BANS 3.0 Tips and Tricks

Here are some helpful tips and tricks you can employ on your sites that use the Build a Niche Store 3.0 software:

Add a Privacy Policy
Not only does Google give your site more PageRank if your site has a privacy policy, but it’s actually required under both the Google AdSense and Commission Junction terms of service. So if you use either on your sites, you have to have a privacy policy.

It gets worse. You can’t just have any old privacy policy. Nope, your policy has to reference the fact that Google AdSense and CJ both utilize cookies and web beacons.

The good news is there are sites that make it super easy to create these policies. Just fill in a couple forms, click submit, and copy/paste the policy on your site.

When I add a privacy policy to new BANS sites, I create a new content page and name it “Privacy Policy.” Then I utilize the hide feature in the content area so the page does not appear in the navigation column. Finally I manually add the link to my footer… right beside the copyright notice.

Add a “Bestsellers” List to the Navigation Column
This is super easy to accomplish. Identify the best selling products on your store, and feature them in your navigation column. I feature them below the page navigation but before the site navigation. Once you’ve identified the products, copy the URL to each product page. Here’s the code you add to your header file…Find this code in header.php:

<div id=”sidebar”>
<h2>Site Navigation</h2>
<ul>
<?=$front->pagenav();?>
</ul>

Change it to this instead:

<div id=”sidebar”>
<h2>Site Navigation</h2>
<ul>
<?=$front->pagenav();?>
</ul>
<h2>Bestsellers</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href=”http://www.yoursite.com/Acme/Widget One”>Acme Widget One</a></li>
<li><a href=”http://www.yoursite.com/Acme/Widget Two”>Acme Widget Two</a></li>
<li><a href=”http://www.yoursite.com/Acme/Widget Three”>Acme Widget Three</a></li>
</ul>

Become a PayPal Affiliate
Sign-up for a PayPal account and then register on their site to become an affiliate. Place the PayPal logo in the site-wide “Above Ads” area along with your affiliate link. Now you’ve accomplished two goals: 1) you’re promoting PayPal for commissions, and 2) the presence of the PayPal logo will give extra confidence and trust to your visitors/customers. People like seeing the PayPal logo… it lends a sense of credibility. Remind them that if they use PayPal to buy something from eBay, they will get free buyer protection.

Add a Sitewide eBay RSS Feed
Log into the eBay Partner Network and use the tools to create an affiliate RSS feed for the general term of your niche. For instance, if you have a BANS site that sells products in the Nintendo Wii niche (consoles, games, controllers, accessories, whatever) then create an RSS feed for the phrase “Nintendo Wii.” Once you have the URL for your affiliate RSS feed from eBay, add the following to your site’s header.php file anywhere within the header tag:

<link rel=”alternate” type=”application/rss+xml” href=”http://rss.api.ebay.com/feed-url-etc” title=”Site Name RSS Feed”>

When that link is added to your header.php file, Internet Explorer and Firefox will both auto-detect the feed and present it to users in the toolbar. Savvy users who want to can then subscribe to the feed, and it will forever contain your affiliate id so you’ll get credit for any sales generated through it.

Finally, edit your footer.php file and create a manual link to the RSS feed, placing it next to the privacy policy link you created earlier.

Hopefully you find these BANS 3.0 tips helpful!

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