"EBAY SELLING" EZINE
March 1, 2004
In this issue:
* Auction Genius Course News:
* Feature Article: Affiliate Marketing In Big Trouble
* Amazing eBay Auctions
* News From eBay
1. “My eBay” With New Features
2. eBay Titles Turn 55
3. Just In Case You're Interested ...
4. PayPal Reforms: No Account Necessary
5. “Auto Return” Sends Buyers To YOUR Turf
6. PayPal Buyer Protection Program
* Very Important: Teaching Kids How To Avoid Being Victims
Auction Genius Course News
Our next Auction Genius Course will begin on Saturday, March 13. We've given the whole site a much needed “face lift” and have added new material. Auctions evolve and so do we.
Two big changes:
1. Many people bought the CD of the class – but wanted the bonuses as well. We've now added that option, so your choices are
* Live class
* CD with bonuses
* CD only
2. The Genius course is about to have its second birthday, and unfortunately our prices are going up on April 1. I don't like this, but our expenses have gone way up, and we have to raise our prices accordingly. So, if you've ever thought about joining us, now is the time.
At any rate, check out our new page. I really s-u-f-f-e-r-e-d to write it. Arrggghhhh!
http://auction-genius-course.com
Feature Article: Affiliate Marketing In Big Trouble
Since you are reading this article, you must have some interest in net marketing. Naturally this newsletter focuses on eBay and online auctions, but depending on any single source for your income is risky, in my opinion. I work on the principle of “multiple streams of income". And one of the most important streams in my business is affiliate programs.
Affiliate income on the net is in grave danger. Surprisingly, this danger comes from well-meaning efforts to protect Internet users. All of us know that there are many wicked and vicious viruses, worms, spyware, Trojan horses and other garbage being sent to our computers on a daily (hourly?) basis. This is truly an valid concern and we even have a class on the subject:
http://1st-online-classes.com/security.shtml
To protect themselves, many net users are buying and using virus protector protection software. There are two popular virus-protection programs: Norton and McAfee.
Norton has made a unilateral decision to block many of the web addresses on the Internet. Why should you care? Simply this: if you have an affiliate link somewhere on a page that belongs to you, your visitors may not be seeing it!
For example: you build a website around model cars. You create pages of good content on model cars for your website. To pay for your time and effort, you include some carefully chosen affiliate links into your content. Your plan is that visitors will see your affiliate links, click on them, and buy something. You will be paid for the sales. It's a sound business model and has worked well for years. In fact, in the Auction Genius course I teach my students how to find affiliate buyers using eBay's vast traffic.
Your site looks good, you have followed the rules and you are giving value to any small car enthusiast who comes to your site. Sounds exciting and profitable doesn't it? But ... what if your visitors see everything on your site - except your affiliate links? Pretty much defeats the entire purpose of marketing on the Internet, doesn't it?
When we buy a piece of software, it has “default” settings. The Norton default settings hide hundreds of links from sites chosen by the Norton company. Most users and don't even know about the default settings, and even if they do, they might have no reason to turn them off. If this problem is not solved, affiliate marketing on the net is big, big trouble.
Fortunately there is an easy remedy for folks who understand the problem. All you need to do is use REDIRECT links. If you are unfamiliar with the term “redirect”, it simply means that the link is redirected, from one URL to another. How does this help you?
One of the biggest and best known affiliate networks on the Internet is Commission Junction. If you have joined an affiliate program through Commission Junction you will need to use their link or you will not get credit for any sales that you make. Norton is now filtering out all CJ links. So if you want to sell products from a CJ member, you will need to use a redirect script. Or not get paid. Oops!
I use CJ links and I simply change them into an “auctionknowhow” link. This will accomplish several things:
1. Norton will not block my CJ link because it thinks it see an auctionknowhow link
2. No one can bypass my affiliate link because they don't know where it's going
3. Many links are too long (and unprofessional)
4. If you are sending links via email, your link will often be on two lines, and readers might not know to copy multiple lines – or not want to
QUESTION: how are redirects done?
Fortunately, we have a simple answer. All subscribers to our Auction Gold ezine are welcome to download our free redirect script. There are redirect scripts and services on the Internet but most of the good ones charge for it.
There are a couple of free ones like “snipurl”. I don't like these, though, for two reasons:
* They are advertising the snipurl website instead of mine.
* The snipurl service and others like it are very well known and, even though they are not blocked at this time, they most likely will be in the future. Norton knows perfectly well that snipurl is a redirect service and it's probably on the Norton or Mcafee hit list for the near future. You do not want your affiliate links blocked. I shudder to think of the work involved in going back and changing all my affiliate links.
