The Niche Store Builder

Back to Basics – How to Add a Video to Your WordPress Post or Page

Mark Hansen — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:25:16 +0000

Many of you said you liked the last Back to Basics post on What is an RSS Reader, so I thought I would dip back into that pool of things that some of you may not know about and shy away from, because you think its too hard to do. I mean, even though it comes easy to some, it may not be so easy for others.

No use debating the fact that video is AWESOME for your review sites and readers LOVE them! So lets add one!

How to Add a Youtube Video to a WordPress post or Page

First, the easiest way to add a Youtube Clip to your WordPress site is with a plugin. You will find several Youtube plugins at the WP repository, but over the years of using them I always seem to go back to the same one… Smart Youtube.

Login to your WordPress administration.
Navigate to the Plugins Area and Choose Add New.
Type Smart Youtube into the search box and click on search
Install the Smart Youtube plugin.

Configuring the plugin is stupid-simple.

Go to the Settings > Smart Youtube option screen
Adjust any settings you may want to change (I only change the dimensions and colors to match my site)
I set autoplay to OFF
I Clear the checkbox for video link in rss feed (makes people click to me versus straight to youtube)
ADD a check to the box for video preview image in rss feed.

Save…

Adding a Video to Your Post or Page

This is where it gets really easy and the main reason I have always come back to this plugin. As you write your post or page, you just copy the URL of the Youtube video… paste it into your post, and add the letters below to the url.

Original URL of video below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQHPYelqr0E

By adding a single or 2 letters to your url, the video shows automatically!

httpv:// -- shows regular video
httpvh:// -- shows high quality video
httpvhd:// -- shows HD quality video
httpvp:// -- shows a playlist

So -- when I paste the url and add a vh after the http, I get:

Weezer Pork and Beans -- Hot Clip!

Using it On Your own Site

So… we already know people LOVE videos and they LOVE top lists. Instead of a boring old top 10 list, spice it up with something like the “Top 10 ________ Videos on YouTube” within your niche market. If you get into the habit of doing it regularly, you can create new mashups each week, and invite a whole new group of visitors to your site!

What plugin do you use for showing Youtube on your site?

Back to Basics -- How to Add a Video to Your WordPress Post or Page posted from the Niche Store Builder website.

A Basic Build Sheet for Team Niche Site Building

Mark Hansen — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:11:11 +0000

A week or two ago, I tossed out the idea of putting together a small group of people to test the idea of Group Building a Niche Niche.

At the time of writing that post, I had already tossed the idea back and forth with a few of my contacts and we had already set a plan for doing the exact thing. With this post, I wanted to share exactly how we are doing it, so you can see if it fits into what you might have in store for 2010.

I should also mention that I DO have a plan on paper on how to scale this into something that allows many people come in and join – but will not do anything about it until we have 90 days under our belts, to see how it works first.

The Site Build Sheet

The Niche Build Sheet is just a basic plan for building a niche site. It outlines who or which team, is responsible for exact steps in the process, and gives all of a single working document to look at ANY time we need to see what we can do next. The same build sheet below is used for every website, but modified to reflect that exact sites needs.

From Day 1 – 10

The Setup & Install… Handled by the Builder(s)
1-3 Days to Complete

Research Demand & Competition in a Market
Get a High Value Domain
Add Site to Hosting Account
Install WordPress (Will use WP CMS On ALL Sites)
Optimize WordPress Installation
Install and Configure all Plugins to Be Used
Create Page & Category Structure
Create link exchange and resources page
Create first 25-50 Review Topics for Site

The Launch Content… Handled by the Content Writer(s)
3-5 Days to Complete

Complete Content on Reviews, Guides, and Page Structure
Complete Ratings and Reviews of Every Product
Opportunity Content that You Feel May Add Value

The Review… Handled by Everyone!
1-3 Days to Complete

Everyone will visit site and read every page.
Everyone will comment, review, or add value to each page.

The Launch… Handled by The Marketer(s)
1-3 Days to Complete

Submit Press Releases about New Website
Build a Video Review and Submit to Video Hosting sites
Develop Link Exchanges with related websites
Market the site to various websites and Article marketing websites.

