I am happy to report that I am back on my regular posting schedule after winning 2nd prize in Colleen Slater's 30 day blogging challenge she started over at the Warrior Forum (Colleen is a wildly successful affiliate marketer and author of Blog Inferno). One of the prizes is a month of 1:1 coaching with Colleen and I am really excited about that). I hope I am teachable.
I Won The Micro Niche Finder Video Contest
Colleen's contest is actually the second contest that I have won recently. In December, I won second prize in the Micro Niche Finder video contest with my video about building eBay affiliate sites. (In case you missed it, you can see my original post about my Micro Niche Finder video contest entry here). I that video, I show how I created this BMW Car Parts site.
Part of the agreement in the contest was that James Jones would be able to use my video however he wanted as promotional material for his tool. He did just that. He set up a page showcasing my video, sent his list to the page, a promptly crashed my video hosting account. 🙂 I got that fixed quickly, so it was not big deal (but boy was I impressed with the amount of traffic that he can throw around). Sheesh. No doubt, the money is in the list.
Micro Niche Finder Video Frequently Asked Questions
As you can imagine, with all that traffic I got a load of email asking me questions about the video. I love that, because I love helping people that are trying to figure stuff out. Based on those emails, I thought it might be useful to list and answer some frequently asked questions about the video and the site.
Q: What did you use to make the video. I love the picture-in-picture.
A: Camtasia Studio. Expensive but worth it. Try it for free for 30 days by going to the Camtasia website. It is $299 there, but I found a Camtasia Studio discount at PC Mall where they have it for $249.
Q: Are you selling from your own eBay store? Do you own a real auto parts store? Are you storing BMW parts in your spare bedroom?
A: No, I use a plugin for WordPress called phpBay to show items that are currently listed for sale in eBay. I am a eBay affiliate through the PepperJam Network (registration is free).
Q: How is the site doing? Have you retired from your day job yet? Can you make the payment on a new BMW using proceeds from the site?
A: Depends on your point of view. To be completely honest, I have not promoted it (I created it just for the contest). Still, it has 80+ pages indexed and is getting some very light search traffic. I have some clicks through to eBay but no sales yet. I suspect that the direct traffic is from the video, but the trickle of search traffic is real. Looks like I need to promote this one with article marketing or 1-Way-Links or something like that.
Here are a couple of screen shots of the traffic.
Q. What WordPress Theme are you using? Can I use my favorite blah blah blah theme? Do I have to use a premium theme? Is there a best theme for this sort of thing? What's a WordPress theme anyway?
A. Well, that is an easy one. A WordPress theme is a “skin” for WordPress that controls the way your WordPress site looks. I use my own product, Niche AdSense Themes for WordPress. You can use any WordPress theme — but I like a clean look, so I used mine.
I hope you find all of that helpful. If you have additional questions about the site or the techniques used to create it, please don't hesitate to leave a comment.
Thanks,
Mark
Awesome stuff Mark… I created an MNF vid and missed the comp (forgot to enter!!) 🙂
I love the product and just beta tested a great new feature!
Thanks Man. It was a blast. Sorry you missed the deadline. You should send to James anyway. His use of the video sent me a TON of traffic. If he likes it you might get lucky…
Hey Mark, I did see that video, first rate and easy to understand.
Congrats on winning.
I use mnf toll every single day and would be lost without it. I know that the Google tools will come up with something similar but microniche finder too is so easy to use, I love it.
Hey a question about the eBay php plugin. I am an affiliate with P-J, but would I have to have an account at eBay to use it?
Rich Hill
Mark:
I’ve purchased your Wordpess Theme and will be using it on a few sites. What are you using for your news feed on the BMW Car Parts site?
Loved the video.
@Paulette — I am using FeedWordPress for that news feed.
Thanks!
Mark,
That was a great video. Thanks for taking the time. I use MNF almost everyday. It just keeps getting better and better!
Bob
@Bob — you are quite welcome. I cannot wait for version 5.
@Rich — nope — you just apply to the eBAY program from within PJN. You never deal with EPN directly. I don’t even have an EPN account anymore….
Mark
Mark:
You’ve indicated that you use phpBay to build your eBay sites. Is there a similar script for building Amazon sites?
@Paulette; I spoke with Wade about Amazon. Wade has picked back up on his efforts on the product — called phpZon. It’s actually available to existing customers only and works quite well.
However, there are some more features he’s adding to it, to make it a solid official release available to the general public. The price will go up, once those are complete, but for now, existing phpBay Pro customers can purchase a “pre-release” version at a substantial discount.
Expect the first official release to be complete within the next few weeks.
I’m really glad I subscribed to your newsletter.. Yours is one that doesn’t fill my inbox with useless plugs & affiliate offers. 🙂 Keep up the good work!
Man — thanks Brad. I have to give the credit for that to a buddy of mine that wrote an eBook about how to treat email subscribers…
When do you sleep?
Wow! Becca! Who would have thought. Actually, sleep is overrated.
Congrats Mark – I called it first! An obviously great video.
Well done mark, it was a good video. Glad you got the bling !!!
Mark, didn’t you know that eBay has it’s own affiliate program. Just sign up at eBay and cut out Pepperjam (since Pepperjam will be taking a cut from your commissions). Also at the eBay affiliate site you can grab your own codes and set up mini eBay store to put on your own blogs.
Hey Knowledgelady;
Sure. I have been a member of EPN since they left CJ. I found eBay’s affiliate program customer service to be lacking (perhaps it is better now).
By contrast, PJN has fantastic customer service.
As far as I know, the payouts are identical (last I checked).
Not sure what you mean by a “mini ebay store”. Sounds interesting. Got an example?
Regards,
Mark
Mark here is the link to the eBay partner network. https://ebaypartnernetwork.com/files/hub/en-US/index.html If you take a look around it you can find lots of neat tools to enhance a blog or website to earn commissions from sales on eBay. I am also a member of Pepperjam and I found they are slow to qualify people for their programs. Ebay qualified me in a few days where as I am still waiting (several months now) to be qualified for eBay on Pepperjam.