eBay PartnerNetwork Blog

eBay has launched eBay Fashion, a new and improved shopping destination for clothing, shoes and accessories. New features and a modern new look offers consumers a unique and exciting view of new and vintage merchandise only available on eBay.

eBay Fashion’s new functionality allows consumers to shop in excess of 19 million average daily listings, making it so simple to find both auction items and fixed price items based on style, brand and popular trends. The enhanced experience includes:

• Enhanced Navigation: There’s a new Fashion tab on the top of the page. Shopping for all things fashion-related will be just one-click away no matter where you are on eBay. In addition, buyers shopping within Fashion will see consistent navigation to all of the top categories, like Women’s Clothing and Men’s Shoes.
• Improved Fashion homepage: The fashion homepage, fashion.ebay.com, has undergone a makeover, including a new design and features. Highlights include a richer, visual experience featuring stylish products, hot fashion trends, themes, most-wanted items, tips from industry stylists and more. Plus, buyers are introduced to new browse experiences for easier access to top brands and products.
• Category and product boutiques: Popular categories like, Women’s Clothing, Men’s Clothing, Women’s Shoes, Men’s Shoes and Handbags now have their own exclusive tailored shopping boutiques — making it easier for buyers to shop by brand, style, size and other attributes and refine their product selection quickly and easily. Boutiques for top brands and themes are also coming soon.
• Gallery View as the default: Buyers have told eBay that they browse merchandise and make their purchasing decisions by looking at pictures. To help them quickly assess how items look, eBay is adding default search results for Fashion queries to gallery view.
• “More like this.”: Ever found an item that was close but not quite what you were looking for? eBay now offers some buyers a new “More like this” experience, where they’ll see an array of visually similar items. This technology allows consumers to find like items based on visual image recognition and key aspects such as brand, style and color.
• Branded merchandise: Fashion buyers want popular labels, so eBay is increasing the breadth and depth of branded inventory with merchandise direct from top brands and retailers. Be on the lookout for some of your favorite brands later this year within Fashion Vault and a new Fashion Outlet.

We want buyers to shop eBay Fashion with confidence, which is why we are proud to offer the eBay Buyer Protection program. eBay Buyer Protection provides customers with access to dedicated support specialists seven days a week, as well as a money-back offer for most purchases should a problem arise and the seller is unable to resolve the issue.

How to Promote eBay Fashion
You can start promoting eBay Fashion today in several ways:

• Use the Creatives Generator Tool and run a search for “Clothing, Shoes & Accessories” under the “Category” drop down from the left hand navigation menu. This search returns featured banners for eBay Fashion and eBay’s Fashion Vault.
• Use the Link Generator Tool with the Custom URL or Item ID options to link directly to sale items.
• Dynamic Banners in sizes 160×600, 300×250 and 728×90 feature current sales at eBay’s Fashion Vault.
• You can access the Fashion Vault XML Feed.

For more information, visit fashion.ebay.com. And, to join the conversation follow @eBay_Fashion, eBay’s new home for fashion finds, tips and trends on Twitter, at www.twitter.com/ebay_fashion.

Happy Promoting!
The eBay Partner Network Team

About The Promotion:
Beginning April 30th eBay will be running a special promotion to showcase Comic Books within the collectibles category. Auction items will be featured at this eBay storefront beginning April 23rd with bidding starting April 30th. This event is timed to run alongside the box office premiere of Iron Man 2 starring Robert Downey Jr. The ‘Comic Book Superhero Auction Event’ starts next Friday and runs through Sunday May 9th, 2010. During this event several rare and collectible comic related items will be featured on eBay including vintage comic books, signed prints and memorabilia, specially designed artwork by well known industry figures and more. Items valued at <$1,000 will start at $0.99 and items valued at ≥$1,000 will start at $99.99.

Featured Artists:
One of the featured eBay sellers that will be participating will be Albert Moy, a well respected figure in the Comics industry.

