eBay Takes Affiliate Program Inhouse – Good or Bad for Build a Niche Store?
As most of you have already seen this morning, eBay is taking one of the largest affiliate programs inhouse starting May 1st, 2008! The question we all have… is this Good or Bad for Build a Niche Store?
First… let me say that this is not a BAD thing! It will take away the questions everyone has about CJ and their tracking mechanisms. There is not a single day that passes that someone in the BANS forum is not questioning the tracking. Guess what… all those complaints mayhave been a factor in taking it inhouse!?
So, how will all of this affect Build a Niche Store users? In all likelihood, it won’t! That’s right… this transition should be as smooth as a small code rewrite, simply directing your visitors to a different page is all it should take! I know most of you have not looked too hard at the code for BANS, but I assure you, Kelvin and Adam will have very little issue in moving this over to the eBay inhouse affiliate program!
Rest easy… aside from a simple file update, this will be smooth as butter! :-)
Edit: eBay has announced that for the entire transition month of April 08, they will be paying an extra 5% on ALL COMMISSION that is run through the new affiliate system. After reading the news release in more detail, April 1 will be a busy day, as it looks like we will have to sign up at the new eBay site as well.
Previously Published Articles You May Like to Read:
- eBay Partner Network (eBay Affiliate Program) Open for Enrollment
- eBay Affiliate Program Doesn’t want your Lame Traffic!
- Build a Niche Store Empire in 12 Weeks – Affiliate Accounts
- Affiliate Network News for Build a Niche Store Owners!
- Sell on eBay or Build a Niche Store Empire
- Build a Niche Store Empire Series in 12 Weeks – Upload your First Store!
- The Build a Niche Store Template for WordPress
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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.
I think this will be better also. I was starting to question CJ’s tracking recently. I started using BANS in Jan 08 and knew nothing about coding or building sites. I have 4 sites up and last month(Feb 08) had 343 clicks and 52 sales(15.16% CR) between all of them. This month I have 5 sites running and as of today have 413 clicks but only 8 sales(1.94% CR) from all of them. I wonder how I can be getting that much more targeted traffic this month already(with still half a month to go) and not be converting.
Also wanted to say thanks for the advice on your site. I have used a lot of your tips and I know its the reason for the increase in traffic.
Brad, I have had a few “off” days like that as well during March, I was questioning the upgrade, cj and ebay, but now its back on track.
yea, My jaw dropped when I saw the email – I have always thought, what would happen if eBay moved their affiliate program. But Valueclick is still going to help manage the reporting. They own CJ.
I like CJ, they are my preferred affiliate program, but they have a lot of merchants moving to other programs (PepperJam and Kolimbo) or in-house. Looks like CJ management needs a makeover. Think eBay is one of their big partners, if not the biggest.
I am looking forward to it, not the extra work that may entail changing each sites code, but I hope that ebay has more to offer their affiliates when managing it directly. Like improved stats.
I don’t know whether tracking will improve that much. Tracking will still be done my Value Click:
“eBay will continue its partnership with ValueClick’s technology division, Mediaplex, for ad serving, tracking and other custom projects.”
I Love it as long as they don’t start treating the affiliates like they do sellers and they improve communications with affiliates. As far as tracking ?. CJ must be bummed
I think this may be a good thing. As long as what Bill said does not happen, I also do not think we should NOT stop building our sites, as I am confident that the BANS team will make this transition as painless as possible.
I want to suggest that EVERYONE make a list of ALL your BANS sites NOW. The update from Adam and Kelvin will include ALL prior version of BANS along with the latest…
List: ALL BANS sites by version (1.3, 2.0, 3.0 etc)
List: ALL extra links you may have in your sites that promote eBay signups (Custom signup logos etc)
When the fix is released, we will have 1 full month to make the transition. During the entire month of April, eBay is paying an additional 5% commission to all sales tracked through their new system…
I will have 100% DONE on April 1st! :-)
Mark
I’m hoping ebay’s communication with affiliates will improve once the switch is made. I don’t know why the have a “contact us” form. I have used it a couple of times and never received a response.
I also hope the BANS team will make the changes to the code before April because ebay said they will give us a 5% increase in commissions off sales that are generated through their new network:
“You can receive an additional 5% bonus for all traffic tracked through eBay Partner Network in April 2008″
Ebay is giving us until May to make the transition, but I guess offering an incentive to those who make it sooner. I’m sure the BANS team is aware of this and will make the transition as smooth as possible for us.
And thanks again Mark for all your tips, info, directions, suggestions, recommendations, etc. that you share with us on your site. Invaluable.
sorry for the duplicate info about the 5% bonus that Mark already mentioned before me. I wrote it before Marks post had showed up…oops.
Well, first of all, I just want to say thanks to all of you who have so openly shared all your progress. In most cases, it’s been very helpful.
However, over the last few weeks I’m beginning to feel like the poster who commented a few days ago…I feel like I’m not being able to ‘keep up with the big dogs’. And you know the old saying…if you can’t keep up, stay on the porch.
