How to Make Money Online with eBay Partner Network

Editor's note: Content updated - October, 2011

An affiliate is someone who refers people to a product or service, and receives a percentage of the profits, or fees, from the sale.

The eBay Partner Network is eBay's affiliate program. It provides you with ways to refer people to almost anything on or about eBay, and pays you an affiliate fee based on the actions of people you send to ebay.

One thing to understand, from the start - ebay wants quality traffic. The ebay Partner Network, (ePN from now on, ok), is a great program, but it is serious about maintaining it's integrity. You must use it honestly, nothing 'sketchy or shady'. They are strict about their rules. This program won't make you a millionaire, but, depending on how much effort you put into it, it will generate a good stream of income for you.

*Note all discussions relate to ebay US, but I will provide links to other nation ebay programs that may have differences

ePN only has two payment methods for independent account holders; **See note

• PayPal
• Direct Deposit to your bank account

So you must have at least one of these to participate in the ePN as an affiliate.

ePN pays monthly, usually by the 25th, and has a minimum $5.00 payout. If your earnings are less, they will carry them over until you have earned at least $5.00.

**New for October 2011 - Hubpages.com,(HP), has formed a partnership agreement with ePN in which you can now get an ePN account through Hubpages.com, (HP). Payments for these accounts will be made through Hubpages, not ePN, PayPal is the only payment choice for these accounts.

To skip ePN independent account registration information, and proceed to sections about how to use, and make money with ePN -and how much you will be paid - click here

• You must be at least 18 years old
• Valid email address
• PayPal or checking account
• Tax number if you are a business, SS# for individuals
• a place to use affiliate links and widgets, (web sites, blog, etc...)

** HP, (Hubpages), accounts have a separate qualification process. See HP's ePN program details

As mentioned, ePN wants to protect it's integrity, and moral perception, so you CANNOT use their affiliate links or widgets in environments that promote:

• Violence, or sexual materials
• counterfeit or fake items
• any type of discrimination
• any illegal activities
• purchase of firearms, alcohol, or tobacco
• gambling or betting
• infringes on the rights of others, both real and intellectual
• promotes medical drugs, ( I think also medicines, but not sure)
• Political content or activities. * This is an 'iffy' one. I'm not sure opinion-type site fall into this category, I think it would really take a blatant in-your-face type of site to get their attention. But... if this is you, you should check deeply to see if your site is allowed.
• Yellow-Journalism type sites that are mostly slanderous and defamatory content

As you can see from the last three entries, ePN is pretty particular about the content they are associated with, and where their traffic comes from..

Ok, hopefully at this point, you have a basic understanding of the 'what is', and the 'do's & don'ts' of the ePN affiliate program.

• what it is
• what it does
• how you get paid
• what you need to become an affiliate
  
• and... what you can't do

The steps to fill out the form to register, explain how to generate affiliate links and widgets, and how to get started, are all handled very professionally by the folks at ePN. They have FAQ's, Vidio tutorials, and 'hold-your-hand' step by step screens to get you rolling, so I won't waste your time 're-inventing the wheel' by going over all those things here. They do it much better, and they're the folks that know. But remember, I will provide you with all the links you need, at the end of this article.

So, except for a couple items, we will skip those things, and get into some examples of how, and where, you can use them to make money.

* But here's a teaser, this link to one of ePN's FAQ's will show you how to zero in on the exact answer you need. (but don't forget to come back here, OK)

When you get to the ePN registration page, most of the form fields are pretty 'cut and dry', like name, address, etc.., But there are a couple that you should think about first.

Some folks have had trouble getting approved, I'm not saying these next fields are the reason why, but I think poor choices here could be less than helpful.

I think the first field to ponder is the "Primary Business Model"

You want to be honest, but you also want to avoid any red flags...

They give you 9 business models to choose from:

*be aware, they say they are not accepting some business models any longer, but they don't tell which ones. We don't know if it's one of the ones they list, or whether they don't list them at all anymore. So maybe a little discretion to be safe.

1. Shopping comparison - probably a safe choice
2. Loyal/Incentive - this one could get extra scrutiny because both ePN, and ebay have lengthy promotion/promotional program restrictions
3. Downloadable software - probably safe
4. Content/Website - probably safe, but also they probably lok at content, just in case
   
5. Coupon Site - probably a safe choice
6. Electronic Communications (email/IM) - this one could get extra scrutiny because both ePN, and ebay have lengthy program restrictions/guidelines in this area
7. Social site/Forum - probably one of the safest choices
8. Merchant/Seller - again probably a safe choice, but they will want to know what you sell
9. Other - you know they will be checking your 'Other" choice

Remember, I am not saying be dishonest, just the opposite, a good relationship benifits both sides. But if you have a choice, I would go for the 'apparently' safer one.

