WordPress is an amazing platform. Not only can we use it to blog, but also to create full force content management sites to do pretty much anything with it. One of these options is to use WordPress to setup a BANS clone site.
What is BANS?
BANS stands for “Build a Niche Store” and it is a software that allows you to build unlimited websites based on the EBay affiliate program. It is an ideal software to build niche sites with but the draw back for many people is the cost attached to it. For a once of cost of USD $97 you will get:
- Your own licensed copy of BANS
- An unlimited site license which allows you to build as many BANS sites as possible
- A BANS user manual
- Professional templates to stand out from the crowd
- Access to the BANS member area
- Free lifetime updates
If you are prepared to spend the $97, then BANS is an incredible software to help you build niche sites fast. But hold on. Traditionally BANS doesn’t require WordPress at all, so how come I’m talking about setting up a BANS site with WordPress then?
It’s easy really. We will use WordPress to setup a BANS clone site without spending the $97. The advantage of doing this is that we can actually use a SEO optimized WordPress theme. These can easily be found by doing a Google search for “SEO optimized WordPress theme”.
Tools you need for your BANS clone
Ok, before we go any further, you do need to be aware that you need some tools that cost you money. If you are using your own WordPress blog you will most likely already have your own hosting. Great! Besides your own domain name, this is really all you need.
I suggest you use hosting from Hostgator which will give you a “baby croc” account for under $10/month. A bargain considered you can setup unlimited domains on the same server. Alternatively you can also use Bluehost which is slightly cheaper. This means you will never pay more (except of course you will get thousands of unique hits to your site and eat up your whole bandwidth).
To be honest, most bloggers never need to upgrade at all.
Your domain name can be acquired from GoDaddy. GoDaddy is the worlds best registrar and will sell a domain name to you for under $9/year. If you do a search for “GoDaddy+Coupons” on Google, you can even get them for $6.
Just make sure you are targeting your niche keyword when buying a domain. This isn’t a requirement, but does help with SEO.
Once you install your WordPress software on your hosts server, you can setup your BANS clone.
Become an EBay affiliate
To setup a BANS site with the original software, or doing it the “el cheapo” way through EBay directly,you will first need to sign up for EBay’s affiliate program. This is free of charge and will only take a minute or two. You should receive instant confirmation.
Up until today, the EBay affiliate side was managed by CJ (commission junction), but EBay decided to take matters into their own hands which is a great idea, since CJ’s tracking left a lot to be desired anyway. All existing CJ members using the BANS network will have to re-apply with EBay.
Once you are approved by EBay you can set about creating your WordPress niche sites. First you will need to write some related blog posts to get started. I suggest you write about 5-10. These posts will have to be keyword specific, since you ARE targeting a niche. So if your niche is aimed at pants, then write about pants using a nice sprinkling of keywords throughout your posts. This is important for SEO purposes. After all, you do want your site to look legitimate and be of some value to your visitors.
Inserting EBay code and creating a BANS clone
Now you have some content on your blog, you are ready to go for the final step in creating your WordPress BANS clone site. Log into your EBay affiliate account and navigate to “widgets”. You are looking for the Editor Kit. The Editor Kit will allow you to insert relevant (to your niche) EBay auctions right into your WordPress blog. They are fully customisable and can be adjusted to suit your WordPress theme.
You can also filter the results by topic and category to drill down into the results.
This is it. Now you will have your very own SEO optimized WordPress BANS clone site. To make it all better, it only cost you money for your hosting (which you need anyway with BANS) and your domain name (Which you also need with BANS).
Enjoy
Monika
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Thanks for this article Monika. I’m going to have to try it out soon. However I’ll just add that if you really don’t want to pay for hosting there are good free hosting services available, such as frihost.com. They only require posts in their forum to keep your hosting going.
@ Jylan: I understand you don’t want to pay for hosting. After all, you are still in school and what you do is great anyway. If you have found a good free host, then so be it.
Maybe that will even help somebody else who doesn’t have money for hosting.
Thanks monika.
Think I’ll try it out once I get accepted by eBay.
I registered after receiving the email from ebay affiliate Manager at CJ today and got an instant rejection. I’m not feeling too good about it because I have 7 bans sites running through CJ.
I wish eBay.com they would just auto approve affiliates who are already accepted by them through CJ.
I’ve appealed and keeping my fingers crossed. Else will be stuck with 7 Bans site with no affiliations!
I think this is going to be a problem for many in Southeast Asia and in Eastern Europe. These two areas have been the location of the vast majority of eBay scams, such as phishing and bogus auctions. eBay, with their new emphasis on buyer protection, is going to place “guilt by geographic association” on anyone from those areas. Hopefully they’ll stop making blanket judgments and let you in.
@ Costa: ouch, that hurts. I was accepted automatically. I don’t understand why you wouldn’t, since you already have a CJ account.