I don’t understand the progress reports, nor do I know where they come from. I realize it has something to do with the robots visiting, but frankly, the numbers (e.g.237 + 4) don’t mean a thing to me.
I understood very little about the “includes” file…I think it has something to do with linking from one or more of your own websites to another of your web sites, but all my sites are non-related. Not sure if this matters or not.
I’m sure the problem I’m having is my own…maybe I’m not reading or watching carefully enough, I don’t know…I just know that over the last few weeks I’ve felt like I was watching the rest of you sailing away, and I’m still standing on the shore trying to finish my boat.
I do understand about ebay leaving CJ, and I’m hoping that any code we’ll have to be changing will come with explicit instructions.
I’m also very concerned about the BANS site…I got the email about what a bad weekend they’d had with the site down and all, but they seemed to think it was all fixed. I haven’t been able to pull the site up since the weekend at all…I just checked it again and it’s back to the account suspended page.
That could be part of why I’m feeling so lost…I depend on being able to go to the forum to get answers to the many techie questions I have along the way.
I’m sorry for the lengthy rant, but I was so excited to be getting started with others at the same time, building together, and to learn that I simply can’t keep up is rather disheartening.
I’ll continue to read here, just for the crumbs I may find that I’m able to digest.
Best of luck to all of you.
Honey
@ Honey -
I can definitely understand where it would be easy to get overwhelmed with everything that needs to occur with BANS.
The BANS forum has definitely had a rough weekend and should be resolved by now.
Shoot me an email direct… maybe I can take a look at what you have done, where you are, your domains etc, and make some suggestions or fashion a video post around exactly what is hampering you.
Mark
@ Honey
It is lots to absorb isnt it. Took me months before I even knew how to get into the stats and raw logs. One thing you should think of is the stats shouldn’t be on the top of your list when you start. Learning about building the core of your store is the most important. Catering to the search engines. We are sharing the numbers so folks following along can see the progress of the SE’s. Come right down to it you don’t even need the stats the 1st two months except to see if the spiders have come. My suggestion for CPanel is to get to know it and look around everyday. As a ski instructor I have learned that it takes someone doing something or looking at something up to 200 times before it becomes natural. Spend some time looking around and opening areas.
If the bans forum is ever down or if its not, Digital Point Forum is a great place to read and learn about Internet marketing. Its a good place to put your signature aswell. Though you may not get bans specific categories you will learn lots. BANS forum will be back and stronger. Remember once you have the script it yours. Even if there were no forum you still have the most important part. The script/lic/feed. We will get through BANS-Y2008K.
CJ is just a middle man and in my opinion only hampers communications with the folks who have the money EBAY. When I was a builder I hated being a sub contractor. I want to deal with the person with the check book. Not there buddy. This will make us #2 not #3. Personally I don’t understand why some are freaking out about the change and think it will affect BANS. It won’t. The mod has already been made and I have huge confidence in Adam & Kelvin. These guys are smart.
If you don’t have enough to read try the EBAY Developers site. Its a good place to peak in and see whats happening in the world of brains.
Over the last 2 weeks lots of new people have been on the forum. One person said its been 3 weeks and I haven’t sold anything. Now its not unheard of to start making $ in 3 weeks I believe it is a unreasonable expectation. It can take months or years to build a business. If we follow what Mark and the other smarty pants do then we have the best chance out of anyone. Ive been at it long enough to know some tricks to get a site crawled and indexed in a day but converting a sale that take time. Try to remember Google and the other SE’s want to make sure your not just throwing up sites and leaving them forever. That takes time. The SE’s are in this for the long haul and we need to work to keep the SE’s happy and they will give us LOVE.
WOW that was a long one.
Hope that helps some
You guys are great and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Sometimes when I realize how much I still don’t know it kinda overwhelms me. Y’all help me remember that even though I sit alone behind this computer, I’m never really alone online, and for that I thank you.
Mark, what a sweetheart to offer a helping hand. I know how busy you must be, and that makes the gesture even more special. I have to get some sleep (I work nights) but I’ll be sending an email probably tomorrow.
Big wet sloppy kisses to both of you! MMMWWAAAHHH!!
Honey
Like Honey, the stats mean very little to me. However, I am only using the cpanel to see if the spiders are in. My site has been indexed by Google and Yahoo and Alexa are also in the stats.
My concern is the HTTP Error Code 404 Document not found. I have “15 hits” not found and am wondering if I should be doing something about this? I have no idea how this has happened or exactly what it means. I’m assuming that it is a link that points to nothing? Can anyone suggest a good source of information on cpanel stats and what they mean so I can start learing about this?
As always, thanks for your invaluable help.
Denise
Hi Honey
I know this is a bit late (I’m playing catch-up too after being in tax-preparation-hell for a couple of weeks) but I really sympathise – I tend to scroll past the tables of information that get posted on the blogs and am waiting for Mark to do a cute video on how to interpret it. I’m trusting the process – if Mark hasn’t explained it yet, I probably don’t need to know.
Just take your time – and remember there’s always someone newer than you. I take great comfort in that.
Marilla
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