Tips for Ebay affiliate program approval

This article is part of the Ebay affiliate program guide.

Ebay (and any other quality affiliate program) wants quality websites that have traffic that will convert well and interact with Ebay. In other words they want the people who visit their site to be people who will enjoy and use Ebay. If your website has such people, Ebay would likely love to have you in their program. But before you jump in, you may want to make sure you have the type of website that Ebay wants.

Make sure you have the basics

• If your website doesn’t exist, Ebay won’t approve you. They approve websites, not ideas for websites. You must have a website that people are already using.
• If your website does not have targeted traffic that will convert well for them, they don’t want you.

If you have the basics, great! You are on your way to a profitable relationship with one of the best affiliate programs out there. If you do not have the basics then you need to get them before applying.

Make sure there is a reason that Ebay ads will help your visitors and also help Ebay

Here is an example of a situation that helps both your visitors and Ebay:

• You have a blog about flowers, and your users have been emailing you asking where they can get good seeds to plant their flowers. You want to display the current listings on Ebay that are selling seeds, so your users have a place to buy them.

In the above example your users could benefit from having a place to buy their seeds and compare what what seeds are available and Ebay could benefit from getting targeted users who will likely buy things.
Here are examples of reasons that don’t make sense to your visitors and Ebay:

• You really want to be rich
• You really really really want to be rich

The entire idea of an affiliate program is to send people somewhere to buy things. In the Ebay affiliate program quality and targeted visitors are big deals. You must have a reason that makes sense to Ebay to include you into their program. They don’t just want clicks, they want people who will use and enjoy their site.

Things that Ebay (and other quality affiliate programs) do not want

• If your website is using spamming techniques, then they don’t want you.
• If your website consists of just landing pages with no content other than Ebay listings, they don’t want you.
• Thin affiliate sites

Ebay is a very professional place. They know the difference between a great website and a crappy one. If your website has people visiting it that are potential Ebay users then great! But if your website doesn’t have value, then naturally Ebay won’t approve it.
A great website does not need to spam to get visitors. A great website also has content.
Content is actual words, images, and useful things that people enjoy and use. Content is not automated, it is already there.

What is a thin affiliate site?

A thin affiliate site is basically a website that only has content provided by affiliate websites.

If you are thinking of creating a website or blog that is automatically creating pages that only have content provided by Ebay, then you are going to fail or at least not get approved by Ebay.

Ebay already has a website that is solely created from Ebay content. That website is called Ebay.

It is true that when you get approved into EPN (Ebay Partner Network) you will find great ways to display great content from Ebay, but that has to enhance your already existing primary content, it should not be your primary content.

Thin affiliate websites are already discussed by Google and other search engines as something they do not want to rank. Ebay doesn’t want it either. If your plans are to create thin affiliate websites, you are not going to do very well.

The approval process

It is pretty common to not be approved on your first try. You will however receive an email stating you were not approved. It will normally include possible reasons you were not approved.
You should review these and make sure Ebay can’t say any of the following about your website or blog.

Official reasons you may not get approved

As you can see many of the reasons above include their “terms and conditions”. You need to read that!.
You will find the latest terms and conditions when you actually apply to the program.

Where to apply

If you think your website is ready for approval this is where to apply…
Apply to the Ebay Partner Network
Good Luck!

If you are serious about making money online with EPN, you might want to subscribe to this blog.

My name is Patrick Sexton and I have been using the Ebay affiliate program for years.

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