So you want to earn some cash on-line but don't think you're smart enough? Maybe you've heard of BANS (build a niche store) but can't afford to dish out the $100. Either way, these are both silly reasons. If you're reading this blog, you're smart enough, and anyone willing to pay $100 for that software isn't very wise with their cash. This post will outline, step by step, how to setup your own on-line store and start generating cash within thirty-days of going live.
First Things First
Pick a niche - this is very important. Find something relatively popular that doesn't have a lot of competition. This is probably the most difficult step, but will definitely pay off if you do your research. I recommend Google Trends, pulse.ebay.com, and Amazon's top sellers list. Just some examples of niches I've seen making money: Jeep parts, used vinyl records, vintage Halloween costumes, coach bags.
Get A Wordpress Blog
How you do this is up to you. I would of course suggest you find a decent web host and buy a domain. If you're really cheap, goto wordpress.com and sign up for a free wordpress blog there, but I can't guarantee this method will work on their servers. Just dish out the cash and get a domain with some cheap hosting. Don't pay more than $5/mo. You'll also want to go through and remove all the default data that's populated during the Wordpress installation. The first post, first comment, blogroll links, etc, etc. Go through the options and turn off comments/pings, unless you feel like moderating the abundance of spam you'll receive.
Find a Theme
Something simplistic, minimal, and somewhat professional looking. Avoid themes with lots of graphics and pictures to prevent distracting our visitors and future customers. Just search Google or browse the wordpress.org theme archive, you'll find something appropriate. The majority of wordpress themes are easy to navigate through, so this shouldn't really become an issue. Once you've found your theme, upload and apply the theme. Check out your empty blog to make sure everything looks ok.
The Secret, Free, Weapon
Radgeek has released this fantastic little plugin called feedwordpress. The plugin gives blog owners the ability to subscribe to RSS feeds, automatically post feed items to their blog as individual entries, and even assign items from certain feeds to a specific category. Search Google for "feedwordpress." Download and install the plugin. If you have any questions on how to setup/configure the plugin, just ask in the comments section of this post. I recommend setting up auto updating every 6-8, maybe even 12 hours.
Ok, So Now What?!
Alright - you've got your empty blog with a cool theme, our secret weapon is installed, now it's time to get to the fun stuff. This is the part where we generate the links that will earn us cash. Visit www.commissionjunction.com and sign up for a free account. Provide accurate information, including your Wordpress URL. Once signed up and activated, login to your Commission Junction account and click "Get Links" at the top. Search for "eBay" and apply/subscribe to whatever's relevant to your area. Off the top of my head I can't remember what's listed exactly, so if you have questions or doubts, share your options here - I'll respond quickly. Once you've applied, eBay will immediately accept you as an advertiser. Now, click "Account" at the top of the CJ menu, then click "Web site Settings." Copy the "PID" for your wordpress site into your clipboard (highlight the number, then ctrl+c).
With your PID in the clipboard, head over to the world's largest on-line marketplace, eBay. Click the "Advanced Search" link. On the Advanced Search page, enter the keyword or keywords you'd like to advertise or list on your blog. For example, if you wanted to make a pet site, perform a search for dog brush. Scroll down toward the bottom and look for the area above the Search button that says, "Affiliate Tracking Information." Click the blue link labeled "Show," select Commission Junction from the drop down box, then paste your PID, the one we copied earlier. Now click "Search."
This search alone produced 230 highly targeted items, many with the "Buy It Now" option. Again, scroll to the bottom and look for a tiny bright orange button with white text that says RSS. The link will look something like this:
http://rss.api.ebay.com/ws/rssapi?FeedName=SearchResults&siteId=0 &language=en-US&output=RSS20&catref=C5&sacqy=&sacur=0&from=R6 &saobfmts=exsif&_trksid=m37&dfsp=1&sacqyop=ge&saslc=0&floc=1 &sabfmts=0&saprclo=&saprchi=&saaff=afdefault&ftrv=1&ftrt=1&fcl=3 &frpp=50&afcj=&nojspr=y&satitle=dog+brush&afmp=&sacat=-1&saslop=1&fss=0
Which is ridiculously long, we can't use that. To shorten this up, head over to feedburner.com and create a free account. Feedburner is similar to TinyURL, but for RSS feeds. Your new feed should look similar to:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/myDogBrushRSSFeed
Now, login to your wordpress admin panel and click the "Syndication" tab at the top. Scroll down to the bottom to the "Add a new syndicated site:" Supply your feedburner URL, click Syndicate, then Use This Feed. Now go back to the Syndication sub-tab and click edit. Adjust the settings, including category, and save your changes. Now check the box next to the feed and click Update Checked Links. In the example above, 100 new posts for Dog Brushes would go into our Dog Brush category. View your site to see the product listings. Rinse and repeat, go crazy. Dog Brushes, Dog Shampoo, Dog Collars, Dog Clothes, Dog Bowls, Dog Food, etc, etc.. The sky is the limit!
So How Do I Get Paid?
