We’re just catching up here on some new niche market stores we’ve designed over the past few weeks ~ one of them is Discount Fragrances and Cosmetics!

Here’s a little home page snippet about what this fabulous store carries ~

“Welcome to Discount Fragrances and Cosmetics, where you are guaranteed to always find everything you’ll ever need to look your absolute best for less!

We’ve brought the best of the best products to you all in one place ~ all the most fabulous skin care, bath, foot care, aromatherapy, washes, lotions and pampering products ~ brand names, designer names and more without the designer prices!

In addition you’ll find signature fragrances for men, women and children, as well as fantastic cosmetics and makeup by Estee Lauder, Clinique, L’Oreal, Mary Kay, Bare Escentuals and many more!”

This store focuses entirely on beauty, body care, smelling good and feeling good. Full of name brand designer products without the designer pricetag, you’ll enjoy shopping here and stocking up on all of your favorite body care, beauty and fragrance products!

Be sure to visit Discount Fragrances and Cosmetics today!

If you are in the affiliate marketing business, you need to realize a couple of things.

You’re not going to get anywhere by slapping up a couple of flashing banners and calling it a day.

You need to do some research and target one of more niche markets. You need to get beyond the get rich quick mentality. And you need to treat your affiliate marketing just like a business, because that’s what it is.

You can create a website around your affilate marketing efforts, filling it with quality content in which you have embedded your affiliate links.  Be well versed in what it is you are “selling” and be the expert, or be willing to provide quality advice, viewpoints and information.

The SEO you perform is critical. Not only do you want to of course do direct SEO which involves direct SEO keywords and keyphrases, but you also want to incorporate indirect SEO, which is related keywords and keyphrases in both your content and in your back end optimization efforts.

Working at this 2 or 3 hours a day can bring you to the top of the search engine results pile for your chosen niche market and your chosen keywords/keyphrases in a amazingly short period of time.

You want to present a quality website, full of quality content and information, to your audience in your niche market. Research and be sure of what it is they are looking for and you can tailor your content and your results to be even more targeted.

Remember, you get out of it what you put into it.

Serious effort pays serious returns.

Good Luck!

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Jewelry Collectibles Design ~ Certified eBay Store Design, conveniently located in Hackensack, Bergen County New Jersey, is owned and operated by Maureen McCullough.

Look to us for affordable and full featured eBay Store Design, SEO, marketing, and lifetime support for your online business. We empower you to be independent and handle things yourself, yet are always there for you should you need assistance!

Is YOUR website a POOR performer? Click here for your Website Rehabilitation Report, and get started taking back your traffic and sales from your competition!

As a web design and SEO professional for 6 years I’ve seen many people do many things with / for their website. Some have taken great pains and some expense to improve it ~ by “improve it” I am talking about improve it’s looks, performance, ease of use for customers, it’s traffic, search engine performance, and the like.

Others have spent tons of money on paid ads, Google Adwords, other paid advertising etc. and have complained to me bitterly about all the money they’ve spent and how it’s breaking the bank and not giving results and that their website is performing no better than / worse than / just as dismally as before.

Which brings me to why I gave this post the title that I did ~ “Your Website ~ spend money on it or invest in it”.

There’s a huge difference. To spend money on it is to join paid ad schemes, to pay for Google Adwords, to take out other paid advertising, etc. Those are not investments in your website and in it’s future performance ~ there is no ROI involved ~ that is just spending money.

To invest money in your website is different. You are engaging the services of a professional with a proven track record of excellent design that is not only attractive but which is navigational friendly for your customers, you are engaging in the services of said professional to make your website as search engine friendly and search engine optimized as possible, and you are engaging in the further services of said professional who is a niche marketing expert.

The mission of this professional is to design, optimize and market your website along with improving your website’s search engine standing so that you can be found easily when potential customers do a search on your chosen keywords and keyphrases, to help you make the most of the monetization of your website by natural organic linking and affiliate marketing, and to give you a healthy return over time on your ROI.

