What are these publishers doing?

$146,000+ in commissions for top eBay publisher for 12/02

[nativenewyorker]

Anyone see the stats in the new eBay newsletter? They state that the top 5 publishers in December earned a total of $369,000+ in commissions with #1 raking in $146,000+ and #5 taking in $43,000+. With leads paying $5, how are these websites generating those types of numbers? I would have to believe that sites like Yahoo have directly negotiated contracts and that they do not go through affiliate programs from the affiliate networks.

Ted

[Chef_Brian]

Yes,

I also recieve that newsletter and have also wondered what type of marketing is done to create those increadible numbers.

Like you I am also guessing that those top earners are other top level online merchant websites with huge traffic.

Any ideas?

Chef Brian

[weisinator]

This may not be what the top producers did, but this is a small possibility: back in January I was researching some keyphrases. In the serps for a couple were "doorway pages" that were full of gibberish sentences and links to other gibberish pages on different servers. I couldn't see what they were without shutting off javascript.

Those pages aren't there anymore, but it shows that you can combine a lack of scruples with a gibberish generating script and a one day Wordtracker subscription to make a few bucks.

Again, I don't know if the top producer did that or not. Just a possibility.

[Drastic]

Auto generated garbage can't produce those kinds of numbers.

Those are probably mega-traffic sites and portals, not the kind of thing independents can normally compete with. Merchants often do this, though it is very misleading.

[MrSpeed]

Some of us wonder how certain affiliates on this board can possibly make more than $10k/month ;)

There are people that control incredible amounts of traffic and they can direct it to where they want. I remember when utrade.com (no longer online) was offering a certain amount of $$ per new registration. There was a webmaster that created a lot of auction domains and created a zero frameset page directed right to the sign-up page for utrade.

The surfer was given a choice, sign up and make me money or get the hell out of here. The ratio was something like 1:6 that registered. Multiply by a few thousand people/day and do the math.

He was the top affiliate with crazy amounts of money being made. I would not be surprised if he is making money with the e-bay program.

I kind of know how he got a lot of his traffic. He had a program that would pay webmasters $.03/search directed to some type of Yahoo knock-off. He would then filter it based on keyword and basically arbitrage it off to affiliate links.

[buckworks]

Another possibility is promoting eBay signups through large, legitimate email lists.

[teeceo]

Is there a link to this artical anywhere?

teeceo

[stlouislouis]

Please sticky me the link to the newsletter too, please!

Thank you!

[Shak]

My money is on large publishers/portals who when delivering serps return results such as:

Find/Buy "keyword" at ebay.

You are talking millions of text advertisements every day, and even with a low CTR, those numbers are quite easily possible.

Shak

[linkshark]

Although I did not make the top 5, I can see that with more traffic it would not be hard to make the top 5.

#1 would be tough but top 5 is clearly reachable for the independent affiliate.

>Auto generated garbage can't produce those kinds of numbers<

Well thought out Auto generated pages CAN produce close to those types of numbers.
.....

I am with Shak on the: Find/Buy "keyword" at ebay for the #1 spot.

Sign up 1000 folks a day and you're there! #1

(or a shatload of nickels: 2,920,000 bids :-) #1

Sidenote: November/December is traditionally the slowest time of the year for ebaY, according to "The Perfect Store" (story of ebaY book)

I would say ebaY's Buy It Now has had a significant impact on increasing their pre-Xmas signups/sales since that book was written. Feb is traditionally the best month for ebaY. (from book)

my2pence

[Shak]

I must have seen at least 6 ebay text ads since I last posted that.

They are Everywhere.

Shak

[stlouislouis]

Thanks for the sticky! I very much appreciate it!

IIRC, eBay recently made a change in how they define a
"qualified" new registration that earns an affiliate $5.00.

IIRC, if a person you sent to eBay registered but used
buyitnow but did not place a bid within 30 days they did
not credit the affiliate with $5.00 for the new registration.

Affiliates complained and Ebay changed their definition to
include those who use buyitnow within 30 days of registration
as also qualifying the new registration as earning the
affiliate $5.00.

Maybe this helped boost the money made by the top affiliates?

[nativenewyorker]

It is interesting to note that eBay runs programs with both CJ and BeFree and that they have significantly different terms. BeFree actually offers a tiered commission schedule ranging from $5-9 per signup. It is quite possible that eBay's top affiliates may be with BeFree. Impressive numbers nontheless.

Ted