The Ebay Affiliate Program

You can earn extra money referring other to Ebay too.


The eBay Affiliate Program strives to make success of its members inevitable. The eBay Affiliate program has outlined some effective strategies and designed some effective tools to ensure you make money and have success. eBay's Affiliate program, is already a success for so many people, and has the benefit of experience to pass on to you. Once you become a member of the Affiliate Program you can be making money in no time flat.

The Program has recognized four models that their most successful affiliates utilize. These models increase traffic or maximize potential in a variety of ways: The first, the natural search, occurs when people go to search engines with a query in hopes of receiving relevant search information.

Search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and AOL return listings from web sites that ranked the highest during the search process. Affiliate Program members who optimize this strategy incorporate eBay's helpful hints for natural searches. Indexed web sites with title pages and other rank-earning components earn more exposure, and increase their earnings with eBay.

The second model, the paid search model, increases hits with search engines because this model pays for placement. This model includes results that would appear in the "sponsored links" section. While these cost money, they are a cost-effective way to target interested leads.

The third model is Content websites. They place eBay ads on their website, and find added success when they choose to advertise for eBay in ways that also relate to their own content and aims.

The fourth model is opt-in newsletters. This option allows websites to broadcast additional information about their eBay Affiliate Program status to potential customers, and increase their customer base. To make the most of eBay, many websites choose to emulate one of the aforementioned models. These models are tried and true, and repeatedly spell success for eBay Affiliate Program members. These models are highly cost and time effective.

Cost and time effectiveness are highly important, as they ensure you are earning the maximum dollar for the effort you invest in your affiliate member status. The eBay Affiliate Program takes your time and effort seriously, and provides you with the necessary tools to maximize your success. Items such as the Keyword Tool, allow you to ensure your keywords are drawing the most attention.

eBay also provides you with options to track the hits your site inspired, statistics for the products and models that are performing best, and additional guidelines for best business practices. All of these options are free with the eBay Affiliate Program, and all of them will increase your earning potential with the programmed.

Build eBay Affiliate Stores (Ebooks For Ebay Profits)
Build eBay Affiliate Stores in Less Than 30 Minutes with FREE software! - New Century Edition with DirectLink Technology
How to Make More Money With Ebay's Affiliate Program
Auction Exploit - How to make easy money as an eBay affiliate
How to Make Money on Ebay Partner Network At Home DVD

How To Drive Customers Away

ADD CHARGES FOR HANDLING AND PACKING MATERIALS

You want the advantage eBay offers of a million possible buyers, otherwise you could just have a garage sale at home. And, you want to look like an antique store without paying for rent, employees, insurance, etc. What you want is to have the best of both worlds. But, a professional can't have it both ways. If you are selling more than three items a year on eBay, you are a professional.

Has an antique store ever charged you extra to wrap the fragile antique in lots of tissue paper? Did they ever tell you it would be 50¢ extra if you want a bag? Or charge for the bag by a percentage of the item price? There are expenses in a business, and your way of dealing with expenses should be to deduct them at tax time.

Some sellers use a professional shipper to pack all their items. This probably does assure that the item will be packed safely. But that is not why the seller is using the subcontractor. When you see a seller with tons of feedback, peek in and see how many auctions they are running at one time. Maybe 50? Maybe 100? Even more? How could any seller 1) keep track of all those (computer software) and 2) have the time to wrap up all of those items? He doesn't, he pays extra for someone else to pack up each item. Well, no - you pay extra so he has the ability to run hundreds of auctions at one time. This extra expense benefits him, makes his life easier, allows him to make tons more money, BUT does not cut into his profit margin at all. It is just one more "gift" to you - if you choose to accept it.

