eBay Partner Network Tips from The Source

The eBay Partner Network is the new affiliate manager of eBay. And the eBay Partner Network blog is up and running providing eBay network affiliates with timely information about how to optimize their affiliate sites and drive quality traffic to eBay.

Apparently eBay has determined that a great deal of the traffic which was derived from Commission Junction affiliates prior to the switch to the eBay Partner network was of low quality. To eBay this is an issue because if a buyer is driven to the site from a link or a page totally unrelated to eBay or any product on eBay to which the buyer had no intention or interest in when they clicked an eBay affiliate link. Obviously people who follow links such as those described above will not be engaged or interested in buying anything and simply click back off the site.

We have all seen and been the unwitting victim of these links on sites which are simply built to scrape traffic and send it to wherever the site owner thinks he/she could make the most affiliate commission. eBay is very interested in making sure there sites are no longer part of their affiliate network.

eBay wants more product oriented informational sites within the eBay Partner Network. Sites with up to date content related to the products promoted via affiliate links.

One such site (full disclosure the site is designed by iBusinessLogic.com) which we believe provides the kind of quality traffic generation eBay is looking for.

FavoriteTeamwear.com is a NASCAR focused website blog which provides unique and interesting content related to the sport and offers merchandise and apparel from several sources including eBay.

The web visitors to FavoriteTeamwear.com are not tricked into following links to merchandise, when they choose to follow a product link it is very obvious the item they are viewing is for sale. The site also provides more than a simple place for people to find NASCAR or Sprint Cup merchandise. Keith Bloemendaal writes topical and interesting articles about the sport and current events relating to NASCAR. This content is what brings viewers and the content is the primary focus of the site. This is what we believe the eBay Partner Network is looking for in its affiliates.

For more information about what eBay expects from its affiliates in the new era of the eBay Partner Network read the latest post on their blog below, or drop on over to the eBay Partner Network blog

Tips for Sending Engaged Buyer Traffic to eBay Sites

September 5th, 2008

As many of you are aware, last week we made the decision to expire a small
number of affiliates from eBay Partner Network, because the traffic they were
sending to eBay was in the lowest tier of the program for quality and did not
generate enough engagement with the site. We had a lot of dialogue with our
current affiliates on our discussion boards after the action, so wanted to use
this as an opportunity to further open our lines of communication moving
forward.

Our philosophical approach at eBay Partner Network is to pay generous
commissions for quality traffic that drives incremental buying activity on eBay,
i.e., purchases that occurred due to the affiliate’s actions. Thus, we’ve
looked closely at how engaged the traffic is from our affiliates and in the
interest of eBay’s sellers and the overall health of the program, we made the
decision to expire a small number of affiliates who were driving the least
engaged traffic. Moving forward, should we notice that any affiliate is driving
low quality traffic according to our metrics, our goal is to provide help in
improving the affiliate’s site(s) before taking any action such as
expiration.

In the interest of helping you maximize the impact of the traffic you drive
to eBay, and enjoying in the financial benefits, we also wanted to re-post some
of the tips from our board posts which some folks found to be very helpful.

What does “engagement” mean?

“Engagement” is how we look at a user’s experience on eBay once directed via
an affiliate link. Among other metrics, we look at the time that users spend on
eBay, the number of pages that they view, and their bidding and buying activity
after coming through an affiliate link. For example, a user who visits eBay and
then leaves the site immediately is not “engaged”, whereas a user who comes and
browses the site and places a bid or makes a purchase is highly “engaged.”

Can affiliates affect engagement and conversion?

Definitely and there can be a big difference in performance on these metrics
between affiliates. To illustrate the point with an extreme example, a site that
helps potential buyers find and research stereo receivers and then points them
to great deals on eBay will drive more engaged buyers with better conversion
rates than an eBay banner on a ringtone site. Also, a user is far more likely
to be engaged if they knew prior to the click that they were going to be driven
to eBay.

How can affiliates improve engagement from their sites?

Many of you are already using these techniques and others, but for those who
may not be, here are some tips to improve engagement.