I hope you can sort this out ASAP. That would indeed be a bummer if they reject you. I guess if you tell them that you already have BANS sites going they might approve you instantly, since it is money in their pockets too.
Monika: thanks for a timely and interesting post.
I’ve been wondering how to go about setting up a store as I have a couple of ideas that I might be able to pursue if things line up right (planets align and so forth).
This may be just the thing I need. Thank you very much - have a virtual flat white on me
@ Brett: great, I’m glad it was helpful. It will be interesting to see what you come up with. Thanks for the coffee. I needed that too.
Hi Monika - this is a very timely and helpful post! I am not sure if I want to build niche sites (with adsense) or try eBay to generate some income. Your review of this software definitely has me thinking.
Hope you are well
@ Mark: I’m glad you like it. There is both pros and cons against using either version and they both work. In the end it boil down to whether people want to pay for the software or not.
Thanks for asking how I am. I’m really well, life is exciting and tons of fun for me right now and I’m having a ball.
Hope you are doing fine too. Nice to have you stop by.
Hi Monika,
Good write up on how to use this. I saw it the other day when the program first came out. But at the time the Editor Kit widget was still “coming soon” … I’ll have to go check it out to see how well it works. I bought BANS a couple of months ago, and I never did take the time to properly figure it out (to be honest it frustrated me). I’m much more comfortable building wordpress sites … this could be a perfect solution.
Todd
@ Todd: yes, this option is certainly a solution for WordPress lovers. In the end, it won’t replace BANS, but it will provide a somewhat similar opportunity for people who don’t want to spend the $97.
I’m glad you found this post helpful. Good luck with it anyway.
Good post Monika.
Something to keep in mind, if you add the eBay ads using RSS rather than javascript, the RSS will be readable by the search engines. You’ll have good related content that will be constantly updating…a plus for SEO purposes.
@ Brent: thanks for this great tip. I’ll keep that in mind. Just have to figure out how to do this, but I guess it won’t be too hard will it.
Hey Monika, I’ve been so busy setting up new eBay sites like a week has gone by and I didn’t notice LMAO!!
Good post, sorry I didn’t get here sooner - there are more possibilities with this that BANs won’t work with, like free blogger blogs etc. Just have to dodge the flaggers as I’ve heard a few people have had their blogger blogs suspended for using this, although I haven’t had any problems (yet).
I’ve also been buying up .info domains at 99 cents each - that’s for nothing! They all count for BANs or eBay, as well as extra links for other sites!
Its all good stuff!
Terry
@ Terry: don’t worry, I understand. After all I have you to thank for the inspiration to write this post, so thank you.
Yeah, those 99 cent domains are very tempting. I actually got one too the other day.
Hi Monika,
Yeah, setting up the RSS feeds in the web pages is pretty easy once you know the steps. Here is an example of one of my sites that uses RSS in the right column. dvd-wholesale-directory DOT com
You will have to invest in a RSS to HTML converter. I use CARP which is only about $30 and located here. http://www.geckotribe DOT com
There are instructions on how to set this up inside your eBay Affiliate Account. If you decide to try it and have any trouble let me know. I’d be happy to give you a hand.
Have a good day.
Brent Crouch
@ Brent: hey that script from Gecko Tribe looks cool. I might actually give this a try for a new idea I just had.
$30 isn’t really anything for a tool that automates stuff is it. Plus it will pull fresh content every day which is great for the spiders.I’ve looked at your site.
There is one thing I wonder about. Since I’m anal about styling (if I can help it anyway) is there a way that the images from the listings can be styled to hug the text? You know, kind of like align=”left” and so on?
Thanks for making me (and my readers) aware of this tool.
I found a way to create wordpress based ebay affiliate sites that are all free except for the cost of the domain and hosting. My link is my coffee site that I made doing this.
There are some benifits and some major drawbacks to useing it. Once I get my adsense check I will be getting BANS. Yes, I have made money with these sites
@ Shawn: That is great to see. That is exactly what i meant with this post and to get feedback from you saying you are already earning money with it, is even better.
This will inspire somebody else to try this for sure and they can use your site as an example on how to.
Thanks for showing this.
Hi Monika,
Yes, it can be styled. You can set up a custom template for each feed.
It takes a little trial and error to make it look like you want though. Here is a link to the CARP documentation.
http://carp.docs.geckotribe.com/
Click the link at the bottom of the page “Overview of Carp Configuration”
I hope this helps.
Brent
@ Brent: thanks heaps for that. I’ll be in touch with you later today, cheers.
Hi Monika - I first read the heading of this article before I went away for a week and I’ve been wondering what a BANS site is ever since.
I’m glad I remembered to come back to it though. I’ve been creating some mini-sites and want to add some more and this sounds like something worth trying. Thank you.