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Ebay Power Tool - RSS Feeds

1K views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  JMatt 
#1 ·
Ebay Power Tool - RSS Feeds

This post comes with an up front disclaimer: I make a little bit of money from Ebay promoting their auctions. Whenever someone clicks on one of my links, bids and wins, or uses Buy it Now, a small percentage goes directly into my 'Shop Fund'. If you want to know more just drop me a line.

I'm suprised by how many folks are not aware of this feature.

Here we go:
This little known tool is my favorite, by far. It's called the RSS feeds. It doesn't look like much but
it's only after you add it to a 'reader' like Google Reader that its true power becomes apparent.

The links on my website are a much more complicated version of RSS feeds.

Here is how you do it:

1. Go to Ebay and click on advanced search.
2. Enter your keywords and any filters and click 'Search'.
3. At the bottom in an area marked 'Tools' you'll see a little orange icon that says, 'RSS'.
4. 'Right Click' the icon and click 'Copy Shortcut'.
5. Now, go to www.google.com/reader (You may need to create a Gmail account)
6. Once in Google Reader, click 'Add Subscription' and paste the shortcut into the field provided.
7. Click 'Add' and you're done.
8. Now all you have to do is go to your reader and see only the new listings for a particular search.

That's it. You're done.

What can you do now?

You can click the star and view only the 'starred' listings, sort, mark as read, etc. I like the fact
that I can see the all of the 'new listings' as if they were new emails. I also like the fact that
they load faster than anything on any Ebay page and I can organize them into any category that I choose.

There are alternative methods of using feeds. I will gladly explain them if anyone is interested.
 
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#4 ·
On my site that's true. Here on LJ, not so much. I understand folks not liking the deceptive nature of affiliate links when they are tricked into clicking a link and get sent to something they didn't not want to see. Those 'untargeted' links are what has ruined the whole business. But, as an example, someone in an iPhone forum is looking for a good deal on an iPhone case and someone provides a link to a site that has them for 20% off. Thats what is called a 'targeted lead'. Is it a bad thing if the person who provided the link makes a 1% commission? The way I see it, when done properly, it provides a service to both the consumer and the retailer. A service that could, and sometimes is, rewarded.

I learned my lesson on that a while back. A site had a buy sell area. Folks were always posting links to ebay with 'Hey check this auction out'. I followed suit but with affiliate links. No difference from what the others were doing but with the added benefit that I could make a little money for the 'shop fund'. The person clicking was still getting the expected content. I got a little overzealous and was considered a spammer and, subsequently, banned for life. In the end, I think it was because I didn't indicate that I was benefiting from it and didn't say that up front.

That is why I offered my disclaimer and there are no Ebay links in this post. I'm currently on the hunt for hand tool info and I use feeds and affiliate links in my iPhone. Yes, I use my own links to buy things. Its legal. Ebay sellers are not prohibited either. They could be recovering up to 50% of some fees by doing it. Wow!
Here is what it looks like on my iPhone.


If any 'web saavy' folks want to know more just drop me a line. I have more tricks to share. Stay tuned.
 
#5 ·
I was joking there, I am all for the capitalist system. The way I see it to is you have drilled down to the meat of it and I would not have to go to eBay and deal with all the clutter on the page, Just find my item and click, click buy and I am done. I like it. I don't see that as deceptive at all.
 
#6 ·
I do find this interesting, and now I know why in the past when searching for an item I get links that land me on pages of listings selling items offered by other vendors and the person creating the page has nothing to do with them. Some times this can be a real pain and waste of time when you're looking for legitimate or vendor direct links. A well maintained page is helpful, but I've landed on some real junk and it can be quite repetitious.
 
#7 ·
Exactly. The real scammers out there buy clicks to their site and they really play the percentages. If I'm paying a 3 cents a click and I average 3.1 cents a click then I can make a pile of cash. They are pretty deceptive as well. The average payout per click (epc) is .1/click. Those are pretty untargeted, I would say. I think over the past 12 months, I'm close to .50 a click which means they are 'super targeted'. i.e. The person who sees it and clicks did it because he/she is genuinely interested.
 
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