Niche Store Earnings January, February, and March 2011

It’s that time … time for me to update you on the progress and profits from my niche stores. Since I last wrote, I have built a handful of new stores (with the help of an outsourcer) and I’m really glad I did. They are all indexed nicely and starting to perform well.

If you recall in my last niche store update I mentioned that I was going to basically duplicate my existing niches and stores and that’s what I decided to do. There were some stores that Google just did not like so most all of the traffic was from Yahoo and Bing. With these new stores it seems almost the opposite – I’m doing great in Google and not so well with Yahoo and Bing *sigh* So goes the story of trying to figure out what the search engines really want right?!

I also decided to try some classified advertising (I’ve use USFree Ads in the past) and that seems to have produced some nice traffic too.

So on to my profits: 

January 2011: $608.68

February 2011: $495.96

March 2011: $1,188.16

In my next niche store update I will tell you about some issues I’ve run into in my SEO/backlinking efforts … it’s always a learning experience isn’t it? LOL *SmiLes* Suzanne 

P.S. Do you have niche stores? If so, how do you monetize them? How have they been performing? Do you wish you had niche stores but don’t know where to start? I can help … shoot me an email k?

P.P.S. I’m asked daily what tools I’m using to make this kind of money on my niche stores … I personally use this plugin and this theme … and I’m willing tutor you to success up if you purchase one or both of these products

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1. Niche Store Earnings September, October, November, and December 2010 OK … I’m a bit behind on posting my niche...

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OK … I’m a bit behind on posting my niche store earnings so here we go.

I’ll jump right in to the figures and then discuss some of my discoveries and share some of the changes I’ve made.

September $466.05

October $452.42

November $866.10

December $839.88

There is usually an increase in my income during the holidays so I wasn’t surprised at that … and there is usually a decrease in the couple months to follow so I won’t be too surprised by that either. One of my top performers is in the water sports industry and that usually picks up in the Spring and Summer so I have that to look forward to as well.

You know how many blessings are disguised as problems? Well, I can say that did happen to me with my niche sites. I got a friendly email from HostGator letting me know that I needed to upgrade all of my WordPress installations *sigh* (yea, like over 40 of them – don’t ask LOL … well … let’s just say I tend to hoard websites LOL … and I still have a fear of upgrading from back when I started and it all had to be done manually). Unfortunately, in doing the upgrade, I broke a few of my BANS sites (Build a Niche Site – for those who aren’t familiar). I had to contact my online buddy, “Soggy Dave,” (he sold me the theme I was using for these sites) and ask for his assistance. He fixed my sites and nicely let me know that it was TIME! Time to start building my sites using phpBay instead of BANS … and I begrudgingly agreed. If you’ve read my site for more than a day you’ll know I’m not techie and I hate even trying new techie type stuff LOL … in fact I even tried to hire Dave to convert my sites for me. He’s very sweet and told me he thought I could do it myself and that I should give it a try. Well, I’m glad I listened to a trusted friend.

To start with, I was so bad at checking my stats and so uninformed about these old sites that I had never realized something very important. None of my BANS sites were getting any Google traffic (none of them)! They get decent traffic but it turns out all of the traffic is either from Yahoo and Bing or from links I’ve built over the years. Well, I have great news! I’ve rebuilt my sites and they are starting to do really well in the SERPs (search engine results pages) for the terms I’m tackling … and BTW … I’ve learned a LOT about SEO since I built those BANS sites years ago so I actually expect my new sites to do much better than their BANS predecessors.

Once I got the hang of building the phpBay stores (they’re pretty easy actually) I decided to continue on with my efforts. So … not only did I rebuild my six existing stores I’m on a mission to get my portfolio up to about 50 sites (I have three new sites up and a couple more partially done). I can’t possibly build, dress up, and promote that many stores effectively on my own so I also made the decision to hire a couple of VA’s (virtual assistants). In fact, I’ll soon be blogging about how that’s going too.

The numbers were about average huh? But, I think you’ll agree they continue to be a consistent passive income so I really can’t complain.

So … do you have any niche sites? Are you an ex-BANS builder? Have you ever tried phpBay? Are you approved with EPN? If not, do you do anything with Amazon? I’d love to hear what you’re doing with niche sites and share some ideas … if you’re new and this is all “greek” to you … let me know if you’re interested in learning more about niche sites … I’m happy to help in any way I can. *SmiLes* Suzanne

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Well … it’s that time … time to post my earnings for my eBay EPN (BANS – “Build a Niche Store”) niche stores for March and April 2010.