This is one of the best off Ebay, for some dishes: "Due to the enormous amount of packing and shipping, shipping and handling is $200.00! I have not decided how to ship yet. I'm thinking UPS just because of their handling policies." First, the seller doesn't even know the cost of postage because he hasn't decided on which company to use. Second, here's an important piece of advice: If you don't want to ever pay for bubblewrap and foam peanuts, sell clothing! You will also find ways to possibly get all of your packing materials for free.

Ebay is full of "gifts" of extra charges right now. Many of the newer sellers have seen the example of these over-charging sellers and have followed suit. The handling fee is $1.00 for unbreakables, $2.00 to $5.00 on breakables (depending on size), and some are charging $5.00 for a "good strong box." That's not all. Someone told them that $.55 is a small price to pay for delivery confirmation. Well, it is a small price for the buyer to pay for the seller's peace of mind. The buyer uses trust to send a seller money, certainly the seller can trust the buyer not to say that the item never arrived when it really did. That is all that delivery confirmation is for - telling the seller the date and time that a package was delivered. Tracking is not included. Just one more charge that is unnecessary and is passed to the buyer.

You might get away with extra charges occasionally if the customer doesn't read the small print, or if the customer does read the small print but really wants the item. The sellers who want to get rid of as many customers as possible put in their listings that the bidder agrees to pay shipping, insurance and handling without a warning of how much the handling charge would be. There is not always time to ask the question and get the reply before making a decision to bid or not.

BE SURE TO INCLUDE A HUGE LIST OF ALL THE THINGS YOU WON'T STAND FOR

Man, there is nothing like reading about all the bad deals the seller has had and what they simply won't put up with anymore to make you want to rush to put a bid on his item! It is almost funny that the sellers with some of the longest lists of do's and don'ts for their bidders are brand new to Ebay. Hmm. Maybe they read the woes of so many other sellers that they thought this would nip all the problems in the bud. If you don't mention cheating, fraud, paying slowly, bad checks, etc., the bidders might not ever think of such things. If you treat your bidders with dignity, fairness and trust, that is what you will usually receive from them. Besides, you certainly don't want bidders thinking that the reason you've had so many problems just might be you.

SNEAK IN EXTRA CHARGES

If you see an item listed for much less than it is worth with no reserve, it sometimes pays to ask a seller early in the auction just what postage would be for their item. You can't just assume even postage rates will always be the same. If the item sells for much less than the seller expected, that 1-pound package may just cost you $3.95 or even $5.20 instead of $3.50. It has happened. After all (they think), they need to make up the difference somewhere, and you probably won't ever weigh the package to even know what they did. This is also when you may see the handling fee go from 50¢ to $2!

HOW TO AVOID EXTRA EXPENSES AND FEES

As a seller, you have a few ways to deal with expenses like eBay fees. One is to add their fees to the opening bid. At least the actual price is then out in the open. Another is to just keep track of all expenses so you can deduct them at tax time.

The best way to avoid having to worry about any extra expenses is to simply buy smarter. If you think a platter will sell for $15, spend no more than $5 in the first place. That means that you need to shop around for good deals, buy in quantity for lower prices on your end, and keep informed so you know the current values before you buy. You do deserve to make a profit - first for all your time, and second for making such a wonderful item available in the first place. If you want even more profit, sell only what you already own.

Most sellers don't even worry about charging for bubblewrap and tissue paper because they get more than enough free when they receive packages from others. (Which, of course, they found for a "steal" on eBay by following the advice right here at this site!)

Sellers can avoid even more fees by selecting more carefully the services they use. Lots of photo sites don't charge for you to store your pictures, and pictures there can be used with auctions. Some of the other sites that offer free picture storage will not let you use your pictures in auctions (like Yahoo). Still other services charge per picture, which can really get expensive with auctions. And, some picture hosting sites will cost you dearly in sales if you use them because the pictures never load so do your homework.

Some sellers currently admit in their listings that they will only use one photo per auction now because eBay raised their photo rates. If the item is not worth an extra 15¢, why even sell items like that? Or, just add 15¢ to the opening bid. Many items simply require more than one photo to show their condition or quality. You need to treat your buyers fairly, and most items sell for much more when more than one photo is used.

