BANS Is Dead – BuildANicheStore Members Now Post Truth

BANS IS QUICKLY APPROACHING SCAM STATUS

I want those of you who read this to know that one of the saddest things I have to write is about the BANS program and the decline of the worth it once had. If you look over my old posts you will find that I once believed in Build A Niche Store and saw value in it – while value still existed. It is not just me saying this, but veteran members on it’s own forum, even the most diehard and stubborn, are finally conceding to the fact that BuildANicheStore is done. Though there are a few BANS blogs that seem to be trying to diversify by promoting other scripts, they also seem to ignore the fact that they were promoting BANS as recently as a few months ago to unsuspecting newbs and are still trying to sell it.

Enter the private BANS forum and the few members who still lurk will tell new people to ask for a refund and will direct them to a better program, just as I will do in this post.

The sad truth is,  BANS imploded on itself. The demise of  BANS came from within. The founders walked away from it, thinking that the heady money making days of earning over $260K/year from sales would continue unabated while they ignored problem tickets and their members. They left moderators and veteran members on the forum to solve new purchaser problems and come up with fixes to the ever changing eBay links and requirements needed to keep BANS compatible.

There was a faint glimmer of hope in mid-2009 when the founders suddenly reappeared promising a new development to the BuildANicheStore script that would bring new life to it. As quickly as the promise was made, it was taken back without a new script and, once again, the founders disappeared into oblivion.

Then, a former banned member (banned twice!), who was known for excessive abuses toward new members who were trying to learn the script (because of the misleading promotion, “Build a website in 10 minutes!”), was able to worm his way back onto the forums by purchasing a less expensive “Guide” (which was nothing more than a rehash of information already provided on the forum). This allowed him membership onto the forum under a new name that made it appear as though it was the “wife” (as if a woman would be dumb enough to have the bi-polar, manic-depressive, asshole) of the banned member, who was doing the posting. Because the Admins (founders) are the only ones who can ban a member and they no longer monitor the forum, his presence remains and did nothing more than alienate more members, driving away new members and veterans who didn’t find his senility worth reading. Much of his time is spent posting links to his own forum in an attempt to garner membership to it. The sad part is that he is gathering newbs who don’t have a clue about his ineptitude at running a real money making affiliate program with websites. I suspect it is much like a retard leading the blind.

The forum is now a lonely place. We, who have the knowledge to help new members, just don’t see any reason to do so, because who wants to support those who won’t support their own program. Just about every veteran member has changed their BANS scripts over to WordPress, or taken down the BANS sites and created new sites from scripts like phpBay, which makes far more money than BANS now does. Plus, these scripts receive far more support than BuildANicheStore provides. About the only vets who remain on the BANS forum are the few who had built their entire website empire around BANS. Their blogs that promoted BANS had been their anchor website and thus sent their members to other programs or links they advised. They are the last ones to go and are most definitely feeling the decline of BANS, as they scurry to revitalize their other websites with backlinks and content. Not doing so will be the death of them also, when BANS finally disappears.

BANS is now $64.95, down from the $97 price tag it originally had. The founders tried to sell the program long after the death rattle could be heard. They opened the bidding at $200K (with a Buy It Now price of $500K) and then reduced it to $100K. There never were any takers from the Flippa listing they created. Anyone with half a brain can look at the numbers and see the steady decline in revenue – which occurred at about the time their lack of interest began. The more stringent acceptance policies of ePN, in what types of websites they would accept, also put a damper on the money party.

The truly disgusting part is that the developers haven’t even bothered to update their own instruction/installation manual that would solve a few major problems with the BANS program. They don’t give the easy fix for the BANS sites not updating information made by the purchaser, when inserting content.  It also still directs people to apply to ePN as an affiliate BEFORE the site is even installed. That alone will get you a rejection letter from ePN – and those who buy BANS get them. The forum was filled with complaints by new members wanting to know why they were rejected. When told, in the forum, how to properly apply (with a complete, content rich, and properly prepared site), they were rightfully pissed off. They follow the instructions to the letter and still got screwed. Refunds to new members are abundant – which is why little new blood appears in the forums.

No longer was BANS an out-of-the-box and apply to ePN for immediate acceptance website script. Most who now buy it discover that they are rejected by ePN for submitting a thin site and request a refund when they discover work is actually required to get accepted and make BANS function correctly. The developers of BuildANicheStore waited far too long and ignored it for too long before trying to sell it. Imagine owning a winning racehorse. It wins every race for a year. Now imagine not feeding it for a year and not grooming it. Not getting rid of a disease that keeps reappearing. It gets sick and is hardly breathing.

Think you could sell it for more than dog food money, based on what it used to make? Hardly.

For anyone considering purchasing BANS, save your $64.95 and put it towards a better program with more support and a better track record.  Though the old posts on the BANS forum are a wealth of information, it is hardly worth the money to go there and retrieve it when the same information can be found on the phpBay Pro forums, for example.

I got my start in the affiliate business from a very honest person who I only met through his blog. He told me that though people can make money with scams, it is honesty that retains the loyalty and gets the links. That’s why I’m honest with you here. BANS is dead. BANS is pretty much worthless and I expect that once the last moderator abandons it (there are only 2 still barely active), it will be a free-for-all and not worth keeping live, unless it is just to keep some validity to the promise of  a forum, made to new fools who purchase BuildANicheStore.

Don’t be fooled by those who would tell you that the BANS script is sound. It is outdated, recognizable as little more than a gateway to eBay, and has far to many repairs needed to be worth the effort for an unskilled programmer to even attempt to correct. Those blogs that tell you differently are often the same ones that have built their business around it, or you are reading posts from early 2009, when some hope still remained. They want to make the commission from your purchase and don’t want to lose what has been a cash cow for them.

Let them know that the cow has gone dry. BANS doesn’t give cash any longer to the newb and needs far too much repair for anyone unfamiliar with the coding, but it will take more of yours if you believe the bullshit that a few are still putting out.

You will do far better using the program I suggested previously, or using WordPress and installing a number of fine plugins that will earn you just as much cash (more) and you won’t have the hair pulling, or crying that you would trying to get BuildANicheStore running correctly.