eBay Wordpress Plugin – Make Your Own BANS Store
Mark Wielgus, the guy who created the 45n5 Top 100 make money online blog list (I’m ranked #2), has created a new Plugin that turns your Wordpress blog into a BANS store.
What is a BANS Store?
For those who don’t know, BANS stands for Build A Niche Store. BANS is a store/website development software which enables you to create content based sites that generate income through the eBay affiliate programs.
Since eBay sells a million different products, it’s entirely possible to use their API to pull only products that you want, or are interested in, and create a highly focus site that concentrated on once niche. The idea is to use BANS to create a content based niche store that will get ranked in Google. Google then send the store traffic and you make money whenever someone makes a purchase from the store.
It’s a good business model and many Internet marketers have created BANS stores that are making money for them. The only downside is the BANS software cost $97. This won’t be a problem for most Internet marketers but for the guy with no money, that’s another story.
The AffomaticEbay eBay Wordpress Plugin
The AffomaticEbay eBay Wordpress Plugin gives you most of the functionality of the BANS software with one major advantage – it doesn’t cost any money. The plugin is free to download.
Installation of the plugin is the same as most Wordpress plugins – upload to your plugins folder and then activate in your Wordpress control panel. Then go to the setting and change the eBay affiliate ID to your ID.
To add eBay listings to your blog, just put this text [AffomaticEbay]Keyword[/AffomaticEbay] and replace Keyword with your own keyword. When the plugin finds your keyword it will list as many ebay listings as you told it to in the admin panel. When the listings are clicked and the user buys at ebay then you get paid. You don’t even need to put anything else in the posts, just a keyword and your listings will start showing.
You can see an example of the plugin in action at BonsaiTraining.com. Whether this free plugin will rank as well in Google as a BANS store remains to be seen. But the price is right.
AffomaticEbay – Free eBay Wordpress Plugin
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Looks like a pretty decent plugin! I’ve been looking for something simplier that BANS so I might just give this a go. I’ve just been using the widgets from ebay at the moment.
Indeed – definitely interested in this BANS store thing as I currently sell on ebay myself
http://viralurls.com/business-auctions-of-interest/ – setup, but its not working, set to show 25 for each, only showing the one listing
Now we have people selling stuff related to blogging on ebay? What next wordpress plugins on amazon?
That’s a great idea!
J/k
As crazy as it sounds, I wouldn’t be surprised. Who knows what the future holds!
Maybe there’s not enough results to show 25.
Good point – sometimes these things can be tricky at first to figure out before there is a larger amount of information to display!
But JC, there are enough. Ebay lists 709 results.
great plugin , will work weel for product oriented / tech blogs
I agree, this is an excellent plugin and a great alternative to BANS.
a very great plugin .. simple and very effective.. on top of that it is free.. so everyone should have it
Going to Give it a Try, and will Post result =) I was just about to purchase bans on the weekend hahaha
Thanks for sharing this info. I will take a look at it and test it in some of my niche sites.
shoudl work well if you have a niche product based blog
I see potential for it even on a non-niche blog – cause you never know what someone might be looking to buy!!
Well it is a great plugin and it is good time to release it before Christmas…will definitely check it out…thanks John…
think about Christmas!!! it’s almost over! QUESTION: is there a way to test run to see how well it does? I like the niche though. No sense in having a blog in one niche selling to a polar one. Q2: how much of this does chow get money from?
Work now and cash in next Christmas!
Wow, seems to be cool! gotta try it
you are a blog post machine john… really fast info… thanks for that..
That’s why he makes the big bucks!!
I like the idea.
It sounds similar to setting up an Amazon store, just with EBay as your backend and really on autopilot.
Any significant downsides or penalties if you try to make one of your pages a BANS?
That’s very great! I’ll try it very soon!
Massimo
Wow! Great plugin…must get a try for that. Thanks for the info John.
Thats was easy.. should be adding one on my blog.
Recently Yaro’s course touched on selecting a niche and then making a blog about it. This plugin may be a good addition to it.
I thought of adding BANS to my mix of online tools but that was when BANS was in its’ trial stages. Honestly, I forgot all about it until this post! I sell and buy on eBay and have written several articles about eBay so adding this plugin on my blog will go nicely. I’ll do my own trial with it and see how it goes. I can always remove it if it doesn’t go well:)
No offence to Mark, but I’m not all that impressed by the look of his plugin.