Great question. CJ tracks your sales, so login to your CJ account every couple days to check the stats. Every time someone from your web-site completes an auction (buys an item) eBay pays you 50% of what they earn. For example (and this is just an example), say a product sells for $30. eBay charges the auction creator $1.00 to list the item. Since your site referred the person that purchased the item, eBay will pay you $0.50. eBay also pays $25 for every active referral. That means if you can get four people a day to sign up for an eBay account, they'll pay you $100. Imagine the possibilities of getting into high definition TV's, or digital camcorders, the really big ticket items.
What To Do Now
Traffic, traffic, traffic. The more people you get to your site, the more likely you are to make some cash. Eventually you'll start showing up in search engines. The possibilities are endless, just think of a niche, and run with it. Here are a couple live examples of the possibilities.
Health Solutions Toyota Corolla Parts & Accessories
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Sweet. Looks like I need to pick a niche!
Those are all good things for a beginner blog. A couple of ways to make money with your blog is through offering text links on your website and also paid blog post. We offer both of these services for bloggers like yourself here at LinkWorth. Check us out if you get a chance.
Scarlett T.
LinkWorth Staff
Isn't this essentially what TextLinkAds does? These little third party advertising merchants are popping up all over the place.
Hey, I read through your blog and I really like this idea. Simple yet very effective. I will be trying this out this weekend from a subdomain of my main site. Quick question though, does this method only work with eBay? I mean, can you use http://www.commissionjunction.com to become an advertiser for say Yahoo Auctions and other auction areas? So, the site could become a mix of same category auctions from different places?
Wow, what a great idea! Yes, this would work with other auction sites assuming the following conditions are true.
1) You can sign up via CJ
2) The auction site provides an RSS feed which integrates your CJ PID into each item
So if Yahoo!'s auction site does provide a service via CJ and has the custom RSS function, sure. That's awesome! This is exactly why I love bl0gging.
Yeah, well, I guess Yahoo Auctions is out the question. They seem to have stopped that service for U.S. and Canada. The idea still works for other auction places if possible though.
So, I've been playing around with this idea and I was thinking can this be done through Google's AdSense program? I know they do referrals but doesn't appear as if it is the same as Commission Junction's Program. I ask because I did come across from old articles/blogs written back in 2006 talking about Google AdSense rivaling Commission Junction. Also, how long have you been with CJ? Are they a respectable company?
Sure, you can place Google Adsense on your site. Commission Junction isn't "contextual" advertising so this isn't breaking Google Adsense TOS. Google only has a problem with other contextual advertising methods/companies.
I've been with CJ for a couple months now, and I know many people that have used CJ for years. Yes, they're a reputable company and they pay their advertisers. And I'm not sure if Google produces RSS feeds for their Adsense referral program. To my knowledge, Google just entered the CPA (Cost per action) market not to long ago.
So, quick question. When the feeds are up and running, how does the blog categories work? I do have it setup to create new categories when needed but everything is going in Uncategorized.
I've never worked with the "create new categories when needed." I typically pre-create my categories, then go into the individual feed options and manually assign a category. For example, if I were to make a beer site, I would create the following categories:
Wheat Ale
White Ale
Pale Ale
Stout
Red Ale
etc.. etc.. then once the feeds are added, just manually edit that feeds options and associate it with one of my pre-made categories. Imagine how long this took on http://www.rollaparts.com
It takes time, but you only have to do it once. Literally set it, and forget it.
Sweet, thanks a lot for the advice!
Not a problem! Wanna showcase your site?
I've got a few last minute touchups for the site itself, but afterwards sure. This is my first attempt at something like this and I do believe I might have choosen a slightly big niche, but it goes along with my main project site. In the end, it's all just fun to play around with.
Well, here is the site based off of this blog post: http://auctions.scyanidegaming.com/ What do you think? A little too crowded or alright? I do question the use of Google's Search as it might not cache all the posts right away or work as well as the default search. Have any hints on that or am I better off using WP search?
The site looks awesome! Very impressive. I haven't had any success personally with Google's Search. I'd highly recommend using WP-Cache if you're worried about caching and server performance. Also, just stick with the internal WP search in my opinion. the object of these pages is to create indexed pages in Google that will drive organic traffic (from search queries).
I've made some cash off these sites from purely organic search results, but because I'm greedy, I've started an adwords campaign to really drive some traffic. Unfortunately, there's been zero impressions. Google rejected my first ad, but after a week of some concrete stats, I'll probably post again with details about using PPC advertising to promote these sites.
I apologize if this doesn't make sense. If so, I'll correct in the morning
Actually, it all makes perfect sense. I obviously put up the google ads on there as well. =D I originally had the ads appearing between each post but as google only alows 3 ads per page, that died very quickly. I am using WP-Cache already just still playing it with to find a nice length of time for the cached pages to expire. I fully agree with the searching area. When I get home I'll go ahead and replace google's search with wp's search.