Days 10 – 30

Weekly Updates…

Once a Week ALL need to visit the site, add 2-3 brief comments or reviews to active posts

Days 30-90 & Beyond

By the 30 Day point of a sites life, we should be seeing steady and growing traffic as well as steady earnings from a site.

Builders(s) will develop new content ideas and add them to the site.
Content Writer(s) will complete the content, and publish it.
Marketer(s) will market the new content with link building, social marketing, etc.
ALL will revisit the site every week, and supply 3-4 comments on random, existing, and popular articles.

Day 90 Site Review

At the 90 day point of any sites existence, we will all review the current state of a website. If it has proven to be a worthy site, we will keep it and continue updating, growing and earning from the site. If the majority thinks the site is not worth the effort, it will either be sold or dissolved.

The Main Goal of the Team Building Effort

Everyone has one area where they personally shine! This method of building a niche site takes advantage of each persons specific skills, allowing each to do what they do best, without being bogged down on tasks they hate! It’s really the perfect situation!

This sheet is also a perfect plan for YOU to look at and see what you like to do best, then outsource the rest! If you like building (That’s MY area) – then outsource your content and marketing! Etc…ANY of the steps above can be outsourced, even as part of the team! :-)

So – What do You Think – and What Did I miss?

A Basic Build Sheet for Team Niche Site Building posted from the Niche Store Builder website.

Everything You Wanted to Know About BANS

Mark Hansen — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 20:37:27 +0000

There are going to be some pretty big changes coming to Build a Niche Store Users over the next few weeks and months, so I thought I would start a “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about BANS aka Build a Niche Store” page.

This page is going to be a long work in progress… and will include quite a bit of stuff that goes back to my early BANS days in 2007, up to the most current changes, which may leave Build a Niche Store Owners with no choice, but to upgrade to something else!

Last Admin Update: 01/30/2010

Current Status of BANS

As of the latest update, BANS sites should be working fine!

BANS is for sale however, and nobody knows what will happen when the new owners take over. In addition to this, BANS may be rendered useless once php6 comes around and is installed on your hosting system. The sky is NOT falling with that statement – Tao on the BANS forum has said he will recode the files to work with php6, if needed…

Is BANS Still a Good Buy?

I’m just being real – not hatin! Start looking for an alternative to BANS. Adam and Kelvin openly stated they are not making any changes, nor have they made any, since August 2008. The platform has been 100% user supported since that time and its in your own benefit to move on to a different platform. Just saying…

This is no different, and no easier to say to say to local website clients who have invested $15,000-$20,000 on their 5 year old ecommerce platform, that’s no longer being updated by the developers… and no different than a visitor of one of your sites, who will turn away to someone else if you stop updating it.

Latest BANS Issues and State of Resolve

Status: Fixed – BANS Cloaking Issue and the Fix on the BANS Forum & Daves site
Status: Coming Soon – BANS may not work in php6 due to code issues.

Places to Get Help with Your BANS Stores

The BANS User Forum
Tao at the Forum

Are you a BANS code person – send me your info to be listed here. I’m NOT talking about any old who-ha either, please have a history of supporting the BANS community and coding knowledge.

How to Articles or Methods to Convert BANS to Something Else

I expect these will pop up like weeds in the springtime over the next few months. Between eBay really hurting its partner network, and of course, BANS not being supported with any new development…

Convert a BANS Site to phpBay Easy Way – Harder Way
Convert BANS listings to Amazon Listings – aka $30 AmaBANS by Tao
CJ BANS, Again by Tao – Lets you change to CJ Products

I Need YOUR Help Building This Page

Listen – there are a lot of folks out there that still use BANS… Hell, I didn’t close my own last site off until several weeks ago.

Help me turn this page into a complete resource for people who are trying to figure out what to do about their BANS sites! If you read a good how-to, or know of someone who has a specific How-to post, send it to me at the contact page, or write a reply below. I will add all useful articles to the content here.

Mark

Everything You Wanted to Know About BANS posted from the Niche Store Builder website.

Progress – Are You Making Any?

