A BANS Experience

UPDATE 8/14/08: BANS GIVES ITSELF AN UPDATE

I recently posted an article titled "BANS IMPLODING." In this posting I mentioned a few items disheartening to me regarding BANS and the changes I saw occurring over the last year. My main disappointment was in the forum and how it had gotten out of control in many ways that was detrimental to new membership.

Within days of that article being published, Adam and Kelvin, the founders of BANS, announced that a new forum and new rules of conduct on that forum would be implemented and the "look"of the forum would be changed. I waited with anticipation for those changes to arrive, as the forum was closed for two days while the forum format altered, it was cleaned of many useless postings, new rules were created, and the entire program the forum was created on was transitioned.

FOR THE BEGINNER - AGAIN

On August 13th, 2008, the new BANS Forum was unveiled and it was a major improvement that brings BANS into a new era of growth. It has shed its' old skin of being an uncontrolled tiger-by-the-tail and transformed into a monster money making program with teeth - Only this new monster won't be eating its' young.

At the top of the list of new rules for members is the rule that abusive behavior toward newer members (or any member, for that matter) will not be tolerated. The rampant selling of affiliate programs through signature links has ended. It had become a place where members seemed to practice affiliate marketing far too much by posting useless responses only for the sake of getting an affiliate link seen and was thankfully killed. With just these two changes
(among many), the flamers and sellers will likely find less reason to bother creating the problems that we had previously. The support system has also been improved, with a ticket and registration system that should go a long way to assist new members with any problems fellow members can not assist them with.

APPROVAL WITHIN BANS COMMUNITY
The response by members is overwhelming approval to the new forum and rules. We all like some order to our lives and our community. This applies to a cyber-community, as well.

Additional changes include more category listings to keep some order to the 100,000+ posts made on the forum, thus far, and the many more thousands that are sure to follow in the coming years. One addition I particularly liked was the new "Templates" made available to members. In addition to the basic template that arrives when you purchase the program, you can now download pre-made templates that are more appealing in color, design, and overall appearance, which translates not only into being more user friendly to the new member, but into more money, as a visitor to your site sees a more professional landing page. Though I have learned over the months to tweak the basic template, these new offering provide me even more options for creating websites with unique appearances.

TWO THUMBS UP!

With the changes now implemented to the BANS forum, support system, and membership, I can again give my full and honest recommendation to all who want to make extra money through the internet. BANS is once again for the beginner and at $97 is again, the best investment you will make. It still requires a commitment from you to create your own fortune, but it is once
again the tool that allows any "Noob" to do so. Like an old house that needed repairs because the foundation was crumbling, those repairs are complete.

It's good to be home.
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Before I begin I think some background is in order, so that readers understand what my level of knowledge was when I bought Build A Niche Store and began building websites. I first purchased BANS in early December of 2007. My knowledge was almost nil when it came to building sites, and making the internet work for me to generate money. The most I had done was get myself an eBlogger page. In fact, when I first purchased BANS it took me an hour to understand how to unzip the files and find the installation instructions. Yes, that is how much of a "Noob" I was to internet marketing.

Now to tell you of my experience with BANS, a program that allows you to create websites and earn money by becoming an affiliate. Its' main source for generating your revenue is through eBay's ePN program. For me, $97 wasn't easy to part with. I'm 49 years old and have fallen victim to my share of scams, so I'm suspicious of everything I read. I visited
the BANS site and read the testimonials. I Googled "BANS" and read reviews, both good and bad. The good reviews far outweighed the bad ones. I figured out the extra costs of buying domains, a host server, and FTP program. I calculated bare bones costs to be around $150 up front and a recurring monthly fee of $15. Keeping in mind that I had no idea how to use an FTP account, or even what a "host server" was, I plunged ahead, believing that I could be "ready to go" in an hour, by allowing for my inexperience.

As a Noob, I was almost immediately lost. I finally figured out how to unzip the files and open the installation instructions. There was of course, the search for a good domain name. I, like most Noobs, made the mistake of purchasing a domain that infringes on a copyright - but that's another story. I purchased my domain from Godaddy (a good reputation and less expensive than most) and had to call them almost immediately because I didn't understand the concept of "pointing" the DNS. I also had to pick my host server plan with Hostgator (again, good reviews and not expensive). By the way, I didn't know at the time I had to upload to my "public_html" folder. I tell you this, as a further example of my lack of knowledge.

