33 Ebay Hubs in 30 Days - $95.02 in earnings - Some Lessons Learned

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   Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years ago

   Prior to last month my idea of promoting Ebay was to stick an Ebay capsule at the end of my Amazon hubs, I made about $10 bucks a month doing that.
   
   So my first lesson was you want to make real money from any affiliate program - including Ebay - you have to design a hub to promote the products and program. I wrote hubs of varying lengths - longer hubs over 800 words did better. Whether they were written at the beginning of the month or later in the month.
   
   So lesson #2 write looooong hubs with lots and lots of products. Products everywhere!
   
   Lesson #3 write lots of hubs - about 40% of my hubs were responsible for 80% of my earnings. They weren't any better or any different than the others. You just don't know what life in online marketing will bring. So play the odds.
   
   Lesson #4 it doesn't take 10 months or longer, as some have suggested, for Hubpages Hubs to season online and make money. Most of my hubs were indexed in google in under 24 hours and started making money within a few days.
   
   These are just some of the things I learned last month about Ebay. I told Ryan Hupfer I would write a blog post for him and I'll spill more.
   
   And I know that these lessons aren't the only way to make lots of money on Ebay. There are a few hubbers here that I know do great with very different writing strategies. I'm not suggesting that this one-month Ebay Hubber knows better. I have great respect for them and their way of writing.
   
   Sometimes on the forums I think we get into too much "either or or." I think there's lots of ways to achieve goals at this is -and this is what worked for me last month. Don't be too surprised if you see me experimenting with new styles this month.
   
   So you guys that did the challenge last month, what were some of your lessons learned? Let's help each other.

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      rebekahELLEposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      thanks for sharing. it's nice to hear any success stories.
      my son also uses Ebay for everything and he works in ecommerce/marketing.

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      cosetteposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      good job Nelle!

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   Len Cannonposted 14 years ago

   Are you getting enough traffic to earn your own EPC rate or are you getting the "low traffic" group rate?  I've never really bothered with ebay much and would make three or four sales a month with it. The new click pricing hasn't changed much, in terms of earning but I've gotten around 15 dollars for minimal effort.

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   Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years ago

   I honestly can't tell my daily EPC is all over the place. But I decided that I would just work like heck for 200 Ebay hubs and see what that brings. If 33 new hubs produced $95, I'm hopeful for 200. Then maybe I'll be big enough to see some stability in EPC.

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   lrohnerposted 14 years ago

   Congrats Nelle! Sounds like the experiment is going well. Keep us updated.

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   Paradise7posted 14 years ago

   Good job, Nelle.  It IS nice to hear a success story.  I did the 30 hubs in 30 days, for the second time, but I was five hubs short this time.  Oh well, it was a good effort, and it kept me going.
   
   I really should find a way to profitize my hubs a little more.  It would help me to keep going and offer a motivation that seems to be lacking in me just lately.

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   Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years ago

   Thanks everyone. But it's not just about me and my Ebay earnings. I've heard people say that they've had some successes in traffic and Amazon and Adsense.
   
   You don't have to blab your earnings, but you must have lessons learned as well. Those of you who focus on adsense have any tips about writing adsense hubs? Those are on my ToDo list for next summer. And I am clueless right now.

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   cosetteposted 14 years ago

   i have actually learned something interesting in the past few weeks..that i seem to be earning more ffrom Google than Amazon, even though i post tons of Amazon ads, which makes me rethink that a little bit.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Cosette, Amazon is a one session cookie, which means the visitor has to buy something right away. If they go away and think about it, then come back later and buy the product, you get no credit (unlike eBay). 
      
      Nellie, I'm glad to hear you're finding longer Hubs (800 words plus) are worthwhile. I'll admit when I saw some of our earlier Hubs, they seemed like all ads and no content and that worried me a bit!

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         cosetteposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         really?
         
         wow that is good to know. thanks!
         
         p.s. i sold two things on two different hubs, so i feel kind of good that they were "sold" by my writing to buy something right then. wow...lots to think about. i love you guys

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         Mark Knowlesposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Yup - my conversion rate is down to 7% since they changed from 24 hours. Not a happy bunny.
         
         Cannot make head or tail of the new ebay rules either. lol

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         darksideposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         If the person added the Amazon product to their shopping cart it would still be a valid referral. Or have they changed that too?

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            Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            My understanding is that is what they recently changed. There is no more 24-hour shopping cart cookie. Everything else always has been a one-session cookie. So I think that's why folks have had Amazon sales dip. Reading their TOS is like reading mud though - so maybe I'm wrong.

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      Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Keep tweeking your ad copy and your product mix. I think you need to double your number of hubs to see reliable Amazon income. It's a bear to convert. But that doesn't mean that there isn't money to be made. You just gotta work it hard. Unfortunately at Hubpages there aren't many monetizing options. But that isn't to say it can't be done.

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         cosetteposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         thanks so much. i am sort of revamping my style in my next hub phase, beginning with my holiday hubs. i've learned a lot in my first few months here, and expect to learn even more in the coming months. time to boil some coffee

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   NaomiRposted 14 years ago

   Thanks for sharing, Nelle.
   
   For Adsense, I've had a lot of success tweaking the summary text found at the top of each hub. Click off the automatically calculate the text box and then write your own, incorporating keywords. I've found that I get much better, more specific ads by doing this. I still have a long way to go in terms of my payout, but this has definitely sped up the process for me.
   
   As for Amazon, I finally started selling stuff when I made product-specific hubs as opposed to just including products in other hubs. But I'm still experimenting and will continue to let you know how it goes.

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   ngurecoposted 14 years ago

   That's impressive! It seems ebay or amazon can do well than adsense if ones knows how to go about it.
   