Not amazing … not horrible. LOL. Again, I still haven’t taken the time to try to figure out what they (eBay) is looking for in this affiliate program. I haven’t done anything at all to my stores. I did however do a small amount of advertising on some free classified sites in April and I can see it probably helped a little bit.

Here are the numbers:

March 2010 = 533.86

April 2010 = 672.78

Looks like I’m going to have to do some work on these sites here soon. My buddy, Mark, over at Niche Store Builder posted: ePN Users Pay Attention – Significant Update for You! Yep … EPN making changes for us again. *sigh*

I’ve been very busy working on my SEO/Google Positioning business for offline local businesses and that’s going pretty well. I’ve also started my new site about Fitness at 40 and that’s been a really fun distraction. LOL I’m working out and eating healthy and I’m fully committed to losing all of my extra fat and to being healthy and strong.

Hope you are all doing well with your online businesses. Let me know if you need some help and I’ll do what I can. Also, do let me know if there’s something specific you’d like me to blog about and I’ll do my best to get it up here on the blog. *SmiLes* Suzanne

So … you still a niche store person? Are you still using BANS? How about EPN? Amazon? Let us know what you’re up to and how your stores are performing ok?

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The last time I did an update on my BANS stores (EPN – eBay Partner Network – eBay’s affiliate program) here on the blog was for September and October 2009. Since I’m well overdue I’ll go ahead and update you on my earnings for the past four months.

Here are the numbers:

November $327.72

December $668.21

January $298.49

February $482.24

As you can see there has not been any real consistency in my EPN numbers. Truthfully, I have not yet spent any time researching the way eBay is now paying us for our referrals/clicks. One month my clicks for one of my stores is $.22 (22 cents) per click and the next month it might be $.06 (6 cents) per click. *sigh* It’s a bit frustrating!

If you are an eBay affiliate who understands this “new” payout method, please comment and let me know how it works (or if you’ve written about it send me the link so I can include it here).

Let us hear from you. Are you still sending eBay traffic? Have you changed your business model since the new payout? If so, who are you now using (i.e. Amazon, PepperJam, etc.). We’d love to hear from you on this. *SmiLes* Suzanne

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<—— A quick reminder to Retweet if you enjoy the post … Thanks!

As you may or may not have heard, EPN (eBay’s affiliate program) has recently changed the way they pay their affiliates and most people I know have not been too happy about the changes. Although some affiliates are making more money on this new payout the vast majority are not. Not only that, people are concerned that they can’t seem to pinpoint exactly how we’re paid so that’s a bit of a concern.

My earnings from September were $528.06 and my earnings for October were a mere $298.38.

I’ve finally set out to do some maintenance on my niche stores. I’ve been slacking and I’m ready to get back into the niche store “game” and I’m willing to put in the time and energy to get the stores performing and possibly add some more stores.

I’ve written out each store I have now (there are five) and I’m in the process of evaluating their status: what I need to update/fix, what promoting would work best, and I’m trying to get an overall feeling for how each store is performing and what I could do to each to make it perform better.

I’m looking to make sure all software is updated and running the latest version (including BANS, WP, WP plugins, etc.) and I’m adding some plugins to each as well (there are various plugins designed for adding affiliate products to a WP blog). For instance, on my first three BANS stores (Build a Niche Store) I used a free theme designed for BANS stores but these stores don’t have blogs on them. I don’t want to redo the entire stores and lose my search engine positioning and/or backlinks so I’ve decided to add WordPress blogs to the “backend” of them (installed in a subfolder). The other two stores were built on a theme that was designed specifically for BANS but it’s a WP theme that integrates the BANS store on the blog. I’m upgrading everything and I’m also planning on updating the “look and feel” of some of them too. It’s also a good idea to go through each store page and make sure everything is in working order. If eBay changes a category number it can destroy your site and if you’re not monitoring the sites and/or stats you won’t know about it.

Once I have these five stores under control and performing smoothly I’ll be adding a handful of stores. I’m still deciding if I’ll be using a BANS format or if I’ll use a WordPress blog with some of the various plugins available for pulling affiliate products into the site.

My favorites are: phpBay and ReviewAzon ( and you can even integrate the two by using ReviewAzon) and I’m also beta testing two more affiliate plugins so I’ll have more information on those too.

So, although my store earnings are down with the new payment methods I still plan on working hard on my sites and hope to up my income by remaining flexible and adding some other affiliate product sources too. I’ve written before about how important it is to diversify! I’ll be looking at some other options (besides eBay) and I’ll keep you posted here on the blog as to what I find, what I try and how it works out.

