eBay Partner Network now live
April 1, 2008
Members of eBay’s affiliates’ programmes can from this morning head over to the eBay Partner Network site and sign up for the new program that replaces Commission Junction.
The system messages initially gave me the impression that eBay were manually approving applications, but in fact now this doesn’t seem to be the case: I got an email within a few minutes and could confirm my account. EPN members will then need to input payment details (bank or PayPal) and tax information in order to receive payments.
The EPN blog has details of the new links’ format and a video tutorial to help you get started.
eBay Partner Network for affiliates launches April 1st
March 17, 2008
eBay have confirmed that as of 1st April, they will be running their own affiliate program, the eBay Partner Network. The Commission Junction-run program will end on 1st May, so that affiliates have a month to transition their accounts. Yes, we’re getting new links again!
Current tools for building affiliate links - the API, Editor Kit and Flexible Destination Tool - will remain the same. Affiliates will be able to register for multiple countries simultaneously, which is fantastic and long-overdue news. Combined with “landing page optimization and geo-targeting capabilities”, this sounds very promising indeed. We’re also promised “targetted banners” and more detailed reporting capabilities.
eBay are offering a 5% bonus on all traffic sent via the EPN to the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Italy, India and Spain eBay sites, and to Half.com (wot, no France?!) during April, so there’s your incentive to sign up early.
Not all current programs for eBay companies are affected: for example, Prostores, Skype and StubHub will remain with CJ; a full list is on the Affiliates Blog. Affilinet and TradeDoubler programs also remain in place. More details are available on the .com affiliates portal.
- Mashable, with interesting comments
- Computer World UK with some interesting comments from a big publisher
- Affiliate Tip
eBay to bring affiliate program in-house?
March 17, 2008
Valleywag reports that eBay are to bring their affiliate program in-house, ending their relationship with ValueClick’s Commission Junction. The website for the new venture appears to allow logins - for beta testers? - and the “eBay Partner Network” is included on a list of eBay subsidiary companies from last December.
I won’t be sad to see the back of CJ. Their website is close-to-impossible to use, and their treatment of this particular publisher feels like something out of a Kafka novel. So I’m very much looking forward to seeing what this new program offers.
Changes to eBay UK affiliates program
December 19, 2007
eBay UK affiliates will no longer be paid for leads generated from paid search traffic from Google, Yahoo or MSN. The change will be implemented from 1st February 2008, and applies to any paid search on the named networks with an eBay.co.uk landing page: paid search leading to a landing page on a non-eBay domain is still allowed.
The changes were announced in an email sent to existing affiliates, although the website still includes paid search as an acceptible promotional method.
Rather less specific but potentially good news for affiliates is that payouts to eBay UK affiliates are to be increased early in 2008. As UK payouts are significantly lower than for the .com program, this is sure to “incentivise further growth” from UK affiliates.
eBay To Go released for eBay.co.uk
September 21, 2007
eBay have at last released a version of the eBay To go widget for the UK. eBay To Go enables you to showcase your favourite auctions, seller, shop or search on your blog or social networking site.
For those following Formula 1, Mclaren have just been fined £49.2m and stripped of their Formula One constructors’ points. I thought I’d showcase some F1 Mclaren memorabilia to attract some bids for them, as they probably need a few quid!
Sadly as with the US version it still isn’t affiliate capable, if eBay really want users to drive traffic to the site they need to recognise it’s worth paying for. Having said that it’s still a great tool to enable users to easily share products their interested in on practically any website they choose. If you put eBay To Go on your website add a comment below so that we can have a look!
Paypal close affiliate scheme
August 2, 2007
Paypal have just announced that their affiliate scheme is to close next week. All affiliations, managed through the Commission Junction network, will end on 8th August, and the final payout for merchants will be in September 2007.
As Paypal’s affiliate scheme only paid out on brand new sign-ups, monetizing it has always seemed next-to-impossible. Unless you have a website aimed at people who have been living in caves for the last five years, I don’t see how you’d ever have got many sign-ups because the rest of the world already has Paypal accounts. Looks like Paypal agreed with me for once.
Skype affiliate changes
May 24, 2007
If you’re running a very old-style Skype banner anywhere, Jaanus wants you to know you need to change it:
When your visitors clicked on the banner, they were redirected to Skype and you could earn what we called Skype Points. Until now, there was nothing you could do with these points, and we didn’t put too much effort into developing this program.
Instead, you should be signed up for the shiny new Skype affiliate program which pays out in lovely cash. We like that.
Free money for eBay.fr affiliates
May 17, 2007
If you’re an affiliate of eBay France or thinking of becoming one, you have a chance to win some free money. All you need to do is develop a web-based or software application using eBay France’s API. Entries will be judged on originality and usability for the eBay community. Three prizes of €5000, €3000 and €1000 are up for grabs.
