You’ve got your blog up and running. You’re now ready to earn money and you’ve heard good things about the eBay Partner Network (EPN).
But you’re still not sure whether the EPN is the right move for you?
How does it compare to the other affiliate networks for affiliate marketers? Is it good or just ok? You need more information and I’m here to provide it…
You’re going to get the answers you need, including:
- What is eBay’s affiliate program?
- How Does EPN compare to the other affiliate programs?
- How do eBay affiliates make money?
- How do you signup for the eBay Partner Network?
By the end of our eBay Partner Network review, you will know all the details you need to know to make an informed decision. You’ll also know how you can sell affiliate products on eBay – fast!
First, let’s show you a quick product overview…
eBay Partner Network Overview
Product Name: eBay Partner Network (EPN)
Founder: Pierre Omidyar, in 1995
Product Type: eBay’s Affiliate Program
Price: Free to Sign Up
Best For: Affiliate Marketers Wanting Access to Billions of Items
Pros
- Billions of Items You Can Sell via Affiliate Links
- 80% of All eBay Products Are New
- The Only Real Marketplace for Ultra-Niche Items
- Really Nice Affiliate Tools/Creatives
- Intuitive Affiliate Dashboard
- Very Low Affiliate Payout Threshold
Cons
- The 24-Hour Cookie Isn’t Great
- Confusing Commission Structure at Times
- Caps On How Much You Can Earn Per Sale, Regardless of Sale Value
- Affiliate Link Generator – It could be simpler
Quick Summary
eBay is well known across the globe, but the easy mistake to make is that they only sell second junk. 80% of the products sold on eBay are brand new. This brings a great opportunity for affiliate marketers to offer great value to their readers from eBay. They are more inclined to accept new affiliate marketers, and all you need is an eBay account.
They offer a great dashboard with some awesome affiliate tools. The downside is that they only have a 24-hour commission and their commission structure itself can be quite confusing. There is also a cap on what you can earn…
But overall, eBay has done a great job and depending on your niche it can be a great affiliate program to join (especially for newbies).
Recommended? Yes
If you’re brand new to affiliate marketing, you might want to check out our #1 recommended training program to learn everything you need to get started with affiliate marketing. 😉
Table of Contents
What is the eBay Partner Network?
The eBay Partner Network is eBay’s Affiliate Program. I think we all know eBay, but you might not know that eBay was known as Auction Web for the first two years of its existence. It only got rebranded as eBay in 1997.
This means it’s been around since 1995!
eBay Inc. is a long-standing e-commerce site that brings together buyers and sellers from across the globe. Most think of eBay as a place to get rid of your unwanted stuff. But that hasn’t been the case for a while.
Over 80% of the products sold on eBay are brand new!
eBay has grown massively, acquiring many of its competitors. They also acquired PayPal in the bargain too.
“A global platform, eBay’s main users reside in the US and UK. With 185 million active buyers and 19 million sellers worldwide, eBay is one of the world’s leading marketplace and eCommerce platforms. A publicly-traded company, eBay’s 2020 revenue was $10.271 billion”.
Source (edesk.com)
So you might remember eBay as an auction site, but millions of the products sold on eBay are at set prices. This is where eBay’s affiliate programs come into play. eBay calls it their Partner network or EPN for short. Which was launched in 2008.
eBay calls their affiliates “publishers”. (As do some of the other affiliate networks)
A publisher can be anyone who has an audience they can promote products to online. (There are a few restrictions, but we’ll get to those in a bit.)
You can also be a publisher if you have a blog, a website, an email list, or a social media channel such as Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Reddit, Instagram, or Twitter.
If affiliate marketing is still a brand new subject to you, you might find out in-depth guide on affiliate marketing for beginners really useful… Click here to read it!
How Does The eBay Partner Network Differ From Other Affiliate Programs?
The majority of affiliate programs are very similar, so what makes eBay’s affiliate program stand out from the rest? here are a few things to consider…
A Low Joining Threshold - Great for Beginners
One of the main stumbling blocks, especially for a new affiliate marketer, is getting accepted into the affiliate program in the first place. Some networks will accept you, but then the individual merchants don’t take a chance on you.
