eBay PartnerNetwork Blog

Hello,

We want to remind US Publishers of some important tax information.  As we wrote in our blog post on November 24th, we are required by law to send publishers in eBay Partner Network a 1099 tax form if:

• You are a United States citizen or legal resident and
• You had $600 reportable tax activity for the year 2008.

PLEASE NOTE that eBay Partner Network will be sending a 1099 to the ePN account holder that was listed on each account as of Dec 31st, 2008.   We unfortunately can’t make any exceptions.

eBay Partner Network Forms 1099-MISC will be postmarked via US Postal Service no later than January 31, 2009.  You can find additional information about the 1099-MISC Form from the IRS website, www.irs.gov.

Here are a few questions that have come up on 1099s:

1. When do I receive a 1099 Form from eBay Partner Network?

IRS regulations mandate that 1099-MISC forms be distributed no later than January 31 of the year following payment. Forms 1099-MISC are mailed via the US Postal Service no later than January 31. Please allow time for delivery.

2. Which 1099 Form will I receive from eBay Partner Network?

You will receive the 1099-MISC form from eBay Partner Network.

3. What is a 1099-MISC and what does it mean?

A 1099-MISC is an information return.  An information return is a tax document businesses are required to file to report certain business transactions to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) . The requirement to file Information Returns is mandated by the Internal Revenue Service and associated regulations. It is used to report miscellaneous income paid to individuals and companies who have received $600 or more other income payments during a calendar year.

4. What is reported on the 1099-MISC form?

Form 1099-MISC is used to report payments made in the course of a trade or business to another person or business who is not an employee. The form is required to be filed when $600 or more in other income is paid. The form is provided by the payer (eBay Partner Network) to the IRS and the person or business that received the payment.

5. What is the difference between a Form W-2 and a Form 1099-MISC?

Both of these forms are called information returns. The Form W-2 is used by employers to report wages, tips and other compensation paid to an employee. The form also reports the employee’s income tax and Social Security taxes withheld and any advanced earned income credit payments. The Form W-2 is provided by the employer to the employee and the Social Security Administration.

A Form 1099-MISC is used to report payments made in the course of a trade or business to another person or business who is not an employee. The form is required among other things, when payments of $10 or more in gross royalties or $600 or more in rents or other income payments are paid. The form is provided by the payer to the IRS and the person or business that received the payment.

6. I didn’t receive the 1099-MISC form. What should I do?

The 2008 Form 1099-MISC will be mailed by January 31, 2009. Please allow for normal delivery time. If you have not received your 1099-MISC form by February 8, 2008, contact us at ebaypartnernetwork-payments@ebay.com to order a duplicate copy of your 2008 1099-MISC form.

7. What happens if I have questions relating to amount, payment details, incorrect Tax ID or name listed on the 1099-MISC form?

Please contact us at ebaypartnernetwork-payments@ebay.com

8. Which payments are included on the 2008 1099-MISC form?

The 2008 1099-MISC forms reflects all amounts paid during the 2008 tax year by eBay Partner Network, regardless of the month in which the amounts were earned. The 2008 1099-MISC form includes payments with issue dates from January 1, 2008, through December 31, 2008.   Any payments issued after January 1, 2009, for your eBay Partner Network earnings from the month of December 2008 will be in the 2009 1099-MISC form.

9. Does an incorrect address on my 1099-MISC form affect its validity?

An incorrect address does not affect the validity of a Form 1099-MISC. Notify us at ebaypartnernetwork-payments@ebay.com of any address change or logon to your eBay Partner Network account and change the address in your profile to ensure prompt delivery of your future 1099-MISC forms. Address changes made after Dec. 26, 2008 will not be reflected on the 2008 1099-MISC form.

10. Where can I find additional information?

All the information provided above is from the IRS website, www.irs.gov. Any additional detail can be found on their website.

Best regards,

The eBay Partner Network Team

Hi All,

With January almost over for another year, it’s time to get your site’s visitors thinking about what to buy their loved ones as a gift for Valentine’s Day. 

There are a number of ways that you can advertise gift ideas.  We have a new seasonal creative, which you can find in the Creative Generator.  Select “No” for geo-targeting then US Program and click Search.  Look for the “Find Something For Your Sweetheart” themed banners.  We will also be opening these to the UK program soon.

Here are some hot gift ideas with Free Shipping auctions:

For her:

Key Necklaces
iPod nano
Fragrances
Designer Handbags
Diamond Earrings
Romantic Getaways
Concert Tickets
Handmade Cards
Heart Shaped Sunglasses

For him:

Electric Shavers
Digital Picture Frames
Concert Tickets
Golf Club Sets
The North Face Jackets
Citizen Watches
Fragrances
Nintendo Wii
Digital Camera SLR

To use these landing pages simply copy the url to the Link Generator Custom url field and generate the code.

Love from the eBay Partner Network Team!

Hello,

Europe to Vegas may seem a long way to come for a conference, (especially when you’re about to board an 11 hour flight back home!), but the Affiliate Summit has been worth it for the eBay Partner Network European team.  We’ve had the chance to meet many of our US based affiliates, talk to many others about the potential to expand into Europe, and seen some great presentations.

