Tips and Tricks

Basic BANS Customization with CSS

The most asked question I ever receive is How do I change the colors?!?!. Build a Niche Store works the same as Joomla, WordPress and etc when it comes to Basic Styling. The design is built off of a CSS Style Sheet. Learning the basics of using and working with CSS will go along way when it comes to working with different platforms on the internet.

This area provides some basic BANS Customization Tips through Css. We will walk through many of the most common Build a Niche Store styles and what needs to be changed.

Please Select one of the following to get started:

• Change Background Borders and Colors
• Edit the Sitename in the Header
• Remove the Sitename from the Header

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Creating an Inline Horizontal Menu with BANS

Many people think that when they use Build a Niche Store they are limited to only using the Category and Page Menus as they display by default. This is not true. By default both menu types will display vertically for use in the sidebar. But what if you want the menu to display horizontally and above your products? This can be done! It is jut a matter of changing the ID used for the menu and adding some new CSS Style to control the look of the Menu ID.

This will open up a whole new area of display and design options for your Niche Sites. You can no longer be limited to the stale old look and having to find ways to “arrange” everything in the sidebars around your menus. By using this very simply modification you can create menus just like the one I use above, with page navigation inline above your category menu. Also, just like on this site, you could display the same menu inline and again in the sidebar if you wanted.

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Creating a Mouse Over effect with the eBay (or any) Image

Sometimes it is just the little things that can really set a site apart from the others. Having just a simple little variation in behavior or looks of anything, even something as small as the eBay Image used in Build a Niche Store can mean the difference between a click through and a possible commission and the user losing interest and leaving. I was asked about doing this in the forum and thought I’d go ahead and post it for everyone.

Although the title and instructions are for creating a mouse over on the ebay.gif used in BANS, this can be applied to any image anywhere on your site. I’ll add some additional instructions below on how to accomplish this.

There are a few easy steps you will need to do in order to make this happen. For those that are not quite sure what a mouse over effect is, run your mouse over the ebay image below. The steps I took to make this image flip in this post are the same as listed in setup 2 below.

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CSS Color Code List for developing Niche Stores or Websites

Sometimes the hardest place to start in developing your niche is choosing that first color to build off of. Making your store visibly appealing to the general public is the first step in retaining the visitors that stumble across your site. Lots of times we just seem to just get stuck mentally on the same old "sets" of color schemes. I always seem to find myself changing the colors over and over trying to come up with something that is just right.

In order to help me, I decided that being able to "see" different color options was more beneficial than trying to "picture" them. So here is a very long list of CSS Colors I compiled to help with building and designing your niche stores. These colors can be used for any color field in the Style Sheet (style.css).

When you find the color you want just copy the six digit number in front of it and place that in your style sheet.

Have Fun!

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Adding a RSS Feed to a Niche Store Page

A very popular topic on the Build a Niche Store Forums has been about adding RSS feeds to your content. While I do not believe this is a good way to add content to your site (ie if it is the only way you add content) I do think it helps to keep a little “refresher” going on some pages and draw a little extra traffic. Remember though, the only way to make your site unique is… well by making it unique. Using only other peoples content will do you more harm than good. So keep that in mind when implementing these techniques.

The following procedure will display news on its own page as shown in this link: Google News (opens in a new window).

Since you cannot add php code to your content area, the php code for the feed is put into an external file which is saved on your server. Code is then added to your header or footer files which will call the external file when the page on which the news is required is accessed from your site. It is only practicable to display the feed at the beginning or end of the content page.

In Notepad, open a new file and paste in your rss feed code. Here we are using this code, using a free account, from http://rssfeedreader.com (opens in a new window).

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Page Not Found: 404 Errors on Build a Niche Store

The excitement can be felt pulsating through the air as you watch the last of the Build a Niche Store files complete their merry upload to not just your new domain, but to what is soon to be your Affiliate Kingdom. Eagerly you scurry through the installation, but not so fast as to make any mistakes and joyously log in for the first time. You study each page carefully, selecting the most lucrative and profitable categories. Filling and setting everything up just perfectly and with profound joy and satisfaction you click View Site for the first time. You can already hear the cha-ching of internet dollars rolling your way. In the instance before the page loads your mentally picking out the color of the new sports car and deciding just how many bathrooms is too many when catastrophe unleashes itself before your very eyes. All your work, all your investment, all your dreams stare back at you in three deafening words…. Page Not Found.

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