Ros' Ramblings

This issue of the NPC is how to profit from eBay, NOT as as
seller, but as an affiliate.

I did some selling back on eBay way back when I was dabbling
in ALL ways to make money online.

Unfortunately, I found writing listing descriptions tedious,
as was packing and shipping the goods after a sale.

Honestly, I was (and am) too lazy to sell hard goods online.

Despite my laziness, I appreciate why so many do so well 
trading on eBay. It can be exciting, addictive and highly
profitable.

That explains why it's such an extremely popular venture for
SO many.

How many, you wonder?

Well, at the end of 2003, there were 94.9 million registered
eBay users, and 41.2 million ACTIVE users. The number of
active users increased by 49% from the 27.7 million reported
in 2002.

Understanding its growing popularity,  I didn't want to
leave the eBay scene behind entirely when I traded in my
seller's hat.

I decided to stay in the game by purchasing and reselling an
infoproduct package of online auction educational materials
through my site at http://auctionspay.com.

When I started selling that package, I signed up as an eBay
affiliate and placed the link on the site to try and capture
a few bucks from traffic that visited the site but did not
buy the ebooks.

To my amazement, there have been many months when
commissions from the eBay registrations and bids through
that affiliate link amounted to MORE than the value of the
ebooks sold.

Here's what happens.

You make $5 per member registration if that member places a
bid (becomes active) within 30 days after registering.

Five bucks ain't bad, but it's the nickels earned from EVERY
bid they place after signing up through your link that
REALLY add up.

Consider this. There were 971 million listings on eBay in
2003 and the total value of goods sold was 27 BILLION
dollars.

That means there's a LOT of bidding going on!

So, ya baby! Nickel and dime me all ya want! I'm lovin' it!
:-))

Have I got your attention? Excellent.

Take advantage of the eBay brand. Whatever your web site,
top, the eBay brand is relevant. With over 19,000,000 items
listed at any moment and 2,000,000 new items listed daily,
eBay has a remarkable breadth of product that resonates with
any demographic.

Read this week's NPC and learn how to convert your traffic
into a profit from eBay!

'Til next week, learn and prosper!

Cheers,
Rosalind

Rosalind Gardner
SuperAffiliateHandbook.com

Reader QnA - Can I Use Auctions to Sell as An Affiliate?

Here's where eBay and affiliates do NOT mix...

     Hi Rosalind:
 
     I am interested in becoming an affiliate for several
     online companies. A number of them offer e-book and I
     intend on selling these e-books via online auctions.

     As with any auction sale, selling prices will vary.
     Knowing that I have an average 50% margin, I may begin
     the bidding at a 20% mark up.

     Is this acceptable? How will affiliate provider handle
     these type of transactions in order to compensate me
     the appropriate commission?

     Any other insight as to how can I offer ebooks via
     online auctions and arrange the sale would be greatly
     appreciated.

     Thank you for your time.

     Tony Petrongelli

If you've bought resell rights for an ebook, that's OK - but
that makes you a reseller, not an affiliate.

Otherwise, it's a BIG NO-NO.

For example, I recently caught someone selling MY ebook on
eBay. Again, BIG NO-NO. My ebook is for sale only through me
or my affiliates, NOT by resellers.

Fortunately, eBay has their Vero program which lets © Copyright
owners get listings like that taken down immediately.

And trust me, merchants look for illegal listings like that all
the time. It's not worth risking your reputation over.

One way to promote an ebook as an affiliate through eBay, would
be to produce and sell your OWN ebook on eBay, that includes
LINKS to your affiliate products.

Otherwise, sell the product from your own site.

eBay Affiliate Success Stories

Several eBay affiliates earn over 100 G's every month - well
over a million bucks per year! eBay's top 100 affiliates
average nearly 25 grand each month.

There are snippets of 3 success stories featured on the eBay
affiliate site. They include RollingStone.com which has has
incorporated over 7,000 Editor Kits throughout their Web
site; Chris Bowler who after joining in May 2003 already
averages over $7500 in eBay commissions per month and
Ravenwood Marketing which has become a top-10 affiliate
using paid search campaigns.

No wonder these guys are doing so well. eBay.com has a
7-day EPC of $20.82 which is awesome! EPC is stands for
average earnings per 100 clicks.

And all the eBay sites have Network earnings of 5 bars.
Network earnings are based on a scale of zero to five bars,
which shows how the advertiser compares with all the
other advertisers in the network based on commissions paid.

Read more about all three at:
http://affiliates.ebay.com/how-affiliate-program-works/

Click on "Success Stories" on the left navigation bar.

