Yesterday I noticed that my EPN sites were having trouble with their searching capability. It appears that eBay changed some things related to their RSS feed on my searches, luckily my category RSS were okay, for the time being. This recent change affected my parser that extracts the Auction ID for my SEO links (internalized links to eBay). I also noticed that they named a few new variables (this could be old news for many, but it was new to me)

icep_item=xxxxxx
ipn=psmain
icp_vectorid=xxxxxxx
kwid=xxxxxx
mtid=xxxx
kw=rss
icep_ff3=2

I was able to restore search functionality, but I only updated my rover redirects on one site to verify that this change did NOT impact my click counts for that site, and I’ll be migrating my rover code to this new style. I know I could pull this rover URL directly from the RSS result, but I’m not passing extraneous info via the querystring on my redirect. I may reconsider this though.

Today, Dave at BuildANicheStoreBlog.com had a post stating that if you have BANS sites that have Cloak Affiliate Links in box #4 you may be experiencing problems. This seems awfully coincidental to my issues noticed yesterday. Apparently, those users are directed to a ‘Page Not Responding’ at eBay. You can read Dave’s full post here.

Related posts:

1. EPN change to RSS
2. EPN Newsletter – Referring URL Visibilty
3. EPN Tracking Image

I remember my first interaction with BANS, and it was horrible, but oddly enough, it started with me visiting their site and was surprised to see that my browser was prompted for downloading the PHP source code? I noticed that DB connection string was exposed, so I quickly notified BANS via digital point forums. They were aware of the problem (as to why they didn’t disable the site completely during the outage is surprising). You’d think DB connection strings would be quite useful to hackers.

Fast forward 8 months or so to today, and I was surprised to see that someone stated that the site was hacked on the forums. I had to check it out, since I haven’t been to the BANS site in a long time, and sure enough, I was viewing the following screen(s):

Nationwide Internet Banking? Possible phishing site? Either way, bad for BANS. From their buggy release of v3.0 to this? It does look however to possibly be a classic server wide defacement and may not be isolated to buildanichestore.com, since subpages are still operational. Most likely it was default document hack on the web server that is causing this. If that is the case, they might need to consider a new host, since the problem I experienced last summer was a server issue as well. Personally, this is annoying to me, since I know I have personal information most likely stored on that database, and we have to easily assume that that information is compromised as well.

Here is more information about this particular hack:
http://phishery.internetdefence.net/data/9252/

Incoming search terms:

• intitle:Build A Niche Store v3 0 Admin Area
• Build A Niche Store v3 0 Admin Area
• in title:Build A Niche Store v3 0 Admin Area
• intitle: Build A Niche Store v3 0 Admin Area

Related posts:

1. Build A Niche Store – Security Issues
2. Build A Niche Store (BANS) – Unsatisfied Programmer
3. Build A Niche Store (bans) – Security issues are being addressed (continued)

Yep people, you’ve heard it before, but what does that really mean for us in affiliate marketing? Frankly, it can mean a few things. It could mean investing in software (ie: BANS, phpBayPro, etc). It could mean investing in hosting (dedicated servers, shared hosting accounts, etc). It could mean investing in more domains. It could mean paying for traffic (PPC). But along with the saying ‘It takes money to make money’, I always like to follow up with ‘If it doesn’t make dollars, it doesn’t make sense’.

I think starting out, it’s important to see potential investing expenses, and look at it as that.. investments. Meaning is there a return on this investment. Will that eBook return you money in the end? Maybe, maybe not. I also like to play with money I have versus with money I don’t have. When I start seeing returns, I like to use some of the returns to expand my empire. For instance I purchased BANS a few months ago (horrible decision), but I felt like I needed to test with some products. The initial concept was something simple and easy for my wife to crank out sites while I work on larger projects. I ended up rolling my own. So that’s an example of not making dollars.. so it didn’t make sense. I play in the PPC arena (YSM), and that’s a great example of seeing a return. This isn’t easy, and I’m a major noob still, but I see how the big boys make tons of money off of this technique. I also invest in servers to host my sites. Everytime, I start a server, my goal is to have it paying for itself immediately.

I also like to test the waters before diving in. Simply, I like to see what works, or what looks like it’s going to work and focus after I’ve established a ‘trend’. I constantly see people signing up to Google AdWords, spend hundreds of dollars pushing traffic to a BANS site selling widgets at $2/item, and lose their shirt in the end. No thought was put in to this, no experiments prior to see if this would work or not. Suddenly they’re spending money they don’t have to see if it will turn around or not. If they tested with YSM, or MSN first at a cheaper rate, they could see what campaigns or sites were good converters before jumping into Adwords. Keep records, understand your sites. Understand their strengths and weaknesses. Know when a good time to gamble is, and on what site. Be ready when you have a small kitty set aside.

