This is the second of two episodes where Chad speaks with Will Martin-Gill, former head of the eBay Partner Network. In this episode, Will and Chad dive deeper into the reasons behind Quality Click Pricing.

Chatting with EPN: Episode 3 from eBay Partner Network TV on Vimeo.

The eBay Partner Network Team

Of course, there are the basics that every student needs to succeed, such as pencils, pens, notebooks and markers. But the older students can’t survive without a laptop and a printer to help them write all those pesky term papers. And because all students need a way to safely transport their homework assignments from home to class, boys’ and girls’ bags and backpacks are hot sellers right now.

Choosing an outfit for the first day back to school is almost as important as figuring out where to sit in the lunchroom. Parents are searching eBay for clothing by popular retailers and designers like Gap, Ralph Lauren, Gymboree, Abercrombie & Fitch and Justice to make sure their little learners are dressed for success.

Parents aren’t the only ones turning to eBay for great deals; teachers are searching the site to simplify their supply shopping while stretching their paycheck further. Teaching supplies and resources are a hot category, with elementary educators looking for math, reading and phonics items and wholesale and bulk lots of books.

Textbook sales are beginning to pick up with the college crowd. Savvy students know the bookstore isn’t the only place to find the items on the professor’s required reading list. And it’s not just economics students who are scouring half.com and eBay for textbooks – biology, chemistry, physics and anatomy students are searching the site for their educational tomes.

As the temperatures begin to cool, searches and sales on these items will begin to heat up. Don’t forget that you can use the Link Generator Tool to promote these popular search terms and lead your readers directly to the search results. By linking to some of these categories on your site, we hope you’ll not only earn an A+ for effort, but hopefully some additional revenue!

And to help with your promotions half.com has two great coupon codes available:

Coupon code: HALF2010BTS10PERC

• Provides 10% off purchases between $100 and $200
• Max discount of $20
• Valid from 7/20/2010 to 9/30/2010
• Valid only for Books
• Valid for only New Users
• Can be used only once

Coupon code: TAKE5OFFBOOKS10

• Provides $5 off $50 and above
• Max discount of $5
• Valid till 1/3/2011
• Valid only for Books
• Valid for only New Users
• Can be used only once

Good luck with your Back to School Promotions!

eBay Partner Network Team

Custom Banner Enhancements


We have expanded Custom Banner capabilities to better meet your needs. Here are the new features that will be available soon:

• Custom Banner will continue to offer Flash integration but will now provide new HTML templates with the following options:




• Show the badges for Top-Rated Seller, Free Shipping, PayPal, Buy It Now
• The image-and-text format you are used to will be available but we will also introduce a text-only version
• Contextual targeting available for eBay DE, eBay AT, and eBay CH programs.
• Ability to filter for Free Shipping and Top-Rated Seller.
• Multiple keyword and category search: you can now search across several keywords and eBay categories, or select the “Use Popular Search” option.
• Store custom themes: once you’ve chosen the ideal color and font for your Custom Banner you’ll be able to save them and reuse in future banners.
• Improved performance for a quicker display of the Flash version of Custom Banner.

Enhancements to your reports

• A new EPC Download Report: The EPC Download Report allows all publishers who are on Quality Click Pricing to download their daily EPC at a campaign level for each program. This report will only include information for campaigns that had click activity for the date(s) selected.
• Transaction Download Report: The format of the transaction download report will not change, but we will modify how we populate two columns. For eBay programs, the “eBay Quantity Sold”, and “eBay Total Sale Amount” columns will be blank when an adjustment is being reported to a transaction. These columns will not be impacted when the transaction is included in the transaction download report for the first time.

We continue to listen to your suggestions and enhance eBay Partner Network, the tools at your disposal, and the reports so as to give you the best possible conditions to promote eBay. Please continue to give us your opinion.

The eBay Partner Network Team

In this videocast Chad talks with his predecessor, Will Martin-Gill, about topics such as what it’s like to work within eBay Partner Network, his advice for our partners and also parting advice for Chad in his new role.

Thank you for your commitment to eBay Partner Network and best wishes in your new position, Will!

