ebay/CJ no more - What happens to phpBay and BANS?

Just got an email from eBay stating that they will not be using CJ after April 1.

"The new platform will go live on April 1st, 2008 PST, at which point eBay will no longer be running its affiliate program through Commission Junction. Beginning April 1st, affiliates should register with eBay Partner Network and migrate their links from CJ to the new platform."

Can phpBay or BANS be modified for this eventuality?

 

New postPosted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 2:50 am Post subject: Reply with quote
Don't worry guys.

We had a conversation with the affiliate manager of eBay.com a few weeks ago and went through the implications of the change over.

We had to sign an NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) and were not allowed to discuss it until they had gone public with the move.

We've already been through the changes we will need to make to BANS and updates will be provided as required.

We'll be talking more about this as the time approaches and I've stickied this thread to serve as a reference point for this change over.

Kelvin

 

I received the same e-mail. phpBay and BANS will probably need some adjustment, but it sounds like the API will basically remain the same.

In the e-mail:

 

Already standing by to make adjustments for phpBay Pro as time approaches. Version 3.0 is due out about the same time.

 

Good to know it will be a smooth transition for BANS users. I figured it would be since we just plug numbers into our interface. I'm just concerned with changing all my non BANS eBay links now. That's going to be a bit of work.

Alan

 

That's great to hear GTech, I'm running phpbaypro on a number of sites and don't want them inactive when the change occurs.

 

Is there a cut-off period? Will the CJ links and the new Ebay links both work for a set amount of time? or do we all have to put up 'site down, due to maintenance' type pages till we register and install the new scripts.

 

I suspect the transition will be fairly smooth, sjmassey. The two programs will run parallel for one month, giving everyone time to migrate from CJ to Ebay without losing any sales.

Also of importance:

 

I use phpBay pro for the majority of my sites, but have a bunch of sites that don't use it...I'm really looking forward to having to change 100+ feeds...

 

Mashable has a good article on it:
http://mashable.com/2008/03/17/ebay-partner-network/

They say that current ebay affiliates will have until May 1 to update their links, so it seems that both CJ links and direct eBay affiliate links will work for the one month overlap.

 

Thanks Gtech. PHPBay Pro is working for me so I didn't want any big huge potholes to navigate.

 

Thanks Gtech!!

"All the great tools and benefits of working with the eBay program will remain the same – access to the Editor Kit and affiliate API, the flexible destination tool, the great payout structure. Please note that there will be no changes in the pricing structure as part of this transition."

I wonder if this means that the editor kits won't need changing? I still have a bunch of old ones scattered around across 13 sites.

 

That's great to hear GTech!

 

Jeeze, I heard about this earlier too... just one more "independent affiliate program" I have to check on

 

Makes you wish you had gone with a hosted solution, huh? No upgrades, no downloads.

 

Happy to see this thread. Was wondering what would happen to all my BANs sites.

 

Hey guys, I had just switched to EPN today and I wrote a small patch for phpBay pro 2.1 to add support for EPN , if you don't want to spend $50 on a new phpbay, you can purchase the patch on eBay here

Thank you guys, good luck!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160225556699

 

Upgrades to phpBay Pro are free for registered customers. Charging a customer for an upgrade to software when the affiliate changes is nothing short of extortion. There might be people doing it, but it's certainly not how I do business.

Customers needing an upgrade should login to their store account and download the latest version.

 

I just downloaded the new version.

For my existing PHPBay sites, do I need to do a complete (fresh) install? Or is there something short of that I can do to make them eBay Partner Network compliant without having to re-install the whole thing?

I notice there is a new ebay.php file -- I assume that the magic resides there as far as making it work with the Partner Network.

Thanks!

 

Hi Stephen,

The changes affect phpbay.php (Wordpress) and ebay.php

The other files are unchanged.