Problems with links to EBay

Hi!

Probably, this is a very stupid question But anyway, i'll give it a shot!

Lately, I've set up of system of searching EBay stores. That website works fine, but now I'm seeking to get a bit revenue from it. I thought to use the CJ functionality that will pay you for every auction that is successfully ended by a user that I referred.

To do so, I thought that all what was needed was to have an account at CJ, set up a PID for my website, and change my links to something like:

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-1751-2978-71/1?SID='.$SID.'&AID=$AID&PID=$PID&mpre='.$url

Here, i use $SID to track the items, AID is something I do not know anymore what it was (please let me know if you do ) and PID is the PID of the website. $url is the url_encoded link to the page that I'm linking to.

Well, that seemed fine to me, but in my logs I see activity to these pages, but in CJ control panel, I don't see anything???! No activity at all!

Any idea what I'm doing wrong? And is it even possible to do something like I'm doing? I see a bunch of websites that are doing something like that, but maybe I'm just overlooking something?

Thanks!

 

They will only count clicks if they are custom links. Just set up a fake page somewhere and change the SID tag. Click on the link 10 times. Then go to your CJ account about 5 hours later - check to see if the click counts show up.

 

Yeah I'm trying to set up an ebay auction page aswell (actually many) and I was trying to look at CJ stats also to see how campaigns were going - but there's no actions being recorded.

I hope ebay takes a widget bucks approach it would make it a lot easier.

 

Thanks a lot already for the answers!

You're correct, this is a copy from a line of code, which is written in PHP.

The above link already contains an SID. Am i correct that the SID can be whatever string? It currently is something like

ABC_12_345

There has been confirmed traffic to the redirection page, which will generate the link and redirect to EBay, but the CJ statistics don't show any SID...

Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place?...

 

I thought the SID was just optional ? is it essential even if you don't want to track campaigns ?

 

Im pretty sure AID is Advertiser ID

As far as your link, hell if I know! Why make it complicated? Just use the tools ebay provides to create your links. Then you know they will work.

 

I use the tools through eBay - just wish they wouldn't outsource the tracking and do it all through eBay, cos I don't understand CJ and I can't find much information there either, through eBay they just ask for PID and SID, was just wonderring if you need to have the SID if you don't wish to track campaigns, I just wanna see how much I've made all up.

And through eBay I don't see the option to add the site I.D it just has a 0 there.

(LoL thanks I just read that after this post, posted at same time)

Anything else we need to do ?

 

Your PID is your site ID. You should have a different PID for EACH site in your cj account. Just click on "Account" then "Web site Settings". You can add all your websites there, and get a different PID for each of them. Just enter the site specific PID into which ever ebay tool you are using.

Then in your cj reports you can see which site your sales, clicks, impressions, etc., came from.

The only reason to use SID (I think) is to track sales within a site, for example, different pages of your site. I personally do not use SID's with my ebay affiliate (BANS) sites, although now that I am thinking about it, maybe I should...

hope this helps...

 

Thank you all for the answers! I think i'm getting close to finding the answer to my question The cause of the problem seems to be that EBay does not allow affiliate linkage. With that I mean: I use their API to find interesting products, and then display them to my users. However, these links will only generate revenue when I successfully joined that particular affiliate program?!!

That is a big minus to my bussiness model Nevertheless, I'm certain that there are sites that generate revenue based on the sales that come through sending users to EBay - even when they did not join all affiliate programs...

For those interested, I've included the answer from EBay:
In reviewing the account, it appears that you are not currently affiliated with eBay. Because of this, you will not earn commissions for any traffic generated.

Perform the following steps to apply to an advertiser’s program:

1. Locate the advertiser(s) with whom you wish to establish a relationship.

You may locate advertisers in any of the following ways—

-Browse Advertiser List
-Search for Advertisers by Keyword
-Search for Advertisers by Category

Any of the these methods ultimately result in a list of advertisers in tabular format.

2. Select one or more advertisers by selecting the checkbox on the left, next to the advertiser’s name.

3. After selecting a checkbox next to an advertiser, the entire row highlights in blue.

4. Click the Apply to Program button, located just above the table, to proceed with your application.

A pop-up window opens displaying additional information. Some advertisers require you to read and accept additional terms and conditions before applying. You must click the link, scroll to the bottom and click the Accept button for each advertiser. This screen also indicates whether any advertisers approve publishers manually, in which case you receive an email once the advertiser makes a decision regarding your application.

5. Once you accept all required terms and conditions, click the Continue button.

The next screen indicates your application status with each advertiser. For example, some advertisers may immediately decline your application based on their own pre-defined criteria, while others may immediately accept your application. If the advertiser automatically accepts your application, you can immediately begin using their links on your web site.


And still I'm hoping on a positive answer about affiliate marketing with EBay

 

Yeah! I think i found it

Thinking about what the support told me, it suddenly came to me that EBay was not the only "customer" of CJ I needed to apply to their (EBay's) affiliate program to be able to get commissions from them

Now, I directly applied for all the possible EBay stores! Now it's i guess the hardest part of internet money: marketing!

Any ideas how to promote my website? Stumbleupon and selling ads through etology only generates a "spike" of visitors, which will disappear after a day or so... I never achieved a constant stream using these marketing tools...

 

so this whole time you were not even signed up with the ebay affiliate program, but you were promoting it?

sorry but...
LOL

 

Well... Yeah That's what one calls the learning curve. You must admit that CJ is not really user friendly, though once you know how to work with it, it probably is.

 

I'm with you "Auriga" CJ is not Newb friendly at all, I had to double check to see if I was in the eBay program - I dunno if it's the right set up or program or not.

Very frustrating and confusing - not my strength at all.

eBay should follow Widget Bucks and go ahead with their own monetized widgets.