IronMan Comics Build a Niche Store - Phase 2
It been a little over a week since my last post on using Build a Niche Store, and that’s really only because of a lack of free time on my site. Today I decided to take my existing IronManComics.net BANS site and make it look like a real site and not an out of the box BANS site. There are several ways for your to recreate your Build a Niche Store so it doesn’t look like the thousands of other stores out there. The two most popular ways, are to design and create your own template, or simply purchase one from a designer. I called onto my good friend Ian Fernando, who has been playing with BANS for some time now. Ian recently released a few BANS themes from his blog and is selling three custom themed designs for only $37. I used one of his template designs to recreate the IronMan comics store.Below you can see the original out of the box design for the IronMan comics BANS store. The only thing I had modified in the original design was the header image. The new design on the right, not only looks extremely better, but it allows for me to target to niche advertisers and fill the design with more IronMan content. I also added a few more content pages into the site since the original design. There is still a lot more than can be done to monetize the site, I will continue to add new content pages, products and find relevant advertisers for the site.
Out of the Box Design vs. Custom Design. An Amazing Difference!
Earnings Potential
After going live with the IronMan BANS site early in the month, I just didn’t have the time to work on the site like I intended to. As for promotions, the only thing I did was mention it in my previous “Focusing on a Niche Market: IronMan” post. Since then it was indexed into search engines and received some traffic here and there. Right when I had the idea to create the site, I was anxious to work on it and build it into the great resource site and work heavily on the design. Even though I hadn’t touched the site (until today), I was logging into the eBay Partner Network every once in a while and checking my stats. As of today, it looks like the site has earned $10.13 in commissions. Yes, this is nothing compared to anything in the long run… but keep in mind, this money was generated with the crappy out of the box design and with no paid promotion. If you can create a few sites that make $1 per day (like this site), you can earn a few thousand dollars a year with just 10 sites. (1 site X $1 a day = $365… multiply that by how many mini sites you can create). With a little promotion and more custom written content pages, it should perform much better.
$10.13 in Earnings with No Paid Advertising… Small, but with residual potential…
I was excited about the idea of putting together an IronMan site to take advantage of the hype surrounding the movie and it’s massive earnings potential in the beginning, but now after playing with the site and design a bit more, I’m even more so. The addition of seeing that the site is actually earning a few bucks is pretty cool too. If nothing else, it just makes for a fun side project that makes a few dollars. Depending on your niche area and interests, you should easily be able to create a few Build a Niche Store sites and earn some residual dollars. It will be interesting to see if the site can bring in any new eBay members ($25 commission) and bidding activity since it allows for a 7 (bidding) to 30 (new member) day cookie on all eBay activity.
UPDATE: Incredible (Hulk) Build a Niche Store Themes
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"With great power comes great responsibility".... my Uncle Ben told me that. Haha, just kidding! I'm Zac Johnson and I've been making money online for over 10 years now. In short, I started making money online while I was in high school... but my passion for marketing and making money goes back way earlier than that. I created ZacJohnson.com to help motivate you to start making money online, and live the life the you always dreamed of.
definitely see the big difference from the default to the more professional look! glad you like it!
I am working on a BANS alternative. One thing I don’t like about BANS is the requirement for a DB. My version will have all configs stored in a file. What other features do you think BANS needs? What do you like? What do you dislike?
Zac. The site format looks great! I’ll stick with my phpbay site but always nice to see the alternative!
Thanks for the follow up on this. I was very curious to see how your basic site was performing.
Clearly a little effort can go a long way.
Zefster
uwork4.com
God, I love the affiliate potential of seasonal and passing trends. If you’re quick enough, they’re actually worth the rush and headache of getting them up in time.
Nice looking new Ironman site Zac. Love the template, I might have to get Ian’s templates since I’m building so many stores.
Very nice looking template. One thing is sure, we need to take full advantage of what works.
A simple question Zac,
Why we have to build tens of mini websites, what about building a single big store. You know that optimizing a new website is so hard, otherwise building a new category in an already established website. What do you think?
It looks really nicer and more professional than the first site. I would like the effect this change could have on earnings. See you!
Great Ironman BANS site!
Looks good and a timely niche.
Best wishes for clicks and commissions.
Jamie
Great looking sites Zac and really good work on the niche opp.
I saw blog for money is a fna and I have been playing with both, but which do you prefer……bans or phpbaypro??
I’m also interested in your take on BANS vs. phpbay. I’m starting to use phpbay, but it’s kind of limited. I’d like the option to geotarget and I don’t think it can do that.
Great design, it look professional.
Thats a pretty cool design. Site looks great!
Best of luck with your commissions
Nice tips … thanks for sharing this tips about niche store