• Maximize the amount of unique content to your site. Create commerce-oriented
  content for your site that engages the user in the shopping experience.
  Conversely, avoid putting eBay affiliate ads on pages that have little to do
  with shopping – e.g. ringtone sites, non-commerce oriented social network sites,
  e-mail services, etc. Also, sites that do little other than offer links to
  redirect to eBay generally don’t perform well and remember to always make it
  clear on the affiliate links that they will be redirected to eBay to shop

• Use more targeted creatives and tools. If all you have is a simple text link
  to eBay or a static eBay banner ad on your site, consider using one of our flash
  creatives. Use what you know about your users and your content, so consider
  using our banners targeted to specific demographics (e.g. male vs. female) or
  categories. Also, consider using our Editor Kit and eBay To Go (US only)
  widgets, which can be customized to show specific eBay listings for a given
  category or keyword right on your page.

• Integrate eBay links within your content. Sites that find a way to work eBay
  advertising into the content, rather than just as a simple ad at a top, side, or
  bottom of a page, tend to perform better.

• Optimize your landing pages. Use what you know about your users to help them
  find what they want on eBay. If your site is about tennis rackets, avoid landing
  your users on the eBay homepage, and instead send them to a search results page
  on eBay for targeted tennis queries.

• Use our geotargeting functionality. Sending a visitor on your site who is
  from the UK to ebay.co.uk (our British site) rather than ebay.com (our US site),
  will significantly improve conversion rates and engagement. You can select this
  option when you’re generating eBay links in the “tools” tab.

• >Avoid simply incentivizing visits to eBay or registration with eBay –If you
  are going to give your users cash back or points, tie those rewards to actual
  valid purchases on eBay. If you incentivize visits or sign up, a user’s primary
  motivation is typically not browsing or purchasing from eBay, so their value to
  us is low.

How can affiliates test & improve their performance?

• Set up specific campaigns to test out any new sites, links, content, etc.,
  and ideally, test these new approaches in smaller volumes than your overall
  traffic. This way you will be able to evaluate the performance of each new
  campaign separately, ramp up the ones that perform the best, and prune the ones
  that don’t perform.

• Leverage the custom ID reports to further segment your testing. In an
  upcoming release, additional category reporting will be made available that will
  help you identify at campaign, tool, and program levels the categories whose
  traffic is most likely to convert into sales, which will help you further
  optimize your content and affiliate links.

Lastly, as we have set high standards for the program, we are also taking
this into account as we screen new registrations. We are committed to growing
the number of quality affiliates in the program, and we want to make sure our
newest partners can meet those expectations. As a result going forward we are
paying close attention to all aspects of applications – especially the
descriptions of affiliates’ business models and URLs that affiliates are
planning on sending traffic from. If you are interested in applying, please
keep this in mind as you fill out your application.

We hope you find this communication helpful and wanted to thank you for your
work in driving great traffic to eBay. We remain committed to working with you
to continue to build and strengthen eBay Partner Network.

The eBay Partner Network Team

Do you have your own off eBay website?

As an eBay seller you know you should have your own website but for some unknown reason our research indicates that most eBay sellers do not. Why?

If it is because you do not have the time to set up another high maintenance difficult to control Internet presence... You may not be aware of all of the new and interesting ways to get online with your own name and brand while not having to maintain that online portal each and every day.

A website can be thought of as a more difficult animal to manage than an eBay store or auction listing business. In reality the maintenance is much lower while sometimes the cost to get started can be a bit higher. Continuing costs of a website versus an eBay business are completely different however and by an almost universal consensus the stand alone website will win the cost to maintain battle every time.

So, why eBay? Because with the massive traffic generation provided by the huge amount of inbound links and the pure enormity of eBay a seller can have a higher percentage chance of making a sale on eBay than on a stand alone website.

What if you want a website and the traffic of eBay but you do not have enough source of supply to populate your own eCommerce site to compete with the massive lists of products found on eBay or Amazon? We think you could be quite happy with the following solution.