Available Items:
The following list represents many of the items that will be posted during the ‘Comic Book Superhero Auction Event’.
Keep in mind that additional items may be added to this promotion.

eBay Comics Auction Item / Category
John Cassaday Captain America Reborn #4 Cover / Original Art
Don Heck Golden Age Iron Man Splash Page / Original Art
John Romita Jr. Iron Man Cover / Original Art
James Jean Fables #69 Cover / Original Art
Ed Benes Birds of Prey #1 Cover / Original Art
Ed Benes Birds of Prey #2 Cover / Original Art
Lan Medina Iron Man and Captain America Pin-up / Original Art
Mico Suayan Thor #609 Cover / Original Art
Mico Suayan Thor #611 Cover / Original Art
Mico Suayan Thor #612 Cover / Original Art
Mico Suayan Rage of Thor Cover / Original Art
Ed Benes Wonder Woman Licensing Art / Original Art
Ed Benes Superman Licensing Art / Original Art
Ed Benes Flash Licensing Art / Original Art
Ed Benes Firestorm Licensing Art / Original Art
Mariah Benes Zatanna Pin-up / Original Art
Joe Linsner Iron Man / Original Art
The Avengers #1 CGC 6.5 OW – 1963 / Comic Books
Thor #126 CGC 9.4 White – 1966 / Comic Books
Thor #126 CGC 6.5 OW – 1966 / Comic Books
Iron Man #1 CGC 9.2 White – 1968 / Comic Books
Iron Man #1 CGC 9.0 OW – 1968 / Comic Books
Iron Man #9 CGC 8.5 OWW – 1969 / Comic Books
Iron Man #40 CGC 9.6 OWW – 1971 / Comic Books
Captain America #100 CGC 9.4 OWW – 1968 /Comic Books
Captain America #100 CGC 7.5 Stan Lee & Joe Simon Sigs / Comic Books
Captain America #102 CGC 9.4 Stan Lee & Joe Simon Sigs / Comic Books
John Romita Jr. Signed Amazing Spider-Man #1 CGC 9.8 W / Comic Books
Iron Man vs. Whiplash #1 CGC 9.8 W w/ Mickey Rourke Sig / Comic Books
Siege #1 Joe Quesada 1:300 Sketch Variant / Comic Books
Siege #2 Joe Quesada 1:200 Color Variant / Comic Books
Siege #3 Joe Quesada 1:200 Sketch Variant / Comic Books
Marvel Bronze Age 1,900+ Lot F/VF / Runs & Collections
Marvel Silver Age 2,200+ Lot w/ AF #15 G/VG / Runs & Collections
Uncanny X-Men 304 Comic Run John Byrne / Runs & Collections
Daredevil 399 Comic Run Frank Miller / Runs & Collections
Wolverine 571 Comic Run Frank Miller / Runs & Collections
Avengers 546 Comic Run Iron Man / Runs & Collections
Iron Man 927 Book Run Silver Age to Now / Runs & Collections
Iron Man #20-24 12 Comic Books with Variants / Runs & Collections
Marvel Masterworks Iron Man Hardcover Set Vols. #1-6 / Runs & Collections
Captain America Reborn #1-6 Variant Set / Runs & Collections
Kick-Ass Run #1-8 Complete First Print Set / Runs & Collections
Iron Man Mark III Helmet Prop Replica / Collectibles
Iron Man Movie Arc Reactor Prop Replica / Collectibles
Avengers #200 + Classic Marvel Figurine Set of 10 / Collectibles
Classic Marvel Figurine Set Spider-Man & Venom / Collectibles
Classic Marvel Figurine Set Iron Man & War Machine / Collectibles

Promotion Options:
You can use the Link Generator Tool with the Custom URL or Item ID options to link directly to sale items.
If you have room for graphics configure your Custom Banner Tool with the ‘advanced options’ and enter eBay Seller ID: comicsauction.
You may also rewrite or use these important auction highlights to spur interest with your movie, collectibles, or comics audiences:

• Timing: Friday, April 30, 2010 – Sunday, May 9, 2010
• Auction link: : http://stores.ebay.com/comicsauction (will be live April 23rd with bidding starting April 30th)
• Features rare and collectible comic-related merchandise (vintage comic books, original artwork by popular and classic artists, signed memorabilia, etc.)
• Approximately 50 items will be featured in these auctions
• Coincides with the premiere of the movie Iron Man 2 starring Robert Downey Jr.
• Most items have never been offered at such a low starting price and have never before been offered on eBay
• Bidding starts at $0.99 (items valued <$1,000) or $99.99 (items valued ≥$1,000)
• All items are available as auctions with free shipping and no reserve

Thanks for promoting this important Comic Book Superhero Auction Event!
Feel free to address any questions to the contact seller link on the eBay Auction page.

