Build A Niche Store (BANS) is a store / website development platform which enables you to create content based sites that generate income through the eBay affiliate programs. 

BANS is the perfect development tool for profiting from the opportunities the eBay affiliate programs present.

Why eBay? Well the national eBay affiliate programs remain unrivalled in terms of the unique opportuntity they present for affiliate marketers. This means: YOU make money!

As of June 2008 BANS supports the development of niche stores for the following 11 eBay marketplaces: Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, India, Italy, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom and the United States and has a user base of over 9,000 worldwide. The numbers are there to prove it: it works!

Why build a BANS store??

I say don’t build it, have it built! Visit MyAffiliateValet.com and they will build it for you (for free!). Their expertise will ensure that you make the most of your site. You won’t regret it and you will get one on one help with building your own site. Best of all, you won’t pay a single penny more!

Posted by Infoloft | No Comments »

So, you have decided to go with a professional web design company. The only problem is you don’t know how to choose a web design company because you don’t know enough about them. So, the following overview of what you should look for when it comes to web design services is important.

The first thing you will want to consider is how long this web design company has been in business. If you find a web design business that is brand new that does not mean you will get a bad service or that your website won’t look awesome. But, it does mean that you should proceed with caution. Even if the designers have years of experience there is a lot involved in running a business and not everyone is cut out for it. So, in order to protect yourself it really is a good idea to go with a web design company that has been around for years and can provide plenty of references to show you that you will get what you are paying for.

The next thing you will want to focus on when it comes to a web design company is their work. You probably have a particular style of website in mind and it is really important to match your style with the designer’s understanding of what you want. If you fail to do this then the website will not look like you want it to. As a result, it is always good to talk to a web designer and ask them what they imagine when you explain what you want. We all have different experiences so your explanation to something could mean something else entirely to the designer. Because of this it is best to ensure you are on the same page up front with the designer so there are no confusions, hard feelings, or anything of that nature.

Something else that must be considered when it comes to choosing a website design company is price. You most likely have a budget so look for the best company and designers in your budget. If you are lucky you may even wind up with a discount if you simply ask.

If you follow these tips then you should be able to find a web design company that works wonders for you.

Posted by Infoloft | No Comments »

You have a domain name and you have a website. However, you are not overly proud of what your site looks like. If this sounds like you then you will want to focus more on your web design. It is actually quite important that your website have a great design because you want people to visit your site and once they arrive you want them to stay long enough to explore and see what your site is all about. The design of the site plays a large role in that and because of this it is very important.

Depending on what your website is about and the role it plays in your income you may or may not want to discuss the project with web development companies that can give you suggestions and offer ideas to help you.

When you pay a professional to design your website and help you with the search engines then you have one great recourse and that is you can demand results! If you are designing the site yourself and it turns out bad or if you didn’t write the right kind of content then you have nobody to blame but yourself. So, there are definitely some perks when it comes to using a professional. Most importantly is that they know what needs to be done already and can help you get through the process faster and start receiving more visitors quicker. These are certainly bonuses you don’t want to miss out on. And, if your website is going to be your livelihood then you probably want to start with a professional rather than wing it yourself. The reason why is that a professional will know where to start and how to help you. You would otherwise waste an awful lot of time you don’t need to waste and time is money. So, contacting a professional in this situation is certainly the best idea.

You should notice fast results when you hire a professional and before long your website should be ranking in the top of the results and your income increasing. These are certainly worthwhile and worth the cost of a website designer.

Posted by Infoloft | No Comments »

Testing Your Web Site

There are different ways to test your web site. Testing your web site is important as there are different types of computer (Windows, Linux and Mac) and each computer has a number of browser which will probably render your web site differently.

Testing with Firefox

Mozilla Firefox is a web browser project descended from the Mozilla application suite, managed by the Mozilla Corporation. Firefox had 16.01% of the recorded market share in Web browsers as of November 2007, making it the second-most-popular browser in current use worldwide.

You really need to make sure your web site displays fine to Firefox users as almost 1 out of 5 visitors will be using it. Refusing that many visitors is not a move you can afford at this time (actually you can never really aford to do so!)

Firefox is free so install on your computer and use it to test your own web site. You can use Firefox on Windows, Mac and Linux. Click here to get Firefox for free.

Testing with Opera

Opera is a web browser and Internet suite developed by the Opera Software company. Opera handles common Internet-related tasks such as displaying web sites, sending and receiving e-mail messages, managing contacts, IRC online chatting, downloading files via BitTorrent, and reading web feeds. Opera is offered free of charge for personal computers and mobile phones, but for other devices it must be paid for.

Opera’s market is smaller than Firefox but why should you refuse customers at this time? Opera is free so click here to install it on your computer and use it to test your own web site.