One particularly interesting method of populating an off eBay website which will not simply promote your brand and your eBay items but also will pay you back and run on autopilot. Is to install phpBay Pro on an existing or new php based website or Wordpress CMS site.

phpBay Pro (See Link in the Sidebar) is an Ebay software script available as a plugin for Wordpress or as an API (application programming interface) for php driven web sites. It’s built for simplicity, meaning that you can have it up and running in just a matter of minutes. Both versions come with documentation.
Ebay Affiliate Software

phpBay Pro enables web publishers to quickly and easily add keyword rich eBay auction listings to your Wordpress or php driven site to generate serious affiliate revenue in a matter of minutes!

What this means to those who may not be aware of the terminology used in the phpBay Pro company literature is...

With phpBay Pro any website can import any eBay listing category, store, or keyword group directly into a stand alone website or Wordpress based self hosted blog. When the owner of such a website signs up as an eBay affiliate at Commission Junction, the resulting traffic directed to eBay from these listings inserted into any own website or blog will generate 24 hour a day revenue for that site. Those same listing imported into your off eBay website add constantly updating and new content to that site. For SEO this is a great advantage. Your site can be relatively static, yet always have new listings imported providing recent and relevant content for search engine spiders to chew upon.

These imported listings can be from your own store, your favorite category, or of the best items from eBay's hot list. The best part is that the imported listings will look as though they are designed as part of your original website. It won't look like some eBay generated widget or html builder import. Well, actually... the best thing is that as the website owner you can make money on any item sold via your listings imported from eBay and you will not have to ship or stock or inventory any of them.

Check Out phpBay Pro - Follow that link below.... Tell em the All Business Auctions sent you! Or give us a call, we use phpBay Pro ourselves and would be happy to help you set up a website which can take advantage of this technology. We will insert eBay live listings with phpBay to a new site which could also contain not only your eBay listings from an existing eBay store but also have a page of eBay listings from other sellers stores (a great way to test niche's) and also have a web 2.0 style blog attached to build a sense of community with your buyers. The options are endless!

Guest Blogging?

Becoming a guest blogger for a related website or blog can increase your own website traffic and improve your reach. The key is to provide a valuable and interesting perspective for the readers of the surrogate blog site. Your message should be just a little bit outside the normal flow of the readers expectations but not so far out that they will dismiss your post to wait for the next "regular" issue to return to normal. Intrigue don't insult... make new friends and possibly new subscribers in the process.

Recently I have been working closely with Jay Berkowitz of the Ten Golden Rules Podcast, Ten Golden Rules Blog and website. TenGoldenRules.com. (Everyone should be familiar with Jay by now as I have been including a great deal of information about him and our interrelated speaking engagements etc... on this blog and in the Trading Assistant Journal.

Jay has a perspective that is exciting and refreshing when viewed from an eBay guy's vantage point. The entire world of Internet marketing is so vast and yet eBay people, myself included, can get so wrapped up with the day to day activities and grind of eBay that we sometimes let the entire outside world go by without even noticing. Jay brings into focus some aspects of that vast world, or at least the social networking and new Internet marketing portion of the it for me when I listen to his podcast. This is not a podcast which is designed to sell you a box of DVD's , Guides, e-Books or Courses - Jay has no DVD's for sale.

I appreciate his genuine awe struck and outgoing way of bringing his listeners sound bytes from some of the most powerful and cutting edge Internet marketers and pioneers in our World today. Jay rubs shoulders with and interviews the likes of Seth Godin and Jason Calacanis on a weekly basis. If you don't know who those people are, it's OK because Jay will share the highlights of the careers of these .com and Internet moguls with you when he reports on the Ten Golden Rules podcast. I say Awe Struck, not because I think Jay does not belong in the same room with these mega-tycoons of our industry but because he has a way of approaching these interviews with the kind of exuberance and giddiness of someone who may not belong, but is happy to be there, would bring. Jay belongs - one only needs to read his resume on the Ten Golden Rules website to know he has been playing in this sandbox for some time now. He simply has a style which brings the listener into the room as if we were flies on the wall and Jay is the only person who knows we are there.