It’s very nice to see a non-Anglophone site getting this kind of attention. I don’t think I’ve ever seen *any* third-party application aimed at eBay France, so the field seems to be wide open. Of course, this does raise the interesting question of who apart from myself and Eddie *is* an eBay France affiliate… 
eBay To Go blog widget
May 14, 2007
eBay have created a new widget for blogs and websites eBay To Go, which has been released in Beta. eBay To Go is billed as a “a fun and easy way for you to share the interesting things you’ve discovered on eBay and personalize your blog, social networking page or website”. Here’s one I made to search for Franz Porcelain on eBay.
There are three options you can choose, a single item, a selection of items which you pick, or a search which is what I used above. As well as a simple and quick three click process to create your eBay To Go widget there are instructions on how to add it to your blog or social networking site covering the most popular such as MySpace, MySpace blog, Wordpress, Blogger, Friendster, Yahoo 360, Typepad, Live Journal and Tagged.
From eBay’s perspective it’s a great way to get exposure on countless off eBay sites around the world. Whether people promote their own items, or simply unusual or intersting listings they’ve found it’ll drive traffic back to eBay. Sadly at the moment it’s limited to products on eBay.com, and there is no facility for adding affliate links through Commission Junction to allow you to earn money from driving traffic to eBay. I still like eBay To Go though, it’s a simple and easy way to add products to your own site, I’ll be interested to see the full release once they’ve finished Beta testing.
If it’s not on your website, find it on eBay
May 3, 2007
The guy on the phone was obviously very cross: “I’ve been trying to search your website for nearly an hour now. I’m looking for Chanel, and every time I search, it just tells me you don’t have any Chanel! Just what exactly is the problem?!” Well, you guessed: we didn’t sell Chanel, we never had and we never would.
What to do with website searchers when you just don’t have what they’re looking for, has been one of those problems that’s bugged me for years. If someone’s searching my beady site for 7mm orange beads, they obviously have a very specific requirement, and telling them sorry, would you like these 4mm pink beads instead isn’t going to help much. Then inspiration struck: if eBay were sending their zero-result searches off-site, then I could do the same thing in reverse. I’d send my customers back to eBay.
The Affiliates Program giveth, and taketh away
March 2, 2007
eBay affiliates have long been puzzled about the strange rule that says we cannot promote our own listings. After all, traffic to eBay is traffic to eBay: they make the same FVFs on my listings as they do on those of my competition, so why ban linking to myself? As of March 8th, this changes. From an email received this morning from Commission Junction:
5) Affiliate Links. You may use affiliate links to promote your own eBay listings or eBay Store, those of your Agents or those of anyone else with whom you are affiliated. eBay may terminate this provision at any time with 7 days notice.
(a) You may not include affiliate links on any ebay.com page or eBay-owned page, such as an eBay listing or eBay Store.
The first sentence used to read “You may not…” We’re now seeking clarification of whether this will apply to the UK program too.
In rather less good news, the new revenue sharing scheme has one huge disadvantage for affiliates over the old one: there is no longer a payout for non-winning bids. Meanwhile, exactly what constitutes “revenue” for the purposes of affiliate commission has still not been made clear.
New payouts for eBay Affiliates
February 20, 2007
If you’re an eBay UK affiliate, you should have received an email today notifying you of some major changes to affiliate revenues, starting March 1st. For most people, these should be good news, as the old flat fees, starting at 10p for a bid and 12p for a BIN, are being scrapped, to be replaced with a new “revenue sharing model”. In other words, send eBay buyers of expensive items, and you’ll be rewarded for that.
Details of exactly how this will work are yet to emerge. It’s not clear whether affiliates will still be paid for unsuccessful bids, for example, nor exactly what the “revenue” on which payments are calculated is - FVFs are the obvious assumption, but this may not be strictly the case. I’m hoping to see an end to what I think is the biggest con in the current payment structure:
The eBay.co.uk programme compensates for one bid or Buy-It-Now (BIN) per click from your website. Therefore, your site links must be used as navigation to the eBay.co.uk site prior to every bid or BIN transaction in order for you to be compensated.
Other affiliate programs, notably Amazon
At the same time, payments for ACRUs (new account sign ups) have been reduced:
| Monthly total | Old Rate | New Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1-49 | £7 | £7 |
| 50-149 | £9 | £8 |
| 150-500 | £11 | |
| 501-1000 | £12 | £9 |
| 1001-1500 | £13 | |
| 1501-2000 | £10 | |
| 2000+ | £14 |
I suspect this will affect some affiliates much more than others: here at TameBay, unsurprisingly, we get very few new registrations, because almost all our readers are already eBay members. If you have a site that’s specifically designed to capitalise on this previously most generous part of the program, though, you might be a little more bothered at such a huge slashing of rates.
So, how is it for you? Are you dancing all the way to the bank tonight?
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