eBay.co.uk Announces RevShare Changes
As of March 1st 2007 eBay.co.uk will be changing their affiliate commission structure. According to their brief this morning:
“The major change to the programme will be a new revenue-sharing component. This means that not only will you be paid based on the number of new Active Confirmed Registered Users (ACRUs) you deliver to eBay but we’ll also give you a share of the revenue generated by the Bids and Buy it Nows you deliver to the site.”
Here are the programme details currently posted on the eBay.co.uk affiliate page.
- You will be paid every time someone clicks on your website and goes on to Bid/BIN or become an ACRU
- Get paid monthly on a tiered basis
- Trip a tier one month and all your traffic is paid at that higher tier!
- Earn up to £14 for an ACRU, 24p per Bid & 75p per BIN
- Take advantage of eBay’s brand and breadth of products
NOTE: Build a Niche Store software allows you to import eBay.co.uk listings into your own site! Click here to visit the Build a Niche Store site now, or read my review.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Linkshare Enhances Affiliate Interface
On January 26th, Linkshare sent out a notice to affiliates about improvements to their interface as follows:
Interface Alerts
To keep you updated on the latest news, enhancements, and system alerts, LinkShare has added a new section to the Home page of the Affiliate Interface in the upper left corner. This new section will enable you to quickly see information important to your program. Alerts will be posted by level of importance with red being the most urgent message and yellow being the lowest level.
Affiliate Private Offer Management
To make it easier to display all private offers that are extended to you, LinkShare has added a new Private Offer page to the Your Account tab in the Affiliate Interface. You will now see private offers from Merchants whose programs you are a part of, as well as from additional Merchants who wish to extend to you a private offer. You will have the ability to accept or reject these private offers.
Merchant Status Screen Update
In the past, when a Merchant’s status changed in the LinkShare system, Affiliates partnered with that Merchant received an email to that effect, but the email did not include any reason for the change. Now, if a Merchant’s status changes, Affiliates partnered with that Merchant will receive an email from LinkShare notifying the Affiliate of the change and the reason for the change. LinkShare will continue to update the Merchant Status Update page under the Your Account tab with the Merchant changes in the Affiliate Interface.
I dunno… I keep checkin’ in, and haven’t seen any Alerts as of yet. 
Maybe that’s a good thing?
Popularity: 23% [?]
How to Easily Add eBay Listings to Your Site
Check this out. I’ve placed eBay listings on our travel blog at Roamsters.com - the link goes to our Suitcase listings.
The eBay links are commissionable and eBay pays its affiliates between 40% and 65% on their revenues earned from a listing and between $12-22 per Active Registered User (ACRU).
Ah, OK. You’ve seen that type of page a thousand times before and maybe you think that incorporating eBay listings on your site isn’t such a big deal?
Well, doing so used to be a HUGE pain in the butt for us non-geek, tweak-hating affiliates.
Previous software solutions required that you had tp sign up for eBay’s developer program and do a WHOLE lot of tweaking before you’d see the listings on your site. Quite frankly, none of those solutions ever worked for me not even when the software developer was supposedly helping me out… which is why you haven’t heard me talk about other software in this category before.
So, I was therefore absolutely thrilled when Kelvin Firminger told me about his new “ Build A Niche Store” (BANS) software that does not require developer skills to incorporate commissionable eBay links on your site.
BANS uses RSS technology which makes it easy as pie to install and set up. Just plug the code into your site template and you’re up and running.
You can put all of eBay’s offerings on your site or choose from any of eBay’s 28,926 niche specifc categories…from golf equipment to digital cameras bringing relevant products to your site visitors at the click of a button.
The BANS package includes the script, 32 site templates, a manual, a members’ forum, unlimited site licence, the ability to build either an eBay.com or an eBay.co.uk store, an 8-week risk-free trial and the package is priced at a very modest $97.00.
Best of all, Kelvin is accessible, friendly and very helpful.
I won’t be surprised if Kelvin’s “ Build a Niche Store ” software qualifies as my ‘best of 2007′ software picks — maybe even my TOP pick. I therefore HIGHLY recommend the BANS software if you want to expand your affiliate earnings without the pain of tweaking.
Popularity: 48% [?]
He Quit His Teaching Job
Here’s a comment that I stumbled across this morning online …
Three years ago, one of the very first online marketing books I started with was Rosalind Gardner’s Super Affiliate Handbook - and I haven’t looked back. I started affiliate marketing while I was teaching 6th grade and 2 years later, I was finally able to quit my teaching job. Today, I’m doing what I love to do - thanks to Rosalind’s incredible affiliate marketing system.
Kit Elliott
Need I say more?
Popularity: 23% [?]