Speak up when you get hit with extra charges that either were not listed or are higher than expected. You can usually get unnecessary charges removed or high charges reduced. If more buyers spoke up, these practices would stop. Sellers would be out of business totally without buyers, and they should truly see their customers as being valuable. That's what gets repeat buyers. When you find a seller with items you like and no extra fees, be sure to click on "View seller's other items ." In fact, bookmark his seller's list so you can check back often.


Amazon.com $25 Gift Card (0108) 
Amazon.com $50 Gift Card (0109) 
PayPal Hacks 
Iconic Puppy GiftCard - $50 
Kohl's Gift Card 

How Do People Get Free Shipping Supplies?

The United States Post Office is still "pushing" their Priority Mail services. You can order all the shipping supplies you want through the USPS - order in minutes on line - and have them delivered to your door. When you make your first order, the USPS will mail you a postcard to sign and mail back to them. The "payment" for this deal is simply agreeing to (and signing to prove it) use these supplies only for their intended purpose. Anyone caught turning Priority Mail boxes inside out to use a cheaper mail service will be in big trouble. We haven't done this so we don't know if you get a large fine, jail time, or just lose the privilege to ever receive any more supplies. So, this is not for you if you prefer to send your packages by UPS or using the Book Rate.

Just what kind of supplies does the USPS offer? Small boxes, larger boxes, flat boxes, larger flat boxes, small flat boxes, flat mailers, "Priority Mail" tape, and labels. You can't have it all, you have to buy your own bubblewrap! The only real catch is that you must order the minimum, which can be a case of boxes. Since the boxes come flat, this is not as bad as it sounds.

For those that don't want to use Priority Mail or the USPS in general, there are still places to get boxes for free.

• Your local supermarket gets deliveries at least once a week. Just ask one of their employees on what day and at what time their deliveries arrive. They won't usually save boxes for you, but you can walk in and get as many as you like before they cut them down for recycling.
  
  
• Office Depot has great boxes for larger items. They receive their reams of paper in sturdy boxes with lids, and these are always clean. Our local Office Depot receives paper deliveries twice a week. The store manager even agreed to hold the boxes for a few hours. We just need to go in on the correct day. Since these are such handy boxes, you may have to be the first to get to the store to beat others with the same idea.
  
  
• Check the free ads in the Recycler. Companies go out of business all the time, and they would usually prefer to give their supply of boxes away than to pay someone to haul them away. We found a vitamin store that was closing down and got hundreds of small and tiny boxes. These are not only great for mailing small items, but they are perfect for double boxing a set of smaller breakables.
  
  
• Liquor stores have the sturdiest boxes since bottles of liquor and wine are so heavy. If you sell bottles, these may even come with cardboard slots in them already to keep bottles from hitting each other when you send out several to one buyer.
  
  
• Dumpsters behind stores sometimes have good empty boxes. Sometimes you are lucky enough to find the boxes piled outside the dumpster. Either way, you should check them to be sure that they are clean and dry (a box will be weakened forever once it gets wet).
  
  
• The most obvious is for sellers to BUY on Ebay. Your package will come in a box, and many will come full of styrofoam peanuts or bubblewrap also. Just be sure that the box is sturdy before using it again. And, don't use bubblewrap as padding for delicate items if the bubbles are popped.
  
  
• Get inventive, you may find even more good suppliers of boxes.

Your local stores that sell breakable items usually have lots of bubblewrap and styrofoam peanuts on hand that they don't need. After all, most of their customers put their goodies into the car and drive home. Talk to them. They will probably be happy to let you pick up all of their extras once a week or so. They get to recycle and have less clutter, and you get to save lots of money.

