Fresh Blogger Template Designs

A few of you still may utilize blogger as a main blog or a feeder site and I came across a Mashable post I bookmarked that features 10 fresh blogger templates for any type application. Although EPN frowns on you using Blogger with their affiliate program, Amazon endorses it. I hate to see people not be able to make money because they are technically challenged by Wordpress, hosting or are just flat out broke. If you are any of these, you should start with Blogger. These templates are easy to use, the platform is easy to use and there are tons of free videos on using the platform out there. You can indeed build a review type site very easily using Amazon or many of the other affiliate programs out there. It is true you do not actually own the site, you can easily back it up and buy a domain to forward to it. If for some unknown reason you delete the site or Blogger takes it from you, you still have the domain you can point elsewhere. Enough about that. Where there is a will, there is a way and these Blogger templates look like they will do the trick for you.

Blogger Now Has Pages

I am not sure how I missed this, but just noticed this morning that Blogger blogs now have the ability to add pages in addition to post. You can add up to 10 stand-alone pages such as an "About Me" page or even "Article" pages. Blogger only adds a "p" to the URL along with the page name instead of the year and month like the post URL's. You can also now add a "Add Page List" gadget to link pages on your blog as well.

While this is not a HUGE deal, it does make it easier for those that are technically challenged the ability to build more sites that are content based versus blog based. It is just a little addon per say. If you are still overwhelmed by Wordpress or simply can not afford hosting, Blogger is still an excellent way to get starting in affiliate marketing for free, while learning the business. If you do not think you can make a full time income off of Blogger, you are fooling yourself. I have always been intrigued by the Blogger platform and thus never moved this blog off it for that very reason. You would be very surprised at what kind of money this very blog makes. I also have 3 additional lucrative niche sites I have also built on the Blogger platform as well. Blogger sites also make great feeder sites as well. You can post a few articles on them and funnel traffic to a main site should you desire. Just because it is free, does not mean it can not be used in your favor.

If you want to learn more about the new Blogger page feature, go here.

Should EPN eBay Partner Network Reconsider Their Stance On Blogger Blogs?

With the release of the new EPN code of conduct rules comes the ruling that all publishers must send traffic from a domain name owned by them and not a third party site like Blogger, Wordpress Hubpages, Squidoo and Facebook to name a few. Now I do certainly understand the reasoning behind it to an extent, but wanted to focus more on the Blogger platform more than anything. I realize some spam sneaks through on every platform, but with Blogger these sites can easily have the header tag modified to accommodate some tracking needs of EPN, much like Google Webmaster tools. Now I am well versed in BANS, Wordpress and dabbled with Joomla enough that this really has no effect on me. I have however been playing with the Blogger platform and EPN to give the more technically challenged people a chance to make money as well. I have always enjoyed playing with the Blogger platform, thus the reason I have never moved this blog off to it's own domain with Wordpress. Blogger takes a little more tweaking to perform up to a higher standard, but is incredibly easy for a newbie to get started with.

Some things EPN could consider is to just not pay Blogger blogs or ANY third party system for that matter any ACRU's at all. What would EPN lose? They still get traffic they sorely need and could appease some affiliates along the way. Another thing they could consider is paying a lower payout to third party sites that convert items sold. This could easily be implemented.

I have set up a Twitter poll for this and am curious for others thoughts and or ideas on this well. All in all it makes no REAL difference to me, but surely there is a better way to help those less tech advanced or newbies in the affiliate world.

What say you?

Blogroll Links Only On Home Page

While page rank sculpting for the most part is dead, you can still prevent some bleeding of your blogroll links if you so choose. Yoast mentioned in the past that:

Google and other search engines these days heavily discount site wide links, so you're not really doing your friends any more favor by giving them that site wide link, nor are you helping yourself.

