My Thoughts On BANS Sites
April 19th, 2008 | by ScottIt appears that you're new here, if you like what you read, please subscribe to the news feed or sign up for the Leap eTips news and updates email list. Thank you for visiting :)
In a recent posting I mentioned that I follow the RSS feed of a blogger who primarily focuses on BANS (Build a Niche Store) based sites because he was part of a controversy that I was talking about.
From that post I received an email contact from Mike, a reader of this blog who wanted to know why I didn’t seem to support the BANS site model with “any enthusiasm” given how effective it is, and how easy it is for anyone to start making money with it almost instantly.
So, My Thoughts on BANS
First, I have no problems with the BANS script, or using it to build affiliate ebay sites. I think BANS is a fine tool to have in your toolbox.
Where I do have some problems is with the way most people seem to be misusing that tool, and misusing social platforms in conjunction with it.
At least 90% of the BANS sites I’ve seen are pure garbage sites. People use the script to create an instant affiliate store, stuff their pages with keyword rich text specifically to game search engine spiders and then they spam social bookmarking and community sites to get instant backlinks and SERPs juice.
To be perfectly clear, this system works well right now… but the on-page keyword stuffing text offers nothing of original value for human consumption, so basically this is nothing more than a twist on the old MFA (made for AdSense) model.
What does that mean for this in the long term? Simple, it means that search engines are going to pick up on it soon and start working to prevent its effectiveness.
As I mentioned in the other posting I’ve told a few people in the past who were in desperation to look into BANS for themselves and pointed them to the same related blogs that I follow. However, I’ve also warned them not to get greedy or try to game the search engines.
I warned them not to follow the pattern of using keyword stuffed unreadable text on their pages, but instead to take a few extra minutes to write original quality page content that was keyword optimized. Both can get you the same SERPs results, and the trade off of a little extra time creating quality content vs. not being labeled a spammer or abuser by search engines down the road is completely worth it.
Look, if you’re not offering true value to human visitors beyond your advertising on the pages then you’re gaming the search engines, and they just don’t like that.
My biggest concern is that ultimately this and other marketing systems which abuse social platforms for links and juice are going to end up harming the social platforms themselves. For example, if Google, Yahoo and MSN all decided to stop indexing sites like del.icio.us or StumbleUpon just because a few jag-offs are abusing them that would be a shame for everyone.
Now, not everyone is trying to game the search engines with BANS. I’ve seen a few BANS sites where the owners created high quality on-page content around their niches and have been really impressed with those sites. That’s the way this tool should be used, and I’d even bet that these guys are making a lot more bank off of their sites than the rest if you compare them on a site vs. site basis.
But again, if the search engines start targeting all BANS users because of the high level of those abusing it to game their indexes this will hurt the legitimate users as well. In the end everybody loses.
So basically I have no problem with any tools that aren’t specifically designed to fool search engines or people, and I don’t think BANS is.
But I do take some issue with abusing those tools, and encouraging others to abuse them, because there’s a zero sum future in trying to game search engines. You might make some easy money in the short term, but the search engines will eventually catch up with what you’re doing and their efforts to stop you will ultimately cause collateral damage on others who have been doing the right thing all along.
In my opinion, making a quick and easy buck in this way is no different than clubbing old ladies over the head and stealing their purses.
It’s easy to make money with BANS, and to do it in a legitimate way. There’s no need to shorten the shelf life of BANS as a good tool by abusing it, but some will keep doing that and eventually BANS will probably become just another useless script in the large pile of good ideas that have been ruined by those who abused them online.
Stumble It!
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