After eBay Moved In-House
It’s been two months since the eBay affiliate program moved in house. So what does a newbie like me think of it?
At first I was very displeased by the change. Not that I was particularly attached to Commission Junction, but it was a lot of work for me to change over. BANS is very good about making easy updates, but my updates didn’t work. So I had to erase my stores and start over completely. The truth is, as most of those stores were merely experiments, it was the kick in the butt I needed to create stores that were actually worth having.
The commissions themselves stayed the same, aside from an introductory bonus that eBay offered to those who switched early. So as far as that is concerned, it wasn’t an issue. And really, aside from the updates, it didn’t effect Build A Niche Store users at all.
But here’s what you get with eBay alone: great widgets.
Seriously- you could build a passable store without buying BANS at all using only the widgets that eBay provides you. However, you won’t get the same detailed, niche and micro-niches you can get through BANS. But if your shop is meant more as a hobby than as a business, you could do worse than signing up as an eBay affiliate.
For example- here’s one of the widgets you can build through eBay:
In my opinion? The move was good. It takes a bit of exploring to find the widgets (or as they say “creatives”), links, and RSS feeds that work best for you and your site or blog, but once you do? It’s great. Not quite as versatile as Amazon’s affiliate program, but a lot more lucrative.
And best of all? You only need to reach $5 for a payout with eBay, where as Commission Junction was $24, and Amazon is (I believe) $10. The commission reporting is much more regular as well, with clicks updated hourly and purchases updated daily. New sign ups through your link will garner you between $1 and $50 per sign up (so long as the sign up bids on an auction within 30 days of signing up) depending on the quality of your traffic.
Personally, I still prefer to build my stores with Build A Niche Store, but eBay’s in-house marketing materials are a great addition to regular websites and blogs.
