The eBay affiliate teams around the globe have been out and about lately, spreading the word about the eBay Partner Network and having a great time. In April we had a very successful run at AdTech San Francisco, one of the premier events in digital marketing. We had the opportunity to meet a number of you and are pleased to report that feedback on the new eBay Partner Network has been very positive.

The affiliate team in France attended AdTech Paris, where more than 3000 people showed up. The eBay Partner Network booth proved to be very popular (we don’t think this had anything to do with the France ePN team giving away two Nintendo Wiis to lucky competition winners!).

In case you missed it, we also spoke about key ways to maximize revenues as an eBay seller and an affiliate at the 9th eCommerce Summit in New Orleans in April, an event co-sponsored by PESA (Professional eBay Sellers Alliance). We’ve compiled some of these tips into another blog post, which you can check out here.

We have several upcoming events this summer and we’d love to see you at one (or more) of them. We’ll be at the eBay Developers Conference June 16 -18 at McCormick Place West in Chicago, followed by eBay Live! 2008 from June 19-21. The Developer’s Conference targets any savvy developer or company with great ideas for making e-commerce better with tools, widgets, solutions, or services, (which is likely to be many of you!). eBay Live! is, of course, our annual gathering of more than 10,000 eBay Community members, with a mission to share tips, strategies and a great time. This is one of our favorite events of the year and we hope you’ll try to make it out.

If you can’t make either of those, on July 9 and 10 you can find us at the eComXpo, the free global virtual forum and job fair for ecommerce marketers. The coolest thing about the eComXpo is you can attend without leaving your house (or changing out of your pajamas), so there are no excuses not to check us out there.

Lastly, for our international affiliates, we’ll be at the A4U expo in London on October 14 and 15. We always like to get to know our affiliates in person, so if you’re going, please stop by!

We hope to see you soon!

How can you maximize revenues as an affiliate and a seller? There are two main ways.

First, there are probably few better experts than you about the things you are selling. Other people may find that knowledge to be extremely helpful and interesting. Consider publishing some of this knowledge and getting it out there. You can create your own website, start a blog, or create stories and content on sites like www.squidoo.com and www.hubpages.com. You can set up affiliate links to your eBay listings and get paid for driving traffic to eBay, even if the user eventually buys something other than your products on eBay.

Second, consider putting links to eBay products in your off-eBay store. Now I know what you’re thinking – why on Earth would I send my hard-earned traffic on my store back to eBay? Some of our affiliates have found that they can use eBay links to offer increased product selection in their online store and make money from window shoppers. For example, the eBay Partner Networks’ Editor Kit displays real-time listings available on eBay. So, if you have a store that sells only high definition TVs, you can use Editor Kit to show your customers home theater sound systems and other accessories like cables. You can cross-sell and up-sell your customers with products you may not carry yourself by including eBay links on your search results pages, check-out pages and/or confirmation e-mails.

To get started, simply become a member of eBay Partner Network. Check out our getting started videos.

Once you’re signed up, promotion is still key. Here are a few tips and best practices on how to promote as a seller:

1. When creating your own content about products you sell, give that content as much visibility as possible. If you’re creating your own website or blog, follow best practices for search engine optimization to give it the best chance to get picked up by search engines. There are many books on this, or check out this link that has a collection of SEO resources: http://www.pronetadvertising.com/articles/top-50-seo-resources.html
2. When putting affiliate links on your store, use the Editor Kit to pick items that are closely related to the items on your store
3. To maximize revenue from visits to your store: test and see what combinations of offering your products plus complementary eBay products leads to the highest overall conversions, revenue, and customer satisfaction.

These are just a few ideas for getting started. Let your imagination be your guide, and remember to test, test, test!

Nobody’s perfect! We are hard at work enhancing our new platform.

In order to keep you up to date, we want to let you know about a few known issues with the platform that we’ll be working to address over the next few weeks. As additional issues are identified, we will keep this list as current as we can.

• *To be fixed 6/5* As you may know, our click reporting on CJ used to filter out for bot clicks (clicks generated, for example, as search crawlers go through the web and build their lists of sites). We didn’t have bot filtering in place on eBay Partner Network at launch, which had the effect of inflating click numbers and making any click to action metrics therefore look lower on eBay Partner Network vs. what they used to be on CJ. A fix is going into production on 6/5 for this, so from now on you will see filtered bot clicks in your reporting on eBay Partner Network.

• eBay To Go is now live in the eBay Partner Network (US only for now). You can find it in the “tools” tab under “widgets” along with Editor Kit and the RSS feed generator.