There is already a plugin for eBay auctions on Wordpress – it is called phpBay. It’s a plugin you have to pay for but it has much better functionality than this one.
I started with BANS like many but now,I’m more of a fan of phpBay(paid) too John. In fact, I use both the API and the WP plugin. Yes, it cost money but you have more parameters to play with. Even the free phpBay WP plugin has more parameters than that.
Btw, I even created AuctionSiteWriter to build BANS, phpBay stores.
I also added Article Spinner(support Syndicate Kahuna too), Site Stats, Google Trends, Plugin Code Builder, sitemap.xml PR checker…..
To Mark:
It’s a good start but not enough because of the current competition. For the free version, I would at least add the number of columns. The paid version if you do one, you could add a lot more parameters like the category.
For example, if I enter [AffomaticEbay]Batman[/AffomaticEbay], I would get, with your free one, comics, video games, toys, collectibles, …but I only want to show videos blu-ray, VHS, DVD
[AffomaticEbay]Batman, 6, 617[/AffomaticEbay]
Examples with phpBay
[phpbay]Blu-Ray Player, 6, 15077,”firmware broken”[/phpbay]
Won’t show Blu-Ray players with the word firmware or broken in the title.
9242 is a satellite HD PVR model in Canada(2). So, I can override the default parameter(US) in my post.
[phpbay]9242, 6, 293,”",”",”",”",”",”",”",”",”",”",2,”"[/phpbay]
If you had more parameters, I would be able to support you in the Plugin Code Builder.
I used the free phpBay WP plugin but when you start using you will find that you will convert better if you can show more specific products to visitors.
Think about it and good luck with the product.
Good insight here!!! Definitely nice to have asomething to compare this too, especially for those that don’t know what this is all about
It may not be perfect, but it’s free!
I think it’s great for an eBay plugin that’s free.
Great snippet of info on phpBay
Zijian
Thanks
I wrote this last summer and the same goes for AffomaticEbay:
17 Mistakes With BANS or phpBAY(API/Plugin)
http://mcgrath.ca/2008/07/23/17-mistakes-with-bans-or-phpbayapiplugin/
It is very easy to install and simple to get started with it. He also has another script for ebay for people that don’t have a WordPress blog. I would say it is worth the effort to sign up and download. Thanks Greg Ellison
I downloaded it a while back now (a few weeks) and it looks good – it is free
I was actually planning on trying it out tomorrow – we’ll see how it goes
This is what I have been waiting for, a free eBay store plug-in. Two things I have heard on blogs, 1). BANS site are getting Google slapped because Google now recognizes BANS templates and sees them as thin sites. Scores them weakly, meaning a new WP plug-in may be just the ticket. 2). eBay cut out a bunch of affiliates and now it is hard as hell to get approved. I ask if it is still hard to get approved as an eBay affiliate?
My BANS sites were slapped too but It was my own fault because they were too thin at that time.You need to add more content. But I still make money because of the Yahoo/MSN traffic. Remember that. You also need to target specific products and not be too general. Like many, I sure would like Google reindex my sites soon.
The last 2 months(November, December), I saw a huge improvement from my sites even if I did not spend time on those.
Yeah, I heard about that. Of course, no one should be surprised because Google like it when people create real content.
I will take a look at it and test it in some of my niche sites.
This is a great idea. People have the potential to earn tremendous amounts of money through this, especially if they were to set up a blog specific to electronics.
I just talked to my boss about doing this for our products we sell on ebay.
Basically we could set it up and if we sell something through that affiliate link, we could double dip on profit.
Make money on the actual sell of the item on ebay and the affiliate commission we would get.
It’s a genius plan!
that is a genius plan….good grief what a thought. I think that would fall apart because what would eventually be left for profit for the other guy?
You’d probably end up pulling data on your competitor’s as well…wouldn’t you?
thanks for the mention john, glad you liked it
I’ll be taking all the feedback here and incorporating as much of it as possible into version 3.0 of the plugin
keep the feedback coming, positive AND negative.
all the feedback helps make a better plugin!!!!!
and there will be a version 3.0 so this plugin will only be getting better
cheers, and thanks for checking out the ebay plugin.
mark
If you want an alternative that doesn’t make your site look like an Ebay-fest by using subtler thumbnails-only, then my plugin Auction Thumbs, is also an option.