To find the professional of your choice you need to do some research to see what they offer, see other work they’ve done, peruse their website in depth and see for yourself their strengths and if those strengths are what you are looking for, and to question them extensively if you feel the need so that you can get a feel for their work ethic, their integrity and their professionalism.

The professional should be willing to answer all your questions clearly, truthfully and in a friendly manner, and should not be impatient with you. They should reassure you that no question is ever stupid, and their mannerism and attitude should reflect this back to you.

Why is this important?

Because down the line, should you choose to work with them and retain their services, you do not want them to treat you as though you are a bother, because you WILL be asking questions, because it’s YOUR website and YOUR online business and there will be things you need to know or want to know. The professional of your choice should be just a courteous and professional to you 9 months or 9 years down the road as they were the day you first contacted them.

You, in the same right, should be willing to respect the fact that at times the web professional will have to charge you for information and help. You should not expect that everything is included or free.

However, as your relationship goes on with them, they should, based upon the level of work done for you and the business relationship between you be willing to “throw a few things in” within reason. This is the sign of a web professional who respects their client and their client’s investment and who is savvy enough to not to string you along or nickle and dime you.

Another thing to look at carefully is the timeframe for completion of project phases. The web professional should be willing to state the timeframe for each phase, should be willing to alert you should the timeframe need to be extended, and should be willing to explain in clear terms why, not making excuses.

Still another thing is that the web professional you are considering should be willing, when the project is completed, to “cut the apron strings” and empower you to maintain or handle as much of your enterprise as you care to take on. They should be willing to explain to you in detail how to go about this, and should be willing to ease you into this transition in steps, offering lifetime email support.

A web professional of this caliber is not going to fall into the “cheap” range ~ common sense dictates this. They will be in the mid price range, where they have every right to be in order to be compensated for their experience, expertise, proven abilities, quality of work and their dedication to treat you and your business as an individual with individual needs and business goals.

This professional may or may not have payment plans so that you can budget and allocate funds towards this investment into your business. This sort of thing is up to the particular design firm.

They should state all things to you in writing, not just for the common sense of this approach but also so that these notes can be referred back to, clarified, and sometimes adjusted as the project scenario needs flexibility from time to time. This goes far with their credibility and with their honest desire to keep all parties “on the same page” so as to avoid misunderstandings and those awful disputes.

What you pay for a designer / SEO expert / niche marketer such as this IS an investment in your business ~ with an expected ROI based upon their commitment to you and their prior work done and results given for others.

This sort of investment is the type that virtually negates the “spending” noted above. If this professional does their job correctly, advises you correctly and you work with them in the spirit of what’s best for your business, you won’t need to spend a dime on advertising. This is what you are looking for. A project well done within budget that gets you the results you need to take back the traffic and sales from your competition and put that ball in your court.

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Jewelry Collectibles Design ~ Certified eBay Store Design, conveniently located in Hackensack, Bergen County New Jersey, is owned and operated by Maureen McCullough.

Look to us for affordable and full featured eBay Store Design, SEO, marketing, and lifetime support for your online business. We empower you to be independent and handle things yourself, yet are always there for you should you need assistance!

Is YOUR website a POOR performer? Click here for your Website Rehabilitation Report, and get started taking back your traffic and sales from your competition!

My previous post was about using BANS software to add to your income stream. The software that runs all BANS stores, plus the concept behind it, was well thought out and many fine points were covered, or taken care of by the programmers who did all the hard work. Many of those fine points that make BANS run so well are sometimes and dare I say frequently overlooked even in top shopping cart (e-commerce) packages today.

However, whether you elect to use the BANS software and choose to take part in that phenomenal opportunity that it offers, or whether you choose to simply belong to various other affiliate programs, that’s up to you. They all give you the tools to succeed. It’s what you do with those tools and how hard you are willing to work that is the deciding factor determining your success.

