Do Not Overlook The Opportunity To Promote Ebooks

I have a few sites that I have been making a more concerted effort to sell ebooks through the Ebooks.com affiliate program and it has been going quite well. Their program is run through the ever popular Commission Junction and they offer a diverse amount of titles to choose from. I came across a great post by Ronald Marva on how to link to individual books or you try to one of the many Commission Junction Wordpress plugins if you are indeed using that as your platform. If you like dealing with the datafeeds, this post explains how to work with them. They also have an example site listed that has it in action for you to see. People are very use to ebooks now and they are becoming more accepted every day and the best thing about them is the fact that they can be delivered in a matter of seconds to buying customer. See if there are any you can promote.

Yet Another Commission Junction Wordpress Plugin

Thanks to the PHPBay forum, I stumbled across yet another Commission Junction Wordpress Plugin for you to play with. I am a long time user of the plugin put out by LoraGi, but it never hurts to try others along the way. You can try a free version of this MoneyPress plugin as long as you stay logged into whatever site you install it on. You and only you will see the output. You can then decide if you want to shell out the large sum of 5 bucks to have the full version of the plugin. I like to use PHPBay, a Commision Junction plugin and either ReviewAzon or PHPZon on all my niche sites in tabs as it gives my surfers a huge variety of places to buy from.

Amazon, Commission Junction & Geo Targeted BANS Addons

If you have BANS sites that you want to integrate Amazon or Commission Junction into, you may want to buy the multi pack of addons offered by Tao from the BANS forum. I installed the Commission Junction one today on an older BANS site and it was very easy. His directions are written with a newbie in mind and the addons do exactly what they promise to do. The Amazon addon works just the same and allows you to show products from Amazon. The Geo Targeted addon is great for any BANS site, especially if you get a heavy mixture of foreign traffic. It matches the eBay products and EPN program based on the surfers IP, so now you can convert any traffic looking to buy from eBay. Tao is a long time user of BANS and I trust his work, he also offers excellent customer service.

You can buy all 3 of these addons in one package for $60.00 which will save you $20.00. You can use these on as many BANS sites you need to. If you have not yet graduated to Wordpress or have sites you do not feel or now how to convert to Wordpress to add other income possibilities, I highly suggest you look at purchasing these. You will not be disappointed.

CJ Niche Store Wordpress Plugin Upgrade & New Amazon Plugin

It has not been long since I first posted about the CJ Niche Store Wordpress plugin that allows you to display Commission Junction items easily in Wordpress post and pages. I just received a notice that the plugin has been upgraded and includes a few suggestions I made as well. The plugin now lets you add nofollow to the affiliate links, add a description and use it solely as an Overstock Wordpress plugin as well. In addition to that great news, a new free Amazon Wordpress plugin has been released as well. I have included the videos below that shows about the CJ and Amazon Plugin features.

CJ Wordpress Plugin Tweeks

In the CJ Wordpress plugin I mentioned yesterday, I have uncovered that you can indeed pull from more than one approved advertiser. In the Advertiser Id section of the setup section, merely separate additional advertiser id's with a comma. So it would look like this: 12345678,87654321

I have tried with up to 3 advertiser numbers thus far and it worked fine.

Another thing you can do is to change the size of the images it displays. In some of my niches, the images were distorted by the default plugin image size. To change the size, go to the Plugins page in your Wordpress admin and click edit under the CjNiche Plugin for Wordpress listing. Then go to line 60 of that code and you will see were the width and height of the image commands are. You can edit these to whatever size you need to better display the product images of that particular niche. Click update File at the bottom when done and check your work.

Free CJ Commission Junction Wordpress Plugin

I am always on the lookout for free or paid items to help me with my niche sites. A reader recently sent me a link for a free Commission Junction Wordpress plugin to check out and I have gave it a try. What a nice little free plugin it is. The setup is quite easy, but please note you will need a CJ developer key. This long string goes in the middle box of the setup. The top box is called the CJ Websiteid and this number should be your PID number for whatever site you are using under the Web site Settings tab that is found under the Account tab in your Commission Junction dashboard. The last box in the plugin setup is the Advertiser Id. You can leave this blank to search all of CJ, but you must be an approved partner for any results it finds.