That is where eBay is different. They are really accepting of newbies joining their partner network. So even if your blog is brand new with little to no traffic at this point, you can still join. This will help the learning process. The added benefit is their sign-up process is super simple too.
If you’re struggling to get traffic to your blog, then this guide might help you out.
A Low Payout Threshold
eBay pays it’s affiliates their commissions once a month, as long as you have reached the minimum threshold. But that’s another good thing, as EPN only expects you to reach at least ten units of your home currency, i.e. £10 or $10. Compare this to Amazon, who’s payout threshold is $100 and it’s a big difference… Another great sign for newbies!
It Offers Payouts via PayPal!
You can get your commissions paid directly into PayPal. It’s surprising how many affiliate programs don’t offer this solution. The alternative is direct deposit, depending on whether your country supports this…
eBay Has A Huge Selection of Products
They offer the Best Price Guarantee. And they offer free shipping on many products. But, unlike Amazon, shoppers don’t pay a membership fee for premium services. This means, with eBay Partner Network, you’ll never run out of items to promote and your followers can trust they’re getting the best deals through you — often with free premium services.
eBay Has a Long History and Is Still Going Strong
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) gives eBay an A+ rating. If you’re looking for a long-term affiliate marketing program partnership with good user experience and high-quality traffic, eBay’s Partner Network is backed by a stable and growing company.
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How Does eBay Partner Network Work?
Let’s go through some of the most commonly asked questions about eBay and their Partner Network…
How Do eBay Affiliates Make Money?
Once you’ve signed up and become an eBay Partner, you can then start to promote any of the products that are on the eBay marketplace. This is the same as any type of affiliate marketing, and you basically follow these 3 steps…
- Find a relevant product for your audience that you want to promote from the eBay listings
- Create an affiliate link (a traceable link) using one of the EPN’s easy-to-use tools
- Share that affiliate link on your blog, website, social media channels, email list, etc.
It’s important that you share relevant products that will help your audience, as sharing anything will not have the desired effects. but the basic principle is to follow those 3 steps.
Getting an affiliate link is pretty easy (and we will show you later) but you need to consider whether you are sharing value with the people who will see your links, otherwise they won’t trust you enough to buy through your affiliate links.
But once you have shared your link and the interested party clicks on this affiliate link, eBay can track the sale through it.
Example…
- An outdoor excursions blog has links to camping gear in a post about how to stay warm on winter nights whilst camping.
- The reader loves the article, and it recommends a few different products that would make this easier.
- They click on an affiliate link to one of these products and land on eBay
- When they make a qualifying transaction (buy the gear), eBay tracks the sale back to your affiliate link via a “cookie”
- You then get rewarded with a percentage of the revenue on that sale (You get paid!)
The key to getting these sales, as I said, is to provide help and value to your readers. The recommendation needs to make sense. If an outdoor excursions blog was suddenly promoting the latest gaming laptops, it wouldn’t make sense and push the reader away.
It needs to always be about relevance. Choose the right niche and you will have a great headstart, especially with the range on eBay. You need to choose the right products for the right audience, here’s a guide that will help…
How Do EBay Publishers Get Paid?
The eBay Partner Network doesn’t make it difficult to get paid. The better you do, the better they do. So, they will pay in your country of residence’s currency (Dollars, GBP, Euros, etc.)
You also have the option of getting paid to a verified Paypal account or through Direct Deposit (as long as your country supports this option).
They also have a low minimum payout of $10 and you’ll get paid every month (as long as you have commissions, that is).
What Is A Qualifying Transaction?
One of the downsides to eBay’s affiliate program is that its cookie period is only 24 hours. This means you need your customer to be interested and buy straightaway really for the sale to count for you.
A transaction will qualify for a commission in one of two ways…
- Your shopper makes a purchase within 24 hours of clicking your link for a “Buy It Now” item, or
- Your shopper bids on an “Auction” item within 24 hours of clicking your link and then wins that auction within 10 days
Another thing to consider is this… According to EPN:
“A browser cookie is only tracked within the specific browser, so if the user opens a different browser and completes an action, it will not be tracked.”
