Learn Blogging & Affiliate Marketing with Rosalind Gardner
Check out this video to see how easy it is to add Amazon and eBay product listings and reviews to your affiliate blog with the WP Shopping Pages plugin for WordPress.
The video shows how I am using it on MyEnergyPal.com.
For the amount of time this plugin will save you, at $69.00 it's an inexpensive investment in your affiliate marketing business.
Learn more about the WP Shopping Pages plugin.
The focus is clearly on online auction selling in the STTS magazine this month with not 1 but three case studies of highly successful eBay powersellers. Included you'll find:
Each and every month “Secrets To Their Success” features at least 2 inspirational web business success stories and one website makeover from which you can learn EXACTLY how these unlikely Internet entrepreneurs do it as well as “steal†their strategies and duplicate their success!â€
An STTS subscription also gives you a chance to win $5,000+ in FREE consulting — just by entering your name and email address! Once each month, they draw the name of one lucky member who gets their web site or business plan critiqued by the Internet Marketing Center team.
Sign up for “Secrets To Their Success” today to learn and be inspired by the success of others.
eBay published a press release, portions of which are reprinted below:
SAN JOSE, Calif.,– March 17, 2008 – Today eBay unveiled the eBay Partner Network, a new global affiliate program for publishers driving traffic to eBay. Officially launching on April 1st, 2008, the eBay Partner Network will be eBay’s new in-house affiliate network, designed to more fully align the programs across eBay’s global properties and give affiliates expanded access to revenue opportunities across its platforms.
and…
As part of the move to an in-house affiliate network, eBay and Half.com will no longer run their affiliate programs through ValueClick’s Commission Junction platform. eBay’s Tradera AB, ProStores, Inc, Reseller Marketplace, Media Marketplace, eBay Stores and StubHub will not be affected and will continue their relationship with Commission Junction. eBay affiliates working with other platforms including, Affilinet and TradeDoubler will not be affected.
Affected eBay and Half.com affiliates will be required to move their affiliate links over to the eBay Partner Network by May 1st, 2008. eBay will continue its valued partnership with ValueClick’s technology division, Mediaplex, for ad serving, tracking and other custom projects. More information on the transition process for eBay affiliates, as well as the eBay programs affected, can be found at http://affiliates.ebay.com.
While this is great news for the scores of affiliates who hate Commission Junction and particularly its tracking system, a number of affiliates who are using BANS (Build a Niche Store) are expressing concern on ShoeMoney's blog over the change.
Although I have yet to hear anything from Kelvin, the BANS developer, I trust he'll get a new version out in time. Just to be sure, I'll pop him a note and report back on what he says… will need to make some changes to my own BANS installation over at Roamsters.com.
In the meantime, to learn more about BANS, check out this blog post – How to Easily Add eBay Listings to Your Site.
[tags]ebay, Commission Junction, BANS, affiliate[/tags]
I like sharing ‘learn from the mistakes of others' stories for the valuable business lessons they provide, as well as the fact that they may save you from suffering through a similar ordeal on the customer side.
What follows is a timeline account of some of the worst customer service I've experienced to date on eBay – or anywhere else for that matter.
(The people in this story should have availed themselves of “The Insider Secrets to Selling on eBay” by Derek Gehl and the Internet Marketing Center's Advanced eBay Mentoring Team.
To set the scene – the cell for my saltwater pool gave up the ghost in late June. With 100 degree temperatures and no cell, we were pouring chemicals into our pool like there was no tomorrow. Simply cleaning the rapid algae growth took a LOT of time, not to mention made for a high YUCK factor. [Read more…]
On June 1st, 2007, eBay US made a payment structure change to their affiliate program that could increase your affiliate earnings.
See the image below for the compensation model, which is only available through Commission Junction
Note: An “ACRU” is a new eBay active user, who registers for eBay for the first time, then confirms their registration and lastly places a bid on eBay or uses BIN (Buy it Now) to buy an item within 30 days of registration.
That's pretty straight forward. The more users that you recruit and the more revenue you generate, the more you make.
On the flip side, here's a policy change that could see your earnings drop.
If you are driving traffic to eBay via paid search, you will not be compensated for traffic purchased from Google, Yahoo, MSN or the associated content networks (Google AdSense, Yahoo! Publisher Network, and MSN ContentAds) if your ad links directly to any of the eBay.com, eBay Express, or eBay Store domains. This change only applies to the U.S. program and the search engines mentioned above.
So, if you're direct linking to eBay with paid search, change those ads ASAP.
Build a Niche Store (BANS) lets you build a store populated with eBay listings.