The common mistake people make is that they join an affiliate program, stick a couple of banners up on their blog or website or Squidoo lens, and then they drop it and don’t give much more thought to it. BIG no-no.

You need to treat your affilate programs that you belong to like a business, because that’s what they are.

We all read all the time about Person “A” or Person “B” who makes X-amount of dollars, usually a few thousand a month, with affiliate programs and the general interpretation of that is that it’s either a scam, a gross exaggeration, or something similar.

Not so.

Of course there are scams out there and you need to research each program you are thinking of joining, ask questions if necessary, but at the very least do the research on them. That’s simply common sense.

However, if you expect to make money from affililate programs, you need to realize that the more you take it seriously, and treat it as a business, plus approach it from a business-like viewpoint, the more likely you are to succeed.

You cannot possibly expect any degree of success from just plastering a few banners or graphics up on a website or blog.

You need to be familiar with what you are promoting, hopefully to the point that you can write some quality content regarding the subject, product or whatnot, in your blog. You need to be willing to promote and market it every chance you get, without becoming annoyingly “in everyone’s face” about it.

Links in email signatures, if possible, are a start. Well written blog posts with embedded links are another. Links in your blog signature is another consistent promotion. If you have a BANS site, blogging an item a day from each BANS site you own is good. Making sure you have quality content up on all category pages, custom meta tags on all category pages, and adding each BANS store to your social bookmarks, Squidoo lens, and professional profiles all help greatly.

Is affiliate marketing time intensive? Yes it is. However, you only get out of it what you put into it. The more effort and creativity you put forth, the greater your rewards and income. And that doesn’t just go for BANS stores, it goes for all affiliate marketing that you might choose to do.

Promote*Promote*Promote and Promote some more, knowledgeably and with quality content.

When you choose to get involved in affilate marketing, you are essentially choosing to be a sales person. What to sales people the world over do? Promote and market aggressively. That’s what you’ve got to do. If that involves too much energy for you, then maybe affiliate marketing is not for you.

Reversely, if you are willing to promote energetically and creatively, the rewards could be very comfortable!

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Jewelry Collectibles Design ~ Certified eBay Store Design, conveniently located in Hackensack, Bergen County New Jersey, is owned and operated by Maureen McCullough.

Look to us for affordable and full featured eBay Store Design, SEO, marketing, and lifetime support for your online business. We empower you to be independent and handle things yourself, yet are always there for you should you need assistance!

Happy to be a woman owned business! Visit our website for a full listing of our services.

Visit our other websites ~ Jewelry Collectibles and Wedding Event Planning!

Visit our other jewelry, collectibles and vintage gifts boutiques ~ our UK boutique for shoppers in the United Kingdom; and our CA boutique for shoppers in Canada!

What do BANS, niche marketing, affiliate marketing, and eBay all have in common?

They help you in a most fantastic way to build and expand your online income.

Will you get rich overnight? NO.

Do you have to work hard? YES.

Is it free, whatever it is? NO.

Is it money well spent? YES.

Let’s examine this entire concept step-by-step below, shall we?

What IS Affilliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is, simply put, using links, graphics and informative articles with links built in that drive traffic to another website whereby should the click-through via the link result in a sale, you would get paid a commission for sending the sale.

Picture it like this:

Website “A” sells a particular product or service. They want to increase their sales so they start an affiliate program. This means they will pay you X-amount in commission every time you send them a sale. Plus they give you the tools by which you will promote and send the traffic.

YOU are Website “B”. You have a website and / or blog, or maybe a couple of each. You join the affiliate program of Website “A”. You use the tools given to you creatively, you put in some extra time, work and effort to promote.

Assuming you are doing your end of the job correctly, before you know it you’re sending traffic to Website “A”. Some of that traffic is generating sales for Website “A”, which results in you, Website “B”, getting paid your commission. Lo and behold, before you know it, your commissions are adding up significantly and are paying some or all of your bills.

What IS Niche Marketing?

