Warning! eBay switches to one-day cookie in October!

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   Marisa Wrightposted 10 years ago

   eBay is changing its affiliate scheme in October and there is one HUGE change which has been sneaked in.
   
   Their cookie is now a 24-hour cookie, same as Amazon.  For Hubbers, that makes eBay effectively worthless and I strongly recommend you remove your eBay capsules!  Amazon will now be a better earner for almost everyone.
   
   As you know, eBay doesn't pay per sale, it uses a complicated pay-per-click system that usually pays far less than you could earn for a similar product on Amazon.  But eBay currently has a long cookie - so the customer doesn't have to buy right there and then, they can think about it, browse around, dither, and you can still make your commission.  So although you're earning less per sale, you have more chance of making sales.
   
   As from October, that won't be the case.  eBay and Amazon will both have 24 hour cookies, and since Amazon pays a lot better, ditching eBay becomes a no-brainer.
   
   Sadly that's not going to help me on my websites, which rely on eBay - because my sites serve a worldwide audience and offer products on all the eBay sites depending where the customer lives.  There isn't an Amazon in every country.   I'm not a happy bunny.

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      Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you very much for posting this.  But I don't like it one bit!

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      ologsinquitoposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Marisa, thank you for posting this. Sorry to hear this will affect you. It's something we should all know about.

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      galleryofgraceposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      off topic;
      The voice portion of the "fat belly " ad at the bottom of this forum comes on by itself. and stays on. I wonder if readers have to put up with voice ads while they are trying to read our hubs. What a turn off!
      What else can HP do to us?

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         ChristinSposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         report ads that do that to HP staff, that is not allowed on here.

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            CraftytotheCoreposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            I've heard those voice ones and sometimes I see one that looks like it is bouncing around on the screen.  Very annoying.

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      Organised Kaosposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Gahh, a bit new here and am confused by all this. So does it mean that once 24 hours is up ebay will change the products I chose in their adds? Does that mean that we don't get paid the same amount as the products that I chose?
      What else does this mean? Besides the fact Amazon pay more percentage way, what other benefits are there with going to Amazon?
      Many thanks to someone whom is now trying to do a bit of Hubpages study!

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      pauldeedsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      What you predict may come to pass, but I believe that eBay wants to have a program that is competitive.  With their black box payout scheme, it's certainly within their power to  adjust the formula to result in similar total payouts even with a shorter cookie.  I'd wait and see what happens in October before making huge changes to your Hubs.
      
      Historically, on HubPages Amazon and eBay have performed similarly on a per click basis for most of the year, but Amazon usually does better during the holiday season (when people tend to put in huge multi-product amazon orders).

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         Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         I'm not predicting, Paul.   It's in the notification to eBay affiliates:
         
         "For a “Buy It Now” item, you will be compensated if a user makes a purchase within 24 hours. For “Bid” items where a bid is placed within 24 hours of the initial click, you are credited for winning auctions for up to 10 days, which is the maximum length that an auction can last."
         
         As you know, most people don't bid on an auction immediately - they will watch the item until closer to the end of the auction, THEN start bidding. So we'll likely to get little or no commission on auction items.
         
         This makes it even more important that HubPages looks into enabling "Buy It Now" items only.

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            pauldeedsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            You stated some facts about the cookies which I don't dispute, but your conclusion that eBay would become less competitive with Amazon as a result seems to be based on the assumption that eBay would pay more or less the same amount per sale that you generate (and as a result of the cookie change, you'd generate fewer sales).  Under quality click pricing it wasn't transparent how the payouts were determined.   It appears that yesterday they posted a FAQ on how the commission will be calculated in the new system. 
            
            I don't know what the net effect of the cookie and commission changes together will be on earnings.  But I do know that EPN knows they are competing with Amazon and others for affiliates, and if they want to affiliates to market eBay for them they have to have a competitive product.  So, I'd be surprised if the average payout per click changes too much.
            
            Anyway, I stand by my "wait and see" advice.  If in 2 weeks it's clear to you that eBay is less effective, then by all means switch your capsules to Amazon.

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               Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               My point is, it has nothing to do with the level of commission.  It has to do with the cookie being valid ONLY for the first 24 hours.
               
               Before, if the customer "watched" the auction, then went back and bid a few days later, you still got your commission.  Now, you won't.

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                  pauldeedsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  In your original post you said "that makes eBay effectively worthless and I strongly recommend you remove your eBay capsules".

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                     agvulpesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     Well so far I would say the Marisa is on the money.
                     Normally see something from ebay about every other day!  Not 1cent from ebay this month so far
                     
                     Looks like another strategy plan on the way

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                        pauldeedsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                        There are some issues with the ePN campaign level reports that we are still waiting for eBay to fix, so none of the October earnings are certified yet.  However, if the aggregate daily earnings are correct (and I believe they are), total ePN earnings across HubPages are actually up 40% since the change.  Because they now pay for actual sales, you may see 0's for a while and then get say $6 all one day.  Anyway, I suggest that you give it some more time.
                        
                        By the way, eBay annouced here that while some partners may make less and some more under the new scheme, that total partner earnings are unchanged.

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                           agvulpesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                           Thanks Paul would you say that leaving it sit till the end of October before going to a Plan B would give us a good indication of where ebay is heading ?

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                              pauldeedsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                              If you are basing your decision on your personal earnings, it would really depend on how many clicks you are getting.  The fewer you get, the longer it would take to get accurate idea of what your real earnings rate is.  A typical conversion rate on clicks would be in the range of say 2-7%.  I think you'd probably want to send ePN *at least* a few hundred clicks before drawing any conclusions.  And that advice is separate from waiting for their changes to be stable and their reporting bug free.  I'm hoping that will be the case by sometime next week (but it's out of my hands).
                              