   Why did you choose ebay and not amazon?
   
   Keep it up.

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      Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I didn't really choose Ebay first. I wrote 200 Amazon hubs, long and short, heavy with products, light with products, some with intro paragraphs or with no intro paragraphes, some with products at the top. I took the time to learn how to convert Amazon and have stable earnings. Once I had my Amazon portfolio where I wanted it I moved on to Ebay.
      
      I plan to write at least 200 Ebay hubs as quickly as possible to learn how to make it convert efficiently at hubpages. I'm doing the same thing varying the length, the format, the product placement, the number of products, the hub layout.
      
      Ebay changing the game and going to PPC has even made it more interesting. Yes it's a 7-day cookie, but the earlier they buy the more you get. They want you to drive new traffic not returning traffic, so there's little value in having return visitors. You get more per click for a new customer.
      
      I live in a US state that very well might pass an internet tax law which means I will be booted out of the Amazon program. So I probably won't be writing anymore Amazon hubs. I also prefer a 7-day cookie to a one session cookie. And I'm finding that Ebay converts like crazy. So for now I'm happy.

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    livewithrichardposted 14 years ago

    As I mentioned in another post, I finished the October challenge with 32 hubs, 21 of them were product hubs. Of those 21, 8 were geared more towards Ebay products and those 8 out performed all of my Amazon geared hubs put together and I don't even know how many that is...lol Plus, I wrote didn't even start adding Ebay until the middle of October.
    
    I may place some Amazon products if I can't find enough Ebay products but Ebay is my new number one choice affiliate program.
    
    Unlike Nelle's hubs that give tons of product and lots of info, I have found that giving just enough info to wet the lips works just fine for me.  I'm not writing product reviews, I'm writing product summaries and there is a big difference.  I've been finding success with 300-500 words on my product summaries, whereas I find the most success with adsense on hubs with greater than 800 words.
    
    Like Nelle, my product hubs are being indexed within 24 to 48 hours on most search engines so there is still tons of time to make some money during the Christmas season.

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       lakeerieartistsposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       This is a great thread.  I have been writing hubs so far aimed at Adsense and Amazon.  Amazon is getting lots of clicks but sales are very low.  Not too impressive.  I can probably do better but I would rather spend my time on what pays more.
       
       My Adsense has been increasing over the last two months quite a bit.  I think I only had 1 day in October with 0, and most of my days are getting multiple clicks.  Part of it was writing hubs on keywords that average higher average click price.  So far the majority of my hubs have been between 400 to 600 words.  I am going to try some longer ones this month.

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    Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years ago

    Ebay just reduced its cookie from 30 days to 7 days as well.

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    bystuffonlineposted 14 years ago

    This is great information.  Thanks for sharing.  It sounds like you are working hard.

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    PJ_Deneenposted 14 years ago

    Thank you so much for sharing this Nelle.  I haven't really focused on Amazon much at all and I've been rejected by eBay, but it's been a while so I might try to apply again.  You've given some great tips.

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    assemberposted 14 years ago

    I don't understand how folks are placing Ebay links on Hubpages.
    Has Epn had a change of Heart ?

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       darksideposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       This sheds a little more light on the subject.

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       Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       I was accepted into the program on the basis of websites outside of Hubpages. And then they decided to continue to allow Ebay capsules.

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    assemberposted 14 years ago

    Nice to know, tho currently, I am not a fan of EPN

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    Ryan Hupferposted 14 years ago

    Here's your blog post, Nelle! Thanks for writing it up.
    
    http://blog.hubpages.com/2009/11/33-eba … s-learned/

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    Whitney05posted 14 years ago

    I wouldn't promote quantity over quality.
    
    
    
    You never really stated that when writing a lot of hubs, they should be as high quality as possible.
    
    I think in a good design, you can easily promote ebay and do well. I have a handful where the hubs were designed for ebay, and most do decently. I hate just using text and ebay capsules alone. Makes the page blank.

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    KCC Big Countryposted 14 years ago

    I think we tend to take the "quality" issue for granted.  No one EVER expects people to crank out substandard hubs.  Quality is a given.  But, I do understand that sometimes you have to point out the obvious....that's why we have to put labels on appliances telling you not to use them in the bathtub.

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       Whitney05posted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Exactly... When people just starting out trying to earn on the internet see things like 30 in 30 days they will probably assume quantity is best and produce crap all over the internet, especially if they find HP first and see that.  Because they see other people writing a lot and may not really pay attention to the quality concern, they may not really think about it. They may think quantity is best because you'll have more pages that people can find, but if the quality is no good, people won't really find the pages.

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    thisisoliposted 14 years ago

    I have had the complete opposite luck when it comes to Amazon and eBay.
    
    Amazon converts incredibly well for me, eBay on the other hand seems to bring in some very poor earnings.  Have you tried switching your amazon/ebay adverts around, since when i try this I lose a lot of money from lack of ebay sales.
    
    Maybe this is my technique which is offsetting my earnings, but Amazon works best for me!

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       Nelle Hoxieposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       No, I haven't tried switching my ads around. My ebay sales are quite strong - and my hubs are designed to sell on Ebay.

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    sriastutikposted 14 years ago

    thank you Nelle. i am new here and your information very helpful.

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    Rik Ravadoposted 14 years ago

    Nelle
    
    Thanks for all your input to the forums on earning strategies - very helpful and very much appreciated!

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    coolhairposted 14 years ago

    Ive found a rather different experience on other blog platforms. Roughly along the lines of the Pareto principle, about 80% of my revenue comes from 20% of posts. Perhaps the fact that most hubs rank well means even unpopular hubs still make cash.

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