• *Fixed* As many of you know, the four eBay programs paying on revenue share may reverse revenue for certain transactions (for instance because of credits given to the seller, returns, or unpaid items). Because of currency conversion rate fluctuations, you may see reversals for a few transactions that are slightly greater than the revenue they generated – so the total revenue for that transaction is a negative amount, instead of zero. The team is already working on fix that should be able to roll out soon. As most adjustments come within a few days of the original transaction, this has been a small issue in most cases, and only affects publishers earning commissions in currencies other than US Dollars. We will post a make good for those of you who have been affected negatively by this.

• *Fixed but please note* Our Customer Support system experienced issues on Tuesday, 4/22 and Wednesday, 4/23. If you submitted a question on those days, our system might not have logged it. Please resubmit your inquiry to ensure a prompt follow up. No issues with the customer support system have been reported since then.

• *Fixed* Due to encoding issues, a small subset of publishers may encounter problems confirming their registration and resetting passwords. We will send publishers an updated activation e-mail which you can use if you have had issues with this.

• *Fixed* The RSS Feed Generator is currently requiring a Custom ID to function properly. Please include a Custom ID, which is any string up to 256 alphanumeric characters, when creating your RSS feeds.

• *Fixed* Several pages within the Publisher interface may load slowly on low bandwidth internet connections due to their large page size. These pages include the Link Generator, Creatives Generator and Reporting Pages.

• *Fixed* Currently, messages to Customer Support over 4000 characters or with special characters will not send. A max 4000 character limit will be set to ensure proper functionality – but in the interim please be sure to keep your messages under his length.

• *Fixed* Tool ID for Trading API:
  • Some calls on the Trading API are returning a Tool ID of 0 when constructing eBay Partner Network tracked links. All metrics will be reported correctly for all Programs and Campaigns. A Tool ID of 0 will impact your “By Tool” Summary Report creating an “Unknown Tool” bucket
  • Custom ID creates null value: When no value is put in for the Custom ID during an API call, the URL returned adds the value customid=null. Transactions in the transaction download files will have a custom ID value of “null” attributed to them.

• *Fixed* On the dashboard the default time period is ‘Last Month’ – please select ‘Month to Date’ to see the most recent data.

• *Fixed* On April 1st and 2nd, our summary reports displayed Canadian earnings that were a few percents off. Please note that the Transaction Download report was not impacted. The April payout will not be impacted.

• *Fixed* A subset of our publisher base was affected by a reporting issue which resulted in duplicate records being posted to the transaction detail reports during several days this month. The issue has been resolved, and transaction data from 4/1 thru 4/24 were reprocessed and posted on Friday, 4/25. Previously posted records were deleted in the process. In order to retrieve transaction detail records for the affected time period, you will need to filter your transaction download report for posting date 4/25/08. Please note that this issue only impacted transaction detail reporting; summary reporting and earnings tracking were not impacted and all commissions will be paid correctly for the month.

This is not a comprehensive list, but these are some of the bigger ones we’ve identified so far. If you find any other issues, check on our help pages. If you still believe there is an issue you would like to call out, you can contact customer service directly from each topic in the help section.

Thanks in advance for your help and understanding!

Several of you have asked for a bit more time in migrating your links. Because we know there are some special circumstances that may require this, we have arranged to extend the migration deadline until May 31st. This will apply to Half.com and all eBay countries migrating EXCEPT Belgium, Netherlands, Hong Kong, and Singapore, which will still expire on April 30th).

Note that because of our contractual obligations, as of May 31st, you will no longer be able to receive any commissions through Commission Junction. This will include commissions from clicks in May that convert into purchases or ACRUs in June. So please switch all your links as soon as possible to eBay Partner Network to ensure you receive all your commissions and begin to enjoy all the new benefits of global registration, new creatives, and better reporting on the new eBay Partner Network.

If you have any questions about migration, please check out our help section, where you can also find links in each help topic to reach our customer service group. You can also find more info in our getting started post, our migration guide, and our FAQs.

We really value your support and look forward to a long continued partnership together!

– Updated 20th April : url encoding.

Hi all,

I thought it would useful for us to post some of the common mistakes people are making when creating their updated links. The best way to avoid this is to regenerate your link via the Tools section in the interface but if you are building your own then watch out for:

1. Be careful of putting spaces in your link either within the id fields or in the destination url.

2. Make sure you ‘url encode’ the eBay destination url (after mpre= ) and if you are using the customid and you have any special characters within it, this will need to be url encoded too.

* Url encoding by the API and unicode escaping will be addressed asap.

3. In the link you need to put your campaign id after campid= . Make sure you are putting the number rather than the name of the campaign. You can get this number from the ‘Campaign’ tab in the interface.

4. The default toolid is 10001 for the link generator. If you are using 1 or 0 then please update to 10001. The toolid will be different for the links created by the API, RSS etc.

5. Ensure you are using the right placementid for the country you want to promote. Note the placementids will vary by tool within the program but the list of placementids for the link generator can be found in the migration guide.