                              That said, based on our data Amazon does pay 20-30% more per click.  So if your volume is sufficient (since they have volume based tiers), and  the same or comparable product is available on Amazon, and the Amazon Associates program is available where you live and the form of payment they provide is acceptable, then I'd probably go with Amazon.  Those things aren't always true, so that's one reason why we provide both options.

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                                 agvulpesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                                 Paul living in Australia I can only get paid via Gift Certificate from Amazon.  Having said that I have also earned far more from Amazon than I have from Ebay. Needless to say I buy a lot from Amazon
                                 Thanks for your informed advise

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                                    Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                                    You can choose to get paid by cheque, you know.  Set the limit higher (say, get them to hold the money until you get to $250).  Your Australian bank will charge you $10 to bank it because it's an American dollar cheque, but that's still better than buying stuff you don't need from Amazon.
                                    
                                    Since Amazon and eBay now have exactly the same cookie, and Amazon doesn't have auctions, Amazon is (IMO) a much better choice.

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                                       agvulpesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                                       Marisa thanks I must have missed the bit about getting paid by cheque, I will have to look into it further as it looks like ebay has now died, on me anyway!
                                       Up till now I have been buying stuff on Amazon that we have been trying to source here in Australia.  It's odd that I can buy stuff on Amazon and have it shipped to Australia cheaper and quicker than sourcing it on line from Australia.
                                       Go figure
                                       Thanks for the tip about the cheque

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                                          Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                                          I've never had much luck finding stuff I want on Amazon so the cheque option was a no-brainer for me.  Although I can find stuff cheaper on Amazon than here, often I can find the same product even cheaper on another US or UK site.  For books, for instance, Book Depository can't be beat.

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               LuisEGonzalezposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Just to see if I understand correctly; Ebay will still pay for clicks?

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                  LCDWriterposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  Luis, my understanding is that they will not anymore.

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                  Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  They pay for actual sales now.
                  Paul has a bit more details above.
                  http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/117407#post2481926

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                     LuisEGonzalezposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     Thanks for clarifying this for me

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   Nell Roseposted 10 years ago

   Thanks for the info Marisa and sorry to hear that it will mess up your sites. I tend to use Amazon more, in fact I forget about ebay pretty much, good thing if this is happening.

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   ChristinSposted 10 years ago

   That stinks. I've wanted to do Amazon, but unfortunately I live in a state where the Amazon affiliate program is not available

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   hardlymovingposted 10 years ago

   I concluded months ago that Ebay, compared to Amazon's commission based model, pays us pennies where I get dollars from Amazon on a big ticket purchases.  Amazon approved associates can get up to 8% commission ... although my average has been 6%.   I have been deleting Ebay ad links from my articles.

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I deleted all of my Ebay capsules about six weeks ago when I realized they were changing the ads at will and many did not match my articles!

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   relacheposted 10 years ago

   I've found that based on my subject, either Amazon or eBay has more appropriate products, so I'll wind up keeping whichever has the more relevant product.

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   LCDWriterposted 10 years ago

   galleryofgrace--I've noticed that ad comes on as well sometimes.  I usually keep my sound on mute but if I accidentally have it on, I'll hear it.

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   Victoria Lynnposted 10 years ago

   Yep, my state doesn't allow Amazon affiliates either, so it's a moot point for me, as with others.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Even if you can't use Amazon, consider that an eBay ad may distract a reader from clicking on an Adsense ad - if it's not going to give you a return on that click, you may be better off without it.

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   Shil1978posted 10 years ago

   Thanks for the heads-up Marisa. I wasn't aware of this, but I did start shifting from eBay to Amazon capsules a while back. Am glad I did

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   Barbara Kayposted 10 years ago

   I've never done well with Amazon, but have with eBay. This must depend on the individual hubs. With Christmas just months away now, I'm disappointed eBay is doing this. I've always done well at Christmas with eBay.

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    paradigmsearchposted 10 years ago

    This pretty much reflects my thoughts. I will be raptly watching my eBay earnings stats. If no significant change, I'll continue to muddle along. If I suddenly start seeing strings of zeros, out comes the chainsaw; one less ad for Google to get perturbed about.

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       Tenerife Islanderposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       I will do likewise! I have never made much from Amazon but with eBay I do get money coming in so I will wait and see how it goes!

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    paradigmsearchposted 10 years ago

    Well, I've got zeros 6 days in a row. Sharpening the chainsaw.

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    Beth37posted 10 years ago

    mmm cookies.

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    ChristinSposted 10 years ago

    Is it just a fluke then that I earned a lot more than usual on Oct 1st from eBay? like way more than usual... I'm waiting for stats for the past few days to update.  I think I'll stick it out for awhile before removing capsules since I can't use Amazon in my state... sigh.

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       paradigmsearchposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       Your hub topics are probably more conducive to eBay sales than mine. If the cookie thing doesn't do you in, I'd certainly keep them.

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       Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       You may be doing a good job, Christin.   The new eBay system will work if you can write Hubs which drive a reader to buy the eBay product RIGHT NOW THIS MINUTE - and if they do, then the commission will be higher.

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    Writer Foxposted 10 years ago

    

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    psycheskinnerposted 10 years ago

    Is Amazon back for people is "banned" states?

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    paradigmsearchposted 10 years ago

    I've looked at my lifetime eBay sales. Nothing to write home about. I've deleted two eBay capsules so far. Expecting to do more. Only keeping the big-ticket items, cause you never know...

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