Sorry for the slow reply... I spent a few days travelling.
Just to clarify a few things about the BANS product... (read sig link for a plethora of info on BANS)
First - it is NOT a be-all, end-all product! It requires a small bit of time to get optimized (8-12 hours per site) and if you want a custom template, you need to have a small bit of html or graphic experience.
It is not a free script... it is also not mine! I found it while trying to monetize in different ways and have just fallen in love with it (Dont tell my wife). I have developed a few copy/paste MODS for it that helps my own sites do better...
I have a blog (sig link) where I do nothing but try to help other users get the most of their purchase. I have been a developer for many years with a focus on
SEO for about 7 years. My Niche Store Builder blog is just a way to help the community of users... and yes, some of my outbound links DO contain affiliate codes.
That being said...
When I look for ways to monetize, I want to see a few things in ANY script or product I use. It MUST promote deep indexing... BANS does. It MUST be dynamic, meaning the content changes automatically via RSS or some other method. BANS changes every minute! It MUST have a way to modify the layout and menu system so it can be differentiated from everyone else using the same script. BANS does this also with the use of simple header and footer files.
I wrote a series of posts on the blog (
http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/...ess-series.htm) that takes a user from "What is an internets?" to "Built my first store" in a very detailed walkthrough. Its not perfect, but it is a good start for anyone.
To succeed with BANS you must have:
A domain, hosting (Hostgator is great at $9/mo), and the BANS product. The first site you develop will likely take 1-2 weeks to complete... after you get 2-3 sites under your belt, you will be able to push out a new site (New Domain) 2-3 times a week, in very short order.
You get paid when someone goes from your site to eBay and makes a purchase or registers to buy on eBay. Someone asked WHY would anyone look here versus just going direct to eBay? I actually wondered the same thing on my first site and found that not only do MANY people go through the site, MANY people sign up for accounts as well! I thought EVERYONE had an ebay account but I was wrong and have about 15-20 monthly signups @$25 each.
When someone bids or buys, you earn 50% of the ebay fees... If the product sold for $100 and eBay fees were $5.00, you earn $2.50 on the sale. Believe me, it adds up quickly!
The product is a pure middleman product. The majority of ebay users do nothing to optimize their listings and depend solely on ebay traffic to sell their stuff. With BANS, just a small bit of optimization will get the search engine traffic in the 4 figure visitors range each month... once they click through to ebay, they have 7 days to purchase ANYTHING and you get credit. I have had people go through the sites and buy all kinds of stuff, completely unrelated to the niche site... cha-ching!
Anyhow - sorry for the long winded reply. BANS has driven many of our sites from no indexing to 200 pages in the index in less than 30 days. Traffic is up... earnings are up. It was the best $97 I have made yet in regard to monetizing.
Mark