rat race slave

I have just downloaded a copy of BANS, also known as Build a Niche Store. It is basically a software that lets you build eBay affiliate sites easily. When an item from eBay is bought through your site, you get a commission. I can’t remember where I found this but it’s in the list of items that I would like to try out. I’ve wanted to have an online store so I thought this is a good start.  Eventually, I would like to have several of these so I could work from home.

Licensing

After downloading and unzipping the files that I’ve downloaded from the BANS site, I started reading the license information and instructions on how to register in their forums. The contents of the files were short and straight to the point, not the usual lengthy ones that no one reads. One good thing about this software is that you can use it as many times as you like. Like what is mentioned in their site, you could be building an eBay affiliate empire if you want!

Forums

I’ve signed up in the BANS forums and was shocked to see that there are already thousands of topics posted there. There were also hundreds of topics written under the Success Stories section so I guess it was a good sign. I quickly browsed the forum and found a couple of interesting topics to help members create a good niche store.

Installation

After visiting the forums, I started to read the installation and user’s manual and followed it step by step. I’m already familiar with some items such as uploading files, choosing a domain name, etc so I just skimmed that part. The manual discusses this in detail so it is a good thing for those who haven’t tried it. The installation was so easy follow.

The installer leads you to an admin panel where you could configure the format of the site. For me, this was the fun part. You can change the layout, the colors, add some ads, etc. For those not familiar with HTML, you can change the format of your site using the admin panel. If you can fill up a form, you can create a site.  I just played around with this to be familiarized with the tool. 

What I think

Generally, I think this is a good software. It is relatively easy to use and has lots of potential. There are also a lot of goodies that can be found in the BANS forum and in the Internet. You can use it for several sites so you can have multiple streams of income.

However, since there are probably hundreds (if not thousands) of niche stores out there, yours have to stand out. With this in mind, you will probably have to know PHP, HTML, CSS and maybe mySQL to fully configure your site.

Since it is a software, you can’t expect it to be perfect. There are probably bugs, hopefully not too many. I guess having the forums helps a lot in this area.

What to do

I haven’t chosen a niche yet so I’m not really done with this yet. I also still have to choose a domain name. I will be featuring my first niche store so watch out for my next post!

The Rat Race Slave

Technorati Tags: BANS review, Build a Niche Store, online store

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