While I do not see this as a big deal, it is only something you may think about doing. Other sites that you decide to link to in your blogroll do not suffer from not being listed sitewide, it does make sense. I want to give them the best link juice possible and in most cases this is from the home page as it normally has the best page rank. As far as click out traffic, most click out from the home page anyway, so people I link in my blogroll really are not losing that much traffic. Besides if the have a great individual post or content page, I will likely link to it a post of my own, thus sending them better quality traffic. Below are some links of how to show your blogroll on only the homepage in both Wordpress and Blogger:

http://www.netbizwhiz.com/2008/12/blogroll-show-on-home-page-only/
http://bloggerstop.net/2008/12/show-widgets-in-only-specific-pages-or.html

Another option you may decide, is to just create a resources or links page and link out to your favorite blogs from there. The choice is yours. Once again this is not hugely important, but for sites that have an extensive blogroll list it may be the smart thing to do.

Another Facelift For Build A Niche Store Blog

Well, it has been almost a full year since I gave my blog a well needed re-design. I was going to wait until post #600, but some images went AWOL so I decided now was as good of time as any.

I would like to take the time to thank eBlog Templates for the PassionDuo Red Blogger Template. It served me very well for the year. Now I moved on to the Revolution Two Church theme by Brian Gardner. It was converted for the Blogger platform by Bloganol dot com. There are quite a few tweeks I still need to accomplish to fit my SEO and look needs, but I think this one will serve me well for a while. after a few modifications, I will see how it performs and will likely keep it for at least a year.

Let me know what you think of the new design thus far.

My Wife Loves The Moonlight

I have been heavily involved with the internet for a long long time. Even before I started being a webmaster, I was enthralled with it for information. My wife on the other hand could always take or leave the internet or computers in general. That was until this year. She has been captivated by a TV show called Moonlight. Evidently it is now a canceled show, but has a huge cult following. She has found the usefulness of Youtube, forums and blogs to stimulate her obsession with this show. She never post to any of the sites, but does read everything she can get her hands on. Oh and she buys too. UPS shows up almost daily at my house and most stuff she buys through an affiliate link I provide her if I have one available or can find one quickly. The other day a DVD box set of the Moonlight series found it's way into the house. I asked her where she bought it from and she said some Moonlight blog. well I tracked down the culprit, here is that Moonlight blog. Just a plain old blogger blog, but good enough to get my money. Now obviously this blog could be monetized a bit better, but it made some money.

The lesson I am trying to get across here is that whatever your main obsession is, you should capitalize on it. We all have something or somethings that we are very knowledgeable and passionate about and that knowledge and passion of the same thing you share with others. No matter how good or bad you are at building sites, doing SEO or building backlinks, you owe it to your self and others to share that same passion. Your passion will get you by and earn you a little money while you learn the other aspects of making the site better and more optimized. Even if you have to use a free blogger platform like blogger to start with, it still has the ability to earn money, even money from my household.

Free Blogger Blogspot Template Generator

I know a few readers have been playing with blogger as of late, so I thought I would pass on this fun blogger blogspot template generator.

http://psyc.horm.org/

It takes a bit of playing with, but you can get it wide enough to show EPN ads from the tool generator in your EPN account.

Getting Backlinks From Blogspot Blogs

Another good source of acquiring solid backlinks is from blogs on the blogspot blogger network. You would be surprised how many high PR blogspot blogs are out there. Mostly people who run them on the network are not so much money affiliate hungry than those who own self hosted blogs.

using our GI Joe example from yesterday as a niche, just type the below statement in google.

gi joe site:blogspot.com

Look around and surf the results to see if any are toy related and either comment on the blog asking for a link trade or if the blog owner has an email address, contact them that way. MOST of the blogger blogs are dofollow in the blogroll on the sidebar. You would be surprised at the results you get. You can also use the Google search parameters to narrow down even more if you like.

Now go get those backlinks.

More Kudos For The Blogger Blog Platform

I suspect after the upcoming anniversary of this blog, at the end of this month, I will get around to converting this blog over to Wordpress. I do not really have a good reason why just yet, other than just making sure I have better control over a few things with it. The Blogger platform is excellent and has always intrigued me, but I believe I have pushed it as far as it can go, but more importantly I just do not have the time to keep pushing the platform forward. Rest assured though, if you are a newbie, you can still make money with it and get it to rank without much effort.

