AllPosters.com 75% Off Sale + Free Shipping Coupon

I’ve already bought 3 posters from AllPoster.com for $5.00 each and free shipping. AllPosters is having a huge up to 75% off clearance sale. The free shipping coupon codes are: “EARS” or another one is “APCSHP.” AllPosters.com is a great company in my opinion, ePinions.com customers give them 4 1/2 out of 5 stars. If you decide to return your poster AllPoster.com has a 30 day money back guarantee.

My Review of BANS, Build a Niche Store at Buildanichestore.com

I decided to take the plunge into the world of BANS, Build a Niche Store about 2 weeks ago. So far I’m impressed with the results!

To start simply go to BuildaNicheStore.com and purchase the product for $97.00. Next buy your web hosting from a company that supports BANS, called HostGator.com. The Host Gator plan that I ordered is called “Baby” at $7.95/month with unlimited domain names. The Host Gator unlimited domain names feature is the key here because you don’t have to stop at just one BANS niche store on your web hosting account. I’m heard many BANS affiliates say that they have become “addicted” to building niche stores. This could be a problem down the road as more and more people use the BANS product and building stores on every imaginable keyword. This will lead to search engines recognizing the BANS script as spam and de-indexing these niche sites or not ranking them well in the search results. I think this WILL happen, it’s inevitable… that’s why you have to use BANS now while it’s still working. Build a Niche Store on their web site states that they plan on raising prices to lower demand of the product, so we’ll see what happens.

Finding Your BANS Niche

As of now BANS is working for me and other affiliates I’ve read. Simple choose a niche topic. One of the best ways to find a niche is to go to eBay Trends http://pulse.ebay.com/index/20081_1. This link gives you popular searches broken down by category. It’s a priceless tool when finding your BANS niche. Next, visit Google and type in your niche keyword. How many search results are there? How much PPC competition is there? Click on the first three sites in the natural search results, what do they look like? Is there already a BANS store in this niche category? Next go to http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/ to see how many hits your niche keyword gets in a month. You ideally want a keyword that gets over 200 combined hits a month according to WordTracker.com. Combined meaning all the keyword variations grouped together. For example, lets say you choose to make a Tickle Me Elmo niche store. If you type in “Tickle Me Elmo” you’ll notice several keyword variations in the same niche theme. Add these up and see if they total 200. “Tickle me elmo 179,” “tickle me elmo extreme 4,” “tickle me elmo surprise 4.” WordTracker.com keyword count is always low, so don’t worry about the 200 total search rule, there are more searches going on that that for your chosen niche keyword.

The BANS Installation Process

The set up process couldn’t be easier. Some affiliate blogs claim they could set up the BANS store script on their server in less than 15 minutes. I took a little longer at 1 hour. The BANS store set up directions I’m not kidding you when I say this are some of the most crystal clear and easy to understand instructions I’ve ever read. Really! You can literally follow them step by step and 10 out of 10 times have your BANS store up and running perfectly. Once your BANS store is set up you can start adding your eBay links. Simply enter your eBay “Campaign ID’ and your eBay.com niche category number. Click the save button and like magic your pages is filled with your niche eBay item you want to sell. I’d recommend customizing your niche pages as much as possible with relative content, pictures, links to articles on your niche topic, etc. The goal is to make your BANS niche store to look and feel nothing like a BANS niche store. Customize the theme of the site, search “BANS free themes” or “BANS free templates” in Google for more selections. Like any site the goal is to always add content and BANS is no exception.

How’s My Site Doing?

In just 2 weeks I’ve made about $100. My site is already indexed in all the major search engines and gets ranked well on a couple non competitive keyword phrases. So my success is just alright, but I’m hopeful sales will pick up. I like the fact that there’s something new to try and at least for now seems to work for most people. Try out BANS store, sign up with Host Gator. Both companies offer a money back guarantee if you’re not satisfied. Read the small print on their sites for more details.

Let me know your results with BANS!

Are Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs a Fire Risk?

Update August 06 2008: Read comment section for response to this blog post. Apparently brown or melting plastic (see pictures) is relatively normal. I will definitely do more research into this.

If you’re like me you’ve already replaced most of the bulbs in your home with compact fluorescent bulbs. By switching over from 60W + 100W incandescent I’ve seen noticeable savings on my energy bill. There has been something occurring that’s got me concerned, so much so that I may switch back from compact fluorescents to standard bulbs. The bulbs in question are the SKU #292-460 Model EDXO-14 120V 60Hz 14W .200A V # 42836 manufactured by Commercial Electric also doing business as DuraBright. These 14W bulbs last a maximum of about 6 months even though they claim they will last for several years. The real issue I have with these bulbs manufactured by Commercial Electric is when the burn out they literally burn out. When I have gone to replace the bulbs around where the glass connects to the plastic base there is brown charring (see pictures). The bulb seems to be short circuiting, over heating, and nearly catching on fire. This isn’t a one time occurrence either, on every failed bulb I can see varying degrees of brown burn marks. On one bulb (see pictures) you can see that there is actually melted plastic around the edge of the light bulb! I did some research on Consumer Electric and some of their bulbs have been recalled in the past, specifically the ‘32-watt, 3-way (40-75-150 watt output) compact fluorescent bulbs,” but they did not recall the 14 W model that I purchased. I would stay away from this brand as it poses as a fire risk. From now on I’m sticking with name brand companies instead of the fly by night China operations with limited quality control. (Update: TCP, Inc. the company that manufacturers these bulbs is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.)

Light #1

Light #2

Little Caesars Crazy Bread & Sauce $1.99

Little Caesars Crazy Bread & Sauce $1.99. Printable Little Caesars coupon.