Niche marketing is, simply put, targeting a very specific sector of shoppers with very specific interests with your very specific products.

Think of it like this ~ you are interested in selling holistic health products. However, when you look at the entire field of holistic health, there is so very much to choose from!

So, you have to make a choice from so many options. You narrow it down to spas and spa equipment. Still too many choices! So, you drill down further.

You finally settle on massage therapy, which is still full of options due to so many different tools involved, techniques, etc. You decide to settle on massage therapy equipment.

There you go. You’ve established your niche market as far as what you’re going to sell, and you have, as a consequence, settled on your niche market ~ massage therapists, who will be interested in your products. (So will spa owners, so your original interest in spas is also covered plus you have room to expand later!)

It’s not always that simple but you get the basic idea of researching and deciding on your target audience and then finding your niche market as a result. ALWAYS do the research first!!!!

Below, a screenshot of my UK store which is an offshoot of my main website, same theme of products but for the UK buyer!

You can visit this store here.

You will see that I have customized it to blend in with and brand nicely with my main website that sells all of my own handcrafted products plus antiques I sell for clients ~ visit that here for a comparison.

What is BANS???

BANS stands for Build A Niche Store.

It is software that allows you to do just that ~ build a niche store ~ and in fact ~ not just one, but as many as you like!

You pay one price for the BANS software, and you can use it over and over to create as many niche stores as you like. No limit. Nice deal.

It is highly customizable from the CSS stylesheet to the header, footer and size of the logo, and everything else in between.

The software allows you to custom name your categories and URL’s, create custom meta tags for every page if you like, giving you the ultimate in SEO flexibility. You have the opportunity to create custom pages, add customized quality content on your product pages and it really puts you in complete control as far as how well you can do in search engine results.

And that ultimately means how well you will do in attracting your niche market!

The BANS software comes complete with a sitemap ready for Google, and excellent tutorial, a friendly forum, and perhaps most importantly, at least in my own experience is the ability to drill down in categories so you can present your target audience with exactly the products they would be looking for.

And no, in case you are wondering ~ spending money and stocking up on inventory is definitely NOT a requirement!!!

Why is that, you ask?

Read the next section and find out!

Above, you saw the screenshot of my UK store. Below is the screenshot of my Canada store, again, built along the same theme as my main website, but for the Canadian shopper.

Visit that store here and compare it’s design and general look to my main website. Perfect blend yet no cookie cutter site!

What does eBay have to do with all of this?

eBay is the one who PAYS YOU to drive the traffic and the buyers to them!

Yes, you read that correctly. No, this is not a joke and no, I am not kidding!

Forget all those times YOU PAID eBay!! Now eBay pays you!

Here’s how all the pieces fit together.

eBay is Website “A” who has the affiliate program. It use to be managed on Commission Junction however now eBay handles it themselves via the eBay Partner Network, or EPN as it’s known for short.

You are Website “B”. You need to join the eBay Partner Network. Once you are approved you can join as many programs as it makes sense to for you. Take a look at the commission structures. It usually takes a little longer to get approved for the US program. BE PATIENT ~ it’s worth it.

The BANS software was created for and directly interfaces with this affiliate program. It allows you to pick and choose your eBay categories. If you are smart you’ll learn to drill down when you are looking at the eBay categories page.

***TIP*** You’ll be looking at for example the Antiques category you’ll see at the very end of that category a link that says “view all antiques categories” click that link and this is where you will drill down to exact sub categories. It is to your benefit to get precise, targeted sub categories.

eBay pays you for every sale you bring in and for every new member that joins eBay and makes a purchase that you bring in through your links in your store.

Again, read the commission structures!

Tie It All Together

eBay has been and continues to be the world’s largest online marketplace.

Their partner program is extremely lucrative.

The BANS software allows you to become part of all this and to begin making some serious profits of your own. The software gives you an extraordinary opportunity to multiply those profits exponentially.