Mark Hansen — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:40:05 +0000

January is about done… and before you know it, the birds will be singing and spring will be in the air! Well, I hope… anyway!

If you recall, I decided to declare My Goals for 2010 at the end of last year and figured I would provide an update for you all. After all, what good are goals if you don’t track your progress, right? (learn how to set goals)

Progress On My 2010 Goals

Goal #1 – I Will Quit Smoking!

Tried and failed quitting many times in my life… but as of today, I have not smoked even 1 cigarette since Dec 31st! Yup – I set a goal to quit and I have! I’m done.. poof, no more, nada!

I feel great and the extra 10-15 pounds will be gone when I figure out a way to replace Lay’s patoto chips with something else! I am in NO HURRY to stop eating Lays chips! If you need help quitting, I suggest seeing if the Duke Quit Smoking Study is near you! If not, check here.

Goal #2 – Write One “Useful” How-To Post Every Week

Building a Review Site Blueprint
(Actually 4-5 posts, with one to go!)
9 Affiliate Tools for Affiliates
Add Live Web Search from Collecta To Your Website
Using Google Insights to Spot Trends
How to Use Your Logs to Attract More Visitors

Goal #3 – I Will Get Local

I actually have 2 plans in progress for getting local! The first plan involves building a local service company rating website! Since I like the heating and air conditioning market and know quite a bit about it, I decided to build a website that lets visitors rate Charlotte area HVAC Contractors.

The site is about 40-50% completed right now and I hope to launch it within a few more weeks. When I do, I will definitely share it here, so you can see how to build a site, attract readers, and make money from local sites!

The second prong of my Get Local goal involves the local newspaper here in my town. I have a meeting scheduled next week with the editor of the local newspaper, and I am hoping to start a local technology section on their popular website, where I look at how local businesses are using technology to build their user base. More as it occurs…

Don’t forget – if you are a Facebook user – and you should be – Jump in and friend the Niche Builder Network! Its just another place to go and see what others are doing in the world of Niche Site Building!

Goal #4 – I Will Build One Site and Sell it for At Least $500,000 in 2010

WAY too early in the year for this one… as a matter of fact, I have not even got it far enough to share yet! :-)

How are You Reaching YOUR Goals in 2010?

Progress – Are You Making Any? posted from the Niche Store Builder website.

Check Your eBay/BANS Affiliate Sites

Mark Hansen — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:54:16 +0000

Not sure if you all read this already – but ePN sites using BANS, seem to be having an issue with the cloaking utility. I saw the issue posted at the ePN forum post, then over at Soggy Daves site…

The short and quick is to disable your link cloaking… AND to check ALL sites using ePN, not just BANS! On the forum post, it seems people using all kinds of redirect methods are having issues.

Mark

Check Your eBay/BANS Affiliate Sites posted from the Niche Store Builder website.

Collecta Live Search Widget for Your Website!

Mark Hansen — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:42:47 +0000

Man… talk about a cool little utility to make your site pop out above the rest… Collecta has jumped into the widget pool with a new feature that allows you to stream live news on your website!

The Collecta Widget Builder is a quick and easy way for you to give your readers more information about whatever topic you decide! It loads SUPER fast and you can configure your own widget in like 1 minute, and load it into a sidebar or page on ANY kind of site that allows you to run an iframe.

Nothing really new as far as inserting a feed to your site goes… but this one is “Live & Streaming”, meaning it is going to show results while the visitor is browsing. Look at the one I just created about WordPress SEO…

What Can you Include

Really – Anything you can think of! The Collecta system can display images, video, news, blog posts, ANYTHING that is being posted on the web and indexed by Collecta! (Which is a LOT)

Cool for sure!! Like Real-Time for your website! Check it out!

Collecta Live Search Widget for Your Website! posted from the Niche Store Builder website.

Niche Builders Club – Checking Interest in a Concept

Mark Hansen — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:24:31 +0000

This post is more of a “Thinking Out Loud” post – to see what kind of interest and/or discussion comes from it.