As of this date, if you do a Google search for Make Money Online, you will see what I believe is one of Griz's sites, ranked number one.

moneymakerinfo.blogspot.com

As you can see it is on the Blogger platform as well, and I can assure you it rakes in the money and the traffic. With a little creativity and the EPN javascript tool, you can turn it into a niche store with relative ease. So in closing, if you are new to the blogging world, get started with Blogger. It is newbie friendly and can be used to make money online.

I Got Me Some Site Links

Well, Google has trusted this blog enough now to give it site links. I linked you a bit of an explanation of what they are. Do we really still know why, how or how helpful it is to get site links? No, not really. Does it make this blog any more useful than other blogs? No, not really. In my eyes, I just consider it more of a trust factor and badge of certification or a at ta boy. A pat on the back, if you will.

I am often criticized by others for continuing to use blogger as the platform for this blog, but I use it because I have always been intrigued by it and the boundaries I can push it to. Has it needed to be modified quite a bit to perform better SERP wise? Yes a little, but not as much as one would think. There are a ton of other hacks I would like to integrate, but they are not high on my priority list. This blog is more of a toy and a tool for it's readers. This blog makes it's fair share of income, but is not my mainstay. I only market products I use and believe in. I might rotate ads out every quarter, but once again it is not high priority. The thing it does provide is a quick outlet for my thoughts. Plain and simple. I also use it as an example that ANYONE can use it to make money online. No matter what your economic status is, blogger is free and joining most affiliate programs is also free. There are limitless possibilities and no excuses to be made that you can't make money.

If you are a newbie or somehow through the magic of the internets, stumbled across this post and have no money to invest in hosting or a domain. Sign up for blogger and you are in business for free. Yes, you can make money with it, it is just up to what you want to do with it.

Will I update this blog to Wordpress one day? Perhaps, not high on the priority list right now. If it continues to perform well and gives others hope maybe not. Who knows, it might get hacked, accidentally deleted, who knows. Any ways, here is to you, blogger. I enjoy you thus far and continue to try to push you to your limits.

eBay Ads Even In Blogger Post

I have been playing with a few things for those people that are really technically challenged and still want them to earn money too. I will be addressing this in full soon, but wanted everyone to see how easy it is to even post eBay EPN items on a simple free blogger blogspot post. Total investment required to build a whole Blogger EPN store ...... zero, nada, not a dime, zilch. Start using your creative side and let the ideas go crazy in your head.

I can hear the doubters now, javascript can not be read by the SERPS. Well if you are relying on the product text to rely help in ranking, you have been missing the whole boat all along.

Anyhow look below.

Edited 7/19/09
Removed the listings until EPN makes a final determination on weather they will continue to allow Blogger blogs to show eBay listings or not. Bookmark this post and check back.

How My Own Blog Taught Me Tons About Blogging And SERPS

3o1st post today! Seems like yesterday I started this blog. I had always read that to better understand the SERPS and blogging one needed to start a blog and be consistent with it. Now I had blogged before, but never consistent until I started this blog. Yeah, yeah, I have heard how using blogspot is wrong and you will never be taken seriously by using it, Yada, Yada. Whatever. All my many many other niche blogs are Wordpress and one day I might import this over to Wordpress but there is no hurry. This very blog ranks fantastically in the SERPS and in itself, really has helped me get a better feel for the SERPS and how effective and important it is to blog. If you are scared or overwhelmed by Wordpress as a newbie, start on blogspot, as it is pretty newbie proof and at the very least it will get you blogging and get you use to the effectiveness of it.

The SERPS love content! Original content! The more the better. Even 100 word post. You have to trust in that fact. You will get a feel of how to title post, what to blog about, what people are searching for and etc. I have urged several times in the past, if you do not have a blog, start one. Start one right after reading this post and post to it every day. Be consistent with it. It will take a couple of weeks to form the habit, but it will become a habit rest assured. Even if you just stumbled on BANS yesterday and barely know how to use that, start blogging now. It will be crucial to your long term success to learn how to blog properly. The more you blog the better you will get at blogging. When I read my early post, I shrink in my chair, but I have learned how to blog better by blogging daily and reading other blogs.