Also, I feel as if I should do something with that title. What do you think? I'm throwing around the idea of some image banner. Nothing fancy or flashy but a little more than just text saying "Gaming Auctions" or has been your experience that something simple like this is better?
I've yet to implement WP-Cache on my auction pages, not sure why I've been putting it off. I just checked the time settings for this site and it's currently set to 6,600 seconds. Not sure why I chose that number, but seems to do the trick.
And yes, I would definitely change that title. Here are a couple examples of what I'd implement if that were my project.
Discounted PSP, Playstation 2 & 3, Wii, and XBox Consoles, Games and More
Cheap PSP, Wii, Playstation 2 & 3, and XBox Auctions - New and Used!
PSP, Wii, Playstation 2 & 3, Xbox, Games, Consoles, and More!
Something along those lines.. I've found that more descriptive/direct titles convert more customers because you're targeting people actually looking to buy vs. some kid looking for game cheats or something.
Just an update on this BANS site idea. Considering that I chose a somewhat large niche to do this with, the blog quickly grew to over 7K posts. This is when I started thinking, what happens to the old auctions that are no longer up on eBay? I looked around on this feedwordpress plugin and I couldn't find any indication that it deletes old posts. So, I went out and grabbed an auto post delete plugin:
http://archive.ashwinbihari.com/archives/2005/07/13/plugin-auto-delete-posts/
With this, I have it setup to delete posts after 14 days. I figured after ths much time gaming auctions will mostly be gone. I couldn't find a max time limit on auctions allowed so I just came up with 2 weeks of time.
Also, looking over your blog about getting indexed by Google within 48 hours, I started the sitemap part and realized that with this kind of site, it'll be hard to keep an up-to-date sitemap. I then found this plugin:
http://www.arnebrachhold.de/cat/seo/googlemap/
Which is a Google sitmap generator that can be setup to update the sitemap file whenever a new post/page is created or deleted and notify google, msn, yahoo, and a few others. Seems to be an interesting plugin and so far it's working alright. I'll be able to say in more detail after a few days.
To deal with the massive amounts of options, I tell feedwordpress to update every 8, 12, even 24 hours. I too have some 9,000+ posts now, so thanks a lot of sharing the auto delete posts plugin, that’s awesome! 14 days sounds good, I think the auctions stay live on eBay for 30-60 days after the end (final bid, buy it now, whatever).
And you’re right, keeping up with the sitemap for these sites can be time consuming, so good find on the auto-updating plugin
Would you be interested in guest blogging for Nullamatix.com? You have a lot of great information, and I’d love to publish your work. This would of course mean a backlink(s) (free advertising!) to your blog/site/whatever every time you make a post
The only thing I would be concerned about with the automatic deletion of posts is Google. If those [deleted] pages are indexed in Google, and then they’re removed, there’s an excellent chance you’ll lose a lot of potential buyers. For this, I recommend installing the Wordpress related posts plugin and embedding the necessary code on your 404 pages. Something like,
“This Item No Longer Exists, But Here Are Some More Great Items:
related post 1
related post 2
related post 3
related post 4
etc, etc, etc… ”
Here’s the address to the related posts plugin:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-23-related-posts-plugin/
You can configure the plugin to not only display related posts, but even RANDOM posts, as many as you want I believe.
Talk about always having a mish-mash of unique content for Google every time the bot hits the page. To see it in action, check out any of the single posts on rollaparts.com
http://www.rollaparts.com/corolla-fuel-delivery/mk1-fuel-pressure-regulator-supra-mr2-ae86-corolla-mk3-2/
Keep us updated with your success!
Guy,
THANKS! Just the information I was looking for! I've been reading a lot about BANS recently and have no idea where to start.
THANKS AGAIN!
Great info. I just bought bans and don't know how to start. My ebaycj has decline my application. So I had to apply by email.
Just the info I need. Just bought Bans and don't know how to start great info and subscribed.
Bumblebee,
Thanks for subscribing! Did you get your poor mans bans store up and running?
thanks friend
Thats pretty good actually and my getting a good niche you can easily make alot of money. If you can continually do this and do it well then you could make alot of money. However it does involve alot of work and getting links to your blog etc.
Great post however!
RollaParts.com took about 1.5 to 2 hours to setup, so it's not that much work. I've done very little promotion, just a few backlinks to get indexed, and I've already been reimbursed for my minimal efforts.
And yes, you can make a lot of cash with this method. Perhaps I'll continue working on my Adwords campaign to churn out some real results.
Great post! Very original idea haven't really seen this one discussed in much depth anywhere else.
Good job!
-Dave
http://letmeadvise.com
Thanks for the positive remarks. Do you plan on running with this strategy? If so, I'd love to see the end result(s).
Amazing idea. Just spent the last half hour setting up a site a quick 600 posts are now on a domain that was just sitting there.
Will keep you updated on any progress.
edi,
that's great to hear! I also have several domains that aren't being used, but they're names that aren't really relevant to anything worth marketing, or are they? Would you mind sharing what you've come up with? Perhaps this will spark some ideas for the domains I have laying around.
