In the last three months (February – May), I earned $4,874.26 on the eBay Partner Network (EPN). That’s an average of about $52.98 per day of pure margin SEO income (no media costs attached). Considering I hold a demanding full time job (that I love) and that the time I invest in my eBay Partner Network websites is low (maybe 1 hour/week on average), I couldn’t be more thrilled with the results. Since my prior posts about my EPN earnings have been so popular (Scoring Record EPN Earnings and My EPN Earnings Rock), I thought I’d do another eBay post today to share my success and a few tips so you too can build your own passive income stream while driving substantial user value. When you’re done reading my tips, make sure to check out the screen shot at the bottom of this post that highlights my earnings!
Tip 1: Focus On An Authority Website
My eBay Partner Network Earnings come from one authority website that I started back in 2007. I started this website about a topic I love! Due to my passion, I was able to write hundreds of articles that users love while really sharing my own personality and perspective with my visitors. I consistently get emails from my visitors saying they love my site and I’ve truly helped them. I invested a ton of sweat equity in the early days (mainly 2007-2008), and continue to update my website consistently to this day (although my commitment right now is about 1 hour/week). (Side note: I don’t want to give the illusion that passive income is easy. It takes a ton of up front work, it’s just that I’m now enjoying the passive aspect of my income stream because my EPN operation has matured.)
By focusing on one site, I was able to build a ton of quality traffic within a particular niche, thus having the ability to send eBay lots of qualified visitors. I have found that the large scale approach (when combined with quality) works really well! So, if you’re thinking about going the multi-site route versus the authority site route, I’d highly recommend going with an authority site.
Tip 2: Don’t Go Overboard With Links To eBay
You’d be surprised! I don’t have a ton of links to eBay on my authority website. I almost make my visitors look for them. This is really important. eBay is measuring results (in the form of account sign-ups and also winning bids) and will pay you higher EPCs if you drive higher quality traffic. In fact, they tend to over-reward their highest quality sources of traffic. (Side note: You can learn more about this in my review of eBay’s Quality Click Pricing.) For this very reason, it’s of paramount importance you don’t go overboard and you only send quality traffic. My personal approach has involved extremely long, complex, passionate articles that truly help users with maybe one link to eBay. I could send probably 5 times as much traffic to eBay as I am now, but I don’t want to compromise the quality because then my EPCs would plummet.
Tip 3: Leverage Text Links To eBay
eBay offers a ton of complex ways to link to them. They offer widgets, the ability to embed eBay results right on your website, and all sorts of options. When it comes to SEO, my strategy is one of keeping it very simple. As such, the majority of my eBay links are text links. Of course, I sprinkle in a few widgets too, but those represent the minority of my EPN clicks. My advice is to not overlook the simple, text link strategy because it works really well with Tip 2 (keeping your traffic quality high).
I hope these tips help you out! I’m super thrilled with my eBay results because of the passive income, but more importantly because I’m learning. I’m learning new skills that help my corporate online marketing career while having fun and making some extra income!
Image of my eBay Partner Network Earnings © PPCIan.com
Posted in: Web Publishing | Tags: ebay partner network, EPN | Comments: 26 comments so far, join the discussion!
23 Comments
These are some awesome tips Ian! Personally have been focusing mainly on CPA and other affiliate marketing offers, but should definitely give EPN a chance!
Dino,
Yeah, I’d definitely recommend EPN, it has been really good to me. I’d love to learn more about your specific tips for CPA and your affiliate marketing offers. I could really stand to do better on ClickBank, as an example, but am moving in the right direction!
Thanks so much for the comment, very much appreciate it as always!
All the best,
Ian
Very encouraging article. It IS possible to earn good money from EPN, but people are very sceptical about the program since the whole “Quality Click Pricing” changeover. However, if you get the right niche you can make volume sales at a conversion rate that is just not possible with other programs – save perhaps Amazon, but there is sooo much stuff on eBay that you won’t find on Amazon. Zillions of untapped niches, especially in collectibles, used items etc., and the sales really add up, especially if they are medium-priced, fairly high-volume items.
The authority site approach surely has to be a good model – far too many would-be eBay affiliates just try to knock up quick but very thin EPN sites, stuffing the pages with eBay listings using a plugin. Often the users of my plugin do this, unfortunately, despite my pleas to focus more on content and keep the affiliate links to a minimum. Your success proves less is more, and that quality content DOES keep Google (and the visitors, AND EPN) happy, so well done!
Great post, Ian. I love these types of posts. Everytime I read about your EPN earnings, however, I get frustrated because EPN won’t seem to ever approve my applications. I probably have a dozen or more websites it would work well on, but for some reason, they deny me and fail to give a reason. Any suggestions?
- Eric
Thanks so much, Mark! I truly appreciate it! What an awesome comment. You are very right about the untapped niches on eBay, tons of opportunity there. Great work on your plugin and can’t wait to check it out.
All the best,
Ian
Hi Eric,
Thanks so much for the comment! That is very discouraging indeed that you keep getting denied. I’m honestly not sure why, I created my account a long time ago when eBay first took their program off Commission Junction and brought it back in house (I was advertising on their Commission Junction program before that). My main thought would be that eBay wants volume and established players. I would focus on your largest traffic site and really leverage that in your application. Illustrate how you are able to bring a large volume of quality visitors (and ultimately conversions) to eBay. You may even want to share your Google Analytics data and data from other affiliate programs you’re in to make your case. Unfortunately, I don’t have direct ties to anyone at eBay so don’t have anyone who could help out. Otherwise, I’d definitely connect you if I knew of anyone. One last idea: Check out the conferences that eBay Partner Network may have a presence at and meet them in person. An in person meeting can go a really long way. Best of luck and keep trying!