Jay uses a small digital recording device to get his sound bytes and interviews. He approaches people at opportune times, usually after a cocktail hour or a dinner at the end of a long day or after a conference. His interviews are not stiff but his subjects just might be. The format is simple and to the point and he repeats similar questions to all of his guests but this only makes the listener more comfortable with the process. The answers are not canned or spammed and they seem to come from the heart with most of his best guests. So I applaud Jay for his honest and forthright efforts to bring a tiny glimpse of the vast and ever changing world of the Internet and how cutting edge pioneers use it for their own personal enjoyment as well as how they market for personal gain.

Jay has been more than happy to communicate and share with me outside the world of his podcast. I helped Jay and Debbie Levitt arrange for Jay to be the Keynote speaker at RocketPlace.com and now that has become a connection which will serve all of us well into the future. With Jay speaking at eBay live in Chicago (As noted in our previous post).

Jay has allowed me the honor of guest posting with an eBay perspective on his Ten Golden Rules Blog. I hope to contribute as often as he and his staff have a need for my content. But if no more than the post I have repeated below is included in the Ten Golden Rules blog, I think I will have been successful.

Guest posting is a sign that you have good content and that people want to hear what you have to say. I respect the trust and I honor the privilege whenever another blogger has room for one of my posts within their publication. If you reach the point where another blog property will have your content inserted with your own byline, as a guest blogger the opportunity should not be allowed to slip away. Guest Blog whenever possible and do it with integrity. Make sure your host is aware of your sincere gratitude for the opportunity to address his or her readers.

Thanks again Jay and the Team at Ten Golden Rules!

The following is my first guest post on the Ten Golden Rules Blog:

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Guest Post - Top 10 eBay Stores Tips for Small Business Owners

Here is a guest post from our friend Scott Pooler at All Business Auctions, an eBay stores expert.

Top 10 eBay Stores Tips for Small Business Owners

1) OPEN an eBay store and stock it with merchandise - This is the first step! Once you make this initial step, your business will be on its way towards gaining worldwide exposure for your brand plus a robust and lively new customer base. Question: Are you aware that more searches are initiated for products on eBay each day than on Google? In fact there are more searches completed each day on eBay than on Google’s entire system and every search within eBay is initiated by a consumer looking for a product to buy.

2) Build up your positive feedback number - By building the eBay account feedback through purchases and the sales of your store merchandise new and exciting features of your eBay account will become available. Once your feedback rating exceeds 100 all of your fixed price and store listings will be gaining even more Internet exposure on eBay express and your eBay store merchandise will qualify for many other programs within eBay. When sales exceed $1000.00 per month, the eBay stores business you established will be listed as a PowerSeller. Powerseller status indicates to the consumer that you are a steady and reliable resource and they can have confidence buying from you. Additionally, when your sales surpass $3000.00 per month, your business will qualify for a reduction in PayPal fees. The best sellers rise to the top both in the new Best Match Search and with quality DSR's or "Detailed Seller Ratings" on eBay. Being a great merchant now results in a bottom line discount on fees for Powersellers.

3) Research and Test - Use existing tools provided by companies like Terapeak and Hammertap to research your niche and products on eBay. Study the competition and learn your strengths and weaknesses as a seller on eBay. The world of eBay retailing is dynamic and different from even cutting edge eCommerce marketing. You must have relevant and accurate information at hand to really know the marketplace. Without research and testing (via your eBay store and auctions listings), no real eBay marketing plan can be developed. Use these easy to understand tools to learn the trends, price points, and methods your competition uses to dominate the marketplace for your niche. Research is king on eBay!

4) Design Your eBay Store to fit your brand - An eBay store is a marvelous tool to attract traffic to your merchandise but once a potential customer lands on your site you want them to stick around and see all that you have to offer. A standard eBay store design is very basic and will appear as one of a thousand similar eBay stores in the world. To stand out and be recognized, you need to invest in a professionally designed eBay store. A store designed with your company look and feel and your branding will perform much better than the stock eBay store packages with dated graphics and cookie cutter design.