Patiently awaiting your progress report,
-Guy
Actually the domain I had sitting there was jewelry related so it kind of jumped right into its own niche, though very surprisingly I'm at the top of Page 2 for a couple of different phrases I was targeting and its been about 48 hours I believe so thats pretty amazing in itself.
Not sure how my server is handling the 2,000 posts it now has though lol.
Also I have feedwordpress set to update every 5 hours, but it seems the feeds themselves are set to update every 60 minutes do you know the setting this needs to be on so they coincide?
Thanks
edi,
glad to hear you're having such success! I typically set feedwordpress to update every 10-14 hours, sometimes more. I'm not sure how to get the two to coincide - when you say, "but it seems the feeds themselves are set to update every 60 minutes" what exactly do you mean? ebay updates the feeds? or your feeds are being updated every 60 minutes and not listening to your designated 5 hours?
If that's the case, just goto the "Syndication" tab, then click "edit" next to the feed and set it to update whenever you'd like. I typically set the global update time under "options" and make all my feeds adhere to that instead of defining an update time for each feed.
well, I MUST say, very well done. I am making one site and have many domains for this idea already. I can come here and post when I have more information.
sukosaki,
fantastic! please keep us posted. all these success stories are keeping ME motivated! My thanks go out to everyone sharing their thoughts and experiences.
Well, after a day of messing around with wordpress, here is my first attempt.
http://www.musicrawks.com
What do you think? There will be a lot more tinkering in the coming weeks, but I think it's pretty stable for now. Too bad we couldn't get JUST gallery auctions to show up (at least I haven't found a way), I don't like the ebay default picture.
Thanks again for the tutorial, it's been a great help!
Looks good! I agree, the default ebay picture is terrible. Glad you enjoyed the information.
I see that CJ doesn't track impressions, I have multiple sites on my account so I figured I would be able to get reports for my PMBANS.
Can I, am I missing something?
Not sure about that one sukosaki. CJ is reporting I have 0 impressions as well. Do you mind if I ask why this is important to you?
It's not. Just wondered if there was anything wrong with the way mine was set up. All that counts is the clicks, right!?
It's just that like I said before, I have many sites on ONE CJ account, so which one will it show clicks for in the reports?
Does it know that they are comming from musicrawks.com?
Nah, nothing wrong. I have over 2,000 clicks now with zero impressions. So yes, all that matters are the clicks. Unless I'm mistaken, you can generate reports for each web-site, but I've yet to look into that. As long as I see clicks, sales, and leads, I'm a happy camper.
So, yes, CJ knows which clicks are coming from each web-site. There has to be a way to generate reports for individual sites..
Figured out the problem, wanna hint? Watch the PID numbers closely
So you were able to get impressions to show up? I'm approaching $200 and CJ is still reporting zero impressions. Hope this won't affect my payment
No impressions, but now maybe the clicks will appear
Hi Guy:
How are you handling deleting posts? Are you using the plugin mentioned or is there another way?
Honestly, I'm not deleting any posts at the moment. I'm not really concerned about space too much, but perhaps in the future I'll implement the plugin mentioned above.
I have set up something similar to this with freebay free plug in. It doesn't add posts but constantly updates the feed on each page.
My problem is traffic. I have submitted articles and gotten back links from some high PR sites but only made about $26 bucks.
Can you offer some ideas to help a girl out?
The site is vintagelingeriedirect.com
Well, for starters the domain is very young - created on January 20th. Secondly, there are only 26 pages indexed in Google. Not a lot of opportunity to get traffic with only 26 pages. Finally, Google isn't fond of pages/sites with excessive amounts of outbound links. On your main page you have over 30 outgoing links, which probably looks like a link farm to the Google bot. But $26 for your first couple weeks is awesome - stick with it. Traffic will pick up, just keep building backlinks. I also like the articles you've added, that's a good idea.
You've picked a pretty cool niche, so keep promoting and wait for your site to really get indexed. Add some more categories, articles, whatever. more, more, more. Good luck - keep us posted.
Alright, now we have some pages indexed and almost 800 posts rolling around my site. Can you take a quick look and see what you think?
I would like to do a little more with the template or add more relavent information for my visitors. I am sort of turned off myself by the generic look, but I think it's something I have to get used to.
Well, the main goal here is to attract search engine visitors. I seriously doubt these types of sites will generate long term, reoccurring visitors. If you're interested in adding more value to the site, try writing up some genuine posts, or put up some newly released concert/tour dates.
The generic template works fine for the purpose of this site. My advice is to move on - make another site in a different niche, then another, then another.
Alrighty, thanks for the encouragment. On to the next I go.
Thanks for this article. Very helpful.
One question... URL length aside, is there any other reason you've added the FeedBurner step? Do you use it for reporting, or does it hide the affiliate ID in the links, or something else like that?
If you don't already have an account this seems like a lot of extra work considering you'll never see the URL again once it's posted.