You need to do research, identifying all of your intended niche markets. You then need to make a game plan of HOW you are going to tie all of this together ~ build it off an existing website or blog that gets good traffic already or create an entirely new enterprise.

You then need to apply solid and diligent SEO ~ white hat only please ~ black hat is simply not worth it ~ as well as constant and persistent organic marketing and promotion techniques for the absolute best, optimal results.

Does it take time? Yes of course. Is it worth it? Absolutely!

There are many people out there for whom this is their way of life, and who make comfortable and even six figure incomes from it.

BANS makes it all possible and gives you every possible tool you need.

The rest is up to you ~ believe in yourself ~ YOU CAN DO THIS!

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Jewelry Collectibles Design ~ Certified eBay Store Design, conveniently located in Hackensack, Bergen County New Jersey, is owned and operated by Maureen McCullough.

Look to us for affordable and full featured eBay Store Design, SEO, marketing, and lifetime support for your online business. We empower you to be independent and handle things yourself, yet are always there for you should you need assistance!

Happy to be a woman owned business! Visit our website for a full listing of our services.

Visit our other websites ~ Jewelry Collectibles and Wedding Event Planning!

Visit our other jewelry, collectibles and vintage gifts boutiques ~ our UK boutique for shoppers in the United Kingdom; and our CA boutique for shoppers in Canada!

There seemed to be a wee bit of confusion with my last post / article ~ which was the first one in this series about bringing traffic to your website. The confusion seeming to be that this series of articles was best fit for newbies.

Not so. It’s meant for website owners of all persuasions and sill / experience levels. The most experienced of us can’t possibly think of every angle and the rest can always benefit from a fresh perspective and some new ideas.

To begin with, marketing your website basically involves getting into a daily regimen.

When you add new items to your website, blog them, preferably individually. However, if they are “like” items or individual posts are just not an option due to time constraints or whatever, then blog a few of these new items in one post.

ALWAYS include a link back to your website, to the product category, and to each product listed in your post.

A soft sell approach works best. No blatant “buy from me”  stuff is necessary. A laid-back approach that says “isn’t this pretty / fun / useful / interesting” or “this will / should help improve your golf game” sort of writeup; nice pictures; and a little something that prompts your readers to “click here to find out more” is effective.

Also, letting your readers know they can see “our entire collection here” (with aforementioned link to category) is a nice way to send to the product category without being overly “selling”.

If you have an affiliate site such as a Build A Niche Store website that enables you to make money from eBay in the eBay Partner Network, make sure you blog an item a day from each of your stores as well.

To see examples of this, click here.

It is also a good idea to create a blog signature file in Notepad. A simple text file that includes a brief by-line about your and your company, what you do, etc. Also work links into this signature file so that people can cllick on them and search engines will pick them up. Apply this signature file to every post you make at the end of the post. Because of the raw HTML links, you’ll need to copy the text from Notepad (make sure wordwrap is turned OFF), and paste it into your blog when in the HTML or CODE mode, then check it in the WYSIWYG or Visual mode.

To see examples of this, you can simply look at the end of this post and also at the end of any post in my Jewelry Collectibles blog.

If you follow this and do it on a constant, steady basis, you’ll find that your blog will begin to attract more readers and in turn will be sending more traffic to your respective venues.

Next time, we’ll talk about more traffic producing ideas uses simple social networking procedures!

Good Luck!

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Jewelry Collectibles Design ~ Certified eBay Store Design, conveniently located in Hackensack, Bergen County New Jersey, is owned and operated by Maureen McCullough.

Look to us for affordable and full featured eBay Store Design, SEO, marketing, and lifetime support for your online business. We empower you to be independent and handle things yourself, yet are always there for you should you need assistance!

Happy to be a woman owned business! Visit our website for a full listing of our services.

Visit our other websites ~ Jewelry Collectibles and Wedding Event Planning!

Visit our other jewelry, collectibles and vintage gifts boutiques ~ our UK boutique for shoppers in the United Kingdom; and our CA boutique for shoppers in Canada!