The original thread text has been removed because I'm a stupid newbie who didn't bother to read the rules before I spammed my dumb website links. Doh!
Making money as an ebay affiliate
- Thread starter hottestebayauct
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I prefer using phpBay Pro w/ WP blogs for this type of thing, personally. The guy behind it (and WiredStudios) offers really fast & helpful customer support. But your service looks decent, too. Good luck w/ it.
I am in their affiliate program and just got a couple sales. The standard commission is 50% of their profit. Since their profit (listing fee) is based on the sale price, the commission is gonna be higher for higher-priced items. When you generate more $$, the percentage goes up in 5% increments up to 75%. They pay a lot more for new user registrations; haven't got any of those yet.
I use rss feeds and autoblog, posting only the auctions with several bids. I get most of my traffic from search engines and "email this" links .
Since auctions are time-sensitive, the auctions that get indexed eventually expire so if someone gets to the site thru an expired auction page, you gotta have a lot of very similar items nearby that the user can bid on.
I don't think many people get rich on the ebay program, but you can definitely make enough to make it worth doing. Their business is seasonal, and 'tis the season.
I use rss feeds and autoblog, posting only the auctions with several bids. I get most of my traffic from search engines and "email this" links .
Since auctions are time-sensitive, the auctions that get indexed eventually expire so if someone gets to the site thru an expired auction page, you gotta have a lot of very similar items nearby that the user can bid on.
I don't think many people get rich on the ebay program, but you can definitely make enough to make it worth doing. Their business is seasonal, and 'tis the season.
Some ideas on ebay/CL marketing
Here's 2 ways you can promote ebay auctions through their affiliate program; both of which will bring you decent earnings (especially if you get some new user sign-ups in there):
Method 1:
1. Decide on something to promote (cars, ipods, laptops, etc)
2. Get a domain name related to that (not necessary; you can use any domain or subdomain really)
3. Throw up a copy of WordPress onto your server/shared hosting
4. Grab a copy of the phpBay Pro plugin from Wired Studios that works with WordPress
5. Create the blog around what you're promoting, creating either separate posts or separate pages that are populated with ebay auctions using the phpBay plugin. If promoting laptops, you could have separate blog pages for each major brand (Sony, Gateway, Dell, Apple, etc). I like it that way personally.
6. Go onto Craigslist and post ads for some of those ebay items that are populated onto your blog. Copy/paste from the ebay auction and do a little rearranging (obviously taking out the text about it being an auction, shipping, etc)
7. Setup an email autoresponder for your Craigslist account email address that gives an interested buyer the link to your WordPress/phpBay blog. Make it sound personal. I use the Easy Auto Responder tool from Kevin (guy who makes Easy Ad Poster for CL). You can get really custom with it, setup unlimited templates and unlimited POP3/SMTP email accounts, set time delay variance for responding, etc. Or you can just use something more simple to respond to CL inquiries.
Some tips to make this work better:
*Setup the domain/WP blog like in Method 1*
1. Create subdirectory redirects on your domain for each individual ebay auction
2. Use a different CL account for each ad you create
3. Use individual autoresponders for each CL ad that responds with your redirect link for that particular ebay auction.
This method is much more tedious but is MUCH more direct and will probably result in more ebay commission. There are ways to make it more automated (use of a CL account creator and/or mass poster along with an autoresponder tool like Easy Auto Responder)
I'm sure the ebay/CL pros can chime in with much better methods, but I've been using a mixture of these methods and it's been working pretty well for me. The key is to figure out what allows your CL ads to stick and what gets them ghosted/flagged/deleted. Also, don't ever direct link in an email to the ebay auction. Always use redirects from your own domain. Commission Junction will ban your account for this, I believe.
Here's 2 ways you can promote ebay auctions through their affiliate program; both of which will bring you decent earnings (especially if you get some new user sign-ups in there):
Method 1:
1. Decide on something to promote (cars, ipods, laptops, etc)
2. Get a domain name related to that (not necessary; you can use any domain or subdomain really)
3. Throw up a copy of WordPress onto your server/shared hosting
4. Grab a copy of the phpBay Pro plugin from Wired Studios that works with WordPress
5. Create the blog around what you're promoting, creating either separate posts or separate pages that are populated with ebay auctions using the phpBay plugin. If promoting laptops, you could have separate blog pages for each major brand (Sony, Gateway, Dell, Apple, etc). I like it that way personally.