Anyhow – I built a High Top Skate Shoe site for one of my boys over the past weekend… he is really into the skate boarding scene, and has a ton of friends, some who read here… who are into it also. The way it all transpired and will continue to work is pretty simple:

I handle the technical aspect, WordPress, graphics, Plugins, etc
He handles the content and marketing side of it.

Its all beautifully simple to be honest… I go out and find the products that are in demand and sell well. I post them to the site, and from there, he takes over and starts writing more stuff about them. I get to do what I am BEST at (Development, research, building, tech crap, etc) and He gets to do what he is best at (Talking about the shoes, new product releases, social bookmarking, finding video’s, etc)

It’s really the same thing Kim and I do with her Coupon site – which also works very well! So… it got me thinking. Why not look into some kind of small club with 2-3 other people, each focused on their own area of expertise.

Crowd Sourcing Instead of Outsourcing?

Could it work, or do too many people like to keep their stuff close to heart? I mean… if we had a group of say 3-4 people, all working on what they individually do best, isn’t that what makes the start of fortune 500 companies?

Have a Techy person or two to handle all design, installs, plugin setup, onsite seo, etc.
Have a content writer or two to take the research and convert it to the site content.
Have a few marketing people to spread the word about the sites, handle article marketing, link building, etc.
Have a single umbrella company to handle all the income and pay it out every month!
Manage the entire group using the “Canoe Theory” (If you have ever worked for a fortune 500, you know it!)

Truthfully – everyone working toward the same set of goals would only mean success if you have the right people in place! I mean… 5 people working on the SAME group of 10 websites all the time, will bring much faster results than trying to do everything by yourself, no?

And Now – the Headaches with the Concept

Taxes – but this is easily overcome through the umbrella, and 1099’s.
What if someone wants to leave the network? Do they continue to receive compensation for their past effort? I can’t see how… but maybe a plan where a departing member receives lower monthly payouts that end after 3 months, and the person replacing them receives a 3 month buy-in period, where they don’t get full share until the third month?
What if someone slacks off? Read the Canoe Theory! (We will help you paddle for a little while, but eventually, your going overboard!)

There are many downsides to the concept – but with the right people in the right places, the upside could be huge!

One side of me thinks its just easier to outsource… but the other wants to try something like this! :-)

What do You Think?

Niche Builders Club – Checking Interest in a Concept posted from the Niche Store Builder website.

Weekly Wrapup of Some Great Content!

Mark Hansen — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 17:34:35 +0000

Once again – I am going to try and write a weekly wrapup post that reviews some of my own content, and that which I read during the week at other sites.

If nothing more – it gives me a chance to get some of my own content back in front of you, as well as giving you some insight to what I read every week.

Weekly Wrapup

In case you missed it, I added 2 posts this week! One post was about How to Use Google Insights to research trends for your product based review site, helping you understand the best times of year to focus on different sub-markets within your niche.

The other article I wrote this week focused on Tools and Plugins for Affiliates that will help make your site building an easier process!

In other news, I also achieved a milestone this past week of being accepted and listed on the bloggting page at alltop, by Guy Kawasaki!

One last note about me… 50,379. That’s my Alexa Rating as I write this! In the coming week, I hope to crest the 50k mark and work my way higher in the ranking! If you want to help… just go on over to My Alexa Profile!

Interesting Stuff Around the Web

- Bill, over at the Blog Entrepreneur site has been writing a VERY interesting series of articles about his $100k Niche Site, where he has picked apart one of his sites, and looked at it from the perspective of just how much money he is leaving on the table in the market!

It’s a great read and reminds all of us how just a little extra effort into one site versus 20, can make a HUGE difference!

- If you can fathom this… Comscore released its search data this past week… 29 Million Searches per Minute! That’s flippin HUGE!

- It’s just MY opinion, but I think the story of 2010 is not going to revolve around a product, health care, or any Massachusetts Republican who bucks the trend of the voting public.

In my opinion – Google Waging War Against Communist China will one day be in history books… just like Paul Revere riding into town screaming the British are Coming!

Finally – if you have an hour or two to kill – Google published a Quiz for Webmasters to see just how much they know, versus thinking they know! Its 40 questions of both common and technical Q&A.

Did You Read Anything Good this Week?

