*
<—— A quick reminder to Retweet if you enjoy the post … Thanks!
As you may or may not have heard, EPN (eBay’s affiliate program) has recently changed the way they pay their affiliates and most people I know have not been too happy about the changes. Although some affiliates are making more money on this new payout the vast majority are not. Not only that, people are concerned that they can’t seem to pinpoint exactly how we’re paid so that’s a bit of a concern.
My earnings from September were $528.06 and my earnings for October were a mere $298.38.
I’ve finally set out to do some maintenance on my niche stores. I’ve been slacking and I’m ready to get back into the niche store “game” and I’m willing to put in the time and energy to get the stores performing and possibly add some more stores.
I’ve written out each store I have now (there are five) and I’m in the process of evaluating their status: what I need to update/fix, what promoting would work best, and I’m trying to get an overall feeling for how each store is performing and what I could do to each to make it perform better.
I’m looking to make sure all software is updated and running the latest version (including BANS, WP, WP plugins, etc.) and I’m adding some plugins to each as well (there are various plugins designed for adding affiliate products to a WP blog). For instance, on my first three BANS stores (Build a Niche Store) I used a free theme designed for BANS stores but these stores don’t have blogs on them. I don’t want to redo the entire stores and lose my search engine positioning and/or backlinks so I’ve decided to add WordPress blogs to the “backend” of them (installed in a subfolder). The other two stores were built on a theme that was designed specifically for BANS but it’s a WP theme that integrates the BANS store on the blog. I’m upgrading everything and I’m also planning on updating the “look and feel” of some of them too. It’s also a good idea to go through each store page and make sure everything is in working order. If eBay changes a category number it can destroy your site and if you’re not monitoring the sites and/or stats you won’t know about it.
Once I have these five stores under control and performing smoothly I’ll be adding a handful of stores. I’m still deciding if I’ll be using a BANS format or if I’ll use a WordPress blog with some of the various plugins available for pulling affiliate products into the site.
My favorites are: phpBay and ReviewAzon ( and you can even integrate the two by using ReviewAzon) and I’m also beta testing two more affiliate plugins so I’ll have more information on those too.
So, although my store earnings are down with the new payment methods I still plan on working hard on my sites and hope to up my income by remaining flexible and adding some other affiliate product sources too. I’ve written before about how important it is to diversify! I’ll be looking at some other options (besides eBay) and I’ll keep you posted here on the blog as to what I find, what I try and how it works out.
Do you have any niche sites? What tools do you use and which are your favorites? Have you wanted to get started with some niche sites but don’t know where to start? Let us hear from you! *SmiLes* Suzanne
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20 Comments
Luca Di Nicola
on 30th Nov, 09 05:11pm
Hi Suzanne,
I finally signed up for the eBay Partner program on November 25th but still waiting for their confirmation email. How long does it normally take to get approved. Once approved I’ll look into the Niche stores you’re talking about.
Thanks,
Luca
Luca Di Nicola´s last blog ..How To Increase Blog Traffic By Using A Twitter Retweet Plugin
Suzanne
on 30th Nov, 09 05:11pm
Hi Luca ~ Truthfully I have no idea how long it’s taking these days. I hope you get approved first shot. Are you an affiliate for Amazon too? I just applied for shopping.com too so I can get going with the other new plugin that’s coming out (comparison shopping – should be hOt! Let me know what I can do to help (other than know what eBay will do – they’re a mystery LOL). *huGs*
Learn Creative Visualization
on 1st Dec, 09 07:12am
Hi. I am happy that you decided to move to YouTube. Now the video runs ok.
Despite the fact my http://www.say-web.com site has PR3 and scores sales with CJ and others, EBay DECLINED my application. I am also using Amazon for some items I recommend, but could take long to fetch $100 at 4% a sale. Do you have any suggestion?
Learn Creative Visualization´s last blog ..Creative Visualization Works Only for Good
Suzanne
on 1st Dec, 09 10:12am
I try to put videos that are under 10 mins on YouTube … so I’m having problems with the longer instructional videos (or for instance the video of Gary Vee – was an hour) so those I want to self-host.
As for eBay they are hard to figure out as to what they are looking for in a site for approval. I’d suggest either re-applying and writing in and giving a human touch to it by explaining that you are interested in marketing their site and products … or … if you have a site that has a lot of content without any (or not many) other affiliate links in it you can try that.
I know others who were turned down and kept trying and they finally got approved.
Sorry that happened and keep us posted.
Amazon … I haven’t put much time or energy into Amazon but now that I finally see that I am making sales through them I will be putting a lot more into them. I love the plugin I mentioned in the post … it makes it sooooo easy to add Amazon products to my blogs and gives me great content too.
Let me know how I can help. *SmiLes*
Learn Creative Visualization
on 1st Dec, 09 08:12am
BTW, you can use the tag to place the player in the center of the column….
