Why eBay needs Affiliates
As a happy semi-pro eBay affilaite I have the chance to frequently study the traffic patterns and how users base their search behaviors. With eBay I have noticed a definite pattern in how users interact.
First off to tell you a little about my affiliate sites that drive eBay traffic
- All driven by PHPbay and Wordpress (PhpBay is better than the eBay RSS because it allows the search engines to index the eBay results as content)
- Almost %100 of new traffic comes from organic google results. (No PPC or major inter-linking)
- People most often find one of my sites by searching for some obscene long tail keyword string
- For Example - Goto Google and search for “vintage schrade 225ot”
- (at the time of writing) What you will find is on this long tail keyword it just happens that the only results that match up are eBay results. But wait whats that at the bottom of the page? An entry from some site called My Antique Finder.
- Now the regular searcher will see all these eBay results in the results and just kinda sigh. The issue is that eBay has what we call “Negative Saturation” meaning despite the fact that they do in fact have for sale everything you could ever think of- most people have a worn out image of eBay and wont go there if they can avoid it.
- Meaning that they WILL NOT click on an eBay result even though it may be at the top, but they WILL click on a result for My Antique Finder, because it looks new and interesting
- Once they are at your affilaite site, then they will browse like it is an independent shopping site and then they click on a link -expecting to get more information.
- And Wham!!!
- Then they are at eBay and have your 7 day cookie.
- The trick is that once they actually go, then they remember the value of eBay (so easily forgotten) and buy things.
- So your job as an affiliate is to just get them there and eBay will take care of the rest.
Professional eBay Affiliate Jacking
In the last few days there have been several instances with the incorrect reporting of eBay affiliate commissions through CJ. No doubt this will soon be resolved, however during the forum discussion, an important issue has been touched on how some very large Powersellers and organizations with close ties to eBay are engaged in Affiliate cookie jacking. Let us discuss.
First to define the goal of the eBay affiliate program
- The goal is that by use of the affiliate program, eBay will be acquiring customers and sales that would have never bought from eBay if not for the work of the affiliate
- For this referral, the affiliate is entitled to %50-%75 of the eBay revenue from the final sale and $25-$35 for each new referred ACRU (Active new user Registration)
Seems pretty simple? Basically without the good work of affiliates, eBay would have never had this business and therefore they pay up to %75 for the referral. Not bad and pretty generous on their part.
The standard eBay affiliate model involves creating a content website and through this website- users clickthrough to eBay and purchase. Now before we review the following mal-practices I want to say that I am not an expert on the eBay Affiliate TOS, but what I can tell you is that these practices are causing both eBay and honest affiliates to be losing quite a bit of revenue to wasted money paid to cookie-jackers
The bad models
- Ad-ware Cookie Stuffing. Companies such as Zango and others get the user to install a tool-bar, screen saver or other semi-virus that is stuffed with cookies for eBay and also every other major shopping site they can think of. What happens is that the spyware stays in the background on the users computer, but when that user visits eBay or other shopping site of their own accord, the ad-ware does an invisible pop-up of the exact same eBay page, but stuffed with their cookie.
- This means that If I have the ad-ware on my computer and visit eBay to buy something, the ad-ware is going to trick eBay to make it think that I was referred by them and then they get paid %50+ of the eBay fees.
- This is very bad for honest affiliates who will spend their own $$$ to refer a user to eBay only to have their cookie overwritten
- To note, that eBay is well aware of such practices and does their best to stop, however there is question of the commitment of of the commission partners who get paid more for such a thing because there are more commission
- Browser Cookie Stuff. In practice a user has to click on the eBay rover link in order to have the cookie placed on their computer, however there are certain high-traffic websites that all you have to do is visit the page in question and automatically your browser is stuffed with cookies from eBay and whoever else they can get away with. It is a quite easy piece of code to implement. This practice is highly against the TOS but still continues.
- Ebay Application Stuffing. This is a common semi-approved/mostly ignored tactic used by numerous eBay application developers. what they do is create some helpful application either PC or browser based and give it to you for free or a small fee. While this application may be useful, in the process of performing the action, it will also stuff your browser with the eBay affiliate cookie, effectively stealing the commission from eBay and other honest users.
- The most common application of this is Bid-Snipping software. Almost all bid-snipers are stuffed with an affiliate cookie, so even if they are giving it to you for free, be aware that they are stealing from eBay in the process
- Officially approved Powerseller Cookie Jacking - famous auction companies such as Auctiva and others are famous for introducing tools that they give free to the sellers, but in the process of using the tools they steal away the eBay commission.
- A common approach is to create a gallery software and give it free to sellers. When the buyer clicks on the gallery to inspect the items a new window is opened in which the items are displayed embedded with the companies cookie. Whether this is against the eBay TOS or not I am not sure as I am sure that they have lawyers figuring out exactly what they can do. However allowed or not it is not fair towards honest affiliates who will spend time driving sales to eBay only to have their cookie overwritten by a parasite.
- Large Powersellers are also notorious for multiple re-directs of traffic that end up with the buyer using their cookie even if the buyer came to eBay on their own.
Announcing Monetization Consulting Services
After doing this informally for some time and many requests, I am going to officially announce the start of my Website Monetization Consulting services.
What does this mean?
- It means that if you have a website that if getting over 1000 impressions per day, you can be making anywhere from $10-$100 per 1000 impressions depending on your niche and type of traffic.
- If you have a site that is getting visitors, but you are not cashing in, then this service is for you.
What do I do?
- Review your website, stats, niche, type of visitor and advertising placement
- Based on all this information I will make a calculated recommendation on the best programs to use to monetize your site along with expected returns.
What does it cost? Read more
Taming Hydra Networks with CPA
Taming The Hydra with CPA
A few days ago we reviewed a number of Yoga affiliate programs to discover what makes a successful affiliate program. One of the programs we discussed was a CPA offered by Hydra Network out of Beverly Hills California.
Hydra is unique in the fact that they are exclusively a CPA(Cost per action) Network. In its most pure form, CPA means that the user I refer completes some action usually entering an email address or filling out a form for me to get my payment.
For instance, Hydra Networks has a number of programs that will pay you approximately $1.20-$1.30 simply for a user with a USA IP address entering their email address. The intensive of these programs is a giveaway for the user. For instance, the Creative (Ad) will say ‘Free iPhone’ or ‘Free $250 gift certificate.’ etc…. The user just has to click through your link, goto the site, enter their email and then you get paid. Not bad
There are a few catches to this system that we must discuss.
- As we stated before, most programs are targeted to US IP addresses, there are others for UK or Western European IP’s as well. This means if you get a clickthrough from anybody outside the US, you do not get credit for the lead. This can be solved via IP targeting for your promotions.
- Different advertisers have different rules that you must follow. Some only allow targeted email campaigns, others will allow PPC Play or banner advertisements. Some allow incentives, some do not. You have to review the rules of each Hydra Network campaign before you signup
- Fraud is rampant in this part of the industry, so expect to have your clicks and payments throughly reviewed for natural patterns of use including the average amount of users that follow through after the initial signup. Read more
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