about SEO and google, but every WP/BANS site I've seen has no content on the actual BANS store. Isn't that part of the site, and all the pages, just affiliate links to a googlebot?
And with all the content on the WP end, the stuff that google likes and the people using search engines like, - isn't that better served - and the site as a whole in google - with some ebay plugins?
Wouldn't a BANS site with content through the BANS editor be more valuable/productive?
I guess what I'm saying is that I understand why wordpress is good - you have fresh updating content - but I don't understand why the BANS side of the site (the pages with the items for sale) has no content.
dead rebel,
Yes, people should be adding content to the store pages as well. A good 100-200 words. Read through my blog here and you will see I harp on content, whether you are using BANS, Wordpress or building straight HTML pages. Many do not get that content is king and many never make more than a few bucks a month because of it.
Dave
Okay cool. I was confused because in all the examples of WP/BANS I've seen, yours included, there hasn't been any content on the BANS end that I've seen, just the surrounding tags, categories and links to posts/comments.
Could you shoot me a link to a live site that /does/ have actual content on the BANS end as well as the WP end?
The template examples are just demos thus no content. I do not have any examples that I am at liberty to share. I hope you understand as I put a ton of work into my sites.
Dave
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