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E-Stores: Urgent Advice Needed Plz..

by Mystery777
15 replies
Hello,

my little sister is new to making money online and she wants to start an e-store, selling stuff like cell phones, mp4, cameras, ipods, ipads, game consoles, electronic gadget... (as an affiliate perhaps) and needs some advice.

I was thinking that she could become an eBay affiliate and make use of a tool like Build a Niche Store (BANS) so that she can get a ready built store... is it a good idea? What would be your advices for someone who wants to enter this domain?

Appreciate your inputs....
#advice #estores #needed #plz #urgent
  • Profile picture of the author I.M.Retired
    From what you say she wants to sell, Amazon aStore might be a good option for her.

    aStore for Amazon Associates
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    • Profile picture of the author shazam
      There's also the dropshipping option if you want to look in to that, although it's a very crowded niche.
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      • Profile picture of the author Mystery777
        Originally Posted by shazam View Post

        There's also the dropshipping option if you want to look in to that, although it's a very crowded niche.
        Yeah, I heard it is competitive. But isn't being an affiliate with amazon or ebay much easier?
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        • Profile picture of the author dougsanders
          Originally Posted by Mystery777 View Post

          Yeah, I heard it is competitive. But isn't being an affiliate with amazon or ebay much easier?
          A lot easier. The way I see it it being an affiliate means that I can focus on what I do best--marketing a product. If I had to stock the product, deal with customers, pay employees, I wouldn't even think about trying to make money online.

          I originally thought about dropshipping shoes, but discovered an affiliate program could give me a larger profit margin and a hell of a lot less work.
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        • Profile picture of the author shazam
          Originally Posted by Mystery777 View Post

          Yeah, I heard it is competitive. But isn't being an affiliate with amazon or ebay much easier?
          Easier - yes. More profitable? No.

          Lets say you're promoting a pair of shoes on Amazon and they sell for $60 - you get from that %5? so $3.

          I have a profit margin of atleast 20% with a dropshipper, so i'd be getting $12 minimum.

          Also for me that customer is mine, I can now continue marketing to them. If you're an affiliate you can't do that.

          There's a lot more pros/cons to this debate of course, and affiliate marketing is a lot less hassle in terms of having to look after customers etc. But it really depends on what you're wanting.
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          • Profile picture of the author dougsanders
            Originally Posted by shazam View Post

            Easier - yes. More profitable? No.

            Lets say you're promoting a pair of shoes on Amazon and they sell for $60 - you get from that %5? so $3.

            I have a profit margin of atleast 20% with a dropshipper, so i'd be getting $12 minimum.

            Also for me that customer is mine, I can now continue marketing to them. If you're an affiliate you can't do that.

            There's a lot more pros/cons to this debate of course, and affiliate marketing is a lot less hassle in terms of having to look after customers etc. But it really depends on what you're wanting.
            And being an affiliate with an 18% commission on a $60 sale would garner you $10.80--essentially meaning that the extra hassle of dealing with customers, their problems, and RETURNS, is actually getting you just an extra $1.20 per sale. Yes it adds up, but so does the time in dealing with all of those issues.

            Additionally just because you are an affiliate does not mean that you can't build a list. I have newsletters for all of my affiliate websites and this is a great way to increase exposure of your affiliate products.
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            • Profile picture of the author Derek_Thomas
              I love marketing physical products, and Amazon is usually my favorite option. As mentioned above, it's not the most profitable, but it is the easiest.

              The key in regards to what you're trying to sell though is being very specific with your keywords. Don't just slap it up there, you know. Be intentional about it and find those keywords that have a high search volume and low competition. Then do some simple on-page SEO to make sure Google loves your site. Physical products are the best for this as there is just so many GREAT keyword options, even though the market may be "saturated".

              Best of luck,
              Derek
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              • Profile picture of the author Mystery777
                Ok, is there an automated store that pulls feeds, or gets populated, through both amazon and ebay? With the ability to edit descriptions and stuff to avoid G-Slaps...

                How does BANS go around avoiding G-slaps? How do Bans members avoid being marked as duplicate spammy e-stores by search engines?
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                • Profile picture of the author Blake Mead
                  Originally Posted by Mystery777 View Post

                  How does BANS go around avoiding G-slaps? How do Bans members avoid being marked as duplicate spammy e-stores by search engines?
                  BANS is just a customizable template with an eBay RSS feed. You can add content and make it a genuine authority site or whatever. If you only have the eBay listings, then yeah you probably would get slapped. But if the listings are only one part of a dynamic site then it gets indexed like any other affiliate site that provides value.
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  • Profile picture of the author dougsanders
    I have heard some pretty terrible things about BANS, from getting G-Slapped to getting your affiliate status with eBay revoked. I currently use ShopperPress and its quite fantastic for creating affiliate stores with any number of products. I'm an affiliate with a majority of SaS merchants, so using the aStore wasn't a good solution for me.
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    • Profile picture of the author Mystery777
      Originally Posted by dougsanders View Post

      I have heard some pretty terrible things about BANS, from getting G-Slapped to getting your affiliate status with eBay revoked. I currently use ShopperPress and its quite fantastic for creating affiliate stores with any number of products. I'm an affiliate with a majority of SaS merchants, so using the aStore wasn't a good solution for me.
      How does ShopperPress differ in terms of ranking and avoiding Google Slaps?

      Anyone knows whether or not amazon stores do well in serps? I tend to think Google doesn't like them.
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      • Profile picture of the author dougsanders
        Originally Posted by Mystery777 View Post

        How does ShopperPress differ in terms of ranking and avoiding Google Slaps?

        Anyone knows whether or not amazon stores do well in serps? I tend to think Google doesn't like them.
        I think if you just grab feeds from merchants and upload products directly you are going to get slapped eventually. I am mindful enough to add or change my titles, write my own descriptions (usually just add something) and my index rate is pretty good--actually its damn good.

        I can launch an affiliate store with a 100 products and most pages will be indexed within 12 days or so. As for rankings? It depends on your niche. I pick moderately competitive niches and do quite well.

        If you want to promote brand name electronics you better be prepared for a battle...
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      • Profile picture of the author luis23
        Online Stores? I will never recommend anyone go in that direction unless they are selling something very specific and is not found anywhere.

        stuff like cell phones, mp4, cameras, ipods, ipads, game consoles, electronic gadget...
        Like they keep saying, it is a very crowd niche to go in. Specially if you are starting, there is more chance to get discourage and not have success than create any income at all.

        However the best thing you can or she can do is test the waters by herself. Otherwise, she will never know what is going on out there and probably redefine what she really wants.
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        • Profile picture of the author Blake Mead
          I have 20+ BANS sites and I get paid from eBay every month and have lots of pages indexed by Google. I think it's like with any website, if you also provide good content then you shouldn't get slapped or revoked.
          BANS is fairly easy to learn and is completely automatic once it is set up. All that being said, I would recommend it if you're interested but there are lots of other ways too. For a newbie I would probably recommend starting from scratch with a WP blog to learn the basics of IM and then maybe adding an eBay feed to the blog eventually.
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  • Profile picture of the author host4more
    I suggest you get register a domain and launch an estore with one of many open source carts, like oscommerce, zencart ( most of reputable hosting providers offer them via fantastico installations ). It will help you build reputation and have full control of the store while it grows. Just focus on promoting and sales will come. Ebay stores and all are ok for a newbie but they are not flexible at all.
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