10 Alternatives to eBay Partner Network for Affiliates
After eBay Partner Network released its new Side by Side Earnings Comparison of the old affiliate program earnings to the new Quality Click Pricing model, many people are ready to jump overboard and start fresh elsewhere. Some have speculated in private, this may have been the original purpose of the shift anyhow, to encourage up to 50% of the current eBay affiliates to find alternatives to EPN. If that’s true… Noise on forums and other blogs leads me think they may get what they want!
So… Assuming you have built your site properly and have good traffic and content, where do you go now? I have already begun shifting a few of my own sites away from ePN, due to the low EPC under the new system.
Alternatives to eBay Affiliate Program, ePN
1 – Amazon Associates Program
As we all know, Amazon is the direction eBay wants to head with their own site. Amazon has a wide selection of products and if you have a WordPress blog already, you can easily integrate the products with the ReviewaZon plugin.
2 – Adsense Ads
Google Adsense is one of the quickest and easiest ways to integrate relevant ads into any site! As long as you have built a content rich site, you can make money with Adsense! If your site is copy/pasted content from other resources, maybe not so good… :-) I use Adsense side by side with ePN on several sites.
3 – Chitika Ads
Chitika is similar to Adsense, but your ads will only show to visitors who come from search engines. The ad code pastes into place just like adsense does, and the advertisements are contextually driven, showing relevant ads to visitors. I have used them on 2 sites now, and the earnings truly depend on the niche and the amount of ad inventory available in the Chitika network.
4 – DataFeedr Store Builder
If you have a focused product driven site, DataFeedr may just be up the right path! Similar to PopShops and GoldenCan, DataFeedr allows you to build your own internal store type setup, then display those store pages on your site. If you have WordPress, there is also a Plugin available to integrate into your site with only a few mouse clicks! DataFeedr DOES charge a monthly fee to users, ranging from $27-$97 per month!
5 – GoldenCan Store Feeds
Like Datafeedr, GoldenCan gives you the ability to “Mashup” products from different vendors and create pages on your site to display them. They have thousands of different products from all kinds of websites and integrate fairly easily to any kind of site!
6 – PepperJam Network
The PepperJam Network is very flexible with hundreds of vendor specific offers to choose from! They also have both product and datafeeds available, but one of their most interesting, is the inline ads! Essentially, you add a bit of code into your header, it reads your on page content like adsense or other contextual ads, but it converts words and phrases into advertiser links. All without much effort on your part! If you have high traffic, PepperJam is a goto for sure!
7 – Google DoubleClick Ad Network
Like Commission Junction or any other large ad network, Google has its own network of vendor specific ads, called the Google Ad Network, or former DoubleClick Network. I actually use this for almost all of my own banners on sites now, since reporting is integrated with all other google services and easy to see whats going on the sites from one screen.
8 – PopShops Store Builder
PopShops is a no bells and whistles affiliate site builder that sources its products from several places, very much like DataFeedr and GoldenCan. As long as you mind working through the code on your own, PopShops is free to try out for up to 10 sites!
9 – ShareaSale Affiliate Network
If you like focusing your efforts on single product reviews, ShareASale has alot to offer! You can easily integrate single “Buy Now” type products into your websites, regardless of the backend. It works in BANS, WordPress and straight html built sites with ease!
10 – OverStock
Like eBay, Overstock has a HUGE MARKETPLACE of many different product types! Joining is handled through the popular CJ system, and if you are lucky enough to have good content on a WordPress site, you can integrate Ben’s phpOStock Plugin and start earning as quickly as TODAY!
How to Build Your Site with New Programs
One of the things that the N1Way Guide focuses on, is building your site to work with ANY Affiliate Program! If you are not subscribed over the N1Way Guide website, you should head over and do so today! Over the coming weeks, I am going to place ALOT of focus on building sites that can be switched to ANY affiliate network in a flash! Including the use of BANS for OTHER Than eBay advertisements!!
What are Your Favorite “Other Than eBay” Networks?
Previously Published Articles You May Like to Read:
- Alternatives to the ePN – eBay Partner Network
- eBay Partner Network Kicking Affiliates in the Face!
- eBay Partner Network $20k Affiliates Contest
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I have been doing my part to "Build the Internet" since 1994, when I built my first website! Since then, I have built hundreds of niche websites for myself and many others, focused on design, applications, ecommerce, search optimization and internet marketing.
Ah, yes, more than ways to skin this, I’ll hold back on my curse words, but they aren’t the only ones out there. Unfortunately, just one of the most lucrative because of all the categories and number of items they host, which allows affiliates to build a niche store – bing. Wish Ubid and Overstock had more inventory.
DatefeedFile is a decent shopping comparison portal.
Ticketnetwork offers an aftermarket ticket niche.
Tradedoubler is for UK affiliates.
Linkshare has some merchants with one page creatives.
NeverBlueAds has some email creatives.
Ian and WorldChoiceTravel offer travel site portals.
CreditLand and NCSReporting offer credit card portals.
Happy Marketing.
eBay Partner Network and their new Quality Click Pricing model TOTALLY SUCKS!!!! do not waste your time with eBay anymore.
Of the list above, I have tried several of the alternatives. The one that performs the best (and is easiest – for me) is PopShops. I’m impressed with how fast and easy it is, and the ability to modify the looks of the product listings is great.
FYI. =)
Thanks for the review of these other alternatives. I kind of got tunnel vision with EPN & forgot about other options. Probably will give GoldenCan or Popshops a try. I use PJN, but wasn’t even aware of the inline ads, have to give that a try too.