One of the first things I did, among those mentioned above was to join the BANS forum. At that time BANS had just about 4000 members on the forum. As of this writing they are approaching 9200, which means that in 6 months they doubled the membership it took then to achieve in their first year. This may be the reason the forum is now a much different place it used to be, but more on that later. When I joined the forum a Noob could ask a question about a problem they were having with getting something to operate correctly and 10 people would volunteer an answer without hesitation. When you are new to anything more than email, even reading a manual is like reading Greek. I was one of those that saw much of it in Geek, not Greek. Yes, the same question might have been asked by a half dozen people in a month, but they would either be pointed to the thread with the answer or given the answer. It was a community of helpful individuals wanting each other to succeed. In fact, My ineptness at getting my first store running had the founder, Adam, correcting a database problem I caused myself and getting my store operational. That has changed for anyone now joining.

With all the delays of figuring out host server problems, getting the domain name, learning the FTP program, joining affiliate programs, and succeeding in uploading a working site, it took me 3 days before I had a site that looked similar to this template. There was much cursing and crying along the way. Certainly not the "10 minutes" I was reading about when I purchased it. However, I was lucky. I joined at a time before it was over-sold.
Before the Trolls got balls. A time when Adam and his brother Kelvin were still active in the forum and a half dozen moderators patrolled the threads. Many may have been there to sell their wares, but they contributed with help and advice along the way - including new code snippets for improvements and actually troubleshooting some sites at no charge.

Now, about 9 months have passed since I first joined BANS. I have 16 BANS sites in various stages of a build, from one with some limited tweaking and SEO, like CoffeeTweek.com, to a site that is tweaked and coding changed to give it a totally unique look, as I did with NostalgiaFinder.com. It was a hugelearning curve for me. I didn't know even basic HTML to create these looks when I first began. To actually go into a cPanel and change script was a heart stopping experience. This has to be done though, as the web is now being filled with those who join BANS and other web building programs, set up an out-of-the-box site, attach an eBay feed and walk away, doing nothing to improve their website. Those who build 100+ of these sites, because of the unlimited licensing BANS offers (allowing you to build as many stores as you like) are the scurge of the internet and have given BANS visitors a bad taste in their mouth.

The BANS forum has become a nasty place because of a few rogue members. One, a crotchety old man from the Netherlands, likes to call some Noobs names for asking a question. "Bonobo" seems to be his favorite tag to a Noob who asks what would be a simple question to those of us who now understand the basics. He has told new members to go away and to basically not ask questions, making them feel stupid and unwelcome. This, from an old goat who had plenty of questions when he first joined the BANS community. Some members have gone so far as to display "RTFM" (Read The Friendly (?) Manual) in their avatars, berating those who dare ask a question that can be found in the manual, but may not be understood.

Where are the founders, Adam and Kelvin? Many of us wish we knew. They posted the fact that they were moving a few months ago, but rarely make an appearance and don't mingle with the paying customers any more. If only 10% of those who paid for BANS didn't join the forum, that means 10,000 people bought BANS. If the founders average approximately $50 on every sale (if an affiliate sends the customer, the affiliate gets $47, otherwise BANS gets the $97). Do the math. If you raked in $500,000 in 2 years, would you want to deal with a forum filled with some real a-holes? In fairness though, they do provide updates needed when eBay makes a change that affects the affiliates. Where are the old moderators who kept some order in the forums? Nobody knows for sure, but I believe they recognized that the ride with BANS is coming to an end because of the individuals now arriving. This morning I responded to a post from a new member who expected to be getting rich in a few days. Seriously.

Even I had a concept when I started that this would be work. For the first month I spent every waking hour of my weekends and 3 hours each work night doing SEO and manipulating the two sites I was then working on. As I finally near completion of my sites, getting them the way I want them and performing the SEO they require, I am now moving onto a blog. It is in a sorry state at the moment, but The Tweak Show will become a great SEO tool for all my sites in time. Nobody should believe that this, or any internet marketing venture is an overnight money maker. If you are new to the internet and have nothing established with social networking or existing blogs, then it will be months before real coin can be made. My first month I recovered about half my expenses. I was more than even by the second month. I now make a few hundred dollars each month after expenses and having upgraded to an SEO hosting account, which is more expensive than a basic host plan. That amount has been steadily increasing. Slow, but steady.

My bottom line? At this point BANS is not for the Noob who has no experience with script, HTML, uploading, SEO, and everything that goes with marketing on the internet. If you are so new that your not understanding how to do the basics would cause you to ask a question on the BANS forum, then you should think about saving your money to try another venture. You are likely to remain lost if a forum member decides to derail your post in which you ask a question. It IS NOT a simple "10 minute" program for the inexperienced. I would still recommend it to the mid-level internet user who has a basic understanding of uploading files and tweaking sites, along with performing SEO.

Until the BANS forum has an attitude adjustment forced upon it by the founders, or the beligerent members move on to their next shiny bauble that catches their eye, BANS isn't for the inexperienced, or those who can't afford the money and time it will take to learn it on your own.