Then they give you the same selections to choose as a secondary business model.

* I skipped it, but same advice goes for the box above the 'Primary Business Model' button where they ask you to describe your business. *If you are not a business, just put 'Individual' in the business name box.

Great news! You received your ePN approval email, so let's go get that affiliate number to use on Hubpages.

*Disapproved? Bummer! But there's a link below for you to try to fix it.

Ok, log into your ePN account. You should be looking at your Dashboard page, like below. If not , you're in the wrong place, get to your 'Dashboard' page.

ePn tracks your affiliate activity by something they call a "Campaign". It's just a name for where or how you are using your affiliate ID. It's for your beneifit because it helps you track your affiliate activity and productivity. For instance; you could create a campaign for your Hubpages, and and another for your Squidoo lens, and and another for your blog, and your web page, and on, and on.

(Here's hoping you will be successful enough to need all those campaigns!)

Anyway, defining a campaign also alows you to see reports tracking it's profitability.

Or, you can be lazy, and just use the "default" campaign # that comes with your account.

Did you notice I said campaign #? That's because each campaign you create, (or the default campaign) gets a 10 digit number when you create it, and... this is the magical number you will enter in your Hubpages affiliate account settings as your ePN affiliate ID.

Ok, so click on the top 'Campaigns' tab, then click 'Create Campaign'

OK, now enter a campaign name. You can use something like Hubpages, or whatever descriptive term means something to you.

* You can only use one affiliate ID on Hubpages. But if you are able to run multiple ebay links on other sites, you can test responses for different promotions by creating new campaigns and just adding a number for the next one, like, 'myblog', and 'myblog1' or whatever else means something to you.

Now, when you click 'Create'... ePN, will generate a 10 digit number, this is your affiliate ID for that campaign.

Grab it and head for your Affiliates Settings screen on your Hubpages account screen

1. Click on 'My Account' on the Hubpages header
2. In the 'My Account' column, choose 'Affiliate settings'
3. 3rd row down is ebay, enter your ePN number in the affiliate code box
4. Done! Now you will be paid twice for any action you get from your Hubpages ebay capsule. Once with your Hubpages 60/40 split, and again from ebay for you ePN affiliate action.

Your affilate ID is set now with Hubpages, you won't have to mess with it again. It will automaticcally be used in any ebay capsules you use. Even on different Hubpages.

The basics:

1. ebay determines the value of the visitors your referrals send to ebay, this is your QCP *this value can and will change throughout the month
2. ebay uses your QCP and the frequency of referrals, (among other factors), to determine your EPC. *this value also can and will change throughout the month
3. At the end of each cycle, (last day of each month), ebay multiplies your final EPC by the total number of clicks you sent, and that's your affiliate payment.
4. An EPC is usually cents, like; .04 (4 cents), or .25 (twenty-five cents), etc... EPC's can go much higher, but typical smaller affiliates have EPC's in the .10 to .45 cents range.

The details:

QCP stands for Quality Click Pricing - ePN uses a formula to determine the quality of the clicks you send to ebay - this is called your QCP. This is what determines the value of what is called your EPC, (earnings per click). The EPC is the final number used to determine how much to pay an affiliate.

Your QCP is determined by many factors, (ePN, like Google, won't reveal the details of their formula), the most important of which is the actions of the people sent by your links that make, or could make, money for ebay:

• Did they buy something
• Did they bid on an auction
• Did they sign-up for a new ebay account.

In simple terms, those are the values used to determine your EPC amount.

Your QCP is also effected by time factors:

• Did they buy something right away with Buy-It-Now
• Did they bid and win a closing auction
• Have they returned after their initial click from your link. (it appears that your referral click will get value credit for a users subsequent ebay activities - as long as they don't return via another affiliates referral)

A negative QCP factor to avoid:

ebay doesn't care for referrals that just look and click away - Lookie-Lous, they want quality money-making traffic. If your referrals send a lot of non-buying traffic that just looks around and leaves, it will lower the value of the clicks, your QCP, which in turn will lower your EPC -reducing the amount you get paid.

There are more factors involved in coming up with a QCP and EPC, but those are the most important, and most controllable factors. And that is why it's so important to pre-sell your visitors, so they are ready to buy when they click your affiliate link.

You started the month with a low EPC of .04, (four cents), and by the 15th of the month you have 200 affiliate clicks that resulted in a lot of buy-it-now sales, several closing-auction wins, several longer auction bids that won, and a couple new ebay account sign-ups, (ACRU's).