I don’t know why people use these sorts of plugins. You can create your own BANS site on wordpress using Ebays RSS Feed and post them directly into your site. I have been doing this for a while, very simple.
Simple!
I don’t want to give them the idea to go directly to eBay thus bypassing my site.
But that’s me
Your site doesn’t get bypassed with Ebay RSS….
You get affiliate credit and piece of the action. This plug in an easier, cleaner way to basically the same thing as Ebay RSS.
The same reason people use plugins for the millions of other things you can do with Wordpress.
Because we’re lazy.
I have the plug in but have not had the chance to work with it yet. Way to many other things going on but what I can say is, Mark is a Gods send. With BANS sites getting deindexed from search results this plug in should work out prefect for anyone wanting to make some cash.
Mark, let me know when you have time to build another plug in. I am looking for one that can turn a page on your site into a auto link exchange. There is one out there but its a pce of crap!
Doesn’t google & other search engines despise BANS sites?
forget google, try to make money without google
Tru say – the real money is in developing a nice big network!!
Yup, I am also trying to do same
puhleese, if you think you can pull off a JC and forget Google you seriously need to rethink the situation. Just my opinion….
In the history of the internet, I think JC is the only one ever to pull that off !
No offence, but if you think JC is the only one to win without Google in the history of the Internet, you really need to go back and learn about the history of the Internet.
What do you think people did before Google?
If you are going to sit here and pretend Google didn’t redifine the way you make money on the internet today, then you are living history. It really doesn’t matter what people did before Google now. I can’t find anyone else today that be pointed to that has the same or better sucess as JC without Big G.
No offense, but it’s possible. I believe Shoemoney made a post once about how you shouldn’t fear Google. And I agree with him.
Google is not the end all/be all of the internet when it comes to making money online.
Showmoney doesnt fear Google in the same way Trump doesn’t fear the recession !
So you think Google is the end all/be all of the internet?
I’m gonna check out this pluggin and hope it has something good to offer for fellow bloggers like me
Great review John, thanks !
That’s really useful.
I’ve heard a lot about BANS but I knew absolutely nothing about it. Thanks for the info
i’m not too savvy on the ins and outs of ebay, aside from bidding. can someone explain what a CampID or AffiliateID is? i had a look around my ebay account but didn’t see anything related.
Quiet a interesting plugin, going to try this sometime
I’ve been a fan of BANS ever since and have been using it for my network. I’ll check out this plugin to see if it comes near to what BANS offers..
This is a nice plugin, I have it on one of my blogs.
but you need to be an ebay affiliate in order to use this right?
Yea, you need to be in the eBay Partner Network to use this.
My husband and I are considered one of the top BANS people being one of the original users since it launched in October 2006. One of our BANS stores earns over $3K per month. Our total portfolio of stores are about $7500 per month and his $10K twice in the last year. BANS is a terrific platformand like anything else you have to work and develop it.
That being said….
The Affomatic Ebay Wordpress plugin is great, it has near BANS performance when combined with a really good WP blog. Too new to see the results yet, but I replaced the BANS portion of one of our stores with WP/BANS intergration with the Affomatic Ebay Plugin with no loss of revenue running EPN Reports for the two days it has been active.
I am impressed andI highly recommend it.
looks pretty cool. wish i would have found this before i bought phpbay, though i like the product formatting better in phpbay.
i still think bans is the way to go for a full blown store.
I have no financial interest inthis plugin whatsoever, just wanted all to know that. As a consumate user of BANS, I am thouroughly impressed with this plugin.
YES for a full blown store with a lot of cool options and tricks, BANS is the way to go. But if you want to try you luck at a niche blogging, the Affomatic Ebay Plugin is the free way to go !
Thanks I did not know about BANS and really appreciate the info. It is amazing to me how much I can learn for your website for free… is that cool or what!
Be well and prosper,
Mike
Wow, this plugin looks promising. Hey, the more markets you can integrate in your site, the better. What better community to add than eBay?
EGGZACKLY !
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In today’s internet world, unfortunately I do believe that Big G may not be the “end all” but definitly a micron away.
Over the past few years Google has taken control and command of the internet whether we like to admit it or not.
Do I like it? No, but I can see it is so I try to deal with it.
I love John Chow’s site and admire his methods. He is the Lone Ranger and is the lightning strike exception to fighting and winning with Google. That’s my whole point.