New Caps on Seller and Keyword-Based Amazon and eBay Product Listings

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   Simone Smithposted 11 years ago

   Hey y'all!
   
   We have capped the total number of seller or keyword-based Amazon and eBay products that can be featured in each capsule at two.
   
   You can find more information on the update and the 'why' behind it on our blog.
   
   In short, we're hoping this will improve visitors' experiences and improve your sales.

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      AMFredenburgposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      This makes perfect sense; I've already fixed my two pertinent Hubs. Thanks!

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         Simone Smithposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Fantastic! Thanks for being so proactive about it!

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      sallybeaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Had my second Amazon sale today and as was trying to recall whether UK members of Hubpages get paid in vouchers, maybe only when you get to $50!
      Changed my Hubs tonught  Visually I think they look a lot better with only two thanks Simone.

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         mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years agoin reply to this

         In the UK you get paid by cheque once you reach $100 if I remember correctly (I have received cheques from them occasionally in the past).

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            sallybeaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks mistyhorizon I appreciate your comment.

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               Marketing Meritposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               I usually let my cheques build up to $500 as the Nationwide BS, charge me approx £6 to deposit my Amazon US cheques as they are paid in dollars.

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            earnerposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I am in the UK, a quick point for people in the future reading this is that if you are a UK member, you need to join Amazon.com and use that ID in Hubpages.  .com and .co.uk are separate.
            
            I've set my Amazon.com account to pay me in gift vouchers.  I get the first email saying earnings reports are available, then up to 2 weeks later a gift voucher arrives by email.  I then log into my Amazon account and can add that to my account.  They accumulate.  I plan to buy stuff from the US that I can't get in the UK .... if only I can decide what as my current wish list is about US$500 and my vouchers are under $200

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               mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years agoin reply to this

               I was under the impression that when you go to buy things from Amazon.com it told you that you had to buy from the .co.uk site if you lived in the UK. That caused a problem because the .co.uk site didn't accept the gift vouchers issued by Amazon.com. Certainly the occasional times I have tried to 'buy' free ebooks from the .com site it has told me I can't, and they are only downloads.

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      paradigmsearchposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      All of mine are set at one. It's just the kind of guy I am...

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   Joseph Muendoposted 11 years ago

   great advice looking forward to increasing revenue based on amazon and eBay Caps

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      Simone Smithposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      No promises; as I say in the post, these capsules typically only perform well when readers coming to the Hub are looking to buy the product you feature (not just looking to learn about something), so it all depends. But here's hoping this helps!

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   Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years ago

   Do we need to go back and change all hubs, or will they automatically be reduced on existing hubs?

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      Simone Smithposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      They will not be automatically reduced, as that might negatively affect some Hubs' formatting. The numbers will only be reduced if/when the capsules are edited.

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         galleryofgraceposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Does this also mean that if we edit hubs and remove Amazon and ebay products that each hub goes back to review???????

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            AMFredenburgposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I just did this for two of my Hubs and they both stayed featured.

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      Victoria Lynnposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      My question exactly. That could take forever!

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         Peggy Wposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I also know that with over 400 hubs that could take forever to go back and edit all of them.  It is easy to go forward with these new rules.  Is there a time limit to address earlier hubs?

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            mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I don't get the impression this is compulsory for existing hubs. Everything I have just read on the subject seems to indicate that existing hubs will stay the same unless you ever decide to go back and edit the sales capsule within them (in other words if you don't there is no further action required). I am not planning to change my existing hubs at all even though many of them have up to 5 products or so in a capsule. My more recent sales capsules all relied on not using the keyword search feature anyway, and products were added manually by ASIN so I would be okay for up to 10 products in Amazon capsules on that basis. My older hubs did use the search feature in their sales capsules, but I will leave them alone unless told that they have to be changed.

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               Peggy Wposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               I hope that you are correct mistyhorizon2003.  I hope that Simone will address this aspect of it for those of us who have been here a while and have numerous hubs.  Overall I think that it is a great idea.  Simone...if you are reading this...please address the older hubs situation.  Thanks!

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                  Howard S.posted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  Simone addressed it in the blog referenced in the initial post. Misty is correct. Existing hubs will not be affected until edited. The blog literally says "When you edit a commerce capsule featuring more than two keyword or seller-based products, the limit gets brought down to two," so you should even be OK editing a typo in a Text Capsule if you don't touch the Amazon Capsule.

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                     Peggy Wposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                     Thanks!  I just figured that out by going in and looking at some older hubs.  IF one touches the edit capsule in an Ebay or Amazon capsule it will no longer allow more than two and it happens automatically if more than two were shown previously.  Thanks Howard S.

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   WriteAngledposted 11 years ago

   I don't understand.
   
   What is a seller-based or keyword-based capsule?

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      Simone Smithposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      You know how you can type in a keyword to feature Amazon products? That's what I mean. Same with inserting seller IDs. Whatever it is that brings up the listing. We're reducing the maximum number of products you can list in those scenarios.

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         Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         So, if we have three capsules in one block of text, each with only one item, we need to pare down as we edit?  Right?

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            Simone Smithposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            If you think they make the Hub busy and aren't likely to drive sales, I would definitely recommend removing some/all.

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   WriteAngledposted 11 years ago

   Oh, I see, thank you, Simone.
   
   I didn't even know you could select a seller like that and would not know why anyone would want to do so.
   
   As for selecting products randomly by keyword, my experience is that usually this is a disaster!

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      Simone Smithposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Happy to clear things up!
      
