I have written several times in the past about how Micro Niche Finder was the first keyword tool that I ever purchased, and how I still use it today because of the great user interface. I have also talked about how you can build cool eBay niche stores using WordPress and the phpBay plugin.
In November, James Jones from Micro Niche Finder had a contest and asked people to send in videos about how people were using his software. I completed an entry as a way to say thanks to James for all the great support that he provides, including free lifetime upgrades for his customers. As I wrote recently, James is right in the middle of a serious of major upgrades to his keyword tool.
I thought you might be interested to see my entry. My idea was simple — think up a niche store idea and build a quick and dirty site. In the video below, I show where I got the idea for a BMW autoparts store, how I did quick and dirty keyword research using Micro Niche Finder, how I bought the domain name and set up the store in about an hour using WordPress and phpBay. It's all there.
Enjoy.
The video had to be under 10 minutes for the contest, so there is some stuff that goes by pretty quickly. For example, I wanted to talk about creating and promoting the site in Firepow — guess that will have to wait for another video. 🙂 In the mean time, I need to do some article marketing.
If you have a comment or a question, I'd love to hear from you.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag7RKcIXY7s]
Mark – if you don’t win first prize something is seriously flawed with James’ judging. 😉
I had no idea we could use Adsense themes with php ebay – or is that code only the super-techie can use?
Kent — thanks!
As for the themes, all I did was delete the AdSense code in the page_adsense.php file and replace it with code for the the banner that you see on the site. I think I may have also messed with exactly where the banner appears (page.php).
A pretty simple tweak. If you decide to do it and have trouble, please let me know.
Thanks,
Mark
Mark,
Wow, really great video. You set off some ideas in my head about how to market some of my own info products deeper into the long tail. Thanks!
Hey Shaun;
Thanks for dropping by. I plan to get back over to IBMA this month. Been a little busy….
Appreciate the comments.
Mark
Awesome video Mark,
I just downloaded PHPBay lite yesterday to start trying it out on some niche sites and this video inspired me a little more.
So has the site had some results? Love to hear success stories. Keep up the great work. I use MNF on some of my personal sites. Have been very happy with it.
Well, the site has 2 problems — I have not promoted it and I used BMW in the domain name. It was late and I was sleepy. Using BMW in the domain name is a violation of eBays TOS (3rd slash rule), so I am going to convert the site into an AdSense site and find another domain name for the BMW parts.
However, I have definately made money with phpBay. Want to see a killer example (not my site). Look at this sweet WordPress ebay store running phpBay: http://bestcamerabargains.com/
Again, not my site — but awesome.
Regards,
Mark
That Camera site is cool. They might even get a sale out of me.
cd :O)
Mason,
The video was great! It kind of working hand in hand between MNF and you phpBay plugins. I would like to think that I’m doing that in this near future..
Regards,
Haron.
Mark,
I’m sold on the ebayphp, now just gotta set up some sites and give it a go.
The best camera site is most excellent and I would visit again many times just to see the Yaoti but evidently the animated avatar only shows up on the first visit. Too bad, that is way cool!
I went to Yaoti to check their prices, but way too rich for my blood.
If they dropped these to about 27 bucks they would sell billions of them.
Rich Hill
hey mark, i just wanted to ask since i’m a beginner in this business, when you create your site do you simply put content and the ebay feeds and keep updating it regularly? do you ping your content? and, what kind of marketing do you do? i only stick to article marketing by submitting to directories. I currently have one site that i outsourced. It’s only 2 weeks old but i’m only getting around 15-20 visits per day! It was created using BANS not Phpbay so i don’t know if that has any bad implications. I’ve created a few articles and have posted them on some directories recently other than that, i’m just pressing the ping button on my articles. Can you help me? i researched the keywords well on Micro Niche Finder but i’m still not seeing success.
thanks,
gabe