eBay PartnerNetwork Blog

Hello,

For all publishers who joined prior to August 1st, we want to remind you that the new Value Based Pricing structure for ACRUs begins November 1st (all publishers that joined after August 1st have already been on this system since August 1st).  This means that all ACRUs that are generated during the months to come will be placed on a payout tier according to the value of the new active eBay users you send. 

The purpose of this new pricing is to pay publishers based on the expected lifetime value of the new users they send to eBay.  We base this on the new user’s purchases and the level of activity on the site.  It’s simple really, the more a new user is worth to eBay, the more we can and will compensate the publisher who brought us that user.  This is a fundamental change we are making to help focus more on quality and performance rather than just quantity for new user referrals. (more…)

We are excited to announce the launch of Custom Banner, a new tool that gives you a new way to incorporate live eBay listings directly onto your site.  Read on to learn more about what Custom Banner can do!

Custom Banner is a customizable flash banner that displays real-time eBay listings based on your search criteria.  For those of you who are familiar with our existing creatives and widgets, think of Custom Banner as an enhancement to regular flash and static banner ads that don’t show specific, live eBay listings.  It also has several new features that give it an enhanced look and feel and, in some ways, more flexibility than Editor Kit. 

Custom banner allows you to choose from several pre-defined themes or design your own, then filter the search results based on keyword, category, and more.  It’s branded with the “Right Now on eBay” logo and PayPal logos for listings that offer PayPal as a payment method. (more…)

We would like to remind all of our affiliates that you should always take proactive security measures in order to protect your eBay Partner Network account information, as you would with any other online accounts such as your bank account.  It is important to know that security risks can occur and what steps you can take to protect yourself.  The following are good practices to help prevent security issues with your account:

• Always verify that the URL in your browser displays www.ebaypartnernetwork.com in the domain, prior to entering your User ID and Password.
• Only log into eBay Partner Network by typing the address into your address bar. Do not follow hyperlinks or search engine results to our webpage. If there is a hyperlink in any communications that claim to be from eBay Partner Network, cut and paste it into the Address bar instead of clicking on it.
• Do not share you User ID and Password with anyone.
• Create a strong Password that is not easy to guess.  Be sure to use different passwords for eBay Partner Network than you do for your email, bank accounts, or computer login. This is important to ensure security for all of your accounts.
• We will never send you an email that asks for your personal information or login.  Be aware of phishing emails and spoof sites. Do not put your account password into any forms other than the sign in on the ebaypartnernetwork.com page.

If at any point you feel your account may have been compromised, or see that your personal information or payment details have changed without your knowledge, please contact customer service right away.

Sincerely,

The eBay Partner Network Team

We are excited to release our new Category Summary Report on Wednesday the 22nd, and would like to share some of what you can expect to see.  The new report will be available in the Run Reports section where you’ll be given the product categories the buyers you send to eBay end up converting in.  This information is viewable by program and even down to the campaign level.  You can expect to see total ACRUs, Bid/Bins, Winning Bids, and Winning Bid Revenue displayed in your choice of either pie or bar chart options, to help you better visualize your performance.  Then to see even more granularity you’ll have the ability to drill down from the main categories to see sub categories down to the third level for exceptional insight into the buying patterns of your users.

Screenshot (click to zoom in):

We want to highlight one specific topic, but to learn more about the Category Summary Report, please go the Help section for further details. (more…)

Hello All,

We are in the process of upgrading our reporting systems after the reporting delays this past weekend and wanted to tell you ahead of time that there will be some additional delays the rest of this week in reporting as we perform this maintenance. 

The data from the 14th posted today, but the transactions from the 15th will be delayed until tomorrow, the 17th.  We expect tomorrow’s update will also include data from the 16th, and be back to the normal schedule moving forward.

We apologize for the inconvenience and want to confirm that the underlying tracking system is still in place and working properly, this issue is only affecting the loading of that data into the graphs and tables available for publishers on eBay Partner Network.

Sincerely,

eBay Parnter Network Team

The eBay France affiliate team is very happy to inform you that as of the 1st of November 2008, the payment structure of the French affiliate program will change in order to help you earn more!

Up to now, the eBay.fr affiliate program has mostly rewarded the recruitment of new registered users. As of the 1st of November, we want to compensate you more for the activity of the 12 million registered users we have already!

This is why, on top of the new ACRU compensation, the ebay.fr affiliate program will be tying your earnings per bid and BIN to the revenue we get for the sold item and the share you receive will vary from 40% to 65%. This model has already allowed affiliates to increase their income in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. (more…)

Trainz.com is an e-commerce website specifically built for the model train enthusiast. Started in the late nineties by Scott Griggs, a lifelong model train hobbyist and salesman, Trainz.com sells collectible and new model trains, as well as scenery and materials for model train tracks. 

Trainz.com sells inventory on its own website as well as on eBay, conducting about 4,000 total transactions per month. Since much of its inventory is sold on eBay, Trainz.com has incorporated links to its eBay inventory all over its website, encouraging visitors to check eBay as well as Trainz.com for the particular product they’re looking for.

In early 2007, Trainz.com became a member of the eBay Partner Network so that it could be paid for the visitors it was driving to eBay, whether a visitor bought a Trainz.com product or not. Since then, the company has seen an increase in revenues as a result. (more…)

Hello and Welcome to the Halloween edition of the ePN blog

Fall colors, longer nights and that telltale chill in the air … Halloween is just around the corner. As brick and mortar stores set up their creepy displays, eBay sellers are not to be outdone. Online shoppers can scare up a good deal on hordes of costumes, decorations, movies and more. By posting banner ads or links to Halloween related listings on eBay, affiliates are bound to drive a frightening amount of quality traffic … while driving revenue for themselves. 

A few tips on hot costumes for 2008: With the releases of Iron Man and The Dark Knight, this is sure to be a big year for superheroes. Here are a few fun examples:

Iron Man

Little Batman

Big Batman

and even … Batdog? (more…)