Here is an actual affiliate link of mine
http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=OFOwgW9Z1PU&offerid=
20594.10000194&type=3&subid=0"
(That IS blocked by Norton, because it's from one of the big affiliate services!)
Which becomes this:
http://www.auctionknowhow.com/cgi-bin/links.cgi?l=5
Here is how to get your free copy of our script:
Explanation:
http://cyberws.com/info/affiliates/dlinkmin.shtml
Download:
http://www.cyberws.com/files/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=9
Amazing eBay Auctions
It's sometimes startling what people will buy. Look at this goodie:
http://auction-genius-course.com/listings/elvis.shtml
I always liked his music, but $50 grand? No way, Jose.
And here's a cheerful one:
http://auction-genius-course.com/listings/woe.shtml
27 bids for such a downer of a name? What will the new owner do with such a name? A site on depression? The state of the economy? Rap music? Ah, woe is me.
News From eBay
1. “My eBay” With New Features
Are you familiar with “My eBay”? It's a page available to eBay users and you can use it to track items you're buying or selling, feedback or account information. There are changes coming 'soon' (whatever that means):
* Customizable summary page
* Easier navigation
* Ability to add a note to a listing
* Buying and Selling reminders
* Increased Favorite Searches & Watching Limits
* At-a-glance status icons
* Printer-friendly views
http://pages.ebay.com/MyeBay2.0/Preview/index1.html
2. eBay Titles Turn 55
eBay has expanded the title space on listings from 45 to 55 characters. That is great news!
3. Just In Case You're Interested ...
eBay has another new-and-improved version of Turbolister, their mass listing program. The idea is: “I can set up a 'basic' auction or template and then quickly duplicate that item. Then it is simple to go to those duplicates, change only a couple of things and quickly do 20-30 auctions in the time it would take to do one on the Sell Your Item 2.0 form.”
Past versions haven't been raving successes, so they're trying again. One of the TL testimonials said, “Turbo Lister enabled us to list a little over 63,000 listings in 12 hours”. Impressive, but 63,000 listings? Wow, I thought I was a glutton for punishment!
http://pages.ebay.com/turbo_lister/
4. PayPal Reforms: No Account Necessary
One of the things that has most griped people about PayPal is that buyers had to be a member to pay for eBay purchases. Naturally, this prevented some sales because people weren't willing to join PP just to buy an item or two (don't blame them a bit!)
PayPal has done away with this requirement.
http://paypal.typepad.com/pdn/2004/02/sign_up_not_req.html
5. “Auto Return” Sends Buyers To YOUR Turf
In a long-overdue move, after a buyer pays for his merchandise, he is automatically returned to your site, auction store or wherever you designate. Other programs have been doing this for YEARS and it's about time PP followed suit!
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-gin/webscr?cmd=p/mer/express_return_summary-outside
6. PayPal Buyer Protection Program
As sellers, we need to do everything we can to make buyers more comfortable, since internet fraud continues to grow. PayPal is now offering us the opportunity to put a
PayPal Buyer Protection icon on your eBay listings. This give buyers up to $500.00 USD at no additional cost.
To qualify for this program you need:
* At least 50 eBay feedback comments that are
* 98% positive
* Premier or Business PayPal account to accept payments
* A U.S., U.K., or Canadian PayPal account
* Your PayPal account is in good standing
* You must select PayPal as an accepted payment option on eBay's Sell Your Item form or when using bulk listing tools such as Turbo Lister or Seller's Assistant
* Item must be listed on ebay.com, ebay.co.uk, or ebay.ca
* Item must be physical goods that are shipped – no digital products
If interested, go to:
http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_pbp-info-outside
Very Important: Teaching Kids How To Avoid Being Victims
This has absolutely nothing to do with auctions, but I am honored to pass it along to all of you.
“We have all heard about the tragic murder of the 6th grade girl here in Sarasota, Florida.
Unfortunately there will always be sick monsters in the world. For this reason it is absolutely imperative that children be taught to recognize a bad person/situation immediately AND how to respond to it in order to remain safe.
I was recently introduced to a website from a person I have the greatest respect for. It is a website that introduces a street-smart ' Barney ' type character (another dinosaur) – that teaches young kids how to avoid becoming victims - and does it in a positive way.
There is NO question that this information could save thousands of kids from being molested - or worse - so forwarding this info WILL impact the lives of kids IF we get the information out to parents, teachers, churches and kids.
I am not a big fan of the emails that tell you to send it to 6-10 people. Having said that - if there was ever a time to forward an email to everyone you know - this may be it.
John Kelly,
Florida