Google and BANS. Once we thought this was a match made in Heaven. Nowadays, if you’re a BANS owner, you probably think you’ve been in affiliate marketing Hell. First there was the Ebay Partner Network canning hundreds of eBay affiliates, many who had Build A Niche Store sites up, and now Google has been either penalizing or out right indexing BANS sites from the SERPS.

Yeah, for some of you BANS owners, it’s been a pretty tough last few months.

I’m knocking on wood here. If you remember from my initial Build a niche store review, my goal was to build 100 banned websites. Now I thank my lucky star that I AMADD (Affiliate Marketing Attention Deficit Disorder) and only doing it to 30 points before losing focus and go do something else. So far none of my sites have been touched by one of Google or eBay. I’ll give you my theories on why it’s down the page.

A Few Theories Why Google Is De-Indexing BANS sites.

I’ve been following a lot of the chatter on forums about this subject as well as receiving a lot of email. This is what I’ve figured out to this point. No one has 100% concrete proof why Google is de-indexing BANS sites. There are a few theories floating around.

1. Disable the program has been used by many spammers. Many of these boys / girls were throwing the huge number of banned sites. info domains. They never bothered to change anything with the programs, their only concern is to get as many sites are prohibited as they could, as cheaply as they could. This left a huge trail for Google to follow.
2. Most of these same people never bothered to put any content on their sites. They were simply ebay sites with ebay auctions on them. This would be what Google calls a “thin affiliate” site. And we know what Google does with thin affiliate sites.
3. In order for Google to get all the spammy BANS sites, it had to take some legitimate sites along with them. It’s the shotgun approach. Use a huge pattern to make sure you get all of them. Try and limit the casualties but go forward knowing some innocent victims will be in the pattern.

My Theory On Why Google Hasn’t De-Indexed All BANS Sites

Even as when I bought Build Niche Store program, talked about Google finding the footprint of all standard templates and prohibit them punished. It seems this bird has come home to roost. From the outset, here is what I did to try and ban my site unique from all other “cookie cutter banned sites.

• I changed up the CSS a little bit on every site. I made sections like the header and content fields larger and smaller.
• I changed the colors on every site.
• I changed the size of the headers on every site and used graphic headers.
• I DID NOT go out and start sending hundreds of backlinks to my sites. I built them up over time using blog carnivals, article submissions, reciprocal linking and adding one way permanent links.
• I added content to nearly every page plus I used a lot of graphics.
• I never put eBay auctions on my main page. I put content on the index page to make it look as much like a informative content site as I could. Just look at how many BANS sites have nothing more than auctions on their front page.
• On many of the domains that hosted my BANS sites, I added blogs, article directories and forums to many. (mostly just blogs that supported the main domain)
• I never put more than 2 BANS sites on one hosting account plus I paid extra for all sites to have a dedicated IP’s. I’ve read stories of people hosting all their BANS sites with one hosting company. Wow, I can’t fathom that idea. I’m just too paranoid I suppose.
• I only used dot com domains. Of course, these last two items is what I do for nearly all of my affiliate sites, not just for BANS. I want to make it as hard as possible for Google or any other search engine to spy on my websites.

Now, I’m not saying if you do these things that Google will not index your site. These are things I do every site had banned. I did this from day one and as I said above, knock on wood, my sites that are not touched. In fact, many of them are still climbing the SERPS.

Is the Build A Niche Store Still Worth Buying?

I’ve had a few emails asking that question. Honestly, I’d say yes it is. But only if you intend to build sites that have a lot of content and you make them unique. If you’re plan is to buy it and throw up a bunch of BANS sites without adding any value to them, I think you’d be wasting your money. Google is on to you.

Alternatives to The Build A Niche Store program

If you’ve been reading this blog for more than a week or so, you know I’m impressed by PHPBay plugin for WordPress. As I mentioned in my post Advanced Build Niche Store Strategies, I’ve been doing PHP Bayand WordPress blogs and stores with eBay auctions. It seems that every week my PHPBay / WordPress stores outproduce my Build Niche Store sites. Hey, it’s no secret that Google is crazy in love with blogging WordPress. Why not take advantage of it? Plus, to be honest, and WordPress blog site PHP Bay combination just looks much better than 99% of prohibitions sites out there, mine included. (Hey, maybe Google hates ugly sites?)

Whatever the real reason that Google is de-indexing or penalizing BANS sites, owners using this program need to proceed with caution. If you continue to make sites with BANS, then do everything in your power to make them unique and stand away from the crowd.