If so – share it in the comments!

Weekly Wrapup of Some Great Content! posted from the Niche Store Builder website.

9 Tools or WordPress Plugins Every Affiliate Needs!

Mark Hansen — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:06:40 +0000

Not a day goes by that I don’t get at least one email, asking my opinion on the Best Tools or Best WordPress Plugin for Affiliate Marketing! The truth is, the best WordPress Plugin for your affiliate site and mine may differ completely, depending on our target visitors and how we want them to interact with our website and our content.

That said – there are 8-10 tools and plugins I would not want to live without! Since using these, life has become much easier and building an affiliate site, much quicker! I have these loaded in a skeleton folder in my Hostgator account and they are preinstalled to the file directory on every new site install.

And yes.. unfortunately, some of them are commercial tools.

9 Tools or Plugins Every Affiliate Needs

I would love to say these are listed in no specific order, but if you are new to affiliate building and wondering which are best to get started with, work your way from the top of the list down!

1 – Googles’ Own Keyword Tools

100% Free and ready for anyone to get started with and understand more about what their visitors, or prospective visitors, may want. Bookmark them, learn how to use them, whatever you want to do!

These will be your best friends for many years!

Adsense Keyword Sandbox – Gives you a TOP level view of broad search demand.
Search Based Keyword Tool – Gives you a more refined look at “Actual” (Including mispells) non-manipulated search strings being typed into the google.
Insights Trend Data – An Indepth view of search trends.
Google Wonder Wheel – Expand your search and get some killer ideas of lateral search.
Google Related Search – Another great way to see what may be related to what you were looking for!

Cost: Free!

2 – ReviewAzon WordPress Plugin for the Amazon Affiliate Program

By Far – the BEST affiliate plugin I have bought in several years of using WordPress! Does everyone remember how easy you could build a site with BANS? ReviewAzon takes it a step farther… allowing you to build a complete site, full of content, listings, Reviews, Video and more for the Amazon Associate program.

I have been using ReviewAzon for almost 6 months now and I have several “Out of the Box” sites that earn very well, with less than 8 hours of invested time!

Another AWESOME benefit of having ReviewAzon – if you have phpBay or phpOStock, you can automatically (yes, automatically) include eBay and Overstock listings right within your review posts as a primary function of the plugin! This thing rocks!

Cost: $79, and you can build as many sites as you want! Read More about ReviewAzon

3 – N1Way Site Building Guide

If you want to learn what its all about – the N1Way Guide will show you! Before you even begin reading chapter 1, I suggest everyone go right to the LAST chapter, “Treat it Like a Business“, and you will immediately know if you even WANT to build your own website business and develop passive income from your efforts.

Cost: $35, and one of the best investments you will make in yourself!

4 – WordPress.com Free Statistics Plugin

I love Google Analytics as much as the next guy – but sometimes, you just want a snapshot of your daily efforts without weeding your way through the more cumbersome Analytics plugins.

WordPress.com stats is a free analytic plugin and uses the same API key as Askimet, and you will have a plethora of site statistics on your dashboard!

Cost: Free!

5 – OIO Publisher Ad Space Manager

With rotators, click tracking and the ability to setup an unlimited number of ad zones (Sidebar, Banner, Text links, even full posts) OIOPublisher takes the cake for ease of use and wide flexibility! As simple as it sounds… Plug it in and Go!

At the end of the day – you will KNOW which of your banners or ads are performing BEST in the same positions, so you can increase the frequency the highest performers are seen by visitors!

Cost: $47 for Unlimited Installations on your own Websites!

6 – Ozh Horizontal Admin Menu for WordPress

This is another one of those Gems that you will wonder how long you lived without! It moves the WordPress admin menu from the left side of your screen, to the top. Instead of all those annoying up and down arrows, its a simple horizontal hover menu system, that works WHEN and HOW you expect!

Cost: Free!

7 – Fast Blog Finder

I have been using Fast Blog Finder since early 2008 – and still use it almost daily today! You can download and use the free version which limits the number of results you see, or spend the one time $49 bucks and get the full version which returns a much more thorough list of sites related to yours.

