If you really are still wondering not only how to make money on eBay but also what you an sell on eBay then welcome to the new slant of looking at eBay.
You see, the thing is, the eBay affiliate program is so overlooked by the masses of people who are trying make money online and also by the people who are ‘meant’ to be teaching people how to make money online that it is wide open to anyone who wants to take a slice of the pie.
We’re not going to get hyped about anything in this post, OK. We’ll keep a clear head and our feet on the ground but get ready to catch your chin to stop it hitting the floor when you see some of the figures we’ll be talking about which can you verified by eBay!
Ok, so the eBay affiliate program allows you to promote ANY item, by ANY seller, and in return for you sending peope to that item or items, eBay will pay you a percentage of the profits that they make when one of your visitors buys or bids on the item yo promoted.
Confused? Don’t be…
Simple terms;
- you find an item on eBay
- you use one of the eBay affiliate tools to create your affiliate link that takes people directly to that item on eBay
- you promote that link
- someone clicks on that link and goes to the item on eBay
- that person either places a bid on the item or buys it using the ‘Buy It Now’ option
- eBay pays you a percentage of the Final Sale Fees that they charge to the seller.
Yep, it’s just simple affiliate marketing that is no different to any other affiliate program with how it basically works. You help eBay make money and eBay pays you a percentage of it - so the more money you help eBay to make, the more money they will pay you.
Now eBay does have a number of tools that they provide to help you promote eBay and help you make more money and they do work. I used them for years and they work well. Sometime early this year I was approached by a company that had just launched a new product that automated much of what I had been doing when promoting eBay as an affiliate.
Now, I gotta level with you here, when I first heard about this product I very nearly ignored it because I thought it was gonna produce some automated, spam site that the search engines hate and never earn you any money at all.
Anyway, everything deserves a look so I ran with it to test it out and review it for the product owner.
Have you ever tasted humble pie? I had mine with cream 
It just som turned out that the new product was the best darn thing to happen to the eBay affiliate program - PERIOD - and it still is today and for a very good reason…
It works!! and it works very well too. You see, I used to have to spend hours trying to put together a mini site (using the eBay affiliate tools from eBay) that displayed items on eBay which were linked to my eBay affiliate ID.
It wasn’t that hard to do but it did take some time and a little practice but then along came “Build A Niche Store” and suddenly I could make a much better looking site in around 4 minutes flat!! And since the product (now simply called “BANS”) was first introduced, it has been improved and offers so many features that I simply don’t use the tools that eBay provides for it’s affiliates.
Yeah, sure they still work but BANS does everything they do, and it does it better and quicker too. The more stores you build in various niches then the more money you can make
I highly recommend that you take a very serious look at the eBay affiliate program as a way of making money online - trust me, with eBay, it’s easy to do it this way. When you’ve decided that this is for you, make sure you drop by and take a look at the BANS software that I have been using to build my niche eBay stores for the past 8 months.
This is something that you won’t regret.
Michael
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Posted by michael on Friday, February 2nd, 2007 at 11:59 pm.
I just wrote a little note about how to dynamically create eBay category urls… could be useful for those who are keen to create eBay stores. Really love this post evangelizing the eBay affiliate program
keep it up!
Left by Alex Schultz on February 4th, 2007
I’ve been trying to watch your review and installation videos and they do not load for me. Any idea why I ‘m having this problem?Ordinarily I have no problems viewing Camtasia videos. I’m thinking of buying BANS via your link but would like to see your videos first. Thank-you for your help.
Left by Rita Scott on February 5th, 2007
Hi Rita,
Thank you for your question. I have sent you an email directly asking what the exact prblem is. If anyone else has the same problem then please leave a comment here so I can correct anything that’s wrong.
Thanks,
Michael Sherriff
Left by michael on February 5th, 2007
Hi Michael;
I’m not a computer genius but I do have a question.
I receive a lot of nesletters having to do with eBay.
The problem is that I’m only connected by phone line so it is so slow to load camtasia videos that some cases, it takes up to 1 1/2 hours or more to download. Even then, it may not work properly.
Is there any other way I can watch these videos without the system load times? Any suggestions greatly appreciated.
Best Regards,
Left by Don on February 5th, 2007
Almost all newsletters, ezines, email, etc, now contain videos that cannot be downloaded with a dialup modem system. Even when purchasing a system it includes video courses that cannot be accessed with a dialup ISP. (Files are cleaned up daily for maximum resources.)
Fifty-eight percent of all computers in the U.S. are on dialup ISP’s.
You’d think with todays technology someone could solve this problem.
After about 10 to 15 minutes a skin comes up stating my system is too slow to continue downloading the video and will shut down. Then it freezes and I have to manually cut the computer off and reboot.
Is there anyway possible the videos could be pre-downloaded so they only had to be opened and played for us slowpokes? I have received a few videos through email where all I had to do was click on it and it played immediately?
I live two blocks outside the area of obtaining DSL and can’t afford the additional $600 plus for Broadband.
Any ideas?
Pat
Left by Patrick Bateman on February 8th, 2007
Hi Michael;
Bit off topic but hey, what the bleep. (I’ve followed your link and signed up BANS, hopefully it will pay for itself before too long, it does look super cool.)
My question is to do with CJ and the eBay affiliate prog. I’ve tried signing up with CJ using the domain I have registered. There’s nothing on that site so far except for a logo. Does it need to be live as I’ve heard nothing from CJ and it’s been over two days now??
