BANS (Build a Niche Store) vs phpBay - Review: which is best?

Recently, I decided to try building an eBay affiliate website with BANS. You can read about my experience in my Build a Niche Store Review - which also explains what building a niche store means, for those who don't know!

As I said in that article, I'm concerned that the BANS concept may not have "legs". In the fast-moving world of the internet, you see the same pattern again and again - a new idea for "making money online" pops up, and the people who leap on the bandwagon early do well. But eventually, the idea gets too popular for its own good, the market is flooded and the income dies - either because there's too much competition or because Google decides to penalise it, or both.

In fact, the BANS designers seem to recognise that pattern, because the software is designed for speed: they encourage you to throw together large numbers of basic storefronts fast, with just enough content to disguise them as "real" websites - so you can ride the BANS wave before it runs out.

Personally, I'd prefer to go for longer tail business. I wanted to build a real website with rich content that readers would want to come back to, and BANS didn't let me do that - so the hunt was on for an alternative. And I found one - phpBay.

1. What they do

BANS creates a website where you can list eBay products, then lets you add some content. In a way, phpBay is the opposite - it lets you pull listings from eBay and display them on your existing website or blog.

2. What they cost

phpBay is half the cost of BANS, and there is even a free version (phpLite). In fact it's a good idea to start with phpLite, because if you decide you like it, you can upgrade to phpBay with ease - when I did it, I didn't even have to modify any of the phpLite scripts on my blog posts. They all still worked!

Just be aware that on the "Lite" version, you can't choose the "available to" option for your listings, which is a useful feature.

3. eBay listing options

With BANS, you choose which country you want to list items from, then you customise your listings by entering keywords. Your listings will show items from that country only.

With phpBay, you can list from just one country, but you also have the option of a dropdown box so your reader can choose their own country's version of eBay - meaning that no matter where your visitor comes from, they can use your site.

You can also choose to list items "available to" a country, instead of just items listed on that country's eBay site. That's an important difference for many eBay users. For instance, a British coin collector might have to pay a lot for an old Indian rupee in the UK, but he could pick one up fairly cheaply from India. A collector of modern French glassware is going to be keen to see glassware from French sellers, not just British ones. In fact, being able to access overseas listings is exactly what makes eBay so attractive to collectors.

I'll give you an example from my own store. When I tried to list belly dancing swords on my BANS site, I got no listings - because there are no sword sellers on eBay Australia. But with phpBay, I specified "items available to Australia", not just "items on eBay Australia", and got a whole page of items!

Of course, there is a catch with phpBay. With BANS, you can build your site in a day, even if you know next to nothing about the internet. Everything is spelled out step by step, they have a great forum, and the process is fairly simple. If you're content to add some simple text for your content, you're done and dusted in no time. Then all you have to worry about is driving traffic to your site.

If you use phpBay, you'll need a website or blog to add phpBay to - so if you don't already have one, you have some skills to master.

I set up my site using Wordpress. I found it relatively easy to use, but there was definitely a learning curve. It took me longer to set up than my original BANS store - and even longer to tweak it! However, I'm much happier with the end result compared to the BANS version, and I'm more confident that I have an idea which will generate return traffic.

You'll find it at www.bellydanceoz.com - I'm still building content, but the eBay listings are all set up.

For more information on what you'll need, and some tips and tricks on being an eBay affiliate, check out embitca's Hub on the eBay Affiliate Program.

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All text copyright Marisa Wright. eBay photograph courtesy of pbo31 on Flickr.