Which means you can still lose the sale. But, this would be true of most affiliate programs…
What Percentage Does eBay Take?
eBay has two elements for you to consider. Firstly the percentage of commission you can earn on any sales. The second point to consider is the cap.
Take a look at the table (rate card) below to get an idea of what you can earn…
So, eBay sells a wide range of things, including real estate. And 1% of Real Estate is big money, but you will only earn $100 from any sales.
eBay doesn’t earn much on certain categories and items — such as gift cards, items sold by charities, and special promotional deals. That means you won’t be earning money on these products either.
Electronics is one of the most popular categories on eBay, and most affiliates probably come to eBay based on that. So, with smartphones, etc. You can earn 2% of each sale, as long as it doesn’t go above $550 in value.
What Are The Signup Requirements for eBay Partner Network?
The signup requirements for the eBay Partner Network are minimal. In fact, if you already have an eBay account, then you are halfway there.
EPN signups require:
- You to be 18 or over
- An eBay account in good standing
- Live in a country where payment via PayPal or Direct Deposit is permitted
- Your online platform doesn’t feature “adult, illegal, or restricted” content.
Unlike many other affiliate networks, there is no need to detail how much traffic you get, etc.
Signing Up For eBay Partner Network
The first thing you need to know before applying to join eBay’s Partner Network is that you will require an ebay account.
If you have already got an eBay account, then you are good to go and can skip the first step. But if you haven’t, then you will first need to register.
You can do this from the ebay website and click register at the top. Otherwise, make sure you are signed in.
You have the option of choosing a personal or business account.
Once you’ve registered and confirmed your account, you can then apply to the eBay Partner Network by scrolling down to the bottom of the website and selecting “Affiliates”
From this screen, just choose one of the signup buttons and this will start the process for you…
After acceptance of the eBay Partner Network Agreement, you’ll be accepted into EPN almost immediately.
Log in to your eBay Partner Network account and you should see a Welcome page.
Click on the “Account” tab to see the drop-down menu.
Now fill in the rest of your information — your address, payment (PayPal or direct deposit), and tax info (you’ll need your social security number or employer ID number):
How to Make Money with eBay Partner Network
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What's a Campaign?
A campaign is “a group” with a unique 10-digit identifier that’s embedded into your affiliate link (the link that points traffic to the merchant; in this case, eBay).
Each campaign will have its identifier, which EPN calls the Campaign ID.
This Campaign ID becomes attached to products in your campaign and helps with tracking and analytics. It also allows you to separate and manage your traffic.
You can create different campaigns for different purposes.
For example, you can use separate campaigns for different product categories.
Or, you might want to use separate campaigns to track conversion rates on different parts of your website.
However you use them, a Campaign ID is mandatory for all EPN affiliate links in order to track sales back to you.
Note: To make sure you receive credit for your sales, eBay Partner Network recommends:
“… you always get your EPN link from a tool provided by EPN, such as the Link Generator tool, or the Bookmarklet tool. We cannot guarantee to track if the link has been modified.”
Setting up Affiliate Links
To set up an affiliate link, you need to select “link generator” from the top menu.
This will bring you to a screen that looks like this one.
It’s a little bit backward with eBay when compared to Amazon. But you first need to find the product you want to promote from their marketplace. Then you need to grab the URL and bring it to this screen. It will take you a few more steps to complete, but you can still do it with relative ease.
Let’s show you an example.
Let’s say you are starting a blog about standing desks. The image below is an example product relevant to that niche from eBay…
If I wanted to create an affiliate link for this “Flamaker Electric Standing Desk”, then I would grab the URL (the website address) from the eBay page that the product is on.
I would then copy and paste it into the Link Generator page (example below). Make sure you put it against the relevant campaign. In the screenshot below, I’ve left it as default. But you could always create a campaign about “standing desks” and then any affiliate link related to that niche would go in that campaign.
Once you have done this step, just click Generate Link and then you will be provided with your affiliate link to share on your blog post.