Happy Promoting!
The eBay Partner Network Team

Public relations is an essential component of any small business growth strategy. A well-planned PR campaign can raise awareness of your company and get other people talking about you – evangelizing your products or services for you. It can, however, be costly.

If you don’t have the time or resources for a full-scale PR campaign, there are some things you can do on your own that borrow from the PR philosophy. By investing just a little time, you can quickly increase company buzz and build upon your site traffic using these low-cost techniques.

Before we dive into the tactics, though, let’s take a high-level look at what PR is. In the traditional sense, public relations involves working with bloggers, reporters and other influencers in an effort to get them to speak or write positively about your company or product. Why would you want to do this? Because every company tells people that they’re great, but when someone else says you’re great, people listen.

In today’s world of social media, anyone can be an influencer, which means anyone can be an evangelist for you. Why would they be? Because they like you. In short, this means that PR is about building relationships. When you think of it this way, it becomes much easier to work towards your ultimate goal: getting other people to say good things about you.

While building relationships is something that obviously takes time, here are five top tips to help get you started:

1. Sign up for HelpAReporterOut (HARO) at helpareporterout.com. This is a free service started by PR industry veteran Peter Shankman that aggregates reporter requests for sources for their stories. Whether you sell dog collars or motorcycle helmets, are CEO of a major corporation or a self-employed “expert,” this newsletter is chock full of PR opportunities for you.

2. Get social. Learn how to use Twitter and other social media tools. Search for people that are talking about your industry and start talking to them. Don’t just promote yourself! Actively engage them in conversation. Remember how your mom encouraged you to talk to the other kids during recess? She may or may not have told you that listening is just as important. Think back to being a kid. Social media isn’t so scary – it’s just like talking to the other kids on the playground. Jump in and give it a shot.

3. Learn how to write a news release about a new product or service. There are a number of sites offering advice in this realm (TopRank Blog is one of my favorites). A few tips to get you started: Make sure your “news” is actually newsworthy. Write for your customer – get rid of the industry jargon. Nine times out of ten, your customer won’t know what your “industry-leading, super-technologically advanced” contraption is. Tell them how it will benefit them and make their lives easier. And make it simple! Choose the most affordable and relevant distribution mechanism for your news and issue your release. You can do this over a newswire ($200-$1000+), a web-only press release service (free-$200) or just post it on your website and share it with a few key influencers, per the tip below.

4. Get to know the reporters, bloggers and influencers in your industry. Do the research online to see who really may be interested in your company and approach them politely with your news, or find another way to strike up a conversation. Maybe you have a comment on their latest story. Maybe you know of another expert they’d be interested in meeting. Find ways to add value to the relationship, as opposed to simply pitching yourself. This is the best way to build the relationship, get people to like you, and think of you when they have a story to write that you might be a fit for.

5. Guest blog. Guest blogging is a great way to position yourself as an expert and grow your audience. By writing balanced articles that pertain to your industry on other people’s blogs, you’ll build credibility, gain additional visitors to your site and enhance your search engine optimization efforts. Many bloggers are looking for additional content, so if you take the time to write a neutral (read: not self-promotional) piece that their audience would genuinely be interested in, there’s a good chance they’ll take you up on it. For a great primer on how to get started guest-blogging, check out this guest post on CopyBlogger.

These are just a few things that you can do to gain more exposure for your company through the realm of PR. You can find lots of great resources on the net about doing your own PR, and when you’re big enough, you can hire someone to help. In the meantime, remember that the best thing you can do is focus on building relationships. Be nice, be helpful – to your customers and others in your industry – and good opportunities will come your way.

Good luck!

Ali Croft is co-founder and director of PR at Just Drive Media, a boutique PR and online marketing consultancy. She shares thoughts and news about PR and affiliate marketing at www.twitter.com/JustDrive.

In a matter of weeks the Apple iPad has found its way to the front page of every major media outlet and technology blog in existence. It’s been praised by some universities, banned at others and is even being adopted by the US Army. This product’s momentum shows no signs of slowing and it will inevitably be one of the hottest tech gadgets released this year.