Posted by Infoloft | No Comments »

Web Site Reports & Analytics

When you have a store, it’s easy to tell how busy it is. You just open your eyes and count the number of customers. On the Internet, things are a bit harder but barely.

Your eyes are a good tool to get a quick glance at the current situation but do you remember how many customers you had every day for the last year? Out of those customers, who actually bought stuff? See, it gets a big harder, but luckily for you, there are tools to do all this for you!

Compete

Compete is the starting point to build and optimize search marketing campaigns that create brand awareness, drive site traffic and increase sales.

Thousands of marketers use Compete Search Analytics to discover keywords driving traffic to any web site, identify gaps in search strategies, invest in terms that drive the most engaged visitors, and track performance against competitors and peers.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics makes it easy to improve your results online. Write better ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives, and create higher-converting websites. Google Analytics is free to all advertisers, publishers, and site owners.

Posted by Infoloft | No Comments »

Email Newsletter

Sending email is easy but when you contact your customers or visitors, you need a way to keep track of all those emails. You must allow them to unsubscribe from your list and you must avoid spam. There are laws against this so be careful! This means: don’t do it on your own.

You must use a software to do it properly. We analysed many software and found one that truly fits everyone. Read below for more information.

iContact

iContact allows businesses, non-profit organizations, and associations to easily create, publish, and track email newsletters, surveys and autoresponders. They believe that email marketing should be really easy and have built and designed iContact from the ground up to give you all the features you need while still making it easy enough for anyone to create permission-based email marketing campaigns with high deliverability.

With 17,673 clients worldwide, you can rest assured that you’ll be in good company with thousands of other world-class companies.

Email Templates

iContact has many templates to use. They support HTML and test emails.

iContact makes it easy for businesses to send out professional email communications. With the ability to send HTML messages, you can customize each message by using your company logo or product pictures right in your email.

This means that if your subscribers have HTML-compatible email browsers, they will be able to see your graphically enhanced email message.

If your subscribers have text-only email browsers, they will see your message in its plain-text format. You may prefer to send many of your messages as text only. It’s that easy!

iContact screenshots

An image is worth a thousand words so take a look at these images taken directly from the software.

• Welcome Screen
• Email Stats
• Click here for more screenshots

iContact videos

iContact also has video tutorials helping you use their fantastic tool. So even if you get stuck (which should be unlikely) you will be able to find your way out with these videos. Here are some great examples:

• Introduction to iContact
• Creating a new message
• Survey results
• Click here for more videos

iContact is really easy to use and the best site to handle your newsletter needs!

Posted by Infoloft | No Comments »

Advertising online

Selling on the Internet is not like selling from your own store. It’s hard to sell anything if people can’t walk in front of your store. That’s why in the physical world, it’s important to have a nice storefront on a busy street.

Well on the Internet, you have to build the street yourself. It’s not hard at all if you do the right thing and we’ll see how it’s done.

Optimizing your site

Optimizing your site means search engines like Google will scan it and will figure out what your site is about. Google use a giant software to analyse your site. It doesn’t use any humans and we all know that machines can often make mistakes as well!

Be careful of those “optimizing firms”. They will often charge you a lot of money for little or no work. You can do it yourself and most importantly, your web site will eventually become popular if it serves a purpose. Hot cakes sells quickly because people like them and want them. Rotten bread is much harder to sell so keep that in mind and try to sell hot cakes!

Google Webmaster Tools

Google’s free webmaster tools provide you with an easy way to make your site more Google-friendly. They can show you Google’s view of your site, help you diagnose problems, and let you share info with us to help improve your site’s visibility in our search results. Your first step!

Yahoo! Site Explorer

Site Explorer allows you to explore all the web pages indexed by Yahoo! Search. View the most popular pages from any site, dive into a comprehensive site map, and find pages that link to that site or any page.

Advertising your site

There are some free logo resources on the Internet and we listed some of the best ones below.

Exposure leads to more exposure. Spending a few dollars on advertising today might mean that your blog gets popular a few months earlier.

• AdWords is a large publishing partner network. Buying ads on AdWords allows you to target your ads to specific related content sites.
• Review networks like ReviewMe let you to buy reviews on popular related blogs.
• StumbleUpon ads bring visitors to your featured articles for a nickel a click.

Major Ad Networks

There are many ad networks but you should stay on the large networks unless you are focusing a very specific market like adult sites. In fact, you should stay on Google’s network until you know what you are doing as it’s simply the biggest network. Why limit your audience?

Google AdWords - Google is the largest ad network.


Yahoo! Search Marketing - Yahoo is the 2nd largest network. Sign-up for free and get $25 in credits just to try it out!