All that action had value for ebay, it made them some money, which caused your QCP to to go up, which in-turn made your EPC go up, probably to around .15, (fifteen cents)

Good scenario:

you had similar affiliate referrals the last half of the month and ended with 700 clicks and a .25 EPC. That adds up to a $175 payday for you. (those are real and typical small affiliate numbers, but it is easy to double and triple them with some dedicated effort)

Bad scenario:

the last half of the month you only sent 75 referral clicks, and almost all of them were non-buying Lookie-Lous. Which means ebay will drop your QCP, which also drops your EPC to .03 (three cents). which means your payday now is only $8.25!

• Your EPC dropped lower than what you started with because you sent a rash of non-quality traffic

Several months like that and ePN might drop your account. It's one thing to start small, and build-up in small steps, but it's quite another to have a good start and then crash-and-burn. ebay will see that as a very negative sign.

As you can see, your ebay pay-out can and will vary from day to day. It may look like you are earning a certain amount each day you check your stats, but, you DO NOT accumulate daily earnings amounts that are totaled for an end-of-month payout. Your payout is based on your final EPC.

Again - that's why it is so important to surround you affiliate links with pre-selling and call-to-action content.

The action, (read, money), you get from your Hubpages ebay capsules, or ePN links on other content pages, will be proportional to how you use and promote them.

There are many variations, but really only two basic ways to use your ebay capsules.

1. As a sort of 'sidebar' of a list of products, that are associated with, or compliment, the content of you Hubpage article.

• For instance; if your content is about kid's birthday parties, then your ebay module, (or ePN links), search keywords would be ones that return a variety of kid's birthday party supplies

• or you could write about oil painting, and use search keywords for oil painting supplies, and so on
• you can also be a little more specific, say your article is about baseball memorbilia, and you only wanted authentic autographed items to be displayed, then you just refine your search keywords to more specific item requirements
• with Hubpages ebay capsules you can choose to show 1 - 6 search result items, since this is a sort of 'shotgun' approach to adding ebay items to your content,it is recommended to use the maximum number of listings to give my reader the most results to consider
• you can also choose to show only items from a particular seller, just put the seller's ID in the capsule.

2. As a focused product selection that matches the promotional focus of your content.

• An example of this would be content promoting a particular product. such as, new blue widgets, then you would use search keywords specific to that product only. Your results list may be shorter, (depending on availability) but your action will be more focused for your reader. No extraneous stuff, just the product you are promoting.
• Your content may be on a line of products, say, perhaps, time management practices, it's similar to the single focused product approach above, but not quite so singularly focused. Your search keywords will still be specific to your content, but they will generate a variety of auction items associated with your topic.

Both methods work, it's just up to you to choose the focus of your content and how you want the ebay capsule, or ePN link, results to fit into your game plan.

Below is an example of the maximum listings 'shot-gun' effect products capsule.

Note: Please DO NOT click the example listings unless you are interested in that product.

You can use search operators, like the "-" minus sign, with keywords to exclude types of listing results you do not want in your ebay capsule. You can do alot with the search selections, so be sure to check out the ebay help section in the capsule for more ideas for your search item selections.

VERY IMPORTANT!

Remember, content is King! Both Google and Hubpage's rankings and ratings are based on the content of, and traffic to, your page. A page full of weak or little content, and too many ebay capsules will not get you traffic! People won't come, or stay to read. You must be willing to develop good beneficial content or you are wasting your time!

Think about it, what was your opinion of the last ad farm or link farm page you visited? You probably clicked-off as soon as you got the gist of the page. It had no benefit for you. Well it's the same for the folks you want to entice to read your content.

** An exception to this would be a dedicated sales hub with call-to-action and "buy-type" keywords that is intended for the searcher that is ready to buy, and is just looking for the best price. Sales hubs like this aren't found because their content is so good and unique, they are found because they have the right keywords and have been heavily promoted.

Great! You made it this far. I hope you you are ready to go sign-up to be an ebay affiliate. Here are the links I promised to get you through the process.

Pretty Important! Remember the admonisments about keeping things honest and up-front? The ePN discussion boards are filled with posts from frustrated banned/rejected affiliates. Some deserved to be banned, others did not have a clue why they were banned. Some of the violations are so technical you could be doing it without knowing it, so this is a great place to get an idea what's expected of you, how you can safely use your affiliate links, and what will get you into trouble.

If you are only using your ID in the Hubpages ebay capsule, you will be ok because Hubpages is like-minded to ePN, and they will keep your activity legit, but if you are going to use your affiliate ID in other unregulated settings, then you better be informed about the rules and requirements of ePN or you won't be an affiliate long.

There are some good Hubpages that will help you with ePN too!