BUT, you may need boxes - in special sizes. You can get the discounts that the "big guys" do. Global Industrial offers boxes in many, many sizes. Since you buy them by the case, you get the big savings. Using larger boxes than you need drastically raises the postage cost, so spending 25 cents on the right box is a good investment in keeping customers happy and coming back for more. And, don't forget, whatever you sepnd on boxes is deductible at tax time. You can also get all your shipping supplies for less at Global Industrial. If you sell lots of fragile items, take a look at their peanut dispenser. It holds 30 cubic feet of packing peanuts at one time, it hangs from the ceiling out of the way, and you drop in all you need with a push of a button. This is a real time and space saver.


eBay For Dummies
eBay 101: Selling on eBay For Part-time or Full-time Income, Beginner to PowerSeller in 90 Days
How to Buy, Sell, and Profit on eBay: Kick-Start Your Home-Based Business in Just Thirty Days
How and Where to Locate the Merchandise to Sell on eBay: Insider Information You Need to Know from the Experts Who Do It Every Day
eBay Business All-in-One For Dummies

The Best Ways To Not Overpay For Items on eBay

We know you'd pay just about any price to add that special item to your collection, but don't let anyone else know that!

Here are some tips on how to not overpay for items on

• Don't jump right in and bid a huge amount as soon as the item is listed.
  This lets others know that the item is worth something and makes them want it more.
  
  
• Keep your excitement in check and don't even bid on the item until the very end.
  
  
• If you are terrible at remembering auctions, you can bid in the beginning - but make the minimum bid only. (This way you'll be reminded with ebay's daily auction notices, or you can always do a search of what you bid on recently - even if you've been outbid.)
  This makes other bidders think you only would have bought it if you got a great price.
  Then leave the bidding alone until the very end! Nothing raises bids faster than competition.
  
  
• Snipe - see our sniping section to find out how. Basically, bid at the very last minute and bid the very most you could stand.
  
  
• Research the kind of items you collect or regularly buy.
  Can you find it just as cheap at the corner store?
  If there are usually six of these on any given day, wait for the one with the lowest price.
  
  
• Look around before you bid. You may find the exact same thing for half the price. 

Sony LCSCSQ/B Soft Carrying Case for Sony T, W, and N Series Digital Cameras (Black)
Secret Sources for Hot Products You Can Resell on eBay
Twilight "Eclipse" Bellas Engagement Ring Prop Replica
Eric Johnson: Total Electric Guitar
Hot Tools Professional 800 Watt Ionic Soft Bonnet Hair Dryer

When is the Best Time to Go Shopping on eBay?

When you go shopping on Ebay depends a lot on your own schedule. But, when you can find the best deals depends on other factors.

Obviously, you may have the internet just about to yourself at 1:00 in the morning. But, you may not have many auctions to bid on that are closing in that time slot. You are able to bid on any item you want (not just those near closing), but your bidding procedures should be different depending on how much you are willing to spend. There are many auctions closing around noontime, but the internet i.s  s..o  s...l...o...w  then because so many people peek in during their lunch break. It could take you 6 to 10 minutes just to get a bid through, and that is after you finally get the page to load.

One method a lot of people use is to go browsing on a weekday morning or late in the evening on any day of the week. This gives them lots of speed so they can look in on many more auctions. When they see something interesting, they just bookmark it for later. That way, they can go back near the end of the auction to do some serious bidding (more on that is coming in a later chapter). There are many other times you can be assured of speeding through the internet: on a holiday; 7:00 to 9:00 on an important voting evening; while the most popular t.v. shows are on; Sunday mornings; any Saturday night (date night); while the Olympic gymnastics finals are on t.v.; etc.

There are two ways to speed up your internet shopping at any time you want......

  If you know the name and description of what you are looking for, you can do your initial shopping without pictures. You can "turn off" the images through your browser. In Netscape, click on Edit on the top bar, then click on Preferences, then Advanced, then click on Automatically Load Images to uncheck the box. You can shop through hundreds of auctions without waiting for any images to load. If you get to an auction that looks like a great one, you can then click on Images (on the second bar from the top) to see these pictures only, and click on Images again to turn them back off and continue shopping.