Back in March, Wade Sisson over at Schaaf-PartnerCentric posted about the potential leverage awaiting eBay publishers with the upcoming launch of the iPad. Thanks to higher than expected demand in the US, this rare opportunity just got a one-month extension. Last week I received an email from Seth at 9to5mac.com regarding a statement Apple had made on the international sale of the iPad. Due to overwhelming popularity, Apple has pushed back international shipments of the iPad until at least late May, leaving eBay the only major outlet where international buyers can purchase this highly anticipated Apple product. During the first days of launch, some iPads sold for as much as $5,000 USD. Currently, it’s being reported the iPad is selling in some locations for double its comparable retail price in the US.

How it Works

If an eBay seller in the US lists an iPad with worldwide shipping, it is likely that iPad is going to be available for purchase on other eBay country sites as well. With eBay’s quality click pricing, eBay’s winning bid revenue (WBR) is a major factor in determining the payout, and we’ve recently seen WBR for iPad’s ranging from $25 to $75. Some publishers promoting the iPad during its first week saw the equivalent of 80% or more of this WBR come back to them in the form of commissions.

How to Promote the iPad on eBay

Before the launch of the iPad, eBay created an iPad specific mini-site at iPad.eBay.com, which has a listings page with all of the iPads for sale on eBay. By using the custom url option in the link generator tool, it is easy to create a link to this page, or any of the others. However, we suggest using the iPad.eBay.com/listings page, as it will convert the best. Another great aspect of this page is that it should be around indefinitely, and it will always have the best selection of iPads for sale on eBay. Place a link like this in a blog post or editorial about the iPad, and it could potentially generate revenue for years to come.

Another option is to use the custom banner in conjunction with the free eBay geo targeting tool that R.O.Eye recently created. Use a keyword query like “ipad -(sleeve, case, stylus, film, silicone, address, protector, email, domain, neoprene, oem, bundle, usb, accessory, adapter, alternative, iphone, email)”, and forgo applying a category id so the geo targeting feature will work. By integrating the geo targeting script, the custom banner will show iPads available on the eBay country site associated with the users ip address. If you’d like, feel free to use the code for the custom banner integration below, but be sure to apply one of your own campaign ids to “campId=”.

On The Horizon

The 3G version of the iPad is slated to be released in the US on April 30th, but there is no known date for an international release, let alone international data plans. When the 3G version of the iPad launches at the end of April, expect another opportunity to capitalize on the limited availability of this revolutionary product. Also, with the recent media frenzy surrounding the next generation iPhone found in a SanJose bar, the release of this product on the open market should create even further opportunities for eBay affiliates locally and abroad.

Mike Kansa / eBay Partner Network

One of the things our affiliates regularly ask us for is more information about the different markets eBay operates in globally. In particular, publishers ask us about the unique features each country has that they should be aware of when setting up sites for users in those countries. This post gives an introduction to e-commerce in Italy and an overview of eBay.it, as well as some tips on how to be a successful publisher on eBay’s affiliate program in Italy.

E-commerce in Italy

There are approximately 20 million internet users in Italy, about a third of the country’s population. Of this number, 5.6 million have made at least one purchase online (survey netcomm GfK Eurisko, May2008). During 2008, e-commerce in Italy had an estimated value of €6.4 billion (approx $8.2 billion). Although e-commerce in Italy is increasing year on year, the market still lags behind the largest European countries such as the UK, Germany and France, both in terms of online sales and the number of online users.

Unfortunately, Italy did not escape the global financial crisis and as in many other countries, the recession has strongly influenced the purchasing behaviour of users:

• Italians are now more sensitive to price, creating an opportunity for publishers to develop sites which cater to savvy shoppers – such as shopping comparison, loyalty and cashback sites.
• The increased importance of price to Italian consumers also means that they are increasingly looking for items from last season, or scouring second-hand websites to get a better deal.

Payments

The credit card remains the preferred way to pay online, with about 70% of online payments using this method. For large purchases, consumer credit (9% of sales) is increasingly popular, while PayPal (11%) is also growing quickly due to its convenience for consumers and small to medium sized merchants. Cash on delivery (8%) is declining in popularity because of the high tariffs charged by express couriers.

eBay in Italy

Key information about eBay.it

• eBay.it recently celebrated its ninth birthday, having launched on 15th January, 2001.
• In September 2007, eBay reached the milestone of having 5 million registered users.
• In December 2009, eBay was the most popular ecommerce site in Italy, with over 6.6 million visitors and more than 700 million page views (Source: Nielsen Net Ratings, December 2009).
• There are more than 3,000,000 listings on the eBay.it site, spanning more than 6,700 categories.