I think I was using feedburner to just shorten the URLs because feedpress would break with the eBay RSS URL. Look at that thing! lol
I am in the process of doing a site using your tips. It is buyvesselsinks.com (header isn't done yet, tons more feeds need added)
I noticed on my site and on one other mentioned here that my post titles are not linking to the auction. Do you know off of the top of your head where I would change that setting?
Also, I know that google doesn't especially like tons of outbound links but if you change your blogroll link to the exterior site, it will increase your click-through rate tremendously. Increase your click-through, increase your profits.
You want to plant the cookie as many times as possible and by linking to the feed on your blogroll, it makes them think that they are going deeper into your site.
-Kim
Under options I just changed the links to stay on the "original site".
Then the single pages will link to the auction. Is this what you are talking about?
sukosaki hit the nail on the head. by changing the options to link to the original site, your post title tags will point to ebay instead of creating individual post links.
yes, that is what I am talking about. It links directly to the auction and has your affiliate ID in it.
I set up another one real quickly lastnight. You can view it at http://www.adsensetopten.com
This is too much fun, just hope the monies will roll in eventually.
Nice work! You've yet to generate any sort of revenue? I've made a little over $40 so far this month from CJ alone
That's after one of my sites was totally removed from Google's index! AARRGG - talk about confused & frustrated.
Hey Guy,
The no-follow is a GREAT idea!
I am sure that their has to be a plug-in for that as a lot of blogs use it.
One way to avoid getting put in the big G sand box (de-indexed) is to buy an expired domain. I typically pick up used domains unless I am making a site to sell.
This has turned out to be a very informative post.
-Kim
Kim,
Your expired domain idea is great. Where's a good place to get expired domains? Are they more costly than new domains? I'd hate to fork out more than $10 to $15 for an expired domain...
Also wanted to compliment you on the vintage lingerie site - that's a great idea. Lots of people love the vintage/antique stuff, and eBay is loaded with 'em. Vintage electronics :evil-grin:
Aahh, the possibilities with this almost seem endless.
you can purchase expired domains at GoDaddy. They have an auction or buy it now option. I typically search for my keyword and sort price from lowest to highest.
I can usually pick up a suitable domain for $5 but then you have to register it and do a one year renewal which will total about $15. The beauty of an aged domain is that it will keep you out of the sand box a bit longer.
Well, here's my humble attempt at PMBANS:
http://getkindle.com
The theme is a bit plain and it's a bit of a micro-niche, but I had the domain already so might as well make use of it! Any feedback would be appreciated!
BTW, I applied your techniques to Drupal, which is the cms that I use. I've got to say it was quite a bit harder than doing it in Wordpress, which I tried and had up in like five minutes. This might be a good excuse to learn WP.
Have you made any observations re: running multiple sites, e.g. have you tried to use Wordpress MU to make that more efficient? That is one of the things I was hoping Drupal might help out on, but I'm not sure the overhead is worth it.
Thanks again for your post!
sam,
That's rad! Feel free to write up a guest post on a Poor Mans Drupal Bans
I think the site looks really clean, which should prove effective. Don't have any significant observations about multiple sites other than MySQL randomly crashes now. I've yet to work with Wordpress MU so I don't know what the advantages are, but this might be something worth looking into.
Thanks for commenting! Good luck with your projects - keep us posted!
Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but using one of amazons trademarks as part of the domain name will get you in some trouble from them. They can chase you for the domain name if your site is promoting Kindle in anyway.
Though it's much worse trouble than any amazon associate who would make the mistake of owning such a domain and putting amazon associate ads on it. This would result in amazon cancelling the associates agreement and withholding ALL associate earnings owed.
Here is a good SEO plugin that I ran into and installed. It adds META tags automatically.
http://wp.uberdose.com/2007/07/11/all-in-one-seo-pack-faq/
I finished my new site today, you can find it here:http://buyvesselsinks.com
One more tip, if you keep a copy of WP on your computer, go ahead and add all of your plugins in the correct folder. It makes it much easier to do multiple sites quickly which is what this is all about.
Wordpress plugins more often than not contain vulnerabilities, so I try and refrain from using them as much as possible. I've went ahead and hacked my header file with this snippet of code:
<meta name="description" content="<?php if (is_single()) { single_post_title(); echo ' at ' ; } ?><?php bloginfo('name'); ?> - <?php bloginfo('description'); ?>" />
This throws in the post's title & blog description (tagline) as the meta description. Seems to do the trick for me. And good suggestion with keeping a copy of WP available for replicating sites easily. Fortunately I maintain my own server so all I have to do is create a new DB, execute one command, modify the config file, and I'm good to go.
How's your revenue coming? Any earnings yet?
Virtual Multiblog for WordPress is MUCH easier and a better tool for this. You can point multiple WordPress installations at the same set of WP files, so you can manage and update your WP files, plugins, themes, etc. one time instead of per-blog. Note however that you will need to set database specific items individually, like which plugins are activated on a specific blog, what theme it's using, that sort of thing. Not perfect but it makes things much easier.
http://webmarketinghowto.com/2008/01/03/virtual-multiblog-for-wordpress/
Robert,
Thanks for sharing, I'm currently looking over the site. I'll report my findings. So far, this sounds very promising, and just what my server needs. Thanks again.