  Shopping at any time of the day or any day of the week is always slowest with a dial-up connection. And, most dial-up connections get lost often. Cable modem or DSL can make your shopping (and everything you do on the internet) at least 10 times faster - without disconnects. You only need to be disconnected just before bidding on something once to know how important your internet connection is. And, that is just an example from the point of buying. Sellers listing on ebay who use AOL simply cannot be having successful sales - their photos take forever to show up. Photos that just won't load or take SO long to load cause buyers to go on their merry way.

If the sky is the limit on something you really want, you may want to try to be the first bidder. If an item worth $20 is the one missing piece to complete your collection, you may feel like bidding $200 and not care if the bidding really goes that high. That kind of bidding almost guarantees that you will win the auction. We say almost because you run the risk of bringing extra attention to the auction that way. If two or three people want an item, the bids start going back and forth and the price goes up and up. Let's say the item you really need is a frog beanie baby. Many people who collect beanies will note that the auction has more bids than normal and peek in to see why. If your name is recognizable as a regular beanie baby collector, now their curiosity is really peaked. "If _______ is bidding on this frog, she must know something that I don't know...If ________ doesn't have this frog, it must really be rare!...I've got to get this frog!" Whoops.

If you want to get the best deal, you may want to wait till near the end of the auction. We will tell you in a later chapter just how to get the best deal whether you shop at the beginning, middle or end of an auction.

One other thing. The best time to go shopping is after you have done your research! Browse through many auctions to see how much that item normally sells for and in what condition it is normally available. If you have looked for weeks and never found one at all, you may be willing to spend much more when you finally find one being offered. You may find out that what you want is listed all the time and almost always in great condition, so you may not want to bid at all on one that is damaged or overpriced in comparison. Why do so many auctions have no bids at all? Maybe the opening bid is way too high. But, only an informed shopper would know the difference. Why does that wonderful item in perfect condition have no bids at all? Maybe the shoppers who did their research know that it is a brand new copy. If you don't care, bid away. If you do care, you need to be able to tell an original from a copy. Almost every copy will have obvious signs, you just need to know what they are. (If there are copies available in your item, it is not wise to bid on an item without a picture so you can see the item for yourself.) If you have the time and patience, you can do most of your research through the auction results. Sometimes you have to go to collector or antiques sites on the web to find answers. But, the best source of all is a reference book right by your side while you shop. Books are available on almost every collectible and are often very affordable. But, a $50 book is worth every penny if you could make a $200 mistake on just one wrong item.

eBay For Dummies
eBay For Seniors For Dummies
eBay Business All-in-One For Dummies
The Complete Idiot's Guide to eBay, 2nd Edition
eBay 101: Selling on eBay For Part-time or Full-time Income, Beginner to PowerSeller in 90 Days

 

Who is Ebay's Top Seller (In Dollars)?

Allow me to introduce you to...eBay's largest seller who is ALSO the future Mayor of NY! (and maybe President)

eBay's largest seller is (drum roll please): christopher1428!  who goes by the moniker Chris Riggs for President.

Not what you were expecting, huh? You thought I was going to say buy.com or maybe a big auto dealer. Nope. Well, let me walk you through what is going on here and I promise you, it will blow your mind.

Chris consistently keeps about 200 listings live on eBay in his store at the $200-600 range which is probably what this art actually trades at in the real world.  The genius move is Chris keeps 5-10 listings running of the same stuff he's selling at lower prices in the $10-30m range.  For example:

• Here's a green drizzle piece. This can be yours for $21m
• Here's more of a comic kind of piece for... $21m (I bet you can get a bulk discount if you buy both)

You get the idea.