Do you have any niche sites? What tools do you use and which are your favorites? Have you wanted to get started with some niche sites but don’t know where to start? Let us hear from you! *SmiLes* Suzanne

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Yep … It’s that time … time for me to update you on my BANS (Build a Niche Store) and EPN (eBay Partner Network – eBay’s affiliate program) profits. I last shared my earnings for May and June of 2009 so let’s take a look at July and August of 2009.

My July earnings were $543.28 and my August earnings were $753.46. Once again my ACRUs (commissions for bringing in new eBay registered users) were only at $28/per … so that was a bit disappointing … but I still had decent commissions.

I know I say this on most of these BANS updates but I’ve been very busy and distracted by other things so I haven’t done any work on my sites in several months (actually over a year now) … so the beauty of these stores is that if you do the “work” in the beginning and build a solid foundation with choosing a good niche, good SEO, and content for the site they can provide you with a consistent income for years to come.

If you follow EPN at all I’m sure you’re aware of the changes that are coming down with the new way they are going to figure out commissions and so far I’m not terribly excited about it. For August instead of $753.46 I would’ve earned $304.96 YIKES!!! (you can use your reports to see what it would be based on the new model).

As of this writing I’m at just over $300.00 for September and based on the new commission model I’d be at about $220.00 so not quite as bad but still frustrating none the less.

I won’t jump ship on EPN that’s for sure but I’m sure many others will here soon. Remember to always diversify your income! This is quite possibly my number one rule for making a living online! *SmiLes* Suzanne

Do you build niche stores? What kind? Are you making any money? What are your biggest challenges? Do you have any advice? Do you have any questions for me? Let us hear from you below in the comments.

P.S. I recently purchased the new guide, “The Number 1 Way to Make Money Online,” and it’s got a lot of great information in it on how to build eBay niche stores from start to finish. I will be going back and revisiting all of my existing stores and making some changes and then I will be adding at least 5 new stores to my portfolio over the next couple of months.

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BANS Earnings May and June 2009

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It’s that time … time for me to update you on my BANS (Build a Niche Store) and EPN (eBay Partner Network – eBay’s affiliate program) profits. I last shared my earnings for February, March and April so let’s take a look at May and June of 2009.

(Click image to see larger image)

My May earnings were $480.64 and my June earnings were $530.64. During both of those months my ACRU (commissions for bringing in new eBay registered users) were only at $28/per … so that was disappointing … but I’m back up to $40/per this month so hopefully I’ll have a good month. I just want to restate that I have not done any work on my sites in several months (possibly a year) … so the beauty of these stores is that if you do the “work” in the beginning and build a solid foundation with choosing a good niche, good SEO, and content for the site they can provide you with a consistent income for years to come.

I also went back and checked my stats and my average income for this year has been right around $530 per month.

I know I could be making much more with my EPN earnings but I’ve been very distracted this year planning our destination wedding and I just wasn’t as money motivated as I could be. LOL. But I will say that I now have the “travel bug” and I’m much more money motivated and look forward to ramping up my niche store earnings. *SmiLes* Suzanne

Do you build niche stores? What kind? Are you making any money? What are your biggest challenges? Do you have any advice? Do you have any questions for me? Let us hear from you below in the comments.

P.S. I just purchased the new guide, “The Number 1 Way to Make Money Online,” and it’s got a lot of great information in it on how to build eBay niche stores from start to finish. I will be going back and revisiting all of my existing stores and making some changes and then I will be adding at least 5 new stores to my portfolio over the next couple of months.

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Wow! I’m reading “The Number 1 Way to Make Money Online“ which was written by the guys who developed the BANS (Build a Niche Store) software and I must say I’m impressed.

I’m an avid reader and I usually refer to most of the stuff I find as “fluff” without any real guidance but this guide is truly a step-by-step guide on how to use eBay’s affiliate program (EPN) to make money. It focuses on using BANS and phpBay which are both products I use and highly recommend.

They are offering the guide at a discount of only $24.95 until Monday, July 20, 2009 at 5:00 EDT so if you’re considering it … get it now! The price will go up to $44.95 … which truthfully is still a great price for the amount of information given (I’m sure it’s more comprehensive than most of the $97 stuff out there to be honest).

UPDATE: They have decided to make the price $24.95 until further notice! That’s awesome … Check it out!

As I’ve mentioned here on the blog I make about $500-$600 per month with my BANS stores and I’ve been very lazy (OK … busy and totally distracted with my wedding LOL) this year and haven’t done any work on them at all. Armed with the new information I’m learning I will be revisiting and tweaking each of my stores and then I’ll also be adding at least 5 new stores to my portfolio (hopefully more). I’ll keep you posted over the next couple months on how it’s going but I hope to at least double my income from this revenue stream.