4 ways to Make Money as an eBay Affiliate

As an eBay affiliate, you have 4 ways to make money.

1) You earn up to $16.00 per active registration . Each year,
m.i.l.l.i.o.n.s of people become new eBay users, and eBay's
Affiliate Program pays up to $16.00 for each active
registered user you send to eBay. A registration  is active
when the user places a bid on eBay within 30 days  of their
initial registration. Registrations that do not  become
active within 30 days are reversed.

2) You earn $0.05+ per qualified bid. The eBay program pays
for  one bid per click from your site. Your site links must
be  used as navigation to eBay prior to every bid
transaction  in order for you to be paid for the bid.

3) Receive up to $0.15 for each bid or Buy It Now
transaction that is referred from your site - either by
previously registered users or new users.

4) You will make $2 for every eBay affiliate that joins
Commission  Junction via your link, and you will make 5% of
everything  that affiliate earns for life.

Compensation Structure

Advertising Your eBay Affiliate Site on the PPC's

Many eBay affiliates use the PPC's extensively to drive
traffic to their sites.

However, before you start amassing a giant collection of
eBay-related keywords, you need to know eBay's policy which
prohibits all eBay affiliates from purchasing search engine
keywords that use eBay's trademark "eBay" and its variations.

Here are some of the excluded terms:

1) eBay's trademark, "eBay", and any keyword string that
includes this term. For example, "eBayauctions",
"eBaymotors", "eBay motors", "eBay jewelry", etc.

2) Variations of eBay's trademark: for example "e-bay",
"ebay.com", "www.ebay.com", "e-bay", "e bay", "www.ebay",
"ww.ebay.com", "e-bay.com", "www,ebay.com", "e.bay",
"wwwebay.com", "ebya", etc.

If eBay finds out that you have purchased "eBay", then they
may:

1) Withhold all commissions owed to you in the month that
you purchased the terms;

2) Remove you from the eBay affiliate program permanently;

3) Ask that the ads be immediately and permanently removed
from the search engine in which your terms were listed.

Be warned!

3 eBay Affiliate Tools

Here are 3 tools that eBay has given to make an affiliate's
work easier.

1) eBay Editor Kit (EK)

With the eBay Editor Kit  EK, affiliates can add relevant,
real-time eBay listings to their Web sites in just seconds.

eBay states that the EK produces click-through rates two
times greater than traditional banners!

The  eBay Editor Kit dynamically lists pertinent eBay
auctions and listing details, including product information,
gallery images, bidding prices, and ending times. Each
specification is completely customizable.

Affiliates can display up to 200 eBay listings that are
dynamically updated in real-time.

Additionally, affiliates are able to customize each Editor
Kit by specifying the search results set and the format to
match the content and look of your Web site.

Some of the customizable features include:

** Search term
** eBay category
** Seller(s)
** Number of items displayed
** Editor Kit size and color

2)  Dynamic Landing Pages (DLPs)

To increase affiliates' conversion rates, eBay supplies
affiliates with Dynamic Landing Pages (DLPs): specialized
portal pages available for thousands of eBay's most
requested and relevant keywords, like "fishing", "handbag",
and "Gymboree".

DLPs are proven to be 33% more effective at converting
traffic than ordinary landing pages!

It's easy to implement the DLPs.

Simply go to http://keyword.ebay.com for a list of all
eBay DLPs and link directly to those pages relevant to
your site.

Then append "%26krd=1" to the end of a search results link
that you use as your landing page.

The user will be redirected to a DLP if one exists for
that keyword. If the page does not exist, the user will be
sent to the original landing page instead.

3) eBay Flexible Destination Tool (FDT)

The Flexible Destination Tool is a powerful tool that eBay
offers its affiliates that allows you to build your own eBay
text links...you choose the landing page. 

You can use Hot ebay keywords to create a Hot Items!
section on your website or easily promote all the Buy It
Now! items. 

Flexible Destination Tool
http://pages.ebay.com/affiliate/cjflexiblelink.html

Choose the Right eBay

To become an eBay affiliate, you must sign up first with:
Commission Junction:

eBay.com no longer accepts affiliates from outside the U.S.,
so choose the eBay applicable to your country/site.

eBay.com (U.S.)

eBay.com.au (Australia)

eBay.ca (Canada)

eBay.co.uk (U.K.)

Auction Seller Tool

Are you an eBay seller?

Do you really know what your auction costs are  ... or are
you guessing like most sellers?

Discover the one tool that has helped thousands of sellers
maximize their eBay Profits while cutting their eBay costs!

http://profitcalc.com/a.cgi?i=webvista2

Parting Shots