The eBay Partner Network Team

We’ve decided to try a new form of communication with you, our affiliate partners – video. This is the first in a series of videocasts we’ll be releasing over the next few weeks, to give you a chance to get to know the team here at eBay Partner Network. We’ll be discussing what’s happening here at eBay, what it’s like to work for ePN, industry trends and other things that pop up along the way. We’ll also be giving you a chance to help us shape future content. We’d love to hear your thoughts along the way (constructive, please!) so that we can improve on this as we go. And, of course, we hope you enjoy them as much as we’ve been enjoying working on them.

By the way, the case study I reference in this video can be downloaded here: http://bit.ly/cgVami

Thanks and enjoy!
Chad

• Make sure your visitors know about eBay’s Buyer Protection. When buyers know that eBay will covers their purchase price, including original shipping costs, in the event that they do not receive their item, or it is not as described, they will feel more confident in making their purchase.




• Inform your customers about the positive features of using PayPal as a payment option for eBay products. In addition to the buyer protection plan, PayPal offers a safe environment to pay either by credit card or direct from your bank account, making secure payments convenient to all buyers.




• When promoting items from a particular seller, you can display reviews from previous buyers to build trust in that seller’s store.




• There are many ways in which you can include Tim’s “Objective Numbers” when it comes to eBay. Here are a few examples:
  
  
  
  
  • As of Q1 2010, eBay has 90 million active users worldwide.
  • In 2009, the total worth of goods sold on eBay was $60 billion — $2,000 every second.
  • You can find other statistics on trends and hot items on eBay Pulse or through Terapeak (subscription required).

Applying these tactics, along with eBay’s everyday low prices, will help you to achieve success and grow your revenue!

To your continued success,
The eBay Partner Network Team

How would this information help me to optimize my site?

Tapping in to your visitor stats can have a tremendous impact on your conversion rates and your revenue. Here are a few examples:

• You may learn that you are getting the majority of your traffic from a particular search engine and that this traffic is very engaged. You may want to consider testing out PPC campaigns on that search engine, if you aren’t already doing so. You may also find that consumers viewing certain types of niche sites are clicking through to your site, which might alert you to further advertising opportunities on similar sites.




• The ability to follow your visitors on your site to see which pages they are viewing may allow you to pinpoint patterns. You could learn that some pages on your site are not as relevant to your viewers, and you might build additional pages with content related to the pages that they are lingering on and develop subjects that your readers are interested in.




• Knowing where your visitors leave your site is crucial. Are they leaving on the home page without looking any further? Are you discovering that the majority of your traffic exits once they reach a certain page? These insights allow you to optimize pages that may be performing poorly.

Diving in a little deeper and looking at demographic stats about your traffic can prove very useful as well. When you put the right message in front of your visitor at the right time, your likelihood of getting a conversion increases dramatically. You may find that your audience is comprised of an entirely different gender and age group than you had assumed, which then allows you to update content and even add advertising that will appeal more to your readers. Additionally, this knowledge allows you to create content and target consumers that you may not have been previously.

A/B Split Testing

Ok, you now have analytics in place and you’re learning more about the traffic that is coming to your site. Maybe you’ve implemented a couple of changes, but you’re not sure what the next step is. This is when you should look at running A/B split tests on your landing pages. This could be as simple as the color of your font in headlines. It may be a small change to the structure of the page. It could be changing one image on the page. It should not be an entirely different page where every single thing has changed. Although you could do that, it is best to make smaller changes and test each one so that you understand which things are truly affecting the outcome and use that knowledge to develop other pages.

The key with A/B testing is to have a tool in place to help you to rotate both of the pages with equal impressions so that you can determine which page outperforms the other. You can find both free and paid tools by performing a search for A/B split testing tools in your web browser.

Once you have completed your test and found a winner you can move on to running tests with other elements of your landing pages. Remember, optimization should be a continuous process! Only when you are running these tests, understanding what your viewers like and optimizing on a constant basis can you be sure that you are getting the best results, conversion rates and earnings that you possibly can be.

Understanding your audience so that you can speak to them in a meaningful way can make or break your business. Once you have an idea of who you are targeting, test, test and test some more so that you can be sure that you are giving your readers what they are looking for. Using the simple tools that are available will help you to maximize your profits today.

