Exploring Mainstream: eBay's Affiliate Program
When members of the adult Internet industry think of affiliate programs, what comes to mind are programs where webmasters can promote such things as porn sites, sex toys, and penis pills. We do not often consider that there are programs outside the realm of sex and porn, which are also profitable and worth examining. There are many mainstream companies out there that offer referral or affiliate programs; some are worthwhile and others are not. However, there is one site that has been taking the Internet by storm for a number of years, and it too provides its members with an affiliate program. The site is eBay and their affiliate program is most definitely worth talking about.
In the past, I have found that many of the mainstream affiliate programs are too time-consuming for the amount of compensation that they give in return. Most of the big online retailers offer affiliate programs but they are usually not as lucrative as the ones that are so widespread in our industry. Adult affiliate programs offer huge incentives for referrals that come in various forms such as pay per signup and recurring percentages. These programs can be big moneymakers for webmasters that have the right traffic to send to them. However, for those of you adult webmasters who feel that you may want to send some of your traffic mainstream, I would highly recommend sending it via eBay’s affiliate program.
eBay’s affiliate allows its members to earn money two different ways. First of all, eBay will pay you handsomely for every new active user that you send their way. A user is considered “active” when they make a bid or a purchase within the first thirty days of registration. The structure for payment varies with the volume of traffic that you send to the program. If you send less than 250 active users in a month, you will be rewarded, $5.00 per active registrant. It works as a tier up from there with the top being $16.00 per active registrant for over 10,000 users in a month. Secondly, eBay will reward affiliates every time a person makes a bid or purchase when they reach eBay via the affiliate’s site. If clicks from your site result in less than 1,500 bids or purchases then you will be rewarded $0.05 for each one. However, if your clicks amount to over 750,000 bids or purchases then your compensation will be $0.15 per transaction. The following is an example of how this profitable pricing structure can lead to big bucks in your pocket. Let’s say that you send 2,500 active registrants to eBay in one month and on top of that your links generate 5,000 bids or purchases, your compensation for that month would be $35,900 (2,500 x 14) + (5000 x 0.08).
eBay’s affiliate program is one that will work for a variety of online business models and is one that has already proven to be profitable for many. eBay’s top 100 affiliates earn roughly $25,000 per month and several earn over $100,000 per month, which works out to over $1 million dollars per year. Big name websites are currently cashing in on the potential profit that the eBay affiliate program can provide as well, including music mega site, RollingStone. The site includes items for sale on eBay that are related to each of the thousands of artists that they feature on their site. Also RollingStone.com’s marketing campaign includes eBay in their weekly newsletters and monthly magazine. It is an affiliate program that appeals to the webmasters or online businesses that know how to expertly capitalize on their traffic.
Along with monetary compensation, the eBay affiliate program also strives to provide its members with the very best in selling, tracking and reporting tools. Affiliates have the option to use one of two sites, Be Free or Commission Junction, to monitor their sales. These two sites provide affiliates with numerous functions that can assist in the selling and analysis process and they do just about everything to add to the success of the affiliate’s campaign. eBay’s affiliate program also sets up a toolbox for its members that allow them to choose from a wide variety of banners, buttons, search boxes, and text links. Webmasters who become affiliates with eBay are given everything at their disposal to successfully integrate the program with their own website’s look and customer demographics. eBay even offers its affiliates something called Editor Kit, which essentially brings the relevant items on eBay straight to your website. Editor Kit allows affiliate to add relevant real-time eBay listings to their site that produce click-thru rates that are twice as effective as the regular banners. Let’s say that you have a site that reviews movies. You could have your reviews on one side of the page and the actual listings that sell the movies on eBay on the other side of the page. This truly is a great selling feature of the eBay affiliate program.
I feel that adult webmasters are the most savvy when it comes to the workings of the Internet and that is why I feel that the eBay affiliate program is one that they could make a profit from. I should make a note that eBay does not tolerate any spam, but there are so many in this industry that make money from traffic in the ethical ways. This program should really be considered as a mainstream complement to any webmaster’s profitable online porn empire. eBay is truly becoming a household brand that is recognized worldwide and it is growing by the second.