The next conference we’re going to be attending is a lot nearer to home – we’re going to have a stand at the a4u Expo Europe, the first pan European Affiliate Marketing Conference & Exhibition, which is being held in Amsterdam on April 28th and 29th.  We hope to see as many of our Europe based affiliates there as possible (and, of course, any of our US affiliates who fancy a trip to Europe in spring!)

In the meantime, if you’re not already working with our European programs, you should definitely consider them, as they offer a fantastic opportunity to boost your commissions further.

Hope to see you in Amsterdam,

The eBay Partner Network European team

It’s been a very busy day for the eBay Partner Network team here at the Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas.  We’ve met loads of affiliates, both existing eBay publishers and potential recruits, and it’s been great to answer all their questions, hear some exciting new ideas about promoting eBay and put some names to faces.

Some of the EPN team at the Affiliate Summit

In between manning the booth, we’ve made time to attend some of the presentations that have been going on.  For those of you who haven’t made it to Vegas, the common theme of the sessions has been how affiliates can improve their sites and so increase their commissions.  Here’s a summary of some of today’s highlights:

The keynote speech was from Gary Vaynerchuk from Wine Library.  He focussed on how to build the brand equity of your site, so you keep people coming back to your site time and time again.  Paraphrased, his top tips were:

• Ensure your site offers a valuable service.  For eBay affiliates this could range from a site that surfaces great deals to a site where you can read product reviews and research.
• Don’t forget “Word of Mouth” marketing methods, such as social networking, videos and Twitter (which he interestingly described as word of mouth marketing on steroids!) as this creates a buzz around your site.
• Don’t try to hide the fact that you’re monetizing your site using affiliate links – this will lead to your site being more trusted and a higher quality of traffic.  For eBay publishers, this means you should always inform your visitors that they will be redirected to eBay if they click on a link.

There was also an interesting session from Ola Edvardsson from Performancy about what really works in affiliate marketing:

• Target products and offers that are in demand and that people already want to buy.  To help you do this, eBay has a few API calls to help you find the most popular search queries and product by category – see the Developer’s Program site for details.
• Help your visitors to buy.  For example, provide testimonials and reviews and showcase only the most relevant listings.
• Then help them buy even more by taking every advantage you can to cross sell and up sell your visitors so that they generate more sales.

We’ll be at the booth again tomorrow, so if you haven’t managed to catch up with us yet, please stop by for a chat, as we want to make sure that we’ve talked to as many of our affiliates as possible.

Having just about recovered from our jet lag, the European team is about to head down to the eBay Partner Network stand at the Affiliate Summit.  We hope that many of our affiliates that are visiting the conference will take the opportunity to come and speak to us about how expanding onto our many European programs can help you to greatly increase your commissions.  There will be someone from the European team manning the eBay Partner Network booth at all times – you will probably recognise us by our accents, if not just ask for Chris, Julia or Mieke!

Hope to see many of you soon,

The eBay Partner Network European team

Hi all,

We are making some changes to several of our Asia programs.

We have decided to close down the Singapore and Hong Kong affiliate programs as of February 1st, 2009, and make India a more limited invite-only program.

Our Singapore and Hong Kong sites are increasingly focusing their marketing efforts on bringing sellers, rather than buyers, to their programs. Given that eBay Partner Network is today primarily a buyer-acquisition focused network, we’ve decided it was best to close these programs for now, until we can better support seller efforts.

Beginning February 1st, 2009, we will begin redirecting traffic from geo-targeted affiliate links destined for eBay Hong Kong and eBay Singapore back to eBay.com. Publishers currently geo-targeting traffic to these sites will not have to do anything differently, since we will re-direct this traffic automatically. However, please note that creatives for Hong Kong and Singapore will no longer be available in the eBay Partner Network interface. Publishers not working with these programs will not be affected.

We have also decided to make India a limited invitation-only program. We want to focus in the next few months on growing the Indian program through larger affiliates that have established track records in India or in other emerging countries. Publishers currently accepted in the Indian program will not be affected and will be able to continue to promote the Indian site. New publishers joining eBay Partner Network will no longer see the Indian program as an option upon sign-in and will have to apply separately by contacting customer service if they want to promote the Indian Program.

We expect a minimum impact from these changes given the small number of affiliates currently driving traffic to these countries. If you have concerns or experience any problems during the transition please be sure to let us know by contacting customer service.

Thanks for your continued support!

The eBay Partner Network

Hello All,

We’re finishing up a busy week of preparations for our upcoming journey to Affiliate Summit West 2009 in Las Vegas.  Our plan is to arrive in full force with many key members of the eBay Partner Network Team representing us at the event.   We have a number of ePN’ers from our Account Management Team, Operations, Technology, and European Teams.  This should cover all parts of the spectrum, so we’re really looking forward to meeting as many of you as possible at the event and our booth, and answering any questions you may have.

We also want to tell you about one session in particular that we really hope you can attend.  Will and Steve plan to give a presentation on Quality Standards in Affiliate Marketing on Tuesday from 2:00pm-3:00pm: Session 8b.  It would be great to have a good showing of eBay Partners in the room showing your support and contributing to the discussion.

The last announcement is that you can follow us at the summit (and beyond) on Twitter at eBay_Affiliates, and we’ll also be updating the blog while we’re there so you can keep up with the latest from our team.

Good luck with your 2009 goals as we kick off this new year, and we hope to see you at Affiliate Summit!

-The eBay Partner Network Team