eBay is encouraging sellers to participate in its affiliate program and has increased its referral rates. If you have your own website or blog, you can earn revenue on bidders and buyers you send to eBay listings - including your own listings.
One change that seems to have escaped attention of other news outlets is that eBay will no longer pay affiliates for referrals from paid-search campaigns, such as Google and Google AdSense (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m05/i17/s01). I don't have access to the kind of data that would indicate whether this might have an effect on traffic to eBay listings. However, eBay was competing with its own affiliates for keywords, so eBay should save some money with lower keyword costs and reduced payouts to those affiliates. (As noted above, it increased its overall affiliate referral rates.)
It seems mainstream press were also slow to pick up on the news that Yahoo was closing its North American auction sites, and when they did, many seemed to take the angle that Yahoo had finally given up competing with eBay. But Yahoo had given up on the US and Canadian auction sites as viable marketplaces a long time ago, and instead used the auctions as "content" to serve up Yahoo advertisements.
One reader thinks the Yahoo Auctions closure in North America is a sign that something is brewing between Yahoo and eBay: "Yahoo runs 10 day listings at the max. They say no more listings starting June 3rd so that means listings started on 6-2 will close on 6-12. Why do they say that they will close on 6-16? What starts on 6-13 and ends on 6-16. You know what and is it a coincidence that those days are tied in to Yahoo? Something is cooking and do not be surprised if there is some announcement of some sort at Live."
He's referring to the annual eBay Live conference being held June 14 - 16, where CEO Meg Whitman always likes to announce something big (remember health insurance for eBay PowerSellers?).
Another coincidence: June 12th is the date of the injunction hearing in the eBay-MercExchange patent case.
Small online sellers took the brunt of the USPS rate changes that went into effect last week. It was not just a good old-fashioned rate hike - the postal service changed the way some rates are calculated and eliminated some services altogether. To further complicate things, last weekend sellers were trying to figure out how to make labels print out with the new rates for packages they were preparing on Sunday to mail on Monday, since software programs wouldn't update to the new shipping rates until after midnight Sunday night.
It also seems there has been some confusion and dissatisfaction in how PayPal's shipping-label service is dealing with the changes. PayPal was able to answer one of the questions we were getting from readers on Friday dealing with why dimensional weights are required on PayPal for Priority Mail boxes. PayPal spokesperson Jami Heldt said:
"Dimensions are not required if the user selects Flat Rate Envelope or Flat Rate Box. Dimensions are only required if someone selects the Package/Thick Envelope option. We ask for the dimensions because if the package is greater than 1 cubic foot (e.g., not a box provided by USPS) dimensional weight pricing applies for zones 5-8.
"In attempt to minimize confusion, we will look at adding an option so that if a shipper is using a non-flat rate USPS box we will not require the dimensions. In the meantime, sellers using USPS boxes can enter 12x12x12 if they do not know the dimensions, but are sure it is less than 1 cu. foot." (This would only apply to those special USPS boxes.)
Some sellers also remain frustrated with Feedback 2.0, judging from the letters we are getting. And I've gotten an increase in letters about "glitches" relating to various tools, such as SYI, Selling Manager, PayPal, billing issues,... Users having problems should consider posting them on the eBay Technical Issues board (http://forums.ebay.com/db2/forum.jspa?forumID=87). You can see if others are having the same problem, you draw attention to the problem, and someone may even have a fix.
eBay is holding its next monthly online Town Hall meeting on Wednesday, May 23. It's an excellent place to air your concerns and try to get answers to questions you have. eBay eliminated the Town Hall forum where in the past you could post your questions. Now you must email your questions or call in to the meeting as it's taking place (http://www.ebay.com/townhall).
Finally, I wanted to mention that AuctionBytes has launched podcasts (http://podcast.auctionbytes.com). The Ecommerce Industry SoundBytes kicked off with an audio interview with Adam Epstein, President and COO of AdMarketplace, covering Pay Per Click advertising strategies for small online sellers.
Our second podcast was with Yahoo's Director of E-Commerce Products Jimmy Duvall, who talked about Yahoo Merchant Solutions and the company's "Open for Business" initiative designed for small businesses. (I highly recommend listening to this interview for people considering opening their own websites.)
We plan to run weekly podcasts on topics relating to Internet Marketing and ecommerce for small sellers.
Thanks for reading.
About the author:
Ina Steiner is Editor of AuctionBytes.com and author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). She has a background in marketing and research in the high-tech and publishing fields. If you have story ideas, comments or questions, send them to ina@auctionbytes.com.