As we find out more common errors we’ll post them so keep checking back; don’t forget we really appreciate all your hard work during this migration period!

A few questions keep coming up, so we thought it would be helpful to re-capture our answers here so that they’re easily accessible to everyone. As we continue to get more feedback on eBay Partner Network, we’ll update the list (and Help).

More detailed help is available in User Manual within the “Help” section of eBay Partner Network (login is required), but the FAQs below should give folks a good start and address any questions/confusion. Thanks again for the feedback and for supporting eBay Partner Network!

When do I have to change all my tracking to migrate to eBay Partner Network by, and how do I do it?

So that all of your commissions are paid appropriately through Commission Junction and eBay, please change your links to the new eBay Partner Network link structure by April 30th. All Commission Junction links will still be tracked through April, and even if the action (ACRU within 30 days, winning bid within 7 days) occurs within the appropriate timeframe in May, you’ll still receive your commission through the Commission Junction platform.

However, migrating early in April will ensure (a) you reach the highest tiers for the month, and (b) you receive as much of the additional 5% bonus for all traffic driven through eBay Partner Network in April. Yep, that’s 5% more in April 2008 from Half.com, eBay US, UK, Australia, Canada, Italy, India and Spain. So the sooner you migrate, the more you’ll earn!

If you have some more questions, here’s a quick migration guide to help you through the process:
http://www.ebaypartnernetworkblog.com/english/ebay-partner-network-migration-guide/

What payments are supported by eBay Partner Network?

eBay Partner Network offers both PayPal and Direct Deposit.

PayPal is currently offered in all countries, and PayPal accounts are free and easy to open! Please note that no premier / business account or cross border fees will be applied to any PayPal payments, so you’ll receive the same amount as a direct deposit payment. This information is currently incorrect in our help pages, and will be corrected shortly. Sorry for any confusion.

Direct Deposit is currently offered in the following countries (and currencies): Australia (AUD), Austria (Euro), Belgium (Euro), Canada (CAD), France (Euro), Germany(Euro), Italy (Euro), Netherlands (Euro), Spain (Euro), United Kingdom (GBP) and United States (USD).

How does eBay determine application acceptances/rejections?

eBay Partner Network (and each eBay Advertiser) may use different sets of rules to accept affiliates. In some cases, these rules may differ from Commission Junction. This means that we may not be accepting publishers previously accepted – and in other cases, we are now accepting publishers who were not previously accepted. If you were recently rejected and previously belonged to the eBay affiliate program with Commision Junction, please contact us and provide your PID information so we can further investigate. The eBay Partner Network team and Advertisers are constantly evaluating the rules, and appreciate your feedback.

What are the equivalents of CJ terms (PID, SID) in eBay Partner Network, and most relevant for migration?

The most important eBay Partner Network identifiers for migration are the Campaign ID and the Custom ID. For those migrating from Commission Junction,

Commission Junction’s PID is similar to eBay Partner Network’s campid (Campaign ID)
Commission Junction’s SID is simliar to eBay Partner Network’s customid (Custom ID)

When are reports updated, or when will clicks/transactions post?

Affiliates can expect to see clicks and impressions posted to the interface within approximately 4 hours of when the clicks and actions occur. Actions (i.e., winning bids, ACRUs) will be posted by midnight the following day, but may be available earlier. Please note that eBay Partner Network is based on Pacific Daylight Time.

Why does it appear that transaction download reports and summary reports have slight discrepancies?

While Summary Reports are based on transaction dates, please note that Transaction Download reports are based on posting dates to ensure that transaction reports downloaded are final. Transactions are typically posted 1 day after the transaction date, but advertisers have the ability to post corrections with the same transaction date on a different posting date.

Also, note that when aggregating programs, Summary Reports will only report on four metrics: Impressions, Clicks, Earnings and EPC. As advertisers may pay out on different metrics, these are the only common metrics publishers can use to compare activity and earnings across programs.

How do I migrate to eBay Partner Network if I’m currently using Editor’s Kit?

The best way to ensure Editor Kits work appropriately on your site(s) with eBay Partner Network is to implement them with eBay Partner Network as the provider. Just go to the Tools tab upon signing into your publisher interface, navigate to “widgets”, and then select Editor Kit. You will need to sign in with an eBay username and password. Select the program and all the dimensions/sizes/etc, that best suit your widget needs. Click Continue and proceed to the “Preview Your Sniplet” page. Just copy the sniplet code from the Sniplet Source box and you’re ready to go.

IMPORTANT: Remember, under Tracking Services in the Create your Editor Kit page, select eBay Partner Network as the provider, and enter your Campaign ID to ensure your links work appropriately.

For more information, please see the section under Editor Kit in the tools section of the User Manual in help (note that you must be logged in to eBay Partner Network to access the User Manual).

What’s the best way to make sure your link structures are correct?