As for my 300 post plateau , thank you to all my past, current and future readers. This blog serves to help the every day niche store builder and I hope it has served you well thus far. I have tons of great things coming down the pike as well. So in closing, start blogging today as it will really teach you a great skill and will also serve to help you understand the SERPS better as you study your stats.

How To Be A Better Blogger

Let me start off by saying I am not an expert blogger, but I will say that I have become a much better blogger than I started out being. I hated to write and by hate I meant loath. I hated English in high school and dreaded writing papers. So what changed? I learned early on in this business of online marketing, be it Build A Niche Store sites or this blog, that unique content was the only way to go. When I started this blog, it was for the sole reason to force myself to write with the attitude of that if I built it, they would come and I would get better the more I blogged.

With the emergence of the BANS Wordpress templates and the ease of integration of the two, it is even more necessary to use this fantastic platform to take advantage of both worlds. Now with Wordpress BANS stores, you need not have to blog everyday on them, but at least twice a week is recommended. A quick search of the web on your niche and you can easily come up with a topic to blog about twice a week.

How I Became A Better Blogger

1. I read other successful blogs and took notice of how they blogged and how they linked out and in their own site.

2. I just started consistently blogging everyday and have yet to miss a day posting on this blog. I feel guilty if I do not blog now.

3. I started learning my niches and the searches they were making and started blogging about what they were looking for.

4. I made and continue to make mistakes everyday and learn from those mistakes.

In a nutshell, that is it. JUST START BLOGGING!!! I promise the more you blog the better you will get. Now go blog about something, today.

Learning More About SEO From This Very Blog

You can learn a lot sometimes by just looking at how Google and other search engines see web sites. I have mentioned the lynx text viewer tool several times. Put this blog url into the tool and see how the SERPS read this page. Notice it gets to the content real quick, which is always a good thing in my opinion. You can also right click on this blog and view source. You can see how the h2 tag is used for each title of each blog post and also how the h2 tag is used for the category titles. Now being that blogger is run by Google and this blog does well in Google, one can assume that the html structure is right on track and should be closely mimicked in your Build A Niche Stores as well. Look at your stores in the lynx viewer. Is the content hitting first or is the store navigation and all site navigation coming up first? It is not a HUGE deal, but I want the SERPS to get to my meat and potatoes sooner than later when crawling. The BANS templates I designed also get your content read early in a text crawl. There is a ton to learn by looking at high ranking sites on Google, especially if the site is on a platform that Google owns.

The Power Of A Blog Post

If you remember a few days ago I made a post about the Powered By Build A Niche Store link removal. That post had two purposes. One to educate you on turning that off or removing it and second to show you the power of that blog post itself. Now let us keep in mind that that phrase is not highly searched for, but there are tons of stores with that phrase on every page of that store. Just a few days later and a search in Google for "Powered By Build A Niche Store" and that blog post is on page 1 of Google. A few factors probably play into it. One the extension blogspot.com carries some weight, especially being owned by Google. Second this blog is gaining some authority. It has a page rank of 1, but come next update will likely be a 3 or a 4. Thirdly the title of the post is on target along with the content of the post. This is why I think everyone should have a blog, even a free one on blogspot to either launch new Build A Niche Stores off of or use as a journal or online diary. Just post to it every day or every other day and things will happen. Also I would like to note that the post was not social bookmarked or backlinked to other than the related post feature I added a few days ago, so this is just results of the blog authority itself and the daily spider visits this blog gets. Have a great weekend and go make some money.