I just recently purchased CJ data feeds ($200). I see the potential with this, but have not seen a return as of yet, since my sites are still under development, but I was able to pay for this feed with the earnings earned from December. I think each step is another rung up the ladder.

I feel like I was rambling there, but maybe a few of you might find this useful.

Incoming search terms:

• what does it mean to invest a small kitty

Related posts:

1. Update on my personal 30 day challenge
2. More sites or more quality?
3. Tracking converting keywords from your PPC campaigns

I’ve seen various questions about tracking PPC. You can do alot with Google Analytics (see goal tracking) but it’s hard to put all the pieces together to see a clear picture. I personally want to know what PPC network (YSM, MSN or AdWords) is coming to the site, but more importantly what keywords are used, and what keywords convert to sales.

I’ve been rolling out various eBay storefronts and trying new things to separate from the pack, and one of my goals was to get a keyword tracker to feed my SID value in my rover code. This could be adjusted and altered to fit your needs, and is basically just shown how to pass the keyword around in your site, and drop that value in the SID.

The first thing I want to do is use a accessible function called getKeyword(). This function is set up to look in the REQUEST object (POST/GET) and see if there is a variable called ‘x’. This ‘x’ variable will hold our keyword as the user visits our site. We’re also checking YSM keyword string. It’s also important to note that you should have Tracking URLs set to ‘On’ via YSM Control Panel.

Next, I have a navigation file (I’ll exclude it here, since your scenario will differ). Basically, I see if we have a keyword, and if we do I, append it to the navigation URL. If your a BANS users.. this will slightly suck, since you’ll have to dig for the navigation output and add this. Why didn’t they abstract their navigation to file or single function call? Who knows.. but now I’m off topic.

Now, this will carry our keyword as the user navigates through the site. Now we need to pass it to our rover code if they click a auction link. I personally like to cloak all of my eBay links, but for this example, I’ll just show the straight rover code.

On your auction page, you can simply add this code

With SID being passed in rover, we can see what keywords were used to produce sales. Simply click on Reports -> Transaction Reports in CJ. Then click on the day. You’ll see a listing of sales for that day, and your keyword should appear in the SID column. You can then take this data to determine what keywords are converting for you. The keyword that is clicked the most in your PPC stats does not mean that it’s the most converting, so this is a important piece of the PPC puzzle.

Related posts:

1. Simple EPN Keyword Tracker for PPC/Organic Searches
2. eBay Affiliate Tracking Issues?
3. EPN Tracking Image

Okay, so people have been pinging me about what I decided at the end of the day in regards to my ‘stink’ with BANS, and what I would recommend to others. I know there have been claims of me being unfair, which is weird to me. First of all, I’ve only posted my issues on this blog. I haven’t ‘swayed’ people on Digital Point forums, or other sites. This blog was to be about my personal experiences with affiliate marketing from the stand point of a programmer, and hopefully be able to help others succeed with their marketing ventures, etc. BANS might be the product for you, etc.. .and it might not be.

Here is a simple break down, and it’s not about the product or angle, but about your own personal skill set with programming and what your goals are with a eBay store front.

BANS (Build A Niche Store) – Depending on server environment, this product should be easy to roll out. My personal experience was not simple, due to my strict environment and ‘issues’ that arose from that. If I had a more lenient server environment and didn’t care about issues found, it would have installed quick and easy. Your level of PHP doesn’t need to be at high standard if you want to use the product out of the box and roll out a site in minutes.

Now, here is where we break from the pack. If you want to do some heavy customization you’ll need to roll the sleeves up and get your PHP on. BANS is not the cleanest code I’ve seen (not by far). Editing templates is fine, but if you want to edit core presentation layers, it’s a mess. Again, this depends on your needs. If you don’t care about the RSS parser and where things are layed out, this will not be an issue to you.

If you roll your own code, you’re going to have one potentially large advantage or disadvantage. That is the ability to stand out of the herd. You definitely could write the ugliest and poorest performing eBay store and really stand out in a bad way, but then again, you could write something that was really appealing and something that promotes sales, and you avoid the cookie-cutter approach of using a out of the box product. Again, if you use BANS, you can customize your template, but you definitely run across a lot of BANS sites that are basically default installs.. which is fine, but rolling out your code can separate you from the rest. And since this market is highly congested and competitive, any advantage is worth something.

In the end, I ditched BANS and continued developing my own eBay stores. They were basically missing administrative areas, so I felt that route would be better in the long run for me. I’m still holding on to the BANS script for a possible project down the road, but still uncertain of my plan.

