eBay taketh away, and eBay giveth back!
Those who have read about my Internet "roots" know I started earning my first online income, like many others, with eBay, back in the days when they used to tell how many auctions were running at any time on their home page, and when full-day outages weren't unheard of.
In the beginning, eBay was my entire online income stream, but fortunately I've been able to diversify by building web sites to sell merchandise and to earn affiliate income. Still, the auction site accounts for a portion of income that I would miss if it disappeared.
Recently there has been an uproar over uncoming fee increases. When I first read the announcement, I didn't think too much about it, it seems that the majority of the increase is for eBay store sellers. Though I do have an eBay store, I still consider it a bargain. For 2 cents a month, I can list items that would cost me about .35 a week on the normal auctions. I find that with proper merchandising, I can put my more active items on regular auctions, then refer visitors or buyrs to also visit my eBay store for accessory items, and that technique works well for upselling to multiple products.
So when they announced an increase in the final value fee from 5.25% to 8%, it seemed fair enough and still a good deal overall. I don't know why so many people are screaming "boycott", maybe because they never had a brick and mortar store (like I've had for 15 years) with annual increases in rent, taxes, utilities, payroll, and the like.
Anyway, the title of this post is "eBay taketh away, and eBay giveth back". The give back isn't just to eBay executives and shareholders (of which I am neither, unfortunately). The give back that I appreciate is an announcement I received today, that they are raising the commission that they give affiliates by a considerable amount.
When I joined the eBay affiliate program, they were paying $5.00 per confirmed new registration (they call it an ACRU). I think it was about this time last year when they raised that rate to $10.00, later in the year to $12.00, and as of February 1, 2005, they are raising it again, this time to $20.00, an almost unbelievable 40% pay raise!
Additionally, if you send a visitor to eBay, and the visitor is already a registered user, all is not lost. If that person places a bid on an auction (win or lose), you earn a dime. Unfortunately, eBay isn't raising that commission this time around.
Oh, the $20 is just the beginning. If you have a very active site, and can drive quite a few new users to eBay, you can earn up to $45 per new user (of course you'll have to send 7500 a month to reach that level), but eBay says there are "several" affiliates that earn over a million a year with them, so that's something to shoot for. I'm not one of the several. Yet.
If you're looking for good solid affiliate programs, I can't think of a merchant that I can recommend any more highly than eBay. Is there an American that doesn't recognize the name? And even though there are something like 70 million registered users, there are still many millions who aren't, hundreds of thousands of people log onto the Internet for the first time every month, and many of them do so just so they can become an eBay buyer and/or seller.
I know I'm going to look for more ways to send traffic to eBay, how about you? If interested (and I get nothing for this tip), eBay is a Commission Junction merchant, and CJ pays their commissions like clockwork every month that your accumulated commissions exceed a reasonably low amount (depending on the country you're in and your method of payment). So join CJ, join the eBay affiliate program, and start collecting those twenty dollar bills!
In the beginning, eBay was my entire online income stream, but fortunately I've been able to diversify by building web sites to sell merchandise and to earn affiliate income. Still, the auction site accounts for a portion of income that I would miss if it disappeared.
Recently there has been an uproar over uncoming fee increases. When I first read the announcement, I didn't think too much about it, it seems that the majority of the increase is for eBay store sellers. Though I do have an eBay store, I still consider it a bargain. For 2 cents a month, I can list items that would cost me about .35 a week on the normal auctions. I find that with proper merchandising, I can put my more active items on regular auctions, then refer visitors or buyrs to also visit my eBay store for accessory items, and that technique works well for upselling to multiple products.
So when they announced an increase in the final value fee from 5.25% to 8%, it seemed fair enough and still a good deal overall. I don't know why so many people are screaming "boycott", maybe because they never had a brick and mortar store (like I've had for 15 years) with annual increases in rent, taxes, utilities, payroll, and the like.
Anyway, the title of this post is "eBay taketh away, and eBay giveth back". The give back isn't just to eBay executives and shareholders (of which I am neither, unfortunately). The give back that I appreciate is an announcement I received today, that they are raising the commission that they give affiliates by a considerable amount.
When I joined the eBay affiliate program, they were paying $5.00 per confirmed new registration (they call it an ACRU). I think it was about this time last year when they raised that rate to $10.00, later in the year to $12.00, and as of February 1, 2005, they are raising it again, this time to $20.00, an almost unbelievable 40% pay raise!
Additionally, if you send a visitor to eBay, and the visitor is already a registered user, all is not lost. If that person places a bid on an auction (win or lose), you earn a dime. Unfortunately, eBay isn't raising that commission this time around.
Oh, the $20 is just the beginning. If you have a very active site, and can drive quite a few new users to eBay, you can earn up to $45 per new user (of course you'll have to send 7500 a month to reach that level), but eBay says there are "several" affiliates that earn over a million a year with them, so that's something to shoot for. I'm not one of the several. Yet.
If you're looking for good solid affiliate programs, I can't think of a merchant that I can recommend any more highly than eBay. Is there an American that doesn't recognize the name? And even though there are something like 70 million registered users, there are still many millions who aren't, hundreds of thousands of people log onto the Internet for the first time every month, and many of them do so just so they can become an eBay buyer and/or seller.
I know I'm going to look for more ways to send traffic to eBay, how about you? If interested (and I get nothing for this tip), eBay is a Commission Junction merchant, and CJ pays their commissions like clockwork every month that your accumulated commissions exceed a reasonably low amount (depending on the country you're in and your method of payment). So join CJ, join the eBay affiliate program, and start collecting those twenty dollar bills!
2 Comments:
Thank you for that ebay tip. I'm already registered as an affiliate. I think I will make more links to them. I went full time selling on ebay in 1998 and did well, but it tapered off. I'm really glad I found you blog today.
Bob, thanks for taking the time to comment. I spend a lot of money myself selling on eBay, but now that I'm getting some nice commissions, it's sort of link I'm getting a discount from them. Good luck with your affiliate sites.
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