Recent changes on eBay.it

In recent years, eBay has made a number of enhancements to the eBay.it site in order to improve the service it offers both buyers and sellers. It is important to be aware of these aspects of the eBay.it site before beginning to promote it.

• Wide range of products across multiple listing formats: With more than 3 million listings across a wide variety of categories, eBay.it offers a great range of inventory whatever buyers are looking for. To enhance this selection of items further, in September 2009 eBay launched eBay Anunci, which allows sellers to create Classified ads for the items they want to sell. Along with the Auction and Buy It Now listing formats common across eBay platforms around the world, eBay Anunci offers Italian consumers unparalleled choice and value, however they want to shop.
• Professional sellers: Italian users are very careful about the reputation, trustworthiness and reliability of the sellers from whom they are buying products. In order to meet the expectations of their buyers, eBay have invested significantly in the past few years to bring more professional sellers with higher service standards onto the Italian site.
• PayPal Buyer protection: Today there are over 3 million PayPal accounts in Italy, a figure which is growing rapidly as more and more eBay sellers offer PayPal as a payment method. eBay now offers buyer protection for users on eBay who buy through PayPal. Buyers who pay with PayPal are protected for the full value of their purchase, including shipping costs.

Useful information on becoming a successful publisher for eBay.it

As with any other website, to become a successful publisher for eBay.it you need to understand the consumers you are trying to attract. In order to help with this, below are some interesting snippets of information which may come in useful when deciding which categories and products to promote to Italian users.

• Popular categories: The three most popular categories on eBay.it are: Mobile & Home Phones; Clothing, Shoes and Accessories; and Computing
• Popular search terms: Some of the keywords used most often to search for products on the eBay.it site are: Nokia; jackets; parkas; mobile phone; bags; sweatshirts; shoes; boots; Apple iPhone; PS3 Games
• Seasonality: While online sales in most countries decrease during the summer, in Italy this trend is even more pronounced, particularly in July and August. Although traffic and total number of conversions drop during this period, we have found that conversion rate from click to purchase remains pretty stable. In addition, buying traffic is often cheaper during the summer because the demand for advertising is lower – giving you the possibility of higher margins during this period.

The eBay Partner Network Team

eBay: On Location has concluded the first stop in Atlanta, Georgia March 19th and 20th. With a sell-out crowd of 500 sellers, eBay sellers had the opportunity to network amongst themselves, as well as meet with eBay experts to discuss strategies to improve their businesses.

With three more events planned, eBay is taking these opportunities to connect and network with sellers, both small and large.

If you are one of our partners that is also a seller, you may want to consider attending one of these events and take advantage of all that eBay: On Location has to offer!

Upcoming Events
The following events are scheduled for 2010:

Dallas, Texas: May 7th-8th

Chicago, Illinois: July 9th-10th

San Jose, California: September 1st-2nd

For more information and event details, visit our eBay: On Location website.

We hope to see you there!
The eBay Partner Network Team

Beginning Monday, April 12th, at 8:00am PDT, eBay’s Fashion Vault will have ESCADA products up to 75% off retail prices through Wednesday, April 14th! Make sure to check the Fashion Vault for updated information and specific sale items.

About ESCADA
A prestigious international fashion house, ESCADA believes in the use of technology in creating fashion. Computer Assisted Design for pattern-making, automated cutters and state of the art equipment for sewing and knitting are used as time-conserving devices in the tedious side of the rag trade. A powerhouse of both creativity and the use of high-technology, ESCADA continue to be innovative while keeping its strong market appeal.

How to Promote eBay’s Fashion Vault
You will be able to promote this exciting flash sale in several ways:

• Dynamic Banners in sizes 160×600, 300×250 and 728×90. These banners will be updated to reflect the ESCADA sale on Monday, April 12th.
• You can access the Fashion Vault XML Feed.
• Use the Link Generator Tool with the Custom URL or Item ID options to link directly to sale items.