Say for example you are an approved affiliate through CJ for Overstock, you would enter in the number 2626374 in that box and can have listings from their inventory only. So in essence, this is an Overstock Wordpress plugin as well. To display listings on a page or post, you enter the below call in the content area:

[cjniche keywords="+red+dress" listing="3"]

The above statement would pull 3 listings with the keyword parameters of red dress. If you have any questions about this plugin, feel free to comment.

Commission Junction Form Buttons Fun

I have been working with integrating in some Commission Junction product links into some of BANS sites on pages that I have exact product matches for. At the same time I just want to give the surfer an option other than eBay without cluttering up the page. Lately this form buttons I have been making have been converting quite nicely. I merely strip down the HTML links given in the "Get Links" portion in for certain product in the CJ admin section.

Below is the code it gives me:

<form method="get" action="http://www.dpbolvw.net/interactive" target="_top">
<table border="0" width="600" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="10%"><img src="http://us-preview.ebooks.com/previews/000/000300/000300287/000300287-sml-1.jpg" border="0" alt="How to Make Money Online with eBay, Yahoo!, and Google"/></td>
<td valign="top" >
<p><b><font size="4">How to Make Money Online with eBay, Yahoo!, and Google</font></b></p>
<p><font size="2">Groundbreaking strategies for reaching millions of customers online and boosting traffic, sales, and profits This full-color, seminar-in-a-book presents a proven plan for maximizing your online profits by leveraging the top three services: eBay, Yahoo! and Google. You?lllearn to: expand an existing eBay business to reach millions of targeted buyers; Open a Yahoo! store to build a thriving direct-to-customer business; and send more customers to their online retail business with improved search engine placement and targeted adword buys using Google. How to Make Money Online with eBay,Yahoo!, and Google explains how to use cross-merchandising and integration strategies to promote sales and manage inventory across multiple sales channels.</font></p>
<hr>
<input type="hidden" name="pid" value="0000000"/>
<input type="hidden" name="aid" value="00000000"/>
<input type="hidden" name="cjsku" value="000000"/>
<input type="hidden" name="url" value="http://www.ebooks.com/cj.asp?IID=300287"/>
<input type="submit" value="Buy"/>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>

<img src="http://www.lduhtrp.net/image-2811192-10281551" width="1" height="1" border="0"/>

I strip out everything except for the form tags and input tags and change the "Buy" value to whatever I want it to be. This makes for an unobtrusive ad of sorts.

Below is the stripped down version:

<form method="get" action="http://www.jdoqocy.com/interactive" target="_blank">
<input type="hidden" name="pid" value="0000000">
<input type="hidden" name="aid" value="00000000">
<input type="hidden" name="cjsku" value="000000">
<input type="hidden" name="url" value="http://www.ebooks.com/cj.asp?IID=139648">
<input type="submit" value="Check Price On eBooks.com">
</form>

And here is the finished button:

CJ Commission Junction Wordpress Store Plugin

I have recently purchased ans started using the CJ Friend Commission Junction Wordpress plugin. It is quite an impressive plugin for the price and it enables you to concentrate on adding product listings in a store format to Wordpress post or content pages.

Below are some of the features:

• CJ Friend is user friendly
• Build affilate pages quickly
• Great on searching feature
• Scheduled post feature
  
• Built in post templates
• Customizable post feature
  
• One product per page or multi product per page
• Customizable title feature
  

This plugin is great for adding more diversification of CJ products to Wordpress BANS stores.

Click here to visit the CJ Friend plugin page and demo.

Popshops Items On Your BANS Store

I have been playing around a bit with PopShops the last month and adding some items to some Build A Niche Store pages. I did it in a controlled site that had tons of organic traffic. I was quite amazed at the results. Sold quite a few items using this method. Now let me say this is not for every niche, but you might be surprised at what you might find. The free version outputs javascript so that is a drawback as SERPS do not pick up or cache it, but the paid version gives you PHP code and integrates in well with a little tweeking. Hopefully the BANS 4.0 will have the ability to easily add php includes and I might dedicate a future post to it. The javascript code can be added in the bellow ads section and by using the 3 column BANS product listings, it allows the flow to be quite seamless. You will need to register with all of the affiliate programs other than Commission Junction if you want to show the products from affiliate programs other than CJ vendors. I will probably use it more and more on other stores of mine when I can get back around to them. Give the free portion a go and play around with it.