You can’t ever put your eggs in one basket in Internet marketing, gotta have a diverse portfolio, so if one fails or starts to fall off, you have other monetization to rely on.
I personally have better earnings with new EPN model, as per the sample report. But I have many other sites either way to fall back on that are not EPN.
Great post and list,
Thanks!
I send 100,000 clicks a month to epn. If I and 50% of EPN’s affiliates switch to other programs, then that’s a lot more competition for eBay.
If you own any stock, watch out.
Thanks for this post, Mark. I needed it especially because I am not allowed into EPN.
But moving away from EPN, does it mean no more BANS? I always thought BANS was for the eBay guys!
With the new system I would say don’t make any quick decisions to move away from eBay before you have even tried it, give it a couple of months at least and then if you are still not happy, start changing!.
I was disappointed to see that my own ePN earnings were down on this new system, on the first preview they were down by around 40%. However now, as the reporting period gets longer, I am seeing an overall balance of my earnings and in many cases doing better.
I’m not going to say I agree with what eBay are doing but I’m not going to dump their program at the drop of a hat either.
@ All –
I agree with Ben’s assessment of the overall QPC system – there is no reason to just run out and drop ePN listings from your sites.!
The list above is just a set of alternatives IF you need them! :-)
I am working on one main site that has tanked in the EPC structure, after 30-45 days, I will review it again. If its just NOT going to fit into the system, I will evaluate other options for that campaign then.
Mark
Just before you go jumping off cliffs with EPN, remeber that the stats you can see for the new Quality Pricing are only from the 18th of August. They do not represent the full month.
I also believe that the LAST THING ebay would want to do in this first period of the changeover is drop commissions because it will cause too much of an outrage.
They may well do it in 6 months time using their invisible stealth quality measurements, but right now, I seriously believe they are not out to shut you out.
As a sidenote, I do have a few EPN sites and for the last 4 months I’ve made atleast £150 per month steadily. So far my stats look just below previous earnings but I am in agreement with a few of the other posters here and think that you should wait at least 2 months before you change your whole strategy.
As an additional sidenote – you shouldn’t ever be relying on one source of income anyway! Google might die tomorrow ;-)
Mark – As a fellow North Carolinian, I’m curious about your personal thoughts on Amazon and Overstock related to NC? As i understand it, neither is currently allowing NC based affiliates in their system?
Thanks
Brad
@ Brad –
Yes… it sucks. Horribly.
BUT… I am lucky enough to spend several days of each month at my sister-in-laws home in Greenville SC, so we are looking into establishing partial residency with her, just in case we ever need to have mail sent their.
In the end, EVERY state will end up like we are. The “Internet Sales Tax” has been a hot topic since 1999, and now with individual states stepping in and applying their own taxes, its only a matter of time…
NC has quickly become VERY taxed!! Just in the past week we had new sin taxes added, and an increase to +8% local here in Mecklenburg County. Heck, i it continues.. we may just MOVE to SC! LOL
Mark
Mark – I suspected that you might feel that way. I had a small but growing revenue stream from Amazon until they pulled the plug earlier this month. I’m really looking hard at trying to spread my revenue streams more out across a more diverse area.
I’d be interested in hearing how your partial residency plan works out. Please keep us posted.
FYI – I work full-time in the e-commerce industry and your sales tax in Charlotte-Meck is the highest in NC now at 8.25%.
Brad
I have been thinking of checking out Chitika Ads for some time now, I have heard some good things about them. Thanks for the list.
Hi Mark,
Good effort put all of them together. I am sure newbies will gain some courage to go beyond eBay & try something new.
But I wanna know whether you have ranked it or just mentioned it in random order. If you have ranked it, then what are your choices in giving such a ranking?
I was banned from EPN in June 09, they accused me of “cookie stuffing” and I don’t even know how to stuff a cookie. I’ve switched over to using Adsense and Amazon but I sure miss EPN!
Thanks for posting this. After giving ePN the benefit of the doubt and seeing where my earnings are since they changed to QPC, I have to say that they are down, significantly.
I expressed my disappointment with them and got a thoroughly confusing response about how the QPC thing works. At least they responded, and I haven’t been banned yet for voicing my disapproval (although that doubt is always in the back of my mind). What the email came down to is… this is the way it’s going to be.
But if I can’t understand their system, I’m less likely to trust it. And truthfully, however they couch it, if I’m sending them traffic and getting paid $0.01 per click or even $0.08 per click, it’s not worth the time and effort. Oh, I know there are things I can do to improve it with .htaccess and I have tried and it did work for a while, but I do not have the time or inclination to constantly police the users on my sites.
I have removed ePN from several sites and replaced it with other programs. And I’m focusing more on Adsense, which is currently paying more than ePN. This is working out nicely.
The funny thing is that ePN decided to couch their new system under this “quality” label. However, if Google slaps your sites if they have too many ePN links, then the simplest way to improve the quality of your site is to remove the ePN links. Am I right?
I could be wrong, but it’s what I’m doing for now on my high traffic/content sites. I’m leaving ePN to soak on my medium traffic, lower content sites, and I’ve removed them entirely from my newest sites. If ePN comes about and changes their system, I’ll re-evaluate my approach then.
If they drop me for low earnings, then I didn’t need them anyway. I refuse to live in fear of their willy-nilly approach to affiliate relations. At least with Google you get a warning email when you unwittingly violate something in their TOS.
If ePN’s goal was to send their affiliates running into the open arms of their competitors, they are doing a bang-up job.
[...] much as I hate to say it… I spend more time measuring the effectiveness of alternatives to eBay Partner Network, versus improving my ePN [...]
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