Steve Wilson has found that bargain hunters can be big winners with eBay’s new Quality Click Pricing model. Steve runs a number of web sites, including specialized eBay search sites www.localbargainfinder.co.uk and www.localbargainfinder.info (USA). He initially jumped into affiliate marketing a few years ago to monetize his ecommerce forum. Most of his sites are content-based, promoting niche products such as electronics, toys and animal care. The sites attract about 4,000 unique visitors per day – half of which are repeat visits from saved bookmarks.
Steve developed his sites using in-depth affiliate tools, weaving the content around them. “My goal is to make the sites appear less like adverts or billboards for a specific product, and to be more interactive for the visitor,” he says. Having been an eBay seller, Steve focused most of his affiliate efforts on eBay Partner Network. He test-drove Quality Click Pricing on one of his more prominent sites, www.localbargainfinder.co.uk. The site tracks down low cost but high value items in the visitor’s area.
Steve says eBay’s CPA model worked for him, but because his visitors purchased low cost items, the revenue share didn’t reflect the quality of traffic he sent to eBay. His highly engaged visitors went on to spend more time browsing items and categories, and regularly came back to check for new bargains.
With Quality Click Pricing, things changed. It became clear to Steve that he wasn’t only being paid for transactions, but he was also being compensated for how targeted and engaged the traffic was that he was sending to eBay. This encouraged him to focus on making his site pull up a broad range of freshly changing items, and ensuring that his visitors kept coming back to check for more bargains. Tweaks to a few search parameters and display options made the site easier for viewers to use and more likely that they found something of interest to bid on or purchase. Steve also worked on bringing in new traffic, knowing he had a high ratio of repeat visitors who would continue to visit and spend money with eBay.
“As long as my site continues to deliver fresh and varied yet targeted results, I will maintain a good level of consistent and regular customers,” says Steve. “Rather than target for short term gains, I can focus on strengthening the ratio of repeat visits to maintain a high quality score for the long term success of both myself and eBay.” Steve appreciates the more consistent earnings and finds the new reporting more conducive to analyzing reports and statistics. Earnings are reconciled quickly, with very little or no retrospective corrections prior to payment release, both in comparison with the previous method and compared with other affiliate providers, he says.
For Steve, the new system has been a real positive, from the simplified structure to the consistent results and higher rewards. His success with QCP shows that quality counts, and that it doesn’t take big-ticket sales to be a top earner with eBay.