Note: I will be adding the next post in the Niche Store Student On Board Series on Wednesday, so stay tuned.

Ads On Your Build A Niche Stores

This post will be agreed with by many and disagreed with by many as well. Let me start off with a real life personal story. My own father WILL NOT buy anything off of eBay. He just does not trust it from whatever circle of influence he might of formed that opinion on, I do not know. I have told him time and time again how and what to look for when shopping eBay with no avail. I have tracked his surfing for a week on his computer (with his knowledge of doing so) and noticed he does click on ads and has indeed purchased from other companies online via an affiliate ad. You have to face the facts that there are people out there like that. That is why on some of my BANS stores I try to place ads from other advertisers that sell the same niche items I am promoting. I want to try to produce some income from EVERY surfer that visits one of my stores. With the emergence of Pepperjam, it has opened up a bigger outlet of net advertisers. When you combine Pepperjam with Commission Junction, Linkshare, Google Adsense and a few other ad network sites, there is no reason you should not be able to find an affiliate program that sells products related to your niche. If you have built your store right, you have promised the surfer they will find what they are looking for by coming to your store so make sure to give them as many options as possible and funnel the surfer to where they want to go.

Pepperjam & Build A Niche Store Will Partner

As you will probably know eBay recently partnered with Pepperjam
which allows affiliates to market eBay listed products through the
Pepperjam network rather than the EPN platform.

From eBay's perspective the principal reason for doing this is to
extend their reach into the affiliate marketing community.
Pepperjam is a large network with "X" amount of affiliate marketers
and this partnership will bring a percentage of Pepperjam
publishers who were not previously eBay affiliates into the eBay
affiliate program(s)...the EPN platform itself is going nowhere.

From your perspective as a BANS user it opens the possibility of
running your BANS stores through the Pepperjam network rather than
EPN and a number of users have expressed an interest in having this
option.

Consequently, we have been in communication with Pepperjam over
this past week and a half discussing the different options for
linking BANS up with Pepperjam and a projected timescale for doing
this.

They have been working to bring the eBay RSS feed (which BANS
requires) into their platform this past week and have also been
discussing with eBay the option and timescale over which they can
extend their support of the eBay affiliate programs from just the
US (currently) to all the eBay affiliate programs so that they can
support all BANS countries and users.

There was a debate as to whether we would go ahead with BANS US to
start with and then add support for the additional countries once
Pepperjam had brought them inside their network or whether we would
wait until all the countries were supported and release a complete
version of BANS Pepperjam to compliment BANS EPN.

It has now been decided that BANS and Pepperjam will partner over
the following 2 stages.

1. A BANS V3.0 Pepperjam for US store builders will be released
along with an update pack for existing V3.0 US stores if you would
like to convert then from EPN to Pepperjam.

2. Once Pepperjam has extended their support from just the eBay.com
(US) affiliate program to include all of the eBay affiliate
programs we will release a complete (ie all countries) Pepperjam
version of BANS V3.0 to sit alongside BANS V3.0 EPN and it will be
up to you to decide which network you use.

We've spoken with Kris from Pepperjam this morning and stage 1
should happen sometime this week.

Once we know more we'll update you Smile

Best,

Kelvin and Adam

Pepperjam eBay Affiliate Program & Build A Niche Store

Got a few emails asking about the new Pepperjam affiliate program and its relationship with eBay. I talked to Mandy from Pepperjam and she indicated that they are in talks with Adam and Kelvin from Build A Niche Store. While there are a ton of things up in the air at the present time I can tell you this. This will not affect how you are currently working with EPN. The Pepperjam program will likely be along the lines of what Commission Junction was doing with eBay. My best suggestion is to go ahead and sign up with Pepperjam now and apply to the eBay program. That way you are ready whenever more on the Pepperjam/eBay relationship surfaces. I suggest you fill out the application honestly and as complete as possible as this could delay your approval. Also Pepperjam has a ton other companies they run affiliates for so you might find someone to promote as well.

eBay EPN extends migration date

In case you have missed it eBay is extending the time you have to migrate over from Commission Junction to the new EPN program. Remember to check your balances and make sure you are over the minimums for payout. If so, I see no reason not to migrate you Niche Store over, the new EPN is still a little clunky, but it is tracking and sales are indeed showing. The new cutoff is May 31st.