We recommend that all publishers follow these steps to ensure correct links and tracking for eBay Partner Network.

• Use the Link Generator. This is found on the Tools Tab in the publisher interface.
• Make sure you have a valid Campaign ID! To create a campaign ID, just go to the Campaigns Tab, and create a campaign.
• Implement and test the links. Simply do this by clicking on the link(s) and checking your publisher report for clicks after 4 hours. Remember that ACRUs and revenue events will not show up in your account reports until midnight PST of the following day.

For more information please see “Tools” in the User Manual in the Help section of eBay Partner Network (you must be logged in to eBay Partner Network to access the user manual).

Where can I get more information, and/or give tips and suggestions?

To get more information, publishers can access any of the following resources:

Migration Resource
http://www.ebaypartnernetworkblog.com/english/ebay-partner-network-migration-guide/

Video Tutorial
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000677298&tstart=0&mod=1207200266686

Discussion Boards

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/forum.jspa?forumID=1000000047

To provide the eBay Partner Network team with tips and/or feedback, go to:

Let’s Brainstorm Future Enhancements for eBay Partner Network Thread (Discussion Board)
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000677295&tstart=0&mod=1207680622980

1. Register

To join the eBay Partner Network, you need to register at www.ebaypartnernetwork.com. When you sign up, we’ll ask you for some basic information, including what type of website you have. Choose the description that best fits your website, for example, if you have a blog or a hobby website, choose website. But don’t worry if you don’t yet have a website – you can still join the eBay Partner Network. After you have signed up, you’ll then receive an e-mail with your login details and you’re free to enter the site!

2. Go to the Programs tab

When you first sign in, click on the Programs tab. There you will see a list of all the country’s programs to which you have applied. This tab is important, because although eBay Partner Network is a global platform, different countries have slightly different rules and payment structures, so you should definitely look at the terms and conditions and the payment structure. You can also see the status of your application to each country’s program.

3. Go to the Tools tab

Now you need to put links or banners on your site that point to eBay or Half.com. The easiest ways to do this are using the Link Generator or the Creative Generator and to find them you need to go to the Tools tab.

Link Generator

First of all, select the advertiser. Secondly, select a link type from a choice of Home Page, Keyword Search, Item ID or Custom URL. You will then have to enter your chosen keyword, item id or custom URL, but remember to make it as relevant to your visitors as possible. Some of the options can be geo-targeted, which means that we can detect where the visitor to your site is from and redirect them to the most appropriate site for their geographical location. However, you will still need to select a default program, just in case we can’t detect where the visitor is from – we suggest selecting the US program. Choose what you want the link text to be and try to make it a call to action, for example “Find a Bargain on eBay.” Finally, click on the Generate Link button and copy and paste the code into your site. Easy!

Use the dropdown boxes on the left to filter which creatives you can see. You can filter by advertiser, size, type and whether the creative is geo-targeted. If you select geo-targeted creatives, the language will change depending on your visitor’s location and it will link to the most geographically appropriate site. You then need to click on the creative you want to use and select a default program, in case we can’t detect which country your visitor is from. Finally, click on the Generate Code button and copy and paste it into your site.

4. Fill in your payment details

Go to the Account tab and select Payment Information. eBay Partner Network currently offers 2 payment methods depending on your location: Paypal and direct deposit. Select your payment method and fill in the required details. If you are based in the US, you also need to ensure you inputted your tax details.

Further Help

If you’d like more information on how to get started on the eBay Partner Network, you can watch the video tutorial, which takes you through the process step by step. Alternatively, you can visit our FAQ and help section, which has lots of information about how to use the site, and has links in each topic to ask questions to our dedicated customer service team.

Good luck and we’re looking forward to seeing you earn your first commission very soon!

We are really excited to announce that eBay’s new global affiliate platform, the eBay Partner Network, is now live and ready for registration – so register and start migrating your links from CJ to the new platform!

During April 2008, you can receive an additional 5% bonus for all traffic sent through eBay Partner Network in April 2008 (bonus applicable to traffic sent to Half.com and US, UK, Australia, Canada, Italy, India and Spain eBay sites). The sooner you migrate, the more you’ll earn, so get stuck in.

Just:

• Register at https://www.ebaypartnernetwork.com and confirm your registration via an e-mail you will receive

• Get new links in the “tools” tab, then update your eBay links on your websites with the new code. See our migration guide for more details: http://www.ebaypartnernetworkblog.com/english/ebay-partner-network-migration-guide/

• Enter your payment and tax information in the “accounts” tab

You’ll still have access to your Commission Junction account immediately post launch. However, please aim to finish your migration to the eBay Partner Network by May 1st, 2008 as we anticipate access to parallel reporting to discontinue shortly afterwards.

All the best and here’s to your success with the eBay Partner Network!