Robert,
I attempted to set this up for my PMBANS sites using the advanced setup method so each site would have its own database. Eventually, I reached a point where I was instructed to go through the five minute install. Will I have to reinstall all my sites? Also, the instructions say each database has to have a unique table_prefix, which mine don't. Will I need to rename the tables to make this work? I'm kinda confused about why a different table prefix is necessary if the data is coming from entirely different databases.
You have to do a new config file for each install -- I point my blogs all to the same DB but I have a separate DB for the PMBANS sites. Under the wp-content\multiblog\config you'll put your various mb-config-domainname_com.php files and they need a corresponding entry in the mb-users.php. They'll each go to whatever's specified in their config file, so the prefix only becomes a factor if you're cohabitating databases. If you want them all separate you can leave that part blank, and it should use the default wp_ prefix, but you will have to specify the DB name, user, pw, host, etc.
You probably got the install prompt because you were using the prefix when you didn't need to. If it's pointed correctly to the database it should pick up your previous installs.
Robert,
This is a really nice plugin, thank you so much for sharing this. I have one dilemma though. How do I use the VUSER constant to modify themes? Here's my situation..
root-site --> /wp-content/themes/theme/images/root-site-logo.jpg
virtual-site --> /wp-content/themes/theme/images/virtual-site-logo.jpg
So in other words, I'd like SiteA to display LogoA, and SiteB display LogoB. How do I make this happen?
You don't.
Actually, you will have to use different themes. You could have several variants tuned to different sites, MyThemeA and MyThemeB with only the header being different, something like that. I beleive in the original site there was some talk of deep symlinking to accomplish that, but I'm not sure it'd been fully worked out last I checked.
I still have no impressions or clicks on musicrawks.com. I am starting to wonder if I missed something.
I'll keep updating.
Hi Guy:
I'm having trouble with feedwordpress and need to know if you know of anyone that could help. I'm willing to pay, no problem. I'm having trouble with categories in particular. Jim
Just sent you an email.
here is my attempt on PM Bans http://www.tripdealnow.com . been up for about a month of so, i'll keep you updated on future earnings.
You guys are really creative with the niches, this is awesome! Great theme, too. Thanks for sharing, I'm eager to hear some results.
I tried to apply to EBAY but I got denied. Is this because I'm not from the US?
That's very possible, Allen. I noticed when applying for eBay there were a variety to choose from, some with different country codes (UK for example). Is this the case with your findings, too? Is there one you could join specifically for your country?
I don't think I'll ever understand why eBay's affiliate program isn't international. That just doesn't make sense, to me anyway.
Good luck - let us know if you get everything worked out.
i noticed that you have messed with the feed a bit on your rollaparts.com site. the category pages dont show the image of the item, but the single pages do. Was this accomplished editing the feedword press code?
sukosaki,
Great question, I'm glad you asked. I'm going to paste the code for my "archives.php" (responsible for the category output/display), so let's see how this works out.
http://www.nullamatix.com/comment1401-gpat.txt
Why did I do this you might ask? To reduce the amount of outbound links per page. Google penalizes pages for every outbound link that exists. This gives RollaParts more presence in the search engines (currently over 9,000 pages indexed), keeps Google happy (links to ebay are limited to individual posts/items), and maybe entices visitors to click on an entry knowing they'll see more info.
Any counter arguments or flaws in my logic? Feel free to point them out - this is all still pretty new for me. How are your sites doing?
Woo Hoo... My Poor Mans (Drupal) BANS was in USA Today!!!
[snipped URL due to 404]
My site is GetKindle.com.
I had no idea until I visited Google Analytics this evening and saw a bit of a traffic spike.
Unfortunately the spike was only like 30 visits--so it's not gonna make me rich--but it's still pretty darned cool!
I tried to submit it to Digg to get some more traffic, but that site is totally hosed.
Anyway, just wanted to share the news. Thanks again for the great idea and article!
sam,
Holy crap that's AWESOME dood!! How the hell did you manage that one?? Congratulations man! Notice any sales since the article was released??
They didn't really help out much. Did you see this:
"A site called GetKindle.com advertises some new units for nearly $550. Amazon sells Kindle for $399."
Anyway, wow - that's impressive. Again, congratulations!
I just now got my site up and going. I'm still trying to come up with a grapic, or maybe I'll just keep it the way it is.
FeedWordPress isn't working for me, when I try to add a feed, it recognizes it, then it asks 'are you sure', I press 'yes'.. all i see then is a blank white page..and the feed isn't added.. same happens with the options page, blank page.. I tried WordPress 2.3.3 and 2.3.1, tried PHP 4 & 5..same thing..any idea how to get it to work? it is just frustrating
M,
Are you sure you're using feedwordpress? I just tried to add a feed to one of my Poor Mans BANS and I don't see "are you sure" or a button labeled "yes" anywhere. I've never experienced these issues so it could be a problem with your host? Not sure what's going on without any further information.