Google Adsense Secrets Now Just $19.95
I just found out that for a very limited time, Joel Comm is making his best-selling 199-page Google AdSense Secrets ebook available to everyone at the discounted rate of $19.95.
Over the past two years, Google AdSense Secrets has been purchased by THOUSANDS of people who gladly paid $97 to own a copy of this ebook.
Joel teaches you how to optimize your web site for high-paying clicks, how to pull highly relevant ads on-demand using Google Search and which colors, sizes, text color and borders generate the most clicks - get Joel’s book. You’ll also learn the RIGHT way to position your ads for maximum response.
Also included with the ebook is a 30 -page FREE report on blogging and Google AdSense.
If you want to learn about Google Adsense from the Adsense expert, I suggest that you get Joel’s Google AdSense Secrets today.
Popularity: 10% [?]
Wordpress 2.1 is Available
WordPress 2.1 “Ella”, named for jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald, was released just four days ago and includes over 550 bug fixes. To see a sampling of what’s in the new version visit Wordpress.
But BEFORE you install the new version, be sure to read my geek-girlfriend Teli Adlam’s suggestions about the Wordpress upgrade which she cautions ’should not be taken lightly’.
Popularity: 10% [?]
Blending Video and eCommerce
The January issue of Internet Retailer has a great article by Bill Siwicki about how online retailers are blending video and ecommerce - and doing so quite easily.
According to Mr. Siwicki, “The majority of e-retailers do not have the resources to create an online TV network. But as merchants like Netflix, Ice.com, Bodybuilding.com and others are demonstrating, there are many simpler and less expensive ways Internet retailers can use online video on-site and on video-sharing sites and reap diverse rewards.”
Creating and deploying online video is no longer much of a challenge, says consultant Heneghan of Elevation. “For many of the things e-retailers can do, all you have to do is just connect a video camera to a computer and off you go. I mean, people are doing this every day at home with movies of their babies and then posting them on YouTube.”
As for the use of online video in e-retailing, one might say it’s a baby movie itself. “As far as its evolution goes, online video still is in its infancy,” says American Eagle Outfitters’ Savitt. “For us, having measured the click-throughs and conversions of our online video effort, so far we have seen good returns. Ultimately, online video is a significant part of Internet users’ online experiences and there is so much opportunity for retailers.”
Rosalind’s Comment: And there is so much opportunity for affiliate marketers!
Read the rest of the article by signing up for your free issue of Internet Retailer here. BTW, Don’t be put off by the name & address form… it’s worth the bit of time it’ll take to fill out.
And to learn more about how to make your own videos for the web, check out Jim Edwards and Mike Stewart’s “Web Video Secrets” course.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Change Your Permalinks Without Losing Traffic
Would you like to change your permalink structure from /%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/ to /%category%/%postname%/? Are you worried that you will lose traffic when those pages are no longer indexed by the search engines?
Fear not!
Dean Lee has created a “301 redirect” plugin that tells the search engines that a page has moved permanently. When you use his plugin the SE’s update their indexes quickly, you retain PageRank and you still get your traffic through the engines.
Safely change your permalink structure using Dean’s plugin which is available at http://www.deanlee.cn/wordpress/permalinks-migration-plugin/.
Popularity: 15% [?]
UK Affiliate Census Results
Here are a few key findings from a press release about the first UK Affiliate Census published this week by E-consultancy. The affiliate census was taken by more than 1,500 affiliates at the end of 2006.
- 83% of respondents were male
- 73% do affiliate marketing in their spare time
- 49% earned less that £500 a year from affiliate marketing
- 10% of day-job affiliates earned more than £750,000 in the last year from affiliate marketing
- Only 26% of affiliates have done any marketing courses compared to 73% who have not
- Organic search is used by 74% of affiliates compared to 38% who use Paid Search
- Travel and Flights is the most popular sector for affiliates, followed by Entertainment and Music.
Rosalind’s Recommendation: Just those few results should be instructive to those 73% who still do affiliate marketing their spare time, and want to go full-time.
First of all, take a marketing course to learn more about the business.
Secondly, don’t leave site marketing to chance by using only organic search marketing techniques. Drive more traffic to your site faster with paid search. Set up accounts with Google Adwords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Enhance Interactive. (The latter are currently offering $50 and $25 credits respectively.)
The Census Report can be accessed by registered E-consultancy users.
Popularity: 13% [?]
eComXpo Registration Now Open
The next eComXpo will be held March 20-22, 2007.
Although I’ll be tramping through a Vietnamese jungle on those dates, you will still be able to listen to my pre-recorded eComXpo presentation for free.
Signup for eComXpo today.
Popularity: 7% [?]
