Ebay affiliates...where do we go from here?

Looks like the ebay affiliate program is gonna be useless soon.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/14/technology/14ebay.html
With buy.com negotiating there own fees, commissions will drop.
With Auctiva,adware,spyware,and auction page leaks, this will make EPN less profitable.
Guess I need to start looking at other options.

 

Well, if the picture really is that bleak I hope someone steps in to fill the niche - eBay was radical in its day, the chance for the little guy to sell his garage junk. Now it'll just end up listing the same stuff as everywhere else. I mean, Buy.com is basically a drop-shipper, for crying out loud! What possible added value is that going to give eBay listings?! Makes shopping comparison sites a joke - most shopping sites ARE going to be comparison sites the way things are going, including eBay! They'll just end up comparing the same items with each other!

 

Buy.com brings more products to EBay. That offers more chances for affilliates to make commissions. IMHO, this move will hurt smaller sellers, not affilliates.

 

But it does. Let's say you promote inexpensive digital cameras on your EPN site. You can still list them from 20 to 50 dollars each with free shipping, because of the smaller Ebay sellers. Now, if the smaller sellers are gone you will be listing the same cameras for 50-300 dollars each + shipping & handling. Chances that someone will buy them from you become slim simply because they can find them cheaper at their local store. You can use the same example for all other industries.

You should reread that article. There it clearly says that the guy who used to make $250.000 in software sales, saw it go down 50-70% after the new deal with Buy.com.

 

Stop reading articles and start working on your BANS stores

 

Well said.. and start working on other 'types' of store fronts, if you're worried about eBay's future. It's easy to feel down while reading FUD articles, but the sure remedy is to stay productive and diversified.

My two cents.
hanji

 

I don't think it is going to eliminate all small sellers. Buy.com already has its infrastructure, it is not going to shut all that down and sell exclusively on eBay. If I were Buy.com, I would use eBay to sell my discontinued, refurbished, and overstock items.

Plus, Buy.com is not going to replace the small sellers for antique sewing wheels, butter churns, concert tickets, and everything else on eBay. If Buy.com squeezes out the small sellers in the electronics area those sellers will end up somewhere else. Then become an affiliate of the new marketplace or find a new niche.

Instead, we the affiliates are to get a little good and bad. The bad, the commissions will go down when you sell a Buy.com item. It's probably going to be similar to when you sell an eBay item that was listed during one of the listing promotions.

The good. We are going to have a lot larger selection of products to promote. Plus, we are going to have a lot larger selection of NEW, BUY IT NOW merchandise to offer our clients. A broader selection of products is going to mean more opportunities for sale and more cookies.

I also like some aspects of the deal. Because I use BANS, I have the option to build my site or a page on a Seller Id. I hope this will let me build Sites (or at least pages) around Buy.com products.

The sky is not falling, it is blue and just where I left it.

 

Change is one thing you can count on for affiliate marketing. Things are always going to be in flux. My best advice is to never put all you eggs in one basket, yet stay focussed... LOL

As an eBay affiliate I set up and forget. I drive traffic to my BANS sites from my bigger CJ sites that have been around a while (PopShop Sites that are HUGE). I have seen earnings up recently, but if suddenly it all disappeared I would not worry since I have a lot of niches, and projects going on.

Even if commissions on transactions fall so what...I really make more money on the ACRU's anyway.

 

It's definitely going to be a lot harder for eBay affiliates... that's for sure. But yeah, I too make more on ACRU's, so I'm not too worried about it.

 

Don't put all your eggs in one basket. 'nuff said.

 

I believe that anyone who can't make money with BANS doesn't belong in the affiliate game. Do the work, do it right, and it's a nobrainer as far as making money is concerned. Did I say do the WORK?

 

Power sellers and buy.com don't offer the ebay items that I promote, and never will.

 

LOL @ Ebay ruining itself....

 

Hi,
I am also an eBay affiliate.
I need to think about it.
tony707

 

I think that expression works in this situation. Let's just assume that the sky is falling and eBay is ruining itself and will be out of business someday, how much are you going to make between now and then just worrying about it? If you can make a couple hundred dollars a month until eBay supposedly goes into total ruin, why not do it. "Make hay while the sun is shining"

Have you thought about how cheap it is to start and operate an eBay niche store. If not go to the first link in my signature and go to the page called "Earning Commissions" and think about it.

