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.