So to summarize. BANS.. great if you want something quick and easy. Maybe not the greatest if you wanted to highly customize it. If you’re at that level where you could highly customize it, then it wouldn’t be worth the cash to buy it.. just work on a simple RSS parser using basic PHP xml functions and preg_match() to strip items out of that. If you’re a novice PHP programmer, but want to ‘get in the game’, then this would be think about. The last few days, I’ve found a few eBay RSS parsers that were much cheaper and simpler.. a little Googling before you buy might be a good idea to find the right fit for you.

Related posts:

1. Build A Niche Store (BANS) – Unsatisfied Programmer
2. BANS – security issues are being addressed
3. Build A Niche Store – Security Issues

So the drama continues. Apparently all the issues that I have brought up are ‘cosmetic and not security related’ coding issues. I raised 5 different points, 2 of which they said they would implement (funny … since they are cosmetic) in the future. The other 3 (1 they just don’t get at all and the other two are up for debate in my opinion).

Cosmetic would mean, I didn’t like the ‘grey’ that they used in the header.. not the issues I brought up. Security related, even though some are mild, and I’ve stated that, are still security related.

So where does that leave me. I was presented with the ‘get the refund but can’t use the product or use the product but lose the full $97′ option again. I’ve stated in previous correspondence with them… keep your $97. I’ve modified my version of the code to address the issues I brought up and will use it. As presented in my earlier post, I said I was a unsatisifed programmer.. which led to me being a unsatisfied customer. No turning that around.. and sorry BANS if you think that was unfair. It’s my opinion and I have every right to state that. I’m sorry that you think I was pressuring you for a refund, but I felt the product didn’t meet my (the customer’s) satisfaction. I’ve never asked for a refund from a software vender EVER. I’ve never blogged about a software vender (in this way) EVER.

What I want to do is bring awareness with this blog, definitely off tangent from my initial launch mission. Now people can see that there could be issues, and take a close look before intalling it. The fixes are easy (from my perspective, and if applied from BANS side). If this is a kick in the pants to make things a touch tighter.. then cool.

Maybe, now I can get back to writing about code.

UPDATE:
One of my issues that I addressed (and said it was up for debate) was the ability of BANS to edit physical files directly on the file system with fwrite(). They pointed out to me that many other software application/venders use this (ie: WordPress). I was able to verify that WordPress does in fact do this and one of my favorite pieces of software, vBulletin, does this as well. I feel uncomfortable with this functionality because, if admin access would ever get compromised, a malicious user could overwrite files or add their ‘evil’ PHP to existing templates and execute those instructions. I think that is a bad thing, but obviously other venders don’t think it’s a big deal.. should I?.. hence the debate. I think it comes down to how secure the administrative access is. So for the record, I would like to concede my point about File System writing as one of the 5 items.

And I would like to offer ways to harden this section. If you have .htaccess ability you might want to consider limiting access to your IP or IPs (I understand if you have a dynamic IP or want the ability to administer from different locations, this might not be ideal). Another preventative measure would be to then add BasicAuthentication so you must log into get to the administrative directory (this would be a dual login then). This would also be done using .htaccess on that particular directory. The point is to prevent random anonymous attempts to circumvent access or brute force (make sure your BasicAuth pass is strong) their way into the administrative area. Why two logins? Because I trust BasicAuth.

I, myself, will add IP restriction for that area… as I do for other applications.

Related posts:

1. Build A Niche Store – Security Issues
2. Build A Niche Store (BANS) – Unsatisfied Programmer
3. BANS – security issues are being addressed

I title this entry “BANS – Unsatisfied Programmer” and not Unsatisfied Customer for a reason. The last few days have been a very disturbing few days in regards to BANS customer service. It started with me wanting to explore BANS as a possible opportunity for my wife to quickly build affiliate eBay stores while I work on other projects. I current ‘roll my own’ eBay script but to roll out new stores takes some work, since I built mine without admins (since I’m the one administrating them anyway), and that’s not an ideal solution for my wife. Here is where BANS comes in, basically I wanted to be able to hand the reigns to the wife, and say have at it. And I wanted to do this without spending a lot of time (cough).

I purchased the software and began configuring it. My server environment is a ‘strict’ environment meaning that I want to know about all programming notices, warnings and errors relating to PHP. I believe that building it right and thoughtfully is incredibly important. I should never see any notices, etc. All software that I’ve bought throughout the years (vBulletin, multiple WYSIWYG editors, etc), and all open source software (OpenAds, phpBB, etc) that I’ve installed in this environment also follows my philosophy of coding it strictly. I never see notices, etc.

Immediately after pointing my browser, I began to see notice after notice of undeclared variables.. it was utterly insane. So I thought I’d take a look to see what was up (thinking I forgot a file or something), this is when things get bad to worse. I’ve notified BANS about potential issues, and do not want to disclose any details at this time, but found some unwise programming decisions at the foundation of the application. At this point, I was pissed that I spent good money for something that I didn’t feel comfortable installing on any of my servers, but after spending some time fixing I was torn on what to do.

