Words Of Encouragement (Long Version)
Earning a regular stream of income with BANS is a slow process. One very experienced BANS member advises that it can be a year before you see consistent results with a store.
When you first create a store it is important to optimize it. This means you should enter search for keywords and phrases specific to your niche and either make store pages or content articles with these words and phrases. Within your stores you should enter information in the 'Title,' 'Keywords,' and 'Description' sections of each page. This helps spiders understand what each page is about so the page will (eventually) become indexed. Doing this also tells potential customers who view search engine results what each page is about and why they should visit your store.
Here is an example of completing these sections for a pretend store selling bananas. The following not-real page is for purple, flying bananas:
Title - Purple, Flying Bananas
Keywords - purple,flying,banana,bananas,fly
Description - Purple, Flying Bananas - Compare prices and purchase bananas that are purple and fly at StoreDomainName.com today.
Consider also naming the page and file whatever you used in the 'Title.' In this example the Page Name would be 'Purple, Flying Bananas' and the File Name would be 'purple-flying-bananas.'
Doing the above will help improve your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and also make your store look more professional.
After you finish your store you can promote it. You can do this by writing articles for both your store and article submission sites. Do not be tempted to use the same article in your store that you submit to a submission site. Duplicate content will have negative consequences for you. You can write an article for your store then change it some and submit it. Don't forget to include links to specific pages within your store in your article to bring people to your store.
When writing articles you should focus on some aspect of your store. For the bananas store, you could write about why bananas are important in diets, how they help cure _____, how to grow them, how to tell when they are ready for picking, share recipes for bananas, explain what to look for when shopping for bananas, and so on. Articles don't need to be very lengthy as long as they are relevant to your store. Include links to store pages relating to what you've written about. Make your links anchor links (links that have text with keywords, such as (the bold would be the link) 'Buy purple bananas' instead of 'Click here' to buy purple bananas.
You can promote your stores by blogging about them. Again, include links, preferably with anchor text (i.e. 'Visit the Banana Store'). After you blog use a pinging tool, such as Ping-0-Matic, to make sure the search engines are alerted to the new content in your blog. This will tell the spiders to come visit to index your new entry.
You can also search for blogs relating to your store's niche and leave comments. Include with your comments a link back to your store. It is better to leave comments at blogs that have higher page ranks (PR). You can manually search for blogs that allow comments or use a tool such as 'Comment Hut' to do the searching for you. Doing this will put your store in front of people who are already interesting in what you are selling. This will also improve your store's PR by having relevant backtrack links to your store.
You can share your store by submitting it to social bookmarking sites. This can be an excellent way to get trackback links (links that point toward your store) which helps improve your search engine ranking. This, in turn, places your store higher in the search engine results, and the higher your store is placed the more likely people are to see it in search engine results. Adding your store to social bookmark sites has also been known to get stores indexed quickley, which is important for bringing people to your store.
There are many other ways to promote your store, including press releases and online advertisements. Just make sure you understand what is and isn't allowed for your chosen method or risk getting banned from any given promotional site.
Be aware that it may take months before you see a single commission. The process of getting customers is a slow one and this can be discouraging for new BANS owners. Don't be discouraged if you don't have a sale after a few months. However, it is a good idea to visit the BANS forums to find out how you can improve your store. Consider asking BANS members to critique a store. You may have made a critical error that you are unaware of. BANS members are wonderfully helpful people who are glad to assist.
Lastly, don't give up. If one store doesn't seem to be making money build a new one. And then another, and another. Within a year of completing each store you will probably make (on the low end) $1-2 each day in commissions. The more stores you have the more you will make.
Good luck to you in your BANS business!
Rochelle
