BargainGiftShops.com has arrived

BargainGiftShops (BGS) had been an idea festering in the back of my mind for at least a year. I had anticipated that the site I was envisioning would be laboriously difficult to pull off. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised how smoothly development would go. There were no technical difficulties relating to the site's design and I was able to reuse several parts from previous work - specifically the MYSQL database GUI I had created for several other website customers, and my trusty old Indexmysite indexing software.

eCatalog
The Database GUI (something I call eCatalog) made the creation of the underlying data structure and the administration tools a snap. In fact, it took only about an hour before I had that part of the design finished and ready for data entry.

Commission Junction
The second hurdle was also easily overcome. I had expected that the accumulation of affiliate programs would be very time consuming. But to my luck, I stumbled onto a site called Commission Junction. CJunction is a service designed to bring affiliate marketers (People with products to sell) and affiliate publishers (people who want to earn commissions by displaying ad banners) together. A membership in CJuntion also came with a very large database of affiliate programs from which to choose. Plus, they handle all the messy financial details like commission tracking and payout. That way I don't have to try and collect from 500 individual affiliate marketers.

The task of signing up affiliates and acquiring the necessary banner gifs and link codes was also made possible because I could do it all from one website (CJunction). CJunction also provides all of the tracking and admin. tools I need to manage the site.

Google ADSense
One thing I'm particularly pleased with is the combination of affiliate ads and Google ADSense ads which I think is unique to BGS. When someone views one of my pages, there are two ways I can make money. If they click an affiliate ad and buy something from the affiliate website, I earn a commission. But if they instead click a Google ADSense ad, I get money just from the click.

Search Feature
One problem a site like mine has is the categorization of stores. For example, should a store that makes Star Wars memorabilia be placed under the 'Collectibles' category or the 'Gifts' category, or maybe even the 'Toys' category. Many times there is no one single category that's correct for a store. My solution was to incorporate a great search feature (from my IndexMySite business) into the design. So if one searches for 'Chocolate' for instance, they will see all of the categories where Chocolate is mentioned.

I have added about 400 stores so far and I expect to get to about 500 in the next day or two. But the store is shoppable now so here it is.

Tell your friends and neighbors.

Mike Tyler