eBay is a very popular, highly converting website that has a good affiliate program you can use to help monetize your sites. Given Google's current penchant for de-indexing BANS sites, you're much better off with a regular website (WordPress or any other PHP-capable system) that adds in the eBay listings to your posts and pages, but isn't obviously the whole reason for the existence of your site. Among the problems BANS has is the high number of super-thin affiliate sites built with it, the templating difficulties, and content issues that make it more difficult to work with than other systems. Wade Wells' phpBay Pro (and the free, less fully featured version phpBay Lite) address this issue by simply and easily adding eBay auction results into your existing website. While the API version works with any PHP capable website, I will discuss primarily the WordPress plugin version for simplicity in this review.
First off, obviously you will need to sign up with eBay if you haven't already done so. Displaying eBay listings without being an affiliate is of course not all that profitable. Down at the bottom of the page you will see the link for Affiliates.
Installing phpBay Pro / phpBay Lite
Installation is simple. phpBayPro / phpBayLite installs as a regular plugin and one more file copied to the root of your WordPress install. From there, you just activate the plugin and configure your desired settings. This includes entering your eBay PID or Campaign ID. Don't forget this step!
More settings you will want to be sure to configure dictate how you want your items displayed, by cheapest first, ending soonest, best match, etc., geo-targeting options, displaying only items that are "Buy It Now" or have images, offer free shipping, etc.
Inserting phpBay Pro Code Into Posts
Once you have done this, it is a simple matter to add in your code for displaying the listings where you want them in your post like so:
What does the code inside the tags mean?
• Your search term
• The number of listings you want displayed
• eBay category number - typically I leave this empty and do a fairly precise search
• Your negative search terms - super important, see why below
Here is the post itself, using the code above:
Note that I have customized my results template; by default it returns the standard eBay format with price, bids, time remaining, etc.
phpBay Pro Tips and Hints
eBay's search will tend to return you a very wide array of results if you don't restrict it. In the above example, notice that while I searched on "ipod nano 8GB" only one of the items return fits. You must use the negative terms to narrow your search. While I put skins and cases in as negative terms, I got results for skin and case. Most of the items in that particular niche are various types of accessories. I find "for" to be a pretty good negative term in that case, but you will want to tweak your own listings to make sure you get what you want.
phpBay Pro includes the cloaked links function, so the Big G is less likely to decide you are a thin affiliate. Please, however, actually create useful and keyword focused content. You're doing yourself and everyone else a favor. That didn't happen so much with BANS, and look how that is ending up. You needn't get a Pulitzer Prize for your writing, but there needs to be something there. You can use the SEOd URLs instead of eBay Rover links and use mod_rewrite so the images aren't obviously coming from eBay as well.
Why did I mention these 2 items in particular? phpBay Lite does not use the negative terms, nor does it use SEO URLs / link cloaking. Upgrading to phpBay Pro is worth the cost, folks.
I've been using phpBay Pro for several months now and am quite happy with it. Wade's support is outstanding with a quick response time to inquiries, and there are all sorts of useful gems in the support forum, which is populated by a helpful community. For example, I discovered a method there for replacing / extending WordPress' search function so that it returns eBay results in place of, or in addition to, your WP search results. This gives a searcher a much higher chance of finding something they are looking for, buying it, and netting you a commission. phpBay Pro is a great buy for anyone with any product-focused sites.
6 responses so far ↓
1 phpBay Pro and You | Best Work From Home Business Success Tactics // Nov 14, 2008 at 4:25 am
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5 Internet and Businesses Online Hub » Blog Archive » phpBay Pro and You // Nov 16, 2008 at 12:52 am
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