I have noticed an increase in sales using the flex and widget tools. One thing i see with the bans sites is a lack of links to other eBay areas. I'm not sure if this is due to the bans footprint issue for search rankings or not but i would suggest adding some extra links to your sites that go along with the items you sell. I like to call them "My last click efforts". I make links with the flex tool that go along with what I'm selling on my site to areas like... eBay buyer guides and eBay reviews and/or any other eBay pages that may catch a users attention if they are not in the mood to purchase at the moment.. I have found this to be a good way to drop them cookies and so far it has been paying off. This month i made 6 sales with the flex tool. 5 sales with the search box. and 2 with the widget..... This year a plan to add flex links to the eBay aff and public forums. the learning center, eBay U, customer support, and any other links i can find that may get a user to click and drop a cookie. I would suggest you all add some "last click efforts" to your pages. I'm not sure how this will affect your search rankings as i have a 100% targeted user base from the use of my email newsletter and i really don't care about my search position in Google at this time. on a side note, My site has been number 1 in the rankings for my keywords less then two weeks after launch and the extra flex links seem to have no affect on my search position. My overall tip is... get linking to everything eBay!! Jeff
I never thought about directing customers to Ebay pages other than product pages. Great idea. I have had better luck getting clicks with the Flex Destination Tool also.