6. Go onto Craigslist and post ads for some of those ebay items that are populated onto your blog. Copy/paste from the ebay auction and do a little rearranging (obviously taking out the text about it being an auction, shipping, etc)
7. Setup an email autoresponder for your Craigslist account email address that gives an interested buyer the link to your WordPress/phpBay blog. Make it sound personal. I use the Easy Auto Responder tool from Kevin (guy who makes Easy Ad Poster for CL). You can get really custom with it, setup unlimited templates and unlimited POP3/SMTP email accounts, set time delay variance for responding, etc. Or you can just use something more simple to respond to CL inquiries.
Some tips to make this work better:
- This takes more time initially, but setup a different WordPress blog for each city/location that you're going to post ads in for Craigslist. That way your link in your autoresponder is location specific and matches the city you posted in. This will help keep the CL flagging Nazis at bay somewhat. So if my site was Great Laptop Deals | Laptops, Notebook Computers, Laptop Computer, then you could have like www.greatlaptopdeals.com/atlanta, www.greatlaptopdeals.com/newyork, etc. with a separate WP blog in each subdirectory. Again, this takes more time initially but you're just creating copies of the same blog over and over so it could be scripted I'm sure. I'm not that savvy (yet) so I just took the time to do it manually.
- Mass posting on Craigslist is tricky. My advice is to register multiple Craigslist accounts (signing up w/ randomly created Gmail accounts) and use a different CL account for each city you post in. Don't use 1 Craigslist account to post 50-100 ads in a day with. You run the high risk of getting them all mass ghosted/deleted and then you've just wasted your time. Be cautious about that part of it. Check out this script for creating randomly generated Gmail accounts for this purpose. I use it and it works perfectly.
*Setup the domain/WP blog like in Method 1*
1. Create subdirectory redirects on your domain for each individual ebay auction
2. Use a different CL account for each ad you create
3. Use individual autoresponders for each CL ad that responds with your redirect link for that particular ebay auction.
This method is much more tedious but is MUCH more direct and will probably result in more ebay commission. There are ways to make it more automated (use of a CL account creator and/or mass poster along with an autoresponder tool like Easy Auto Responder)
I'm sure the ebay/CL pros can chime in with much better methods, but I've been using a mixture of these methods and it's been working pretty well for me. The key is to figure out what allows your CL ads to stick and what gets them ghosted/flagged/deleted. Also, don't ever direct link in an email to the ebay auction. Always use redirects from your own domain. Commission Junction will ban your account for this, I believe.
I also recommend phpbay pro. Its a great, easy to setup program and the support is excellent.
I started a website with it late last week. Havent made anything yet but the site was new so my first goal was getting it indexed. Im indexed now and hoping to make some bank soon.
I started a website with it late last week. Havent made anything yet but the site was new so my first goal was getting it indexed. Im indexed now and hoping to make some bank soon.
For a n00b such as myself, would these methods be advisable for me to try? I've read that becoming an eBay affiliate is with Commission Junction is not recommended for n00bs.
GG
GG
unless you already have something else on your plate, if you're interested i dont see why not, from the looks of the 2 methods posted the main thing you're investing is time (minus hosting, domain, and possibly phpbay pro)
if ebay is your thing and you're familiar with it then take some time do some research and start it up - else move on to something you already know about. i dont picture it being worse than jumping into ppc marketing as a noob
if ebay is your thing and you're familiar with it then take some time do some research and start it up - else move on to something you already know about. i dont picture it being worse than jumping into ppc marketing as a noob
eBay is familiar to me from my previous freelance gigs creating sites for eBay sellers and helping them to posting listings. I'll sign up with Commission Junction and give it a go. Thanks for the helpful reply.
GG
GG
One can set up a WP blog and plugins to make it into an eBay affiliate site very quickly at no cost aside from domain & hosting (I do think that PHPBay Pro has some definitely worth it features, but if you want to absolutely minimise costs ...)
DIY Dollars did a brief thing on it a month or so ago.