Many thanks for all the eBooks you’ve switched me on to - it’s reassuring when you find someone touting this kit who you can trust (based on experience of course
Austin.
Left by Austin Delaney on February 8th, 2007
Hi Austin,
When you applied to join the eBay affiliate program via CJ, you should have been notified straight away if you had been accepted or declined.
Log in to your CJ account and search for advertisers that you have a relationship with. If eBay is returned in the search results then it means you will have been accepted by them.
If they are not in your list of advertisers that you already have a releationship with then you can email eBay adn ask them to look in to it for you. Details of exactly how to do this are in the Build a Niche Store user manual in the section of signing up as an eBay affiliate.
Let me know how you get on Austin.
Michael Sherriff
Left by michael on February 13th, 2007
Hi Pat and Don,
Thank you both for your comments about the videos being slow to load via dial up. I am making the videos again and taking in to account for dial up users.
This will probably mean making the vidoes in sections so that they load faster. I will let you know as soon as these videos are ready.
Michael Sherriff
Left by michael on February 13th, 2007
One question, Michael.
Is EAB a part of Auction Affiliate Secrets 2?
Left by Jopi on February 15th, 2007
Nice video. I have a sort of diary at my site about my experiences with Build A Niche. I also post my earnings every month.
Left by DayJobNuker on August 11th, 2007
That’s a great artcle, really loved it!!. Purchased BANS last week and I am on my way to build my 1st niche website. exciting!!..I am from australia and i have couple of questions. Hope you would able to help me.
1 Being in australia, can i also make an ebay minisite for eBay UK niche?
2 if i want to choose the website name for my australian website, can i use keyword “australia” in the website name with .COM extension or would it be useful to have .COM.AU extension and other niche keywords in website name? what is better to attract traffic?
Left by Sarah on September 19th, 2007
Hi Sarah,
Well done for purchasing BANS. Keep with it, it’s one of the easiest ways you’ll ever find to making money with an affiliate program
With regards to your first question, it does not matter where you live in the world, you can join the each country specific eBay affiliate program. You cab do this easily through your CJ account and in the same way that you joined the eBay affiliate program to begin with.
Simply log in to your CJ account, search for eBay when looking for programs to promote and then apply to each eBay country specific affiliate program.
To answer your second question, it would depend of a number of factors. If the items in your eBay store are items which are shipped, would you be better to only advertise these items within Australia (i.e: To Australian eBay users).
If the items in your eBay store are also available in the UK eBay site then I would very much recommend that you use a .com.au domain to show the search engines your site is an Australian site.
This will benefit you when it comes to your site being ranked by the search engines. Showing that your site is an Australian registered site will allow the search engines to show your site as more relevant with Australian web users search the internet.
Google is very big on relevance with search results and will give your site a higher ranking over a site that I had (for example) if mine had a .co.uk domain and our sites where on the same topic.
Does that make sense?
You could use the word australia in your domain and a .com extension but I cannot confirm if this would be beneficial to you or not and again, this would depend on a number of factors, including the items in your store and if the are only available from the Australian eBay site.
If it was me, I would use keywords specific to the niche in the domain and use a country extension to assist the search engines in figuring out that my site is country specific.
Remember, the word niche means just that. If you have a store selling items that are available worldwide then you will want to concentrate on getting your store in front to of Australian eyeballs as those visitors would be happier to buy an item on the Australian eBay site than they would the USA site simply due to the lower shipping costs.
Sarah if I’ve missed anything out here be sure to let me know. I’m only too happy to help.
Michael
Left by michael on September 19th, 2007
Hi Michael,
I am not able to watch any videos on the link you mentioned above. I have purchased BANS and starting out to build my niche store. I would require information/videos you created about BANS. Could you pls send me at my email id?
Appreciate your help,
Ronak
Left by Ronak on September 20th, 2007
What I like is that the updates are free. This is good. A lot changed with the eBay affiliate program recently and the updates for BANS have been essential. Like the above comment says, it is addictive.
Left by J Sommers on July 14th, 2008
Really like Bans Michael. Had the program a while and busy building niche eBay stores. It is very addictive
Left by Rachel on July 14th, 2008
Michael, can I use BANS if I live outside of the USA?
Thanks
Will
Left by Will on July 14th, 2008
Hi Will,
The Bans program can be used in every country where eBay has an affiliate program. If you check the eBay Partner Program page, it will state all of the countries that the program covers. And if the eBay Partner Program exists in a country then you can be sure that BANS can be used there too
Michael
Left by michael on July 14th, 2008
I got a copy of bans and yeah it is a good program. Spent the time working with it and it paid off. It prob one of the better prods I bought. Check out their forum for customers.
Left by Chris Moore on July 15th, 2008
I purchased BANS when it first came out and have been impressed by the updates which ment that $97 investment has proved to be a wise one. Micheal, thanks for recommending BANS.
Lisa x
Left by Lisa on July 20th, 2008
I got a copy of bans and yeah it is a good program.
http://www.openshoponline.com
http://www.anyshopnow.com
Left by ndesigns on July 24th, 2008
http://www.jewelstorm.org
I just started using BANS and love it. I really have not had much success with affiliate marketing outside of eBay. So BANS fits me perfect.
I am kind of shocked though that people think they can just throw a site up and have it make money. Like everything else, content is king. BANS sites are no different. Content, content, content.
Left by yut on July 24th, 2008