eBay PartnerNetwork Blog
New Features Coming May 1st to eBay Partner Network
April 22nd, 2009
We’re excited to announce the newest feature and tool release for eBay Partner Network. On May 1st we’ll be launching several new upgrades to the platform.
New functionality for Link Generator Tool. With this update you will have more options for eBay search results links and the ability to link directly to an eBay store. Half.com ISBN, UPC, and MPN links will now also support alphanumeric MPN codes. In addition, we’ve been conducting some landing page optimization tests on eBay to figure out which pages convert the best for which links. Early results show this type of optimization could help improve conversions and therefore affiliate payouts. Although landing page optimization functionality is not scheduled to be released until later this year, this updated Link Generator tool launched on May 1st will enable us to introduce automated landing page optimization as an option to affiliates when it is ready.
Note that these changes will not affect existing Link Generator links, only links created after 5/1.
Ability to link your eBay.com account with your eBay Partner Network account. We want to make sure we’re doing the best job we can in communicating with you. Linking your accounts will enable us to better advise and answer your questions. In addition, we may do special eBay Partner Network promotions for eBay PowerSellers from time to time. For new partners, in order to link your accounts, you will be prompted in the registration process to go to the eBay sign-in page and enter your eBay ID and password. Upon completion you will then be taken back to the eBay Partner Network site. Current partners should log-in to your eBay Partner Network account and go to the “Account Info” tab. Once in the “Account Info” section, click “Link your user account?” to enter your eBay ID and password to successfully link your accounts. For future reference, you will be able to access this information under the “Account Info” tab in the eBay Partner Network interface.
New way to calculate Earnings Per Click (EPC). There is an important change coming to the EPC data in your reporting on May 1st. EPC (earnings per click) will be calculated as earnings per EACH (ONE) click versus earnings per 100 clicks. We’re doing this in response to publisher feedback as it was causing some confusion in reporting. YOUR EPC WILL THEREFORE LOOK LIKE IT HAS BEEN DIVIDED BY 100 VS WHAT YOU ARE USED TO. Keep this in mind when reading through your reports going forward.
New business model descriptions. When you log-in to your eBay Partner Network account on May 1st you will be asked to update the business model description for your business. All publishers must choose their business model(s) here, your old selections will not be carried through. You will have the ability to select multiple business models if appropriate. Please note that per our terms and conditions, some business models like downloadable software, incentives, and e-mail may require additional review by the eBay Partner Network team if not already specifically approved.
At eBay Partner Network, we are continually working to improve your experience and partnership with us.
Thank you for your continued support.
The eBay Partner Network Team
April 29th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Generally these changes seem pretty good, but I have some questions.
The post states, “Linking your accounts will enable us to better advise and answer your questions.”
How so? Can you give some specifics?
I have made sure to use different passwords for my eBay and ePN accounts primarily for security reasons — if one account is violated, the thief wouldn’t automatically have access to the password for the other account. If the accounts are linked, how would I be protected from this type of situation? Since the new feature isn’t yet in place (if it is, I haven’t been able to find it in the account section), we can’t see how it looks when we login to our accounts.
Also, if eBay and ePN accounts are linked, what guarantee would we have that an issue a user has with eBay on one side won’t affect the other side? For example, if an eBay member is NARU’d by eBay, how do we know that that action won’t affect that person’s ePN status?
Will ePN be updating its various affiliate policies to reflect these changes?
“In addition, we may do special eBay Partner Network promotions for eBay PowerSellers from time to time. ”
Could you give an example?
Last but not least, could you add “preview” functionality to Comments so we can review our posts before we hit the submit button?
Thank you.
April 29th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
One more thing – the font size in the comment box is w-a-a-a-y too small. That’s also true for the comments once posted – I’m looking at what I just wrote. Thanks.
April 29th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Hi Sallie,
Logins and passwords for eBay and eBay Partner Network will not become one, they will remain separate. Linked eBay accounts and eBay Partner Network accounts will also operate independently of each other, so as long as a user is not blatantly abusing and violating T&Cs on either side, I would not worry. As far as special promotions for ePN and eBay Power Sellers, stay tuned, we’re working it
Thanks also for your thoughts on the blog comments font and functionality, we’re addressing that soon as well.
-Mike / eBay Partner Network
April 30th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Thank you for the explanation.
I am not the only one looking for increased font size!
May 1st, 2009 at 1:34 am
This will be a great update, I’ve been looking forward to seeing these new features for months!
It would be much better if you allow publishers earn from clicks too, just like Shopzilla. Hope you will consider my suggestion.
May 1st, 2009 at 2:57 am
With these and all upcoming changes what is EPNs official stance on websites that offer impression sharing programs suchas hubpages….
Ie .. an author inputs their Epn ID and the ads with their code are shown a certain % of the time
May 1st, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Any chance, with the the linking of the accounts, we can get functionality similar to amazon’s associate program? They have the ability to, with one click, create an affiliate link to any page on the site. they have a bar that runs across the top of Amazon when you’re logged in and one of the affiliate options is to “create a link to this page”
75% of the links I create with the partner network are to individual, collectible items, so having that would greatly increase my efficiency building out content.
And, yes, the font is way to small.
May 2nd, 2009 at 7:58 pm
It would be nice if we could have buttons on the regular Ebay interface to create links for searches, products and stores as we are searching normally through EBay. Is that where this is going?
May 3rd, 2009 at 7:44 pm
Hi there – I was very happy with the previous link tool and how it used to provide a single url that I could then plug in to my website.
Last night when I used the tool for an “item#” it brings back lengthy snippets of JAVA/HTML code for a simple link.
Can someone please explain what is in these snippets, why are they so long? It’s complete code bloat.
What I did was just left the LINK TEXT box EMPTY and then used the shorter url that appears next to “preview” – is this sufficient?
Thank you.
May 4th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Agreed, Jimmy.
I too use ( and need) a single URL for most of the links I post, not the new-fangled Java/html nonsense: many forums ban such links. Please ebay, retain that basic facility as an option.
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it…”
Alan
May 5th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
I need single url for the links I post too, any chance we can have them back please?.
May 7th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
I agree with Mark and Alan! I was very comfortable with the old way of creating a link out of a single url. Help!!!
May 17th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
Thanks, I enjoyed reading your post. It