Happy Promoting!
The eBay Partner Network Team

Hello Partners,

You may have heard the exciting news that Schaaf Consulting has acquired PartnerCentric to become the US Affiliate Marketing industry’s largest outsourced program management agency. We began working with PartnerCentric in early 2009, to extend the support that EPN is able to offer our partners in the eBay US and eBay AU programs. As many of you work closely with our PartnerCentric team members Kevin, Mike and Amanda, we want to ensure you that this change will have no impact on our relationship. We look forward to continuing our partnership with the newly formed Schaaf-PartnerCentric, and you can continue to rely on the team for account management and program support!

Thank you for your continued partnership!
The eBay Partner Network Team

Hi all,

You may have read last week that I’ll be taking on the role of head of the eBay Partner Network team globally. I’m deeply honored and excited to be given the opportunity to improve on what I think is already a good affiliate program.

A little background on me: I’ve been at eBay for more than six years and have been working in eCommerce for more than ten. I’ve worked in the affiliate industry since 2007, when I joined eBay Partner Network to build up the Network Quality team (before that I was part of eBay’s Natural Search team). In 2008, I assumed broader responsibility for business operations, including managing Analytics and Customer Support.

I am very proud of what we’ve accomplished as a team here at eBay Partner Network. All of you should know that there are a lot of people working hard here every day to make the network even better, and we have some exciting things planned for 2010 and beyond. Over the next couple of years, we’ll be very focused on empowering and enabling publishers, and the March 30th release was a sign of things to come.  Enhancements to the overall user interface, improved help content and a new landing page report were all part of this most recent release.  Our goal is to improve your ability to work with your campaigns, optimize your traffic and ultimately improve your results, and we have a number of new features planned to help make this easier for you.

We understand that some of the changes we’ve made since bringing our program in-house have affected the way many of you work with eBay. We’ve put more of an emphasis on quality, and this won’t change: paying for high quality traffic is the only way we can maintain a program of this size and reward the best publishers as much as possible for what they do. I know that for many of you, driving high-quality traffic to eBay means having to work harder to ensure you target the right people and really help them find the great deals they’re looking for. The team here appreciates your extra effort and we want you to know that we are dedicated to helping you succeed.

This year you can expect to see from us more investment in account management, online education and development of better tools. We’re confident that this will manifest itself in improved lines of communication, more information and improved technical solutions to allow you to make further strides in your business. Along these lines, please take the time to look over all of the great resources that we have on the blog. We will continue to use this medium as a way to help you succeed, so stay tuned for more news and education.

Finally, a healthy affiliate program requires that both merchant and affiliates work together to help each other become successful. As we move forward with these plans, we will continue to need your feedback and effort to help make this a rewarding program for everyone. I’m going to set up a thread on the discussion board in the next few days, which the team and I will be monitoring, so if you‘ve seen areas for improvement, let us know. And, of course, if you want to give us some positive feedback, please do so. We like hearing that too!

To all of you, whether you have been working with us over the years or are newer to the program, I’d like to say thanks for your dedication to eBay. Without you this program wouldn’t exist and we wouldn’t have the opportunities we have ahead of us today. I look forward to working with you all in the years ahead!

Thanks,

Chad

Beginning Monday, April 5th, at 8:00am PDT, eBay’s Fashion Vault will have Romeo & Juliet Couture products up to 60% off retail prices through Wednesday, April 7th! Make sure to check the Fashion Vault for updated information and specific sale items.

Use coupon code CFASHIONVAULT47 for an additional 30% off, for a total of up to 90% savings from retail prices!

About Romeo & Juliet Couture
Romeo and Juliet Couture: whether ironic or romantic, the name is familiar to the old and young alike. The idea is to contrast the tragedy with a universal collection of versatile and comfortable clothing. Offering a diverse selection from couture sophisticated feminine tops, Romeo and Juliet Couture also sends a positive message of love and tolerance.

How To Promote eBay’s Fashion Vault
You will be able to promote this exciting flash sale in several ways:

• Dynamic Banners in sizes 160×600, 300×250 and 728×90. These banners will be updated to reflect the Romeo & Juliet Couture sale on Monday, April 5th.
• You can access the Fashion Vault XML Feed.
• Use the Link Generator Tool with the Custom URL or Item ID options to link directly to sale items.

Happy Promoting!
The eBay Partner Network Team