If you want to learn more about getting the most out of your eBay campaigns, I have found the video below to be informative on the subject…
Turn Your Passion into Profits
eBay Partner Network Pros & Cons
So, how does the world’s biggest multi-billion dollar flea market look when we take everything into account?
Let’s go over the obvious advantages and disadvantages of eBay’s affiliate program:
Pros
- You can attain VIP status if you can drive enough traffic
- No other auction website comes close in terms of brand recognition
- Literally billions of items you can sell via affiliate links
- 80% of all products on eBay are new
- The only real marketplace for those ultra-niche items
- Really nice selection of affiliate tools and creatives
- Intuitive affiliate dashboard
- Very low eBay affiliate payout threshold
Cons
- The 24-hour cookie is silly
- Confusing commission structure at times
- Caps on how much you can earn per sale, regardless of sale value
- There are easier ways to generate an affiliate link with other affiliate programs
eBay Partner Network Overview
There you have it… Hopefully, our review has answered all of your questions. Overall, eBay has done a great job with their affiliate program. There are many benefits to becoming an eBay Partner.
Their dashboard and affiliate tools are fantastic and with most affiliates still believing that the eBay marketplace is only about second stuff, this might give you the edge. Remember that 80% of the stuff sold on there is brand new.
It’s not without fault, the 24-hour cookie is not great. Amazon and eBay could learn a bit from other networks. Their commission structure is a little confusing and limiting too.
But on the whole, it’s a solid affiliate network for you to join…
Is eBay's Affiliate Program Right For You?
As to whether the eBay affiliate program is right for you, that will ultimately depend on what you are trying to promote. Ultimately, you need to be offering great value to your readers and offering quality products that resonate with them.
But hopefully, our review has helped you see the pros and cons, and how it stacks up to the other big players, such as Amazon Associates, ClickBank, ShareASale, and CJ Affiliate.
There’s nothing stopping you applying for any of them. But if you are still new, and lacking traffic, you might want to consider holding off and getting some proper training to ensure your content is liked by the search engines.
You cannot make money without traffic, so focus on building up your traffic and then introduce affiliate links. It’s the best way of building up trust with your readers too.
If you want to check out our #1 recommended training for new affiliate marketers to ensure their campaigns are perfect first time, check out Wealthy Affiliate.
If you want my personal help, then check out my 7-day Passion to Profit Bootcamp…
Thanks for checking out my eBay Partner Network Review… If you have any questions, comments, or experiences to share then please write them in the comments section below and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can… 😉
The 24-hour long cookies will become a burden for all eBay affiliate marketers. If you have written lots of articles, the workload is enormous. You might need to update your affiliate links every 24 hours. I hope they could extend the cookies(maybe 30-90 days) so that we will be happier to promote its products.
Hey Matt,
thanks for checking out my blog. The cookie length refers to how long a customer can wait to buy something for it to link to you. So, the affiliate link will work after 24 hours. But if a customer looks at your blog post, clicks the link but doesn’t buy it within 24 hours, you will lose the sale.
But there is always a need to go back and check on your affiliate links and make sure they are still working. If an eBay seller leaves, and you haven’t updated your blog post, you will have a broken link which would affect your SEO and the confidence of your readers.
Thanks
John
Hi John,
I must admit I never considered the Ebay Partner Network. And to be honest I didn’t even know it existed until now. I had an Ebay account, but not the EPN. I totally agree that the 24 hour cookie is terrible and should be increased. I like the fact that they accept PayPal users. That could help with fast sales. My only concern would be that product suppliers could handle the sales traffic. If you would run an ad on a particular product, and get 100 quick orders, do you think the merchant on Ebay could fulfill the orders? Thanks for the education on EPN.
Hey Chas,
thanks for checking out my blog! Yeh, the 24-hour cookie period is a pain, but I reckon they have standardised against Amazon which has the same period.
There is a risk with the product suppliers doing that, which would depend on the merchant. But if they are accepting orders, they should be in a position to fulfil the orders.
I know eBay has changed a lot since I was a regular user and the new products should be fine. The second-hand products (in my opinion) wouldn’t go with affiliate promotions…
All the best,
John