Microsoft AdCenter - Microsoft has limited reach but has much less competition so use this as an advantage! Click here to register for free and get $50 in free credits just to try it!

Other Useful Tools

These tools will help you improve your ads. You should use these tools.

• Google AdWords Keyword Research Tool - allows you to plug in a URL and shows you what keywords Google thinks the page should be advertising for.
• Google AdWords Learning Center - free videos from Google, but please note some of their built in optimization tools aim to increase their revenue while lowering your ROI.
• Yahoo Search Marketing Workbook [PDF]
• MSN AdCenter Labs - offers many keyword tools, including a content classification tool and demographic prediction tools.

Budget Estimators

Budget estimators help you estimate how much money you should pay for your ads. You don’t want to overpay!

• Google Traffic Estimator - estimates the number of Google AdWords ad clicks and bid prices for the top ad position.
• Yahoo ROI Calculators CPC & CPM - estimates how much you can profitably pay for your ads

Posted by Infoloft | No Comments »

Selling Online

If you want to sell anything on the Internet then read along. More and more people and businesses are now selling on the Internet and in many cases, more sales are made through the Internet than from traditional stores!

Here are some great resources for you to easily setup a shopping cart and to accept credit cards. If you want an easier way to sell online then simply visit eBay and create a free account! It can’t be easier than this!

eBay

eBay is an online auction and shopping web site in which people and businesses buy and sell goods and services worldwide. You can use eBay to easily sell any product you have with little knowledge of Internet business.

You can also point to items you are selling from your own web site.

Accept Credit Carts (PayPal)

PayPal is the safer, easier way to pay and get paid online. The service allows anyone to pay in any way they prefer, including through credit cards, bank accounts, buyer credit or account balances, without sharing financial information.

PayPal has quickly become a global leader in online payment solutions with more than 153 million accounts worldwide. Available in 190 markets and 17 currencies around the world, PayPal enables global ecommerce by making payments possible across different locations, currencies, and languages.

With PayPal, you can sell items and accept credit cards without having a special merchant account.

ProStores

ProStores is a shopping cart that is owned by the company eBay. It is a shopping cart application that allows someone to make a transaction using either a payment processor (MasterCard, Visa, etc.) or other payment methods such as Paypal. Prostores interface is very simple to set up.

Yahoo! Merchant Solutions

Yahoo provides services to small business owners and professionals allowing them to build their own online stores using Yahoo’s tools.

Yahoo’s services are rock solid and backed by their very strong reputation.

Free Shopping Cart (PayPal)

When you use PayPal’s free Shopping Cart on your web site, your customers can purchase multiple items with a single payment, browse your entire selection, and view a consolidated list of all their items before purchasing. The PayPal Shopping Cart is a low-cost way for you to accept credit card and bank account payments, and can be fully integrated with your web site in a few easy steps.

Save time and money with PayPal’s hassle-free Shopping Cart:

• Easy to implement - no CGI scripting necessary
• No up-front costs - you’ll have the same low fee schedule used when you receive other PayPal payments
• Sell with ease - PayPal maintains detailed transaction records on our web site
• Improve buyer experience - with customizable buttons and secure payments, happy customers become repeat customer

Posted by Infoloft | No Comments »

Blogging

A blog is a web site where entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art, photographs, videos, music, audio and are part of a wider network of social media. Micro-blogging is another type of blogging which consists of blogs with very short posts.

TypePad

TypePad is a blogging service from company Six Apart Ltd, and the largest paid blogging service in the world. Originally launched in October 2003, TypePad is marketed to non-technical users and includes additional features like multiple author support and photo albums.

The service is available in several languages and countries around the world. TypePad is currently used by many large organizations and media companies to host their blog, such as ABC, MSNBC, the CBC, the BBC and Sky News.

Even if TypePad is used by very large companies, it is very easy to use and thousands of small and medium businesses (individuals too) use it regularly.

It is one of the best platform to “blog”.

Posted by Infoloft | No Comments »

Custom Programming

Having a perfect web site design is very important and sometimes, a professional made web site is needed. Customers will feel secure and will appreciate your site. Sometimes, you just want to add a functionality that is not available on your free template or your blog.

Sometimes you want a site that is simply outstanding in that it doesn’t have the look and feel of other sites, especially your competitors!

You can save a lot of money by doing it yourself and we invite you to give it a try. Please visit our Books & DVD section where the best books were picked for beginners and intermediate level people just like you. However, here are some excellent resources if you want to hire a programmer.

Get a Freelancer

Freelance programmers and web designers. Get custom web design. Freelancers bid on outsourced projects. Outsourcing to India, Romania, Ukraine and many other countries. Outsource your project, let web developers bid on it and save money!

Go Freelance

Post your project so that people who work from home can bid on it.

Posted by Infoloft | No Comments »