Now of course, if someone is going to goof off on eBay, they look for expensive stuff and buy it, and don't pay.  I can 99.999999999% guarantee you that chris has never sold a $21m painting (meaning someone paid), but on eBay it's a regular occurrence for someone to 'commit to buy' one of these.

The UPIs are probably a pain for chris, but it does seem to drive a ton of traffic.  A TON of traffic.

This has been going on for years....

I first noticed this (because of the top seller reports I maintain) that this wasn't really above board back in 2005 and thought it would be interesting to watch and see when/if eBay put a stop to it.  Since then we've seen entire eBay regimes come and go, the feedback system changed constantly and new programs to raise the bar.  We now have a money back guarantee and lots of other strides.  But here's Chris, for 5 years now selling $21m paintings that nobody pays for.  There's also a fair amount of blatant keyword spamming that he does, but I won't go into that.

My favorite part is that on many of the photos, Chris stealthily adds pictures that at first seem relevant (e.g. the first will be a close up), but then they degrade into party pictures and usually Chris or his friends are giving the finger.  I'm sure after this eBay will take action, so I want to preserve some of these for posterity.
I've often wondered if this started out as a dare or a gag and they were shocked that a) the items weren't taken down and b) that people buy this stuff.

Whenever you see the top rated seller flag, that's me censoring out something in the photo you should go to eBay to see: (click these to enlarge) - remember, these are from LIVE eBay Listings! (as of 3/19/10)

(This last one is my favorite as it doesn't even have Chris in it (maybe that's his art back there), but check out the T-shirt on the guy on the left - the auction doesn't state if this offer is part of the auction or not - it seems to be $20 extra.)

Phew, that's enough of that - if you want more, Chris has a vibrant myspace page here.

What's your point?

As long as this kind of stuff is happening on eBay (and believe me, this is far from an isolated incident), eBay won't officially have solved their trust problems.  All of the other changes are good and positive forward momentum, but they are lipstick on a pig (as we say here in NC) when you have flagrant things like this going on right under eBay's nose for the last 5+ yrs.

The eBay Seller's Tax and Legal Answer Book: Everything You Need to Know to Keep the Government Off Your Back and Out of Your Wallet
How to Buy, Sell, and Profit on eBay: Kick-Start Your Home-Based Business in Just Thirty Days
1000 Best eBay Success Secrets: Secrets From a Powerseller
Three Weeks to eBay Profits, Revised Edition: Go from Beginner to Successful Seller in Less than a Month (Three Weeks to Ebay Profits: Go from Beginner to Successful)

The New Buyer Protection Program on Ebay

I noticed starting yesterday that eBay seems to be doing a pretty significant 'blanket' (I'm seeing it on most of the major ad networks) of an online marketing program around the buyer protection program.  They are doing interactive rich media ads.

I've seen a couple of treatments:

Spinning shield

The first treatment has the shield logo used in the program that spins around (this definitely catches your eye) and then it has some color stripes and reveals the "You're covered by the shield' message you see here:

The Learn More button takes you to the same 'about the buyer protection program' page you are taken to when you click the shield on the site.

Bullet points

The second treatment I've seen is more of a bullet pointed list as you see here:

So the key points they are hitting on:

• Program does not cost extra (Absolutely free!)
• Quick access to customer support
• Covers purchase price plus original shipping

Sign of things to come?
eBay has been hinting that they feel they are making big strides in trust and buyer protection.  It's good to see they are ramping up some exposure here.  I wonder if this is a ramp up to a more serious multimedia (radio/tv/print/online) push that we could see later this year to prep for Q4.

 eBay 101: Selling on eBay For Part-time or Full-time Income, Beginner to PowerSeller in 90 Days
eBay For Dummies
How and Where to Locate the Merchandise to Sell on eBay: Insider Information You Need to Know from the Experts Who Do It Every Day
eBay Business All-in-One For Dummies
Titanium eBay, 2nd Edition: A Tactical Guide to Becoming a Millionaire Powerseller