-Guy
Guy,
Yes, I'm sure..I tried it with a different host, same thing..then I tried to use it in internet explorer and it works! .. the 'are you sure' thing doesn't appear in IE..it doesn't work with firefox 2, 3 as far as i can tell..I don't know if it is a browser bug or feedwordpress bug.. try it in ff2 or 3 to see what i mean..
issue # 1 solved...
---
Is that step really necessary to make it work?
>>click “Get Links” at the top. Search for “eBay” and apply/subscribe to whatever’s
>>relevant to your area.
I opened 'get links'->'general categories'->'search:advertisers'->'eBay'->'find'.. I see 'eBay Stores » View Links' .. I tick it and then clicked 'apply to program'.. I get 'Declined Application -- ebay refused you'..
Now, am i doing what you say correctly?
Thank you for your reply
M,
I haven't used IE in years
so yes, FeedWordpress works in FF for me. Ebay isn't accepting new CJ applicants at this time since they're in the process of migrating away from CJ. Starting April 1st you can apply directly with Ebay to become an affiliate.
Here's more info on that..
Looks like you're doing everything right. Just have to wait 'til April 1st for eBay to open their affiliate program. Everything about the Poor Mans BANS should still function. I have 5+ sites I need to convert over, which I'm not really looking forward to.
Good Luck,
-Guy
Guy,
Really weird, guess I would have to try more with ff until it works..
Thanks for the information ... 5 sites looks like a great pain to migrate, hope you won't have to start over..
/me waits for ebay's aff. opening
I've never got luck with ebay
Sorry to hear that. I just received my second CJ check
Poor Mans Bans has made me a pretty decent chunk of change.
Can this be done for blogspot blogs?
Thanks
You cann't use it for blogspot blog. You must install it at your own server (or ther free server that support)
Now that EBay has taken over from CJ - is there a way to change all of the links to be "counted" in EBay's new "PID" or whatever system they decide to use?
I guess what I'm asking is in the past I followed these directions - and the site is up and running as a "getting my feet wet on Poor Man's BANS" and now EBay has changed thing on us. Is there the need to go into the code and change the PID number???
Or... Am I going to have to start over from scratch?
Thanks in advance - forgive me if this has been covered already.
Paul,
There's an excellent chance you'll have to start over from scratch. I haven't had time to come up with a way to automate the process. Don't feel bad, I probably have over 500 URL's I'll need to migrate to the new system. Just got back into a town so I've got some work to do. Good luck! If you do find a way to automate the process, please share with us
just thinking out loud here, wouldn't the phpbay plugin work for wordpress blogs? I am pretty sure it updates as long as there are keywords that match.
Sure, but the whole point of this Poor Man's BANS is that it doesn't cost anything. phpBay won't post for you either, whereas this requires no effort on your part.
They have a free version, too with less options. I can see why you would want to post each individual auction for search engine traffic, but couldn't you get the same results if you made categories of pages with auctions listed as well?
Make sense?
It seems to me you'd get better results with phpBay but at a higher level of attentiveness, as you could SEO the actual page / post whereas the Poor Man's BANS the search engines can only see the basic item info (I think) because the post does not really reside there, but goes off to Ebay. I'm thinking the category method would require a lot more structure if you're getting really granular. There's the tradeoff between easy set and forget and going to a bit more effort I suppose. The best results are probably somewhere in the middle.
agreed.
The last part of your post is the most difficult part. Every body wants to earn money, but not many know how to develop a steady flow of traffic to a very new blog.
99% of my traffic comes from Google. Once indexed, just continue to obtain backlinks anyway possible and the traffic will continue to come.
Hi, wonder if anyone make money with this poor mans BANS? Thks (:
I've received over $400 in checks from CJ, so yea, I've made some money with this method.
hmmm....now I cannot seem to get the ebay feed to work. There is an internal error. I was hoping to get my sites back up quickly since getting approved.
sukosaki,
I've yet to experiment with the eBay feeds, yet. Got back in town Friday afternoon), went to sleep Friday eve and just woke up (Sunday morning). Perhaps I'll re-write the post on how to make money with a poor mans eBay affiliate store
Got so much to catch up on, so stay tuned.
From the "horses mouth":
*To be addressed by April 14* The RSS Feed Generator is currently requiring a Custom ID to function properly. Please include a Custom ID, which is any string up to 256 alphanumeric characters, when creating your RSS feeds.
Rock on manual style
I did get my first commissions though, so that has me motivated.
How do you tell feedwordpress to update every 6 hours? I had an old domain and wanted to try your version of BANS. I have 5 BANS sites and am always looking for a new way to do things.
I got it set up like the way you said to do but the listings are not changing. I have never used Wordpress so this is new to me.