In a nutshell – you tell FBF what you are looking for in related sites, and within minutes… you have a list of hundreds of relevant websites, complete with their PageRank, age, and whether they are nofollow links, etc. It is one of the most time saving tools in the box!

Cost: Free (Shows a limited number of sites) or $99 (Shows Unlimited websites)

8 – Search Meter for WordPress

Ever wonder what people are searching for in that big ugly search box? Like I said earlier, I LOVE analytics, but prefer everything to be on my dashboard in one place.

With Search Meter, you don’t have to do anything special at all… Activate the plugin and see what people are searching for in a daily, weekly, and monthly cumulative format.

Tip – As you notice the same thing showing up over and over again, you can either create new content around it, or get a bit more creative and create your own redirects based on simple and often repeated strings.

For instance, if I noticed that “n1way” was being searched for 20 times a day, I could write a pretty simple redirect that first, recognized the search (/?s=n1way) and second, redirected the search through my affiliate link, direct to the N1Way website. :-)

Cost: Free

9 – Hide My Ass Anonymous Search

Last but not least – one of the HARDEST things I have to tell someone is that their site is not ranking well, when they truly thought it was!

Repeat after me…

Google search is smart!
Google knows where I go on the Web!
Google knows how often I revisit the same sites!
Google knows what I search for on the Web!
Google knows the websites I Own!
Google knows Every Search Habit about me!
Google knows I often revisit some sites, so it lists them HIGHER in the rankings, but only to ME!

Now that you know the search results you see are skewed by Google personalized search, pick one of your own sites that you know ranks very well in the search engine, say top 10 results for a term you just never thought it would rank for?

Search Google, then search at the Hide My Ass site. Chances are, you will get different results. It’s NOT true all the time, but nothing is worse than thinking you rank stellar, when in effect, it’s personalized to you.

Cost: Free

What Do You Use?

I have several sections of this post marked for followup with full learning video posts on how to get the most from the specific section. Stay tuned for some great learning over the next few weeks…

What else do you recommend for beginner affiliates? Plugins, Tools, whatever – Share them below!

9 Tools or WordPress Plugins Every Affiliate Needs! posted from the Niche Store Builder website.

Spring Fever and What it Means to Website Builders

Mark Hansen — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:37:30 +0000

It’s a beautiful day in Charlotte today! Looks like we will reach into the 60’s as far as the temps go, and it already has me thinking about playing hookie and spending the day cleaning my car! I know, shame on me! :-)

What it REALLY means to anyone who is site building, is that its time to get in front of the spring and summer seasonal trends our own niche markets tell us will be popular! I know, some of you are staring at the screen right now with a do-what look on your faces… so let me try to explain.

Last week, I wrote about how you can use your logfiles to find content ideas – this week, I am going to focus on using free tools provided by Google!

Using Google Insights to Spot Trends

Google insights is just another nifty little tool that Google gives us to research and optimize our web efforts. If you have never used insights before, you’re missing out on a great tool that helps you plan site content, based on what people have typically looked for over several years – aka Search Trends.

I have several sites in the home hvac market. In the winter months, anything related to heat drives traffic, in the summer… yup, anything related to cooling. Along with air conditioners and furnaces, there is a whole array of other products that demand attention!

Humidifiers, Dehumidifiers, Thermostats, Air Purifiers… I could go on and on… but instead, I will just use those as an example of which I want to focus on RIGHT NOW, based on when they are popular.

Go to Google Insights
Compare by – Search terms
Terms – humidifier, dehumidifier
Filters: Web Search, USA, 2004-Now, All Categories.
Link

The chart shows me that “dehumidifiers” are MUCH more popular than “humidifiers” in the coming months…

Other Examples

While the humidifier / dehumidifier difference makes sense to me because I know the market already, there are several that I really don’t have a clue what will be popular. Using insights to dig through your own topics will help weed through the chaff and find the most probable areas you should focus in the coming months.

Common sense goes a long way to helping you stay in front of trends – but having Google tools and raw trend data to back it up, helps you find gems you may have missed.

Spring Fever and What it Means to Website Builders posted from the Niche Store Builder website.