5) Complete your eBay Store “About Me” Page - This is possibly the single most important step to succeed as an eBay seller! The About Me page is the only place where, within the eBay rules and guidelines it is possible to re-direct eBay traffic to your own website. If you want a portion of the 225 million eBay users to see your company website, this is where you get it done! A professional eBay store design should include a “me” page designed to funnel traffic to your off eBay website.

6) Write an eBay guide, review, or blog - Give your muse a try and write a review or a guide to how to buy a product you feature. What should a consumer look for in products similar to what your store features? How would a consumer go about finding an honest dealer like you? What kind of treasures can be found in the marketplace and how does a consumer tell the good from the fake in your field? This is not a place for blatant merchandising but more of a place to write a common sense guide about how to buy your specific category of widgets. These guides and reviews and/or blog posts are all ways to gain worldwide exposure for your company and your brand and identify yourself as an expert - eBay provides these tools to you for free!

7) Import your eBay listings into your own website - Create excitement on your website and offer ever changing content to the search engines by importing your own eBay store listings into your off eBay traditional website. The advantages of this strategy are vast and the investment is minimal. If you sign up as an affiliate of eBay (also free) your company can even realize revenue from any click through to eBay from your website.

Sell Internationally - With an eBay store your company becomes an international exporter overnight. Make your products available to the world and offer them on all of eBay's international websites. You will gain new customers, additional traffic and valuable bidders for any auction listings you post. Bring the world to you with the click of a mouse!

9) Set up a Trade - In / Trade - Up Program for new equipment sales - . Example: Your business sells new and valuable products or merchandise and has a loyal customer base. You are always working toward selling your customers the latest and greatest piece of equipment or new model of your merchandise. As a business owner you hesitate to directly accept trade in equipment and then sell same used equipment for warranty and financial reasons etc… With an established eBay based Trade up program an opportunity becomes available to offer your customers a way to convert used merchandise into trade in cash on eBay if the customer will commit to buying a new stock item from you. In an eBay consignment arrangement, you never take ownership of the item and therefore you never invest in the item nor are you liable for the item. The item is sold as is to a new customer and your loyal customer applies the value towards the sale of your new inventory. Win Win - Everyone is happy. You sell new equipment by eliminating a financial objection from your present customer. - Smart Business!

10) Stick with it! - There are many tools available to your company which will automate the process of listing and re-listing merchandise which reduces labor costs and the possibility of tedium causing you to abandon an eBay store plan. When you set up your eBay store, have an eBay plan in place with goals and milestones in mind and on paper. Stick with your plan, adjust your goals, and learn your marketplace. Each sale will propel your business along the pathway to success and each sale will be a learning experience. Your company and you can do it and you can do it now!

Bonus Tip - eBay is more than a sales channel - eBay is a worlds most highly trafficked intersection of buyers and sellers. Location is everything in the world of retail and if your store is on a busy corner you will be touted as a genius for your selection of a location. Think of eBay more as an advertising opportunity and a brand building marketplace with the added benefit of producing real sales. eBay has spent as much as 4 Billion dollars per year on PPC advertising targeted for goods listed within eBay Stores, do you want a piece of that ad buy? An eBay store can have a long lasting positive impact on brand awareness and new customer acquisition all while providing actual revenue. Top tier retailers including Sears and Circuit City have invested in the eBay marketplace because it is much more than a place for collectibles. Open up to the possibilities of eBay, no other venue provides so much traffic with such a small overall investment.

Scott Pooler is an eZine Articles Expert Author and the Publisher of the "Trading Assistant Journal" . His company - AllBusinessAuctions.com provides eBay stores design, eCommerce development, Internet & eBay solutions & software to small and mid sized businesses worldwide.
727-596-6900

Posted by Jay Berkowitz at 10:45 AM 0 comments

Labels: All Business Auctions, eBay, Hammertap, Scott Pooler, terapeak