      Say you write a Hub about Star Wars figurines and know of a GREAT eBay seller. In this case, it would be great to utilize their Seller ID.
      
      I agree it isn't ideal to select products by keyword!

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   GmaGoldieposted 11 years ago

   Will this apply automatically or are my older hubs grandfathered? I think this is wonderful! Side note, I still would like to see capsules from a Granger or big box hardware store. I know Amazon and eBay are big but promoting the brick mortar and cross promoting is long overdue on the world wide web.

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   LongTimeMotherposted 11 years ago

   Hi Simone. I understand the logic of this, in theory. However when I wrote my hub about Best books for 10 year olds, I noticed that if I allowed five products to be featured in my Amazon link to a particular series of books, then readers would see an option to purchase titles for just one cent.
   
   One cent compared to $20.90 (for the product listing that always comes up first in the box) is a huge saving. The only way I can be confident that my readers will always see an option for a very cheap purchase is to allow more products to display.
   
   Similarly, for another author, with three products listed there is an option to purchase a title for 2 cents. For authors where book prices were all pretty similar, I had only displayed two products.
   
   I found similar results in some of my 'living off the grid' topics. If I selected a higher number of products, the options available to readers and therefore, I would think, the likelihood of clicking for a purchase, was more attractive due to both variety and price.
   
   Of course I'm one of those people who writes hubs with thousands of words, so the amazon or eBay box is hardly considered a main feature on the page (or even in the capsule).
   
   If restricting all product listings to two makes the product less attractive to readers, isn't there an argument for exceptions to the rule?

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      AMFredenburgposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      My understanding is that you have the option of creating more than one capsule, so if you really wanted to feature 10 books, for instance, you could create 5 capsules.

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         LongTimeMotherposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         True, AMF. However I am not talking about featuring ten books. I'd be more likely to be featuring books from 10 authors. (Although I think I only cover about five authors in that hub.)
         
         In the case of books by a particular author, when the top two are the two most expensive and they save the cheapest for the third and fourth product listing, that doesn't really help.
         
         And also because the order of their listings can change at any time (for instance solar lights), there's every possibility that the selection of two will not include the particular lights I am writing about when viewed at a later time.
         
         As I say, I do understand in principle. I'm just pointing out that while some hubbers might include multiple products in one capsule because they think it fills their space or will somehow make them more money, I tend to do it to ensure the reader gets to see there is variety in choice with the types of products I am talking about (eg solar ovens).
         
         This is just food for thought. I think whenever a change is suggested or implemented, it is helpful to provide feedback.

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            mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years agoin reply to this

            If you know the products you specifically want to feature in the capsule why not add them manually using their ASIN number, that way you don't get unwanted items appearing at all. This will also allow you up to a maximum of 10 products in an Amazon capsule (although that is rather an excessive amount)

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               Horatio Plotposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               This change only refers to keyword based Amazon products, LongTimeMother. You can still list up to 10 specific products by listing their ASIN numbers, as misty says. Just list the cheaper products.
               An easy way to do this is to have Amazon open at the relevant page in a separate window on your computer while you are compiling the Amazon capsule in your Hub. Simply choose which of the Amazon items you require - for example the author's cheaper books - and then copy the ASIN number from Amazon and paste it in to the Amazon capsule of your Hub. Simples.

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                  LongTimeMotherposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  Okay, that's all great advice. Thanks!

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               LongTimeMotherposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               Thanks to you as well, mistyhorizon2003. I can't imagine the day when I'd want to put 10 products in one Amazon capsule, but it is nice to know what the boundaries are.
               
               I appreciate the advice. Thanks.

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   gosupressposted 11 years ago

   Great change.

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   Healthyannieposted 11 years ago

   Hi Simone - I think that is a good idea. Love the hat by the way.

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    FatFreddysCatposted 11 years ago

    Makes no difference to me, I barely move any Amazon product anyway.

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    Howard S.posted 11 years ago

    @LongTimeMother: I don't fully understand your purposes. I make a higher Amazon commission when selling a product for $200 than one for $0.01. But if you really want to offer "penny ante", then input not just the keyword, but the seller's ID.
    No one has mentioned here that one benefit of listing specific products is the ability to write your own description to endorse the product.

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       LongTimeMotherposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       Hi Howard. I guess the only way I can explain my purposes is to explain that when I when I write a hub about helping a child who is a reluctant reader to become engaged in reading, I'm actually concentrating on helping - not concentrating on making money.
       
       There's a lot of really nice people who don't have cash flow in these tough economic times, and I try to factor that in when writing hubs.
       
       I'm not so generous when writing for corporate clients, lol..

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    FatFreddysCatposted 11 years ago

    This is the way I've always done it.
    
    ...and by the way, I also edited a number of my older Hubs this morning and it didn't affect the Amazon capsules at all. Sooooo... no worries I guess.

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    Thomas Swanposted 11 years ago

    Thanks for making this change. I had posted a forum thread recently about ebay capsules. I was finding that using a search term to generate several ebay products often resulted in many of those products being exactly the same (e.g. the search term "soccer" might produce 4 ebay ads for the same pair of football boots). I predicted that google would consider this spamming. Hopefully, this will prevent that happening in future, and encourage people to use more capsules with slightly different search terms.

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       Thomas Swanposted 11 years agoin reply to this

       However, the more ebay boxes you use, the more of those big clunky ebay icons you have underneath the products (the "right now on ebay"). That can look very unappealing.

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    Mark Johannposted 11 years ago

    This sounds like amazing. Hubpages are getting easier and easier and more user friendly in a sense.

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