To your continued success,
The eBay Partner Network Team

CBEACHCAML – Save an additional 10% on all TV’s priced under $2000. $200 maximum discount.

CBEACHCAMH – Save an additional 15% on all TVs priced $2000 and above. $375 maximum discount.

The best part about this deal, is that eBay Partner Network affiliates are given a five day head start, as onsite promotions will not begin until July 6. The main landing page for this promotion is here and will be live on July 1st, 2010. Both of these coupon offers are good from July 1-30, 2010, or while supplies last. PayPal payment method required to redeem the coupon. Please note these coupon codes are only valid on TV purchases made at the Beach Camera eBay store. In order to create eBay Partner Network links to this offer, please use the Link Generator Tool with the custom url or item id options.

- The eBay Partner Network Team

With increased listings for soccer and World Cup during the first two weeks of the games, sellers are capitalizing on the attention brought to the event that only happens once every four years. Memorabilia, clothing and collectibles are hot, along with high-priced tickets to view the matches.

Whether watching the matches live or on television, spectators are no doubt familiar with vuvuzelas, the buzzing South African horns. These instruments weren’t even on our radar a month ago, but listings have skyrocketed since the games began. The same goes for the Adidas Jabulani, the World Cup 2010 Official Match Ball that has been used during all of the games.

With international audiences cheering on their favorite teams, bids and listings for the teams still in the hunt have been increasing as the games play out. Who knows what team will take home the cup, but if the competition was measured by eBay listings, USA and Mexico would be neck and neck, with Argentina and Germany following closely behind. Buyers also seem to have taken an interest in the host country, as items from South Africa – not limited to World Cup memorabilia – have surged since May.

Although defending champ Italy was favored over Slovakia with 6:1 odds, the underdog came out on top, unexpectedly knocking Team Italia out of contention. Italian fans might find a little bit of solace in knowing that their merchandise is much more popular with eBay users, with nearly 25 times as many items listed. However, if Slovakia continues to do well, listings may follow suit.

By keeping an eye on the games and thinking of ways to capitalize on the excitement of the World Cup and other current events, you’ll catch the attention of both current and new website visitors. And by tapping into the buzz, eBay affiliates should be able to score some financial GOOOOOOAAAAAAALS!!!!

The eBay Partner Network Team

1. Platinum SEO Pack automates search engine optimization for WordPress blogs. Some of the features of this plug-in include:
   
   
   • Optimized Post and Page Titles for search engines
   • Generates all SEO relevant META tags automatically
   • Helps you avoid duplicate content
   • Add index, noindex, follow or nofollow, noarchive, nosnippet, noodp, noydir meta tags to any post/page
2. GoCodes is great for affiliate marketers, as it allows you to mask long affiliate program URLs and have those URLs blend in with your site more seamlessly by allowing you to create the URL to look like an extension of your own domain name.




3. Robots Meta is a helpful plug-in that allows you to control which of your pages are indexed.




4. SMS Text Message is an interesting widget that you can incorporate into your WordPress site, which allows your visitors to submit their cell phone number and receive updates and alerts from you via SMS.




5. TestIt is a great tool for those of you A/B split testers. This plug-in allows you to perform tests on variations of posts and then see which post generated more clicks within the WordPress Admin.




6. Google Analyticator makes it possible to utilize Google Analytics without having to implement the actual tracking code to your site. In addition, it also includes widgets that will display data right in the WP Admin.




7. BackType Tweetcount allows your visitors to easily retweet a link to your post without forcing them to authorize the program to access their Twitter account by providing their username and password to do so. This plug-in also shows you how many times your posts are being mentioned in Twitter.




8. WP-Affiliate makes it simple to mask affiliate links and now has the ability to search Commission Junction and track clicks.




9. Insights is a great tool to search, edit and insert links easily into your posts. You can also insert images, videos and more with this plug-in.




10. WordPress.com Stats is a simple way to view and analyze only the stats that really matter to writers. It includes a link in your WP Admin where you can see all of this data on a single page.

As always, if there are WordPress plug-ins that you couldn’t live without, please feel free to leave a comment and share with us what you find to be most useful.

The eBay Partner Network Team