Go check out “The Number 1 Way to Make Money Online” now and let me know what you think … and let’s make a ton of money this year (I’ll need to just to support my new addiction to traveling LOL). *SmiLes* Suzanne (Franco) Land <—– new last name hee hee

Have you read this guide? What did you think of it? Are you considering this purchase? Do you have any questions I can answer? Do you currently make money through EPN? If not, what’s holding you back – what do you need help with? Let me hear from you …

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I get a ton of emails asking me what products I’ve paid for and whether or not they were worth the money I spent. So, I thought I’d start posting about some of the products that I own and I’ll give you my honest opinion about whether or not I’d recommend you spend your money on them or not.

Yes, I’m an affiliate for some of them but if you’ve followed me for any time at all you’ll know I’m not here to take your money or scam you so relax and just read about the products without wondering if I’m trying to rip you off. LOL. I’m not. If you do see something that interests you and you want me to get the credit for your purchase go ahead and use the links here in this post. Thanks … and here we go.

HOST GATOR HOSTING

Host Gator Hosting. I’m going to start with my hosting because I think moving my sites to Host Gator might be the single best thing I did for my businesses since getting started online. I won’t go into detail here about the problems I had with my prior hosting company but you can read more about my move to Host Gator here.

Are they worth the money? Yes! I can say without a doubt that having trouble-free, high quality hosting is well worth the money.

(First month for a penny and then $9.95/month)

BANS – BUILD A NICHE STORE

BANS – Build a Niche Store. I started my eBay affiliate career (EPN) by purchasing the BANS product and I’m personally glad I did. I’m not very techie and I knew very little about websites at that time. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a product for total beginners and I did struggle at first with it. But, the installation manual and user manual are very detailed and helpful and the forum is simply second to none. I’ve learned so much on that forum not only about BANS but about all aspects of internet marketing and promoting.

I still have BANS stores and I will probably be building a few more stores here in the next couple of months. I have also purchased phpBay which is another tool for promoting the eBay affiliate program and some say it’s a more versatile product than BANS but BANS seems to be a bit better for beginners. Here’s my post with more information about BANS.

(One time $97.00 fee and good for an unlimited number of websites)

WEALTHY AFFILIATE UNIVERSITY

Wealthy Affiliate University. Wealthy Affiliate is an online membership site that teaches its members how to start their own online business using Internet Marketing … specifically Affiliate Marketing. I have never seen so much valuable information in one place … and I’m not kidding!

I will say that this information can be used to run and promote any kind of online business or website … even though its teachings are geared towards affiliate marketing. There were times where I read the material and the forum for days on end and I learned so much there. In fact, I believe the amount of time I invested in learning on this site would’ve earned me a degree of some kind LOL. I’m also going to be taking a class on PPC through their site here soon and I’ll let you know how that goes too. If you’re new to the online business world (or even if you’re not) this is definitely my favorite learning resource so go check it out now and let me know what you think (and let me know if you have any questions too).

(Now’s the time to check out WA – They’re offering a one week trial for $1.00! If you choose to continue with your membership it’s only $39.00/month and I promise you it’s well worth it!)

POTPIEGIRL’S ONE WEEK MARKETING ACTION PLAN

PotPieGirl’s One Week Marketing Action Plan. This eBook teaches you how to make money through affiliate marketing using FREE tools and methods … and it’s awesome! I feel like I’ve learned a lot over the past few years and quite honestly I didn’t expect to learn much from this eBook … but I really did.

Not only will you learn a lot but it gives you a step-by-step guide to use so you can start, and more importantly, FINISH a campaign without much trouble. I used it to target one of my fiance’s sites (I’m an affiliate for his site LOL) and I got top Google positions and traffic right away using her instructions. I plan to use it for many other sites/products and I now know it will work like magic. This one’s pretty much a no-brainer due to the low price! I’m certain it will more than pay for itself if you actually do what she instructs you to do.

The eBook also came with some killer bonuses. I don’t know for sure if they’re still available but if for some reason they’re not just shoot me an email and I’ll bet I can get her permission to share them with you. Definitely go check out PotPieGirl’s One Week Marketing Action Plan Right Now!

(Only $47 … I couldn’t believe it! It’s worth more I promise!)

30 MINUTE BACKLINKS

30 Minute Backlinks. I am a HUGE fan of Michelle MacPhearson’s 30 Minute Backlinks! The system she came up with is simply ingenious and there is no denying … it works!