I contacted BANS, provided my issues, provided diff files of the work I’ve already did, offered additional diff files if I continued to work on the site… and requested a refund. My mind set was torn, I felt like the time I put into my adjustments, I felt that I should get a refund AND still keep the code. From here, we went back and forth, where Kelvin said he’d give me a refund, but I would not have the right to use the code. So my back was against the wall. I already wasted almost a full day working on the code.. and if I gave up the application to get the refund, my time would have been completely wasted since I couldn’t use the code anyway, or use the code and spend $97 for code that I spent all this time to even use.

So the argument with BANS.. are my issues important? Are my issues significant or are they ‘cosmetic’ issues as they posed. First of all, bad programming is bad programming. Notice after notice by the PHP interpreter is not ‘good’. Those are the mild problems. The significant problems to me are a time bombing waiting to blow up.

So what am I? An unsatisfied customer or unsatisfied programmer? If I didn’t know programming or PHP, my head would be in the sand, and I’d be stoked with what I had.

What I didn’t like was the total disregard of customer ratification. I spent many years in the restaurant business. I liken it to this. If I was dissatisfied with the meal and complained to the manager, and the manager apologizes to me and says, he’ll give me a refund for the meal but I could never come back to the restaurant again, or I can come back, but I need to pay for the meal in full.

A good manager would apologize for the experience, take something off of the meal or refund it in full, or at least buy my drink or offer desert free. It comes down to customer service and trying to get return or referral business. So the answer to the question is ‘both’. I’m a unsatisfied programmer, but the experience with BANS customer service, has led me to a unsatisfied customer.

So in the end, I spent the $97 (vBulletin is $160.. talk about more bang for the buck!), and I corrected all the code issues that I felt was major and I’m starting to feel safe about things. But I’m still going to install it on my most untrusted server (possibly only on shared hosting environment), until I completely finish my code audit. I’ve itemized my issues, but I will not give them any more diffs or specific fixes.

Incoming search terms:

• bans build a niche site
• build a niche store customer service number

Related posts:

1. Build A Niche Store – Security Issues
2. Build A Niche Store (bans) – Security issues are being addressed (continued)
3. BANS – security issues are being addressed

So I’ve made contact with Kelvin at Build A Niche Store, and his response was fantastic. I was extremely worried that he would take it personally and deny that there are any problems. But instead he was very responsive to my email and accepted my offer to see diffs that I’ve done to the code, etc.

He stated that there have not been any problems with performance, functionality or security related to the issues that I brought up, but was willing to address these issues with his programming staff. This is all I wanted to hear.

I’ll continue to work on the code on my end, and will also continue to offer more diffs as items get checked off of my list. If you’re a current BANS customer, I would keep a close eye for upcoming updates.

Related posts:

1. Build A Niche Store (bans) – Security issues are being addressed (continued)
2. Build A Niche Store – Security Issues
3. Build A Niche Store (BANS) – Unsatisfied Programmer

Today I purchased BANS (Build A Niche Store) so I could have my wife work on getting some eBay affiliate shops up while I work on other things. Thought it would be a nice turn key operation for her to quickly get in the field of affiliate marketing. I do have to say the look and the basic functionality is outstanding, and the incredible ease for creating the store.

But, I’m a coder, first and foremost, and while I was configuring the application I started to notice ‘interesting’ issues with the application. I do NOT want to disclose specific issues, until the folks at BANS update their code. I’ve notified the head guy there are about the issues (and there were a few). I myself have started to fix a bunch, but this will take some time.

To see the issues related is hard in a black box environment, meaning outside looking in without knowledge of the code, but if you have the code, you can see some potentially serious holes. I’m curious how the folks at BANS will acknowledge my email addressing these issues.. usually this starts with — “these are not real issues” and so on, but trust me, having ‘any’ issues is not good for business and more importantly not good for the public.

The bottom line is that I want to still roll these scripts and applications out, since the interface is nice for my wife, but nothing is going on a server until I get these worked out. I’m a little miffed that I paid for something that is not that great as far as the security aspect. Developers often think of security last and GUI first. The problem is that you need to think of security as the foundation of your house. The foundation is weak, and your gui and rep could fall because of it.

As I stated, I sent the creator the error messages, offered diffs of the suspect files, and addressed the fundatmental security issues regarding other areas of the application. Hopefully, he’ll respond and we can get patches and updates rolled out soon.

I’ll keep you posted.

Related posts:

1. Build A Niche Store (BANS) – Unsatisfied Programmer
2. Build A Niche Store (bans) – Security issues are being addressed (continued)
3. BANS – security issues are being addressed