How to Get Rich With a WordPress eBay RSS Auction Blog | diydollars.com
Which is a good place to start. You need traffic, and need to not have your head up your ass viz. setting up and configuring WP.
I have several sites in a similar configuration to the one described at DIY. All are paying their own rent; although none spectacularly, the income is fairly stable even with the sites set on autopilot. My plan has been to simply build and watch and "reward" the performers with additional content and work, maybe branch into related product niches and if those sites also perform comparably just continue to go vertical with a content site that ties together the blogs, build a dicsussion community etc.
The key to something like this, because it's hit or miss as far as making any real money, is to just get down and do it and do it and do it. You can build a minimum of four sites a month using this technique, and even if some are dogs bringing in a dollar a day, after a few months you have enough money coming in off of the non-performers to invest into building up the performers by outsorucing content, directory submission, adding eye candy, etc.
It's also shit-cheap and with a very low overall risk (one domain + one hosting account + ten-fifteen hours time total risk capital.)
Frank
DIY Dollars did a brief thing on it a month or so ago.
How to Get Rich With a WordPress eBay RSS Auction Blog | diydollars.com
Which is a good place to start. You need traffic, and need to not have your head up your ass viz. setting up and configuring WP.
I have several sites in a similar configuration to the one described at DIY. All are paying their own rent; although none spectacularly, the income is fairly stable even with the sites set on autopilot. My plan has been to simply build and watch and "reward" the performers with additional content and work, maybe branch into related product niches and if those sites also perform comparably just continue to go vertical with a content site that ties together the blogs, build a dicsussion community etc.
The key to something like this, because it's hit or miss as far as making any real money, is to just get down and do it and do it and do it. You can build a minimum of four sites a month using this technique, and even if some are dogs bringing in a dollar a day, after a few months you have enough money coming in off of the non-performers to invest into building up the performers by outsorucing content, directory submission, adding eye candy, etc.
It's also shit-cheap and with a very low overall risk (one domain + one hosting account + ten-fifteen hours time total risk capital.)
Frank
The % of each auction sale isn't that much and it varies. It's a % of ebay's fee or something like that. But the kicker is in getting new user sign-ups. They pay $25 or $35 I wanna say. I know they pay at least $25 per new user sign-up (they have to be a new user AND win an auction or purchase something through Buy It Now w/in 30 days). You're probably thinking, "How many of those can you possibly get seeing as how ebay has been around for forever??". But it's a matter of volume. You promote enough and hit enough cities in Craigslist with items that people are wanting these days...and you'll get new sign-ups mixed in with smaller, already-existing-users commission.
I think you should go for it. I consider myself a relative n00b in the grand scheme of Internet Marketing...but I'm finding ways to make some bucks here, some bucks there.
Trust me...you'll definitely see better results trying this particular method than throwing up blogs with Adsense on them like many n00bs (including myself) do initially. As you experiment, you'll see what works and what draws more interest on Craigslist. Then...you push those things harder and in more cities.
Like others have said...there isn't much of a cost to try this. With just about ANY type of IM, you're gonna need hosting. So you probably already have that. The phpBay plugin costs a few bucks...but really not that much. WordPress is free. Posting on Craigslist is free. Making unlimited subdomains or subdirectories most likely is included with your hosting plan.
Definitely worth trying. Eventually learn to automate portions of it and do it on a larger scale (I'm at this point where I'm trying to figure out some more automation) and you can definitely see nice results.
Heres a free version of phpbay called phpbay lite... Free Wordpress Plugin... not all the features of phpbay... but it works fine.
phpBay Lite - eBay Wordpress Plugin
phpBay Lite - eBay Wordpress Plugin
The Lite version is great for seeing how it works and trying it out.
I opted to buy the Pro version mainly because I could narrow my auctions even further with a Zip Code designation and create blogs for certain cities. I know there are other advantages...but that was the biggie for me since I was going to promote it through posting in Craigslist.
I opted to buy the Pro version mainly because I could narrow my auctions even further with a Zip Code designation and create blogs for certain cities. I know there are other advantages...but that was the biggie for me since I was going to promote it through posting in Craigslist.
@slackerguy: I think for the signup payout they don't have to win, but place a bid w/in 30 days.
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