All the best,
Ian
PS – By The way, great work on your blog! I have been reading very closely.
Your epc is insane, mine fluctuates from .02-.30. In fact thx to this seemingly random fluctuation and ebays mystery formula I’ve basically given up on doing anything with my eBay sites other than stick adsense and amazon ads on there where possible (which pay more).
Gluttoner,
Thanks so much for the comment! Yeah, I’m definitely happy with my EPC, I think it all comes down to really filtering my traffic so the quality is great. Also, it was a lot of trial and error. eBay Partner Network has been a big winner for me, but other networks that work really well for some folks (such as Amazon Associates) have been a little more tricky for me – although I’m always trying to improve and learn more! Now, if I could just replicate my AdSense and eBay success across my more challenging affiliate networks…
All the best,
Ian
Thanks for the advice, Ian, I appreciate it. I kind of put EPN on the back burner for now since I’m trying to do a lot more with Amazon and AdSense, but I’ll revisit it soon enough.
Sounds like a plan, Eric! I’d love to hear about your Amazon strategy, what works and what doesn’t. I have AdSense figured out (my best, most consistent channel), but have a long way to go on Amazon. Thanks again!
Best,
Ian
I’ve gotta get brushed up on affiliate marketing soon! I could really use a passive income so I can live my dream and become a farmer.
Collabo,
That’s my hope too – leverage my affiliate marketing earnings so I can live my dreams. By the way, your site is really slick, great work!
Thanks so much for the comment!
All the best,
Ian
Congrats on your continuing success with the site, and thanks for sharing the details. I’m curious – do you feel that the site’s potential is maxed out and that it completely dominates its niche, or do you feel that you could make additional improvements to the revenue if you were able to allocate more than 1 hour/week? Again, just curious.
Accidental Domainer,
The potential of my site is no way maxed out. I believe I can grow my traffic by at least 4-5x (and expect earning to scale similarly). This begs the question, why not invest more time? The real answer here is I don’t have much more free time between everything else going on (if I want to maintain my sleep and sanity). That said, I do truly believe slow and steady wins the race. My goal: Extract money now while slowly adding more great content so my future earnings are even larger. Thanks again! I’ll keep you updated on my progress!
What an awesome question, thanks so much!
Best,
Ian
Thanks for the reply — all sounds great and makes sense.
“I believe I can grow my traffic by at least 4-5x (and expect earning to scale similarly).” — Exciting days ahead!
Accidental Domainer,
Thank you for the great comments! Exciting times ahead for sure! I just wish I had more time.
All the best,
Ian
Nice post Ian and congrats for the achievement, hope you have more big numbers to show next time.
I am also using eBay (India) partner network since a long time. It does well but AdSense is still my highest earner each month. I think this is because the type of traffic i am targeting (Indian Traffic) and the lack of other affiliate programs targeted to Indian traffic. Anyways, eBay tops my affiliate marketing earnings.
Regards,
MQJ
MQJ,
I’m really thrilled. I feel like out strategies are very similar! AdSense is my largest, most stable source of online income as well. eBay is now my #2 money-making channel. Definitely exciting times and a world of opportunity, just wish I had more time!
Thanks so much!
All the best,
Ian
I think your epc is based also on the prior bonuses and special relationship you have managed to have with epn. This month alone, which is not even ended I have driven twice the traffic and sales you show for your last three months, yet I have seen a unexplained drop in my epc which was half yours to begin with, that I get zero answers from epc support. So now for bringing to ebay what averages out to 6 times the clicks and traffic you are bringing, and conversions, and acrus, etc, I am only now seeing between 4 cents to 16 cents. I might add that I have never established any kind of relationship with them since I have been an affiliate for many years, but only in the last 3 months had time to start giving attention to adding ebay to my sites, of which I have over 100 as well. So I want to show another perspective to the newbie to not think that such success as yours is a given, even if you slave away and give appropriate content, etc. Adsense, which delivers 20% untargeted ads on my sites, compensates me almost 100% more per click, and brings me more money, even though I am pretty sure that my visitors must not be converting for their advertisers as well as I give to epn because I have records of conversions for ebay auctions, yet my adsense clicks may do poorly for the advertisers who are showing up with totally unrelated ads to my niches.
Jake,
Thanks so much for sharing your experience! Sounds like you have built a really great business. I appreciate your point about this stuff not being easy! That is so true. It’s very difficult work and takes many years to build a solid online business. I’ve been working on this stuff since 2007, as a part time venture due to holding a full time job (in PPC) that I love.
In term of relationships, I want to clarify that I have no special relationship with eBay. I have never talked to anyone at EPN until recently when they invited me to participate in a beta. I truly feel my earnings are a function of my traffic quality. No special treatment here.
In terms of your volatility, I actually have seen similar volatility in the past. I feel that the EPN algorithm is really sensitive. Have a few bad days and your EPC could tank. My advice: Stick in there, it will come back.
In terms of AdSense, I’m a huge fan too. I make most of my affiliate income from AdSense and leverage EPN as a way to complement AdSense. I wish I could share more about my AdSense earnings but it’s against the terms and conditions of AdSense (to the best of my knowledge) to do that. Since I’m so reliant on AdSense, I’m protective of it.
Thanks again, Jake! I appreciate the awesome comment!
Best,
Ian
Wow Ian. I made my first dollar in 12 clicks and 191 impressions with eBay Partners. This might work out nicely. Thanks for all the tips.
Mike,
I really appreciate all the comments and am so thrilled that the strategies are working for you. Great to hear about your success on eBay and also Google AdSense.
You are very welcome.
All the best,
Ian
what are your current stats?