Over 500 developers showed up to take classes at the eBay Developers Conference on Wednesday in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Developer's conference is being held June 23-24 in conjunction with eBay Live Community Conference, which starts on the 24th and runs through the 26th.

The eBay Developer's Program was launched in November 2000 and offers individuals, businesses and third-party vendors the tools to develop solutions for integrating with the eBay platform. There are over 7,500 participants in the program, with 33% of those international, compared with 266 developers who were in the program at the end of the first quarter in 2003.

At the conference, eBay announced it is adding an "affiliate tier" to the Developers Program. In the first quarter, eBay had 20,000 people in its affiliate program, which was a pilot program. Now it is opening up the program officially.

Randy Ching, VP of eBay Solutions Platform, said the affiliates can use the eBay API to analyze how best to drive traffic to eBay using their affiliate codes. Ching said affiliates who use the API earn 20% more in affiliate revenue.

Affiliate participants must adhere to standards and maintain a certain level of performance to remain in the program. eBay has a good relationship with Google and closely monitors the affiliates to ensure they are using best practices and are not conducting in affiliate spamming, according to Ching.

eBay also introduced a directory of developers at the conference, and launched a "Certified Provider Program" to replace its Preferred Solutions Provider program. To be certified, vendors must supply eBay with a list of references, including one from a gold Powerseller, and employees of the vendor must pass an exam. Randy Ching said eBay does not look at financials.

eBay also launched the Developers Education Program. eBay is making available optional online training modules (for a fee).

The Developers Conference contains classes, labs and keynote speeches. On Wednesday evening, eBay announced its Developer Program awards and celebrated afterwards with a "Beer Bust on the Bayou." The Developers Conference concludes on Thursday.

Randy Ching, VP of eBay Solutions Platform