She will show you step-by-step how to build hundreds or even thousands of high PR backlinks to your sites. The first couple of times you do this … I wouldn’t necessarily call it a “30 minute” project LOL … but as you learn the ropes that’s more fair. I will say it’s worth every minute you put into it.

I’ve used this system for several of my sites and so has my fiancé and we’ve both seen some amazing results. I’m almost certain it’s the reason my brand new destination wedding site already has a PR1 (after a month and a half online) and my fiance has several of his retail products that have risen (some quite a bit) in the SERPs after using this system. Check out her sales page and watch her video “commercial” and see what you think.

(It costs $97.00 and if you have a website … it’s definitely worth the moderate price tag!)

SUMMARY

Alright, I don’t want to give you information overload but I do want to give you a brief summary of these.

1. If you are just getting started online I personally would give the PotPieGirl a shot. One of the bonuses is an email journal of back and forth conversation between her and a guy she helps who’s never made any money online and he’s successful within the one week time frame.
2. My next choice for learning and getting started would have to be Wealthy Affiliate and with it being priced at a dollar right now … you can’t go wrong! I will warn you … there is NO WAY you could possibly get through all they have to offer in a week but it’s a great way to see if you’d benefit from their site on a monthly basis.
3. If you already have some experience and you’re looking for a way to diversify your income I’d recommend BANS as a way to make money with the eBay affiliate program (EPN). It makes it very simple to get some niche stores set up. You will be most successful with these if you understand keyword research and SEO.
4. If you already have a site (or several) you should definitely give the 30 Minute Backlinks a shot. What would a rise in the SERPs and a higher PR mean for your sites? For me it was well worth it!
5. I just can’t say enough about HostGator hosting so they will always have my endorsement.

If you have any questions about any of these products please let me know either in the comments section or by using the Contact Us page.

Have you used any of these products? If so, do you feel they were worth the cost you paid for them? Let us hear from you below so we can all learn from each other. *SmiLes* Suzanne

Trying out Number 1 Way to Make Money Online too …

and Niche Profit Classroom …

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In the past I had been posting the profits I’ve made with my BANS (Build a Niche Stores) business and my other EPN (eBay Partner Network) profits here on the blog. If you haven’t been following along you can take a look at my BANS profits for June 2008 ($203.36), my BANS profits for July 2008 ($269.41), my BANS profits for August 2008 ($531.51) and my BANS profits for September 2008 ($821.74).

I got very busy while competing in the Blogging Idol competition in November 2008 so I didn’t get around to posting my profits for October 2008 … which were $733.33. It also meant that I got so busy that I didn’t spend any time whatsoever working on (or promoting) my BANS stores in November 2008.

At that same time (November 2008) EPN switched over to their “Value Based Pricing” commission structure for their ACRUs (Active Confirmed Registered Users) payout. The main reasons I see for this change is to insure a higher quality traffic and to reduce ACRU fraud and abuse. They basically structured a pay “range” for ACRU payouts … so instead of being paid a flat $25 per … the commission switched to a pay range … ranging from $1 per to $40 per. What did that change mean for me? Well, November’s ACRU commissions dropped down from $25 per to $10 per and my total profit for November 2008 (under the new payout) was $315.81. December really took a dive and was a mere $186.11.

I suppose you could say that there was a “vicious cycle” going on where the less I made the less I felt like working on the stores and, of course, the less I worked on them … the less I deserved to make.

Well … I have no idea what eBay based their decision on but I’m happy to report that my January’s ACRUs went up to $40 per and my January profits were $613.83. The ACRUs are still reporting at the $40 for February and I’m “tracking” to do about the same for this month. Of course this has prompted me to want to get back to work on my stores and to possibly even build a couple new stores.

I’m sure there are some lessons to be learned here and for me the biggest remains to diversify your online marketing efforts – never put all of your eggs in one basket.

If you are interested in learning more about BANS and/or the EPN program … I encourage you to contact me BEFORE you apply for the program and before you purchase the BANS product. It’s getting more and more difficult to get approved by eBay and I want to help you with some information if possible.

So are you a fellow EPN and/or BANS user? How have you been affected by the new system for ACRUs? Are you putting as much (or more) effort into your stores? Do you have questions about EPN and/or BANS? I’d love to hear from you below in the comments section. *SmiLes* Suzanne

September 2008 – $821.74 (ACRUs $25)

October 2008 – $733.33 (ACRUs $25)

November 2008 – $315.81 (ACRUs $10)

December 2008 – $186.11 (ACRUs $10)

January 2009 – $613.83 (ACRUs $40)

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