Post 150 & A Blog Facelift

Well it is hard to believe I have 150 post on this blog now. Admittedly I am not the worlds greatest blogger, but feel I have gotten a tons better. it also has helped keep me regimented with several other things as well. I felt is was time to give it a cleaner look at found this template at E Blog Templates. I really like the layout and feel of it and it hardly looks like a blogspot blog anymore. I have also added a widget that post related post at the bottom of each individual blog post. This now ensures post are deep linked and should help this blog do even better in the SERPS. I am a fan of Wordpress, but Blogspot has always intrigued me. If you are not too comfortable with Wordpress yourself and need a blog, I highly suggest starting with Blogspot, which is owned by Google. This blog does not produce glorious amounts of income, but it has started to pick up a little and every month seems to be better than the last. Thank you to all of my loyal readers as well. I hope you enjoy the journey thus far and there is plenty more coming. I make notes everyday on things I want to cover on this blog concerning Build A Niche Store and also some other easy ways to make money online. Let me know how you like the new look, even if you hate it. LOL.

Also I am going to start taking email questions and posting them on the blog, either every Friday or every other Friday depending on the volume sent. They will be posted anonymously, so do not worry about being embarrassed. You can send all questions to the email address below:

New Build A Niche Store Blog Feed

I am happy to say I have finally switched over to Feedburner. Gives me a ton more tracking ability and other neat features. The new blog feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/bansblog you should be forwarded there if you were subscribed to the other blogger feed. Also I know many of you have been affected by the eBay category changes. I suspect Adam and Kelvin will be addressing this very soon. You can make changes in the mysql database, but I highly advise you know what you are doing and you should backup the database first.

Quality Backlinks Over Quantity Backlinks For Niche Stores

Everyone wants instantaneous traffic and backlinks for their Niche Stores, in reality I think and know slower is better. While I highly suggest link directory submissions, because it takes a while for all to be approved or denied. They will show up slowly. Now I only suggest 100 or so at a time. Same with social bookmarking sites. Don't go hog wild. Remember that slow and natural is better in the eyes of Google. Adding unique content and articles is where your time is better spent as with blogging daily. It is quality not quantity that matters. Have you seen much traffic in the past from link directories or social bookmarks you have submitted to in the past? Unless you get it to the top the only thing you are getting is hopefully a decent listing in Google for the title you created. Even those don't have much staying power. Start writing and adding content to your sites and become the authority on what you are selling. Even if you have an autoblogging Wordpress blog, mixed with a few regular post by yourself, this will go a ton further. The great thing about Wordpress is the tracking back feature which will help when linking to other blog stories or newspaper stories. I have one blog that picks up about 2 trackback links a week from newspaper sites. Those are quality backlinks there. The best thing you can spend your time on everyday is writing content. Do I like writing? Am I good at writing? No and no. I simply open up notepad and start typing. You can too. I am not saying to stop the other things, but make sure you prioritize your time.

Best Niche Store Strategy

I see it asked all the time. What is the best BANS store strategy? 100 quick sites or slow an easy? The answer lies in what works best for your style and time. I might pop up 4 new sites in 3 weeks that are slightly worked and go back to them over the next week or so and really polish them. You have to understand, I probably have more free time than you do as well. If you are on time/job constraints, one store at a time might be the way for you. I highly suggest that every Build A Niche Store owner have a blog on its own domain. You must post to it everyday. Even if it is a Blogger blog like this one. Can I afford a Wordpress blog domain? Sure, but I wanted to see the power of this Google owned platform. I post daily here and the spiders stay here all the time. If you have a blog, you can post a link a day to store pages with a paragraph or so about the store page. This will make for plenty of content to write daily about and will be a nice organic doorway page. Even a free blog like this is easy to set up and easy to post to. Back on topic... Go at your own pace, there is no set in stone path to the top, just keep your feet moving daily.

May 1st is coming | EPN Blog Feed Added

May 1st is right around the corner and that means you need to be thinking about finalizing your Build A Niche Store transfers over to the new eBay EPN tracking affiliate program. Commission Junction will no longer track after April 30 th according to reports. With the 7 day cookie lag, I highly suggest you have everything in order by this weekend.

Also I have added the eBay EPN blog feed to the bottom of this sites page. It will keep you up to date with everything on the EPN blog.