In part one of "eBay's Affiliate Program: What Every PowerSeller Should Know," I took a look at eBay's Affiliate Program and some of the sellers who have had success participating in the program. Another way to participate in the eBay affiliate program is to use "sub affiliate" services such as AuctionAds and Ztail.com, which are third-party sites that simplify the process and in some cases add extra features.
AuctionAds: Simplifying the Process
The AuctionAds service is at - you guessed it - http://www.auctionads.com. The benefits to using AuctionAds are that it simplifies the signup process, and publishers can also reach higher payout levels: "Basically all the publishers combine to reach the top tiers so that everyone can share in the higher-tier payouts," said AuctionAds President Jeremy Schoemaker, also known as "Shoemoney." This is also known as a "sub-affiliate model," according to Schoemaker.
AuctionAds has been catching on quickly: it recently passed the 20,000 user count for publishers, and currently AuctionAds are on over 53,423 domains, according to Schoemaker.
Getusb.info - "USB Powered Gadgets" at http://www.getusb.info - is one of AuctionAds' biggest success stories: it was a recent spotlight publisher. Editor/Author Greg, aka Gmo, describes it as "a website that specializes in reporting about USB powered gadgets. I also report on other "hot" gadget topics, but 95% of the articles are USB related. The site includes articles about new products, USB hacks and tutorials. I am also working hard to build the USB forum (http://www.getusb.info/xdforum), so if any readers come across a question or problem, this is a good resource to get the right answer."
Greg says he started running AuctionAds back in March 2007. "The moment I saw the invitation I was very excited because I had tried to do something similar about a year earlier - but without success. I signed up and had code posted within 10 minutes. I made a sale within the first couple hours and have never looked back."
"AuctionAds ramped up very quickly for me - I make good money with the program," he says. "My last month I earned more money via AuctionAds than Google Adsense. With that being said, AuctionAds now represents about 30% of my revenue and expected to grow. Averaged break out: Google 40%, AuctionAds 30%, Text-Link-Ads 20%, Chitika 7%, affiliates like Amazon and Commission Junction, the balance."
He did try the eBay affiliate program directly when he first started GetUSB, he said: "I created static pages with eBay code to list products. The problem with this method is that I needed to A) get people to my site; B) get those people to visit my static page; C) click; and most important, D) the eBay code wasn't easy enough to make the ads look like my site - I had to use their color schemes. I didn't get any sales the first several months so I stopped using them...of course until AuctionAds came along."
He says he would classify himself as not being a newbie but not a pro either; rather "a middle ground most "serious" bloggers have become who don't use the Internet as a primary source of income. With that said, my site is ranked in Alexa at about 79,750 in popularity. Considering most website are above the 100,000 I don't think this rating is all that bad. GetUSB receives anywhere from 1,000 to 4,000 unique hits a day. The big swing is related to Digg, Stumble and Reddit activity. To average things out, GetUSB is around 1,300 unique visitors a day."
Greg says the beautiful thing about AuctionAds is that the code is simple. "AuctionAds uses a very similar code generating process as Google Adsense - which I consider the de facto method. The other big advantage is the AuctionAd code seamlessly integrates into your site so the look and feel remains the same (font size, color, link characteristics, etc). I've also recently seen some great features out of AuctionAds that would have taken weeks to figure out dealing with eBay directly - features such as targeting a specific eBay seller. Rotating keywords for one ad, visitors get feeds based on their geographic location (supports all countries eBay is in) and setting max or min auctions to appear on your site."
In terms of types of ads, Greg says he uses rectangular ads in his sidebar. "I haven't played around with optimizing ad size yet. Partly because I already have other options at the bottom of my articles like related articles, subscribe via RSS and Chitika ad links."
Greg likes the flexibility AuctionAds gives him with choosing specific keywords, too. "Since Google Adsense doesn't allow you to control anything, many times you get feeds that are incorrect. For example, my website is all about USB and even when I do a post about Encryption software or GPS tracking devices, the ads Google sends me are still USB flash drive ads. This is a problem for me. Google's payout for those ads are very low. With AuctionAds I can select the keywords used in generating the eBay products. I still select USB sticks or flash drives - but also play around with other keywords - and even with my USB flash drive keywords the payout is much better then Google."
He also experiments with keywords, for example, around a holiday, he'll select a keyword related to it. He also tries what he calls "cross-pollination, selecting a keyword based on what he thinks a visitor would like. "Recently I selected Sector Watches as a keyword (and you can see it live now) as I figure most visitors to my site are men and most men like cool watches. Sector puts out a great product and eBay has lots of deals. I've seen some good activity (revenue) by incorporating this cross-pollination method. It's nice. It's fun."
When asked to give advice to a newbie, Greg says, "There are so many things I'd like to share with the follow blogger - I could write a book. But here are some key phrases:
- Make consistent posts.
- Post value; be it opinion or info, make it valuable.
- Be yourself, write like yourself.
- If your comments are on, reply - always.
- Always fine-tune your website - but don't make the project too big.
- Network with like-minded bloggers.
- Use FeedBurner.
- Don't over monetize your site (too many ads).
- Use AuctionAds
Ztail: Using Social Networks
Ztail (http://www.ztail.com) is a service that uses product data to create listings in just a few easy steps originally designed for casual sellers. "Ztail is the fastest way to create an effective eBay listing," says founder and CEO Bill Hudak. But beyond that, whether or not you use Ztail to create your listing initially, you can use Ztail to post your listing into your social network, blog, and email with the push of a button, he says. And with Ztail's newest feature, sellers will be able to make money from driving traffic to their own listings.
"We have integrated with the eBay affiliate program so that sellers can track the traffic and sales that they drive via social media," explains Hudak. "When the traffic sellers drive converts into sales, they get paid at the eBay affiliate payout rate. For most sellers, that will mean they make back 50% of their selling fees. Sellers drive more traffic that increases the bids and closing prices, but they can also get paid for doing it."
Social media drives targeted users and also indexes well in search engines, points out Hudak. "Most Ztail users see 30% more traffic to their eBay listings when they promote their listings via social media," he said.
Whichever route you choose to take - using a service like AuctionAds, Ztail, signing up for the ebay affiliate program directly (or a combination), it seems like all sellers should be taking advantage of this opportunity to make money, or at least offset their eBay fees.
For eBay and sellers, it seems to be a win-win situation. And as Hudak commented, sellers are eBay's new marketing force.
Read part one of "eBay's Affiliate Program: What Every PowerSeller Should Know," at:
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y207/m08/abu0196/s03