Thanks
Brad
A very nice article! I like the idea of using only free tools for building such a niche store (although you could buy the original BANS for half the prize when using your own Clickbank affiliate link...:))
Ok, my question is, how much do you make from those niche sites per month? You've said that you already got some 400 bucks from CJ, but I don't expect this to be a monthly earning, or am I wrong?
See you,
Peter
Hi,
I am a little confused on how to do the rss feeds on the new ebay affiliates. Can you please explain. The directions above are for clickbank and I cannot locate how to get your rss feed into wordpress.
hey, I have written a walk through tutorial for the new ebay partner network RSS feeds here - http://www.squidoo.com/ebay-RSS-feeds I hope it's useful!
It breaks down the process into 7 easy to follow steps, a lot of people have thanked me for the how-to on ebay rss feeds for affiliates and I'm starting to see some income as I roll it out in various ways!
Heya,
I run a website called The Moon Books Project. It is already popular due to the nature of the website (download free legal movies and books for the nintendo ds). I am however, unfortunately unemployed at the moment and seeking work. Do you think it would be possible to incorporate the 'poor mans bans' concept into my website to generate some income?
Brandon
http://moonbooks.net
I just wanted to say how glad I am that I found this site. I know people that purchased and use BANS, but y'know, I have to be the "cheap" one. Anyway, my poor man's bans site is working out great for me. I have feedwordpress updating my feeds periodically throughout the day and I've already made some commissions from EPN. Thanks again!
I can't imagine that these will last very long before Google banishes them all. But for now this sounds like a good alternative to phpbay pro.
I can't even be an Ebay affiliate. Tried various ways but still declined. Any help or suggestions?
Any advice on how to do this using the ebay partner network, I seem to be going round in circles with very little progress...thanks.
I have to mention something about BANS, yes it is true that it costs $99.00, but this amount is for life including upgrades. Stores can be setup in 20 minutes and one can spend as much time as one wants decorating and specializing their stores.
One example is my motionauction.com/wii store which took forever to setup because I wanted to have links for individual games with release date info and score review, but, another example tykewise.com/toys was up and running in no time at all. I also created musical instruments auctions of which one can be viewed at mrchickadee.com/piano
I would much rather use BANS which does everything for me quickly and efficiently than spending the amount of time it takes to research, copy and imbed links in a web site or blog.
Just my 2 cents worth
what the duece! No more comments? I've built 3 poor mans bans since reading this article and all are working on brining in cheese to some extent.
By the way,
What are you using for duplicate posts control? I've installed feedburners duplicate posts plugin but I still get a couple of acutions that show up multiple times.
Thanks!
Sam
http://www.kyosho-rc-store.com
http://www.philosophy-products.com
Hi Guy,
First of all thanks for such a unique idea of PMBANS. I have a health care & fitness articles blog and from past 2 months I was thinking how to monitize my blog using eBay. Then I read your post Poor Mans BANS and I was amazed and I meediately downloaded the FeedWordpress plugin and installed and activated. Then Boom.....I have got 100 posts from ebay matching my blog and have a separate category "Fitness Products - eBay".
Now I am just waiting for some sales to come.....again thanks a million my friend.
My blog: http://www.cona.in/blog . Can I have your review?
Does this still work with the eBay Partner program?
yes it does work with ebay partner program. Just follow the steps given by Guy in this blog post.
How do I set up the auto updating to 12 hrs. and how can I limit the updates to 5 at a time?
Jack,
1) Login to wordpress.
2) Click Options->Syndication
3) Look for: "Check for new posts"
4) Set the drop down to "automatically"
5) every "720" mintues
I'm not sure how to limit the update to 5 posts at a time, but why would you want to do that anyway?
Thanks,
Guy
Interesting!
I already have a relatively successful HDTV site and I am preparing to launch a new one, but I think I will try this. If you don't mind send me an email. I might be able to put this idea on steroids but I'm interested in some things first (like stats). With my PHP kung-fu I could really improve this a lot.
So, drop me a line.
Great stuff,
I have been reading up on this stuff for a few weeks now, I have registered a domain and paid for some hosting... But now i have to register for the ebay partner network, Which is where i ran into a slight problem... I believe they do no longer allow individuals to sign up as they require a business name and info...
Is there any way around this that will still allow me to get accepted into the program?
Thanks in advance,
Sean
Hi Guy,
Excellent post! Any updates on how your sites are doing? I am giving this a shot
Actually, ever since eBay moved away from CJ to EPN, my earnings have dropped - a lot. I'm earning only $20 - $50 a month off the five or so sites I have up. With CJ, was guaranteed at least $100/mo... I still think eBay is screwing people.
What has me really surprised is that they're still performing well search engine wise. Haven't been banned, *yet* but I'm sure that'll change eventually.
Hi Guy,
Excellent idea and appreciate your efforts. Does eBay still pay 25$ commission for new referrals? I couldn't find this information anywhere in eBay's site.
I see many references to servers. Is it required to have your own server or can you build this from using godaddy or similar?
Can you look at my site and give recommendations on how to improve it?
Thanks and great info here to get started.
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