The eBay links are commissionable and eBay pays its affiliates between 40% and 65% on their revenues earned from a listing and between $12-22 per Active Registered User (ACRU).
Ah, OK. You've seen that type of page a thousand times before and maybe you think that incorporating eBay listings on your site isn't such a big deal?
Well, doing so used to be a HUGE pain in the butt for us non-geek, tweak-hating affiliates.
Previous software solutions required that you had tp sign up for eBay's developer program and do a WHOLE lot of tweaking before you'd see the listings on your site. Quite frankly, none of those solutions ever worked for me  not even when the software developer was supposedly helping me out… which is why you haven't heard me talk about other software in this category before.
So, I was therefore absolutely thrilled when Kelvin Firminger told me about his new “ Build A Niche Store” (BANS) software that does not require developer skills to incorporate commissionable eBay links on your site.
BANS uses RSS technology which makes it easy as pie to install and set up. Just plug the code into your site template and you're up and running.
You can put all of eBay's offerings on your site or choose from any of eBay's 28,926 niche specific categories…from golf equipment to digital cameras bringing relevant products to your site visitors at the click of a button.
The BANS package includes the script, 32 site templates, a manual, a members' forum, unlimited site licence, the ability to build either an eBay.com or an eBay.co.uk store, an 8-week risk-free trial and the package is priced at a very modest $97.00.
Best of all, Kelvin is accessible, friendly and very helpful.
I won't be surprised if Kelvin's “ Build A Niche Store” software qualifies as of my best of 2007′ software picks — maybe even my TOP pick. I therefore HIGHLY recommend the BANS software if you want to expand your affiliate earnings  without the pain of tweaking. 🙂
Given up as an eBay seller? Think eBay affiliate!
I did some selling back on eBay way back when I was dabbling in ALL ways to make money online. Unfortunately, I found it tedious to write listing descriptions, and thought that packing and shipping the goods after a sale took too much of my time. Honestly, I was (and am) too lazy to sell hard goods on eBay.
Despite my laziness, I appreciate why so many do so well trading on eBay. It can be exciting, addictive and highly profitable. That explains why it's such an extremely popular venture for SO many.
How many, you wonder?
Well, at the end of 2006, there were 222 million registered eBay users, and one source reports that of those, 79 million are ACTIVE eBay users.
Understanding its popularity, I didn't want to leave the eBay scene behind entirely when I traded in my seller's hat. I decided to stay in the game by purchasing and reselling an infoproduct package of online auction tutorials.
When I started selling that package, I signed up as an eBay affiliate and placed the link on the site to make a few bucks from people that visited the site but did not buy the ebooks. To my amazement, there were many months when commissions from the eBay registrations and bids through that affiliate link amounted to MORE than the value of the ebooks sold.
Here's how that happened.
As an eBay affiliate, you earn $25 to $35 for every new active user you send to eBay through a registration link. Plus, you get 50% to 75% of eBay revenue on successful transactions.
eBay's compensation structure is depicted in the 2 graphics below.
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Many eBay affiliates earn over 100 G's every month – well over a million bucks per year and eBay's top 100 affiliates average nearly 25 grand each month.
There used to be snippets of 3 success stories featured on the eBay affiliate site. They included RollingStone.com which had incorporated over 7,000 Editor Kits throughout their Web site; Chris Bowler who was averaging over $7500 in eBay commissions per month and Ravenwood Marketing which had become a top-10 affiliate using paid search campaigns.
Note: According to the eBay affiliate agreement, affiliates are no longer compensated “for paid search traffic purchased from Google.com, Yahoo.com, MSN.com, nor from any of their content networks, such as Google AdSense, Yahoo! Publisher Network, and MSN ContentAds, if it is linked directly to the eBay.com, eBay Express, or eBay Store domains (not “Commission Earning Activity”)“.
eBay offers a number of different tools for use by its affiliates. I however really like “Build a Niche Store” which was developed by Kelvin and Adam Firminger, and have incorporated its functionality directly into my travel blog.
The program allows users to post eBay listings from categories that they choose. For example, my site returns Airline, Cruises, Lodging, Luggage, Vacation Packages and Other Travel listings as you'll see listed in the right-hand naviation under the eBay logo and Store Categories.
The categories expand once selected. For example, the Luggage link expands to include Backpacks, Business Cases, Carry-ons, Duffle Bags, Garment Bags, Sets, Suitcases, and Other Luggage.
When a visitor either buys through one of those links or registers and becomes an active eBay user, I earn a commission.
To learn more about this very reasonably priced software, please visit the “Build a Niche Store Website“.