3 Key Steps for Success on the eBay Partner Network
August 27, 2008 by Jon
Filed under Affiliate Programs, Articles
Ever since the eBay Partner Network (ePN) fired a bunch of affiliates, there’s been a lot of discussion on whether or not affiliates can trust the ePN going forward. What you need to realize is that it doesn’t matter if you can trust the ePN. What matters is that you position yourself for success.
“It is not so important who starts the game but who finishes it.” –John Wooden
Step One - Understand Your Surroundings
It’s nearly impossible to succeed at anything in life unless you have a working knowledge of the subject. For example, if you wanted to build a house, you’d need to understand community regulations and zoning laws, drafting and design, construction materials and equipment, framing, concrete work, dirt work, and so on and so forth. There’s a lot of information a person needs to understand if they want to successfully build a house… especially one that won’t blow over during the first storm.
The same holds true for affiliate marketing. If you want to succeed, you need to understand as much as you can about it. That means reading blogs like this one, purchasing training materials like Wealthy Affiliate, understanding how to build and maintain web sites, marketing strategies and techniques, and on and on. There’s a lot that a person needs to know to be successful.
Specific to the eBay Partner Network, you need to understand what eBay expects from affiliates. You need to know how to “play the game” so that eBay’s happy, your visitors are happy, and most importantly, so that you’re happy and earning commissions.
Now I can hear what some of you are thinking, because people are posting this same thought on the various forums and blogs: “how the blank can I know what they want when they don’t tell us?”
Well they did tell us, but people seem uninterested in trying to understand what they said. Unfortunately that’s not an excuse. As with everything in life, if you don’t understand an aspect of something, then you have to figure it out if you want continued success. If eBay didn’t give us detailed specifics, then we all need to analyze the situation. Read between the lines. Put yourself in their shoes and try to determine what they really mean.
Step One’s Action Item: Make the effort to figure things out going forward. Excuses and complaints won’t help you. Learn as much as you can and adapt to changes as they occur.
Step Two - Focus on Your Site’s Visitors Instead of eBay
This should be a no-brainer, but it isn’t. Here’s what happens… someone wants to get started in affiliate marketing. They find out that the eBay Partner Network is a good program to join, so they get signed up. They want to make money, so their focus is on setting up web sites for the ePN so they can start earning commissions as soon as possible.
Trust me when I say that you won’t send “engaged” traffic to eBay with that approach.
Think about it, if your main focus is on making money with any specific affiliate program, you’re not going to come across as someone who’s site really values the people who read it. You just won’t.
They always say that if you want to sound pleasant over the phone, you should be smiling, even though the person on the other end of the line can’t see you. The same is true for your affiliate web sites. If your focus is on making money, trust me, your visitors will figure that out.
So what can you do to change things? Simple… you build web sites that provide value to your visitors even if you removed each and every affiliate link or eBay product listing. The more engaged you are in your niche and with your visitors, the more engaged your visitors will be when you send them over to eBay.
Step Two’s Action Item: Make sure your site provides value to your visitors. This requires adding content, more content, and even more content. Focus on making your site the best it can be for the people who visit it.
Step Three - Get Real and Face the Facts
This last step deals more with your perspective and attitude more than anything else. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there are few guarantees in life, and that includes affiliate marketing. The sooner you come to grips with that, the better off you’ll be.
Instead of worrying about the ePN, you should focus your energy on the things you can control. What are those things? Well for starters, you decide which niche to focus on. You control the content that gets published on your site. You get to choose which affiliate products that you feel will benefit your readers the most.
If you take charge of the aspects of your business that you can control and come to grips with the aspects that you can’t control, then you’ll be a step ahead of the average affiliate marketer. People who’ve had the most business success tend to be the ones who are fluid. They’re able to adapt to the changing landscape around them… even reinventing themselves and their businesses when necessary.
Step Three’s Action Item: Focus on the aspects of your business that you can control, and change your expectations regarding the aspects that you can’t control. Understand that things change, and that keeping a positive attitude and rolling with the punches will give you the best chance for long term success.
Conclusion
It’s my sincere hope that the three steps outlined above will help you understand how to succeed not only with the eBay Partner Network moving forward, but also with affiliate marketing in general.
Personally, my plan is to continue focusing my sites on the visitors, even on the sites that promote or feature eBay product listings. And if the ePN ever decides to fire me, then that’s okay, because I will continue to focus on my niches and my readers first. If I do that, then monetization, commissions and earnings will come.
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Nice clear post on the benefits of getting your head in the right place. In the excitement of making money off our sites it’s easy to forget the basics.
That’s probably a big part of the reason for the recent ePN shake-up and the subsequent panic. Hopefully, affiliates will re-prioritize and add value to the experience they offer their users.
James,
You hit the nail on the head… it is easy to forget the basics (or to never bother learning them in the first place).