May 1st is coming | EPN Blog Feed Added

May 1st is right around the corner and that means you need to be thinking about finalizing your Build A Niche Store transfers over to the new eBay EPN tracking affiliate program. Commission Junction will no longer track after April 30 th according to reports. With the 7 day cookie lag, I highly suggest you have everything in order by this weekend.

Also I have added the eBay EPN blog feed to the bottom of this sites page. It will keep you up to date with everything on the EPN blog.

Ebay EPN tracking well with BANS Build A Niche Stores

OK, all panic should be over as it appears that the Build A Niche Store (BANS) updates with the new eBay EPN program are tracking well and converting. The great thing is that it even reports bids as well as other things.

If you are seeing clicks in your report panel, then all should be good to go as it is tracking. One thing to keep in mind is that if you have repeat visitors to your Niche Stores, they may still be locked into that 7 day cookie through Commission Junction (CJ). All of the current BANS updates seem to be working fine with a few minor bugs unrelated to tracking. I highly suggest you back up your databases if you are unsure with the update process to the new eBay EPN affiliate program. Things should only get better from here forward.

One double check is to turn off your url cloaking and hover over an item, you should see the web address down in the bottom. Look for your campaign ID in the url. The beginning part of the url for US users should look like below.

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?campid=1234567890&customid

ETA: Several other BANS blogs are scaring people into holding off updating, I for one say it is safe to go into the water. Make sure to read the readme file in each update as it was a breeze on my end.

eBay Partner network update

Well the countdown is on to the release of the new eBay affiliate partner program. They have updated some info and tutorials along with adding a few videos as well. I suggest you bounce around here before the change over begins on April 1st. Also, I have heard no other updates on when the Build A Niche store update will be ready, but am still assuming it will be tomorrow afternoon or evening. Get signed up with eBay as soon as possible, just in case they experience any network trouble. I am probably going to camp out tonight, myself.

Great eBay affiliate migrating interview

Will Martin-Gill, senior manager of Internet marketing for eBay, joined Shawn Collins and Sam Harrelson to discuss eBay migrating their affiliate program from Commission Junction to in-house.

They discussed a lot of great features eBay will be offering with the transition from Commission Junction over to eBay. This is a great radio interview and I highly suggest everyone give it a listen.

here is the link...

http://www.webmasterradio.fm/Affiliate-Marketing/Affiliate-Thing/eBay-Takes-Affiliate-Program-out-of-CJ.htm

Interview starts about the quarter way point.

Something to think about concerning the eBay switchover

This is just some food for thought for the newbies. Starting April 1st, you should know by now that eBay is taking over the affiliate program from Commission Junction. Make sure you have enough in your account to get a full check from CJ before you jump out of there program. I believe many have it set at $25.00, so just make sure to double check, as you have until May 1st until CJ will stop tracking. If you are still selling other CJ products on a regular basis, then it should be safe to go ahead and jump to the new eBay tracking system on April 1st. It is also looking like Adam and Kelvin hope to have the new Build A Niche Store update in place sometime that evening if all goes well with the testing.

New eBay affiliate program announced

As many know by now, eBay has announced that they will be taking care of their affiliate program in house starting on April 1st. This should not alarm anyone and should be considered a good thing. It take Commision Junction out of the equation now. Not a day goes by that there is some sort of post on the BANS forum that is questioning the stat tracking from CJ. I myself have never had a problem, but this will give many peace of mind going forward. Ebay knows that it's affiliates are good at driving traffic and I expect everything to go smoothly. The Build A Niche Store software should be easy to switch over once the sign ups are in gear. I strongly suggest everyone be on eBays' door on April 1st and get the ball rolling. This is an exciting time for all BANS store owners.

What is a Build A Niche Store?

Build A Niche Store is a website builder that lets you create your own EBAY affiliate store. It is very user friendly to set up and you can design your store around a single product or group of products in your niche. You get paid through Commission Junction monthly. I have been using Build A Niche Store for almost a year now and have been very happy happy with the program and the results. You can integrate your Google Adsense links or whatever other affiliate ads into your pages as well. This blog will be dedicated to making your BANS site better through tips and secrets.