Learn Creative Visualization´s last blog ..Creative Visualization Works Only for Good
Suzanne
on 1st Dec, 09 10:12am
Someone else mentioned this I believe … so does that mean that you’d prefer it centered? LOL
Greg Ellison
on 2nd Dec, 09 09:12pm
You can also use service that will send your video to all video services that you want. I love the way vimeo looks compared to YouTube. I would still send the video to YouTube because how many people are there.Your earnings are is awesome. Keep up the great work. Greg Ellison
Greg Ellison´s last blog ..Here are other people’s income reports or blog recaps
Suzanne
on 7th Dec, 09 06:12am
Hi Greg ~ Yes, I’ve used TubeMogul in the past, as well as, Traffic Geyser. I’ll be doing some research this week or next to see which one I’ll be using again. I agree YouTube is a must … I don’t use the site to its fullest but it’s on my list of things to start doing (the list is long LOL). Thanks for your encouragement … so far my earnings are back on track for this month … can’t keep up with eBay (EPN) … *sigh* … they are something! *huGs* Suzanne
P.S. Thanks again for the mention on your blog …
Sire
on 7th Dec, 09 12:12am
I used to post some eBay affiliate links, using their banners, but never had much luck. What’s involved in setting up a store?
Sire´s last blog ..Comments, The Lifeblood Of A Blog
Suzanne
on 7th Dec, 09 06:12am
Sire ~ the thing I’ve found with eBay/EPN is that throwing up a few links/banners has never worked for me at all. These stores are designed so that you have multiple auctions listed for each keyword phrase and all of the titles of the auctions are using that keyword phrase so I do well with the longtail keyword phrases and it brings in the traffic. With eBay payout a bit wonky I’m also integrating Amazon so the eBay links drive the traffic and we’ll see how the Amazon converts. I am also considering adding some AdSense … so eBay auctions can drive the traffic and I might/will monetize in other ways for now. Thanks for the links regarding learning more about AdSense … I’ll be looking them over today. *huGs*
Sire
on 7th Dec, 09 03:12pm
That’s cool about the links. We blogger have to help each other out. Keep the *huGs* coming
Do you have a more comprehensive post about the stores and setting them up?
Sire´s last blog ..The New FTC Guidelines, How Fair Is It?
Tony Tovar
on 8th Dec, 09 11:12am
Hey Suzanne,
So I’ve just started Ovation the first of this month, can you believe I’m up .78 cents for 7 days? Thats 10 cents a day lol. Anyways, Its just the start. I’m actually seeing some fruit and that is what counts. I’m going to be starting a new niche site soon. Hehe, you might love this one when I tell you about it later. Lol, people buy the weirdest things online i tell ya.
I’m going to post about how I started this particular “O” site, the preparation etc. Just so I dont forget lol.
Anyways, just wanted to grace you with my little good news!
Respectfully,
Tony Tovar
Tony Tovar´s last blog ..Increase Pagerank | Does It Matter?
Suzanne
on 9th Dec, 09 05:12pm
Great news on getting the site going! I think it will do really well. You’re getting traffic so that’s huge. Keep me posted. My EPN numbers are higher for the first week of the month then they were for the whole month last month *sigh* I just can’t figure them out. Hopefully I’ll start to make some Amazon money here soon. LOL
George Serradinho
on 9th Dec, 09 11:12am
Hi,
i applied for BANS and was rejected, I think it’s because I’m in South Africa. Would of loved to get accepted as so many users say good things about it. I just have my blog and my pixel site (free pixels). I want to start diversifying my income and increase it to $1000 a month. That might not be much to some, but it will help me pay off some bills and maybe send me on a decent holiday.
Will look at phpBay Pro and ReviewAZON now, thanks for mentioning them.
BTW, thanks for stopping by my blog
Suzanne
on 9th Dec, 09 05:12pm
George ~ Love your site! I think you mean you applied for EPN (eBay affiliate program) but if not please explain this further. Are you an affiliate for Amazon? You must be an affiliate for Amazon for the ReviewAzon plugin and an affiliate for eBay for the phpBay plugin. EPN (eBay) is hard to get approved for these days but I’d keep trying. Submit a site with a lot of good/great content and that’s aged if possible. If you’re turned down use the process they have to appeal it and ask what you can do to get approved. Let me know if I can help k? *huGs*
Suzanne ´s last blog ..Winner of the Signed Book, “Crush It”
Personal Massager
on 9th Dec, 09 10:12pm
I haven’t tried applying to EPN. I heard they reject people easily. And i can see that in the comment to George. I also heard that you have to reapply like twice before you should get any hope of getting approved. That sucks.
Personal Massager´s last blog ..Reviews: Benefits of A Personal Massager
Suzanne
on 4th Jan, 10 12:01pm
Yes, it does suck … but it’s worth it! LOL
Make Moeny
on 27th Dec, 09 05:12am
I think niche and keyword are the most impotant thing if you want to make money online. By the way, I have applied epn but i was denied!! I think the reason is my website is too simple!
Make Moeny´s last blog ..Money Making Website – Setup your own affiliate website in next 2 minutes
Suzanne
on 4th Jan, 10 12:01pm
I’m sorry to hear you were denied … I would make sure you have a ton of content on there and I would reapply.
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