Ok guys, Ive been hanging around here for the last 3 months or so and gained more good advice than I could have bought in 100 e-books, so its time to give a little back - hopefully! I've been playing around with EPN for the last few weeks and , with some motivation from people like Aaron Nimocks I really believe that i can build a small regular income from a chain of E-bay stores. Just to be a bit different I dont want to use Bans or similar software - I want to use Joomla and RSS feeds. I know it can be done - I've made the princely sum of $10.00 from a couple of small sites so far - so I want to expand it out. Hopefully you will all pile in and tell me what i'm doing right (or wrong) - but I promise to faithfully update this thread to let you all know how I'm getting on. I havent set any definite targets other than a site a day for 30 days - but i reckon that should provide some small level of regular income. I'll be blogging about it at my (work in progress) blog here Since this is an exercise for me I want to divulge all of my secrets, domain names, niches, sales, stats, keywords.. the whole 9 yards (ok if i really strike gold then I might keep one or two to myself) but I aim to provide a warts and all account of how to build an Ebay empire! So, anybody in?
Ok, I've started. The first site is up at www.buycheapgoldcoins.com and you can read about the process etc at www.morethanyoucanspend.info If this is the wrong approach or wrong forum,please let me know, otherwise all advice/comments greatly accepted Ta
Ok, another day, another site www.footorthotic.info Still no great traffic but I'm SEO'ing like mad today - read about it at www.morethanyoucanspend.info Thanks guys - getting some quality feedback already
Thanks for the link to Aaron's blog, it's inspired me to maybe try this out in the future. I will also be following your journal and wish you the best of luck. One tip, set a goal, write it down and read over it every day.
@teapoint - good tip - my goal is actually printed out and hanging on the wall behind my monitor - along with a photo of my mother-in-law to motivate me Anyway, another day, but not a lot of activity. Put another small site up www.buycoachpurses.info Traffic is building not too bad but still a lack of clicks - I may try a wee change of direction in the next couple of days if clicks dont pick up. Still, got to stay positive and keep building. As usual, any feedback welcome. Read the full post at www.morethanyoucanspend.info Ta
Ok, the last couple of days (yep I know I missed yesterday) have really been flat out. If it could go wrong it has! First I destroyed a site by not backing up my database, then I made some money - YAHOO! A whole 16 cents! Yep - its the big time for me now guys! Anyway another site http://www.chanelbagsauctions.com launched, a new tool discovered, some SEO and rising clicks obtained and even a (very) small cash reward! I have said a bit more on my blog at http://www.morethanyoucanspend.info so why not head on over and check it out - man this Ebaying is tough! Only 25 more days to go until I really start
I like the idea of not using BANS. I have nothing against BANS but eventually Google is going to footprint these mass-produced ebay affiliate sites.
drax, first of all, props for doing this journal and actually showing the sites you are building. I wish you the best of luck. A word of advice from my perspective, take down the adsense. You brought people to these sites to buy items on ebay. If they see one of these ads, which will be directly targeting what they are looking for, because of your site content, and they click away, that means no sale for you. Sure you get paid some pennies for a click, but not dollars for an auction. In the long run I think it would help you a lot. You always want to minimize or eliminate the number of ways a viewer can get off of your page without seeing the product. Rebtl
Hi Rebtl Yes, that seems to be one of lifes great debates just now - or at least a great debate among people here To be honest I'm coming round to this way of thinking, the problem is if it wasnt for adsense I wouldnt be making a cent just now - its seductive when you are at this stage to at least be getting a wee drop of money. However, i take your point and for the next few sites I'm going to leave the adsense off and see how things go. Anyway, another day another dollar - or at least 4cents!! I didnt realise that you could make so little on Ebay commissions - and I dont even have a site selling buttons ! Todays site is up at http://www.buystarwarslego.info and I've blogged about a potentially serious shortcoming in my experiment at http://morethanyoucanspend.info hope you all pop along and read about it. Dont be too harsh todays site is not quite finished yet but I have to stick to my schedule - it will be tidied up tomorrow - i may even remove the adsense Thanks for all the feedback so far and for sticking with me.
Ok, its day 7 and the strain is already starting to show Just a quick update today - a new site on a subdomain, just as a test you understand its not that I'm so broke I cant afford a .info ! No , really its not. http://cheapnikoncameras.onlinehyperstore.com I also came to a startling realisation today - the experienced guys will call me a bit thick but this is a true revelation for me - you can find out what it is on my blog at http://morethanyoucanspend.info if you are really interested (or just plain bored) Till tomorrow drax
Another day - and my first proper sales. Finally made some moolah! Just over $30.00 in a day - thats actually right on my target for this stuff. Must say, it has given me a much needed boost and I am now building sites again. I realise that my Joomla based approach has some disadvantages but it does still seem to work! It has one major advantage tho' and that is that my sites are getting indexed even though they are .info domains for the most part! Todays site is on a subdomain again tho http://leicacameras.onlinehyperstore.com And, as usual you can find out more on my blog Ta
Hope this isnt getting too boring - I have to admit, sometimes its all I can do to keep going - and its only been 9 days Todays site is, hopefully not too predictable http://cheapfuelcells.info Yes, I know water4gas and all that claptrap, but hey, if folks are interested and all that. This needs a bit of love yet and some content but not too bad. This week, I intend to blitz my campaign as I reckon I need more like 50 sites than 30 to be profitable. I also resolve to do more, and better, keyword research as well. I have to admit its been a bit non-scientific (ie cr@p) up till now - maybe thats reflected in my stats. Anyway, hope you all keep looking on. Ta
Thanks for the encouragement guys - sometimes its justa little shove in the right direction thats needed. Well, spent a lot of today tweaking some other sites and article marketing for Clickbank (but thats another story) so just a simple couple of page site for today - not really too hopeful of this one, but you never know. Basic research showed the the Amazon Kindle was one of the hottest searched for items on Ebay (pulse.ebay.com) so it seemed like a decent punt. Heres the site http://kindle.onlinehyperstore.com Another sub-domain - thats 3 now but it will be the last for the time being. I'll monitor traffic and see how they compare against my other TLD sites. I have to say I'm a wee bit disappointed with the lack of traffic @ this stage despite a lot of Social Bookmarking and even some bum marketing - which I said i wouldnt be doing for this, but i guess all of these things take time to build. I'll be posting some traffic stats on my blog tomorrow if anyones interested but for now, the kids want to watch Die Hard 4.0 with me, ao I guess I'll have to grit my teeth and get on with that
Ah, a day in the trenches doing what I like doing best developing software. Todays progress on the financial front has been slow - I havent even had a sale this month yet but I've finally cracked the Ebay feeds search problem and have got a working implementation. I wont go into great detail here but you can see the results at todays site http://bobcattractorauctions.com unfortunately, i spent so much time on the feeds stuff that i havent actually finished the site. Ah well, I'll round it off between today/tomorrow. Yu can catch up on all the rest of the stuff on my blog if you like to see a guy trying hard and making no money!
Wow, what a couple of days! Traffic finally starting to pick up and I've been doing some work on my search/formatting routines with Carp. I'll update the blog (see sig) later today, but you can see the new niche site here http://choosechoo.com Another site ready to go tonight hopefully since I've missed a couple of days. Renewed enthusiasm again after seeing some traffic...now for some sales