I'm willing to bet that if you built an eBay niche store, did it right and really worked it, between now and the end of eBay you would be way ahead. But that is just me, MR. POSITIVE.

 

Brent S. do you think the majority of the audience on this forum is stupid? Do you?

If BANGS (I mean BANS) was the answer to making money, the people who offered them would make money off of them rather than offering them to everyone. People who offer BANS are the same type who claim to have "the secret" to AdWords success or "the secret" to how to make money from buying and selling properties or those who sell cheap ebooks online or those who sell cheap made for AdSense websites. One and the same kind. Not a good one. They can't money from their own "secrets" so they try to make money by pushing their bogus secrets on everyone instead.

Brent S. if you were a business owner, and a successful one at that, do you think you would offer anyone your secrets or the ways you are making money? If you did I would say you have lost your mind.

Anyway, you guys, should stop posting your bogus posts about BANS, EPN and what not. No need. If you make money on those yourselves - great. But do not deceive the general public just to make a cheap buck off of them.

 

BANS is a quality product and part of a mix of many affiliate marketing tools I use.

I feel comfortable recommending it to anyone since it works for me. But it certainly is not the only answer. There is no Secret at all... just a tool to make money. It is easy to use and works every day for me. There is nothing bogus about the program in any way.

If I stumble onto a secret I will make sure to keep it to myself until I suck all the money out.. LOL

 

Reminds me of the old man and the hot dog stand. He did well selling hot dogs and sent his kid to college. The kid came back from an economics class and warned the old man to scale back...Well the old man almost went out of business until he just got back to the business of being in business. Keep building sites and promoting and read less....

 

VitalBusiness:

The post, to which I was responding, has to do with eBay running itself into ruin and where do eBay affiliates go now. The point of my reply is that you can make money with eBay today or not. The page I referred people to is one of my blog points where I try to point out how little it takes to start up an affiliate website compared to a traditional business. I know you don't like ebay. http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?p=8461754#post8461754

Now let's turn to your point. BANS is not the "secret" to success, nor do I promise it to be. You may be a technical genius and can code and build a website or tap into eBay's feed. I don't know have a straight running clue how to do that stuff. And, there are a lot of people in the same boat as I am. Rather than not having a website or being stuck putting an "eBay click me" banner somewhere (which we all know that banners are poor convertors) I use BANS.

eBay does not allow direct linking or spamming, so you got to have a website. No secret there. What is the secret that you think I am giving away?

BANS is a website builder - nothing more, nothing less. It is a tool to help create eBay oriented stores. When I first started I downloaded free templates and tried modifiying them. I asked people on this forum and thewebsiteprofessionals.com forum to critique them, and typical of the response I got where it "makes my eyes bleed." All in all, my early sites were poorly critiqued and that's because I did not have any clue what I was doing when I started.

PhpBay is the same thing, it is only a tool designed to help people put eBay listings in their blogs.

Just as I point out in my links in my signatures, if you don't use BANS or PhpBay correctly and fully, you are not going to enjoy the benefits. If you use them correctly, there are benefits to these tools.

I have been doing this for close to 8 months now, I have made more in the last four months than I did the first four. I know what works and has worked for me. While I appreciate your opinions, they are just that your opinions. Just as I have my opinions. Believe it or not, in my opinion I agree with you that people who say they have the secret to Google are probably wrong.

A person should be entitled to choose to use the tools available to them. Of course, you can not use tools if you don't know about them. I do not think the members of this forum are stupid, I think they are fully capable of evaluating and deciding what is they want and what might work them.

 

Hello this is my first post. I would like to just state a few things.

1. If/when ebay adds buy.com merchandise it will increase traffic to ebay and the smaller sellers will be able to compete as their prices are typically less. So if it increases the buzz of an item and smaller guys have it cheaper, who do you think will get the sale??

2. Ebay owns paypal so even when EPN pays you for the fees generated to ebay they are not paying you on fees from paypal (at least I don't think they are). Paypal is a big money maker for ebay and I don't think ebay will reduce their commissions to affiliates due to the fact that they will want as many transactions as possible.

3. No comment on BANS

4. Does anyone here make any serious money on ebay??? Serious = over $5k/mth...... If so what kind of traffic do you get to your site???

Well that's it for now...