What is AuctionAds?

What is AuctionAds?

AuctionAds creates eBay auction ads, using keywords of your choosing, which you can then place in your forum. If any visitor buys from your site, you will be paid a commission. Auction ads appear similar to Google's Adsense ad banners, but the similarity ends there.

http://www.vbulletin-faq.com/forum/images/create_account.gif (http://www.auctionads.com/refer_0733ce92e4963d1b7a18)

How do I earn money with AuctionAds?
When your site's visitors click on an AuctionAd listing and take an action on eBay, you earn cash. "Actions" are defined as a Winning Bid, a Buy-it-Now, or a confirmed user registration. For the time being, AuctionAds is focused on growth, and they are paying out 100% of the revenue to their publishers.

Simply put, when one of your members clicks on your AuctionAds ad, if they win the auction, you get a % of the eBay fees. In addition, there is a 30 day cookie placed on the members' computer, and you get credit for any auction they win for 30 days.

I have found my users actually LIKE the AuctionAds and see them as a convenience rather than an annoyance!

Some of the basic features of AuctionAds

You specify the keywords - the program is not contextual
Currently, there are 12 ad formats to choose from, with more coming.
Enter color values for border, background, heading, description and links.
Specify whether to open ad links in a new window.
Payment - Payment is made by Paypal rather than check, with a $10 threshold
International - Forum and website owners from the UK and other countries are able to join Auction Ads, as well
Because it uses Ebay auctions, you automatically have credibility with your usersEven better for vBulletin forum owners:
If you download and install the Rewrite eBay To AuctionAds (http://www.vbulletin-faq.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8831) hack, you can make more money. What this hack does is simple. When a member of your forum posts an ebay link in your forum, it rewrites that link to include your AuctionAds id, so it's just like you placed the ad.

For example, one of your users posts his ebay auction for a car part for sale on your forum. With this hack, you earn money if someone on your site clicks the link and buys the part!

Even if you choose not to display ad units on your forum, I highly recommend you sign up for AuctionAds (http://www.auctionads.com/refer_0733ce92e4963d1b7a18) and install Rewrite eBay To AuctionAds (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=144468) hack.

Payments - How and When You Get Paid:

AuctionAds disburses payments the first of every month, via PayPal. The payment is for all revenue generated during the previous month. There is only a $10 minimum for earnings.

Does AuctionAds support international affiliates? AuctionAds currently supports traffic from all countries in which eBay has a presence. Ad units currently only display in English, but all click traffic is geotargeted to the visitors' country.

To clarify: at this time no ads are displayed from other countries' eBay sites. When a non-US visitor clicks an ad, they are taken to a search page of items from the same keywords. As ad impression volume builds from specific countries, AuctionAds will consider adding local ad display. Statistics and testing has shown that this converts extremely well for international users.

http://www.vbulletin-faq.com/forum/images/create_account.gif (http://www.auctionads.com/refer_0733ce92e4963d1b7a18)

This is so excellent. I installed this on Friday, and have made a few $ already. :)

For me, this is rivaling my adsense income - and its in addition to adsense. I havent replaced Adsense.

I said it earlier - Even if you choose not to display ad units on your forum, I highly recommend you sign up for AuctionAds (http://www.auctionads.com/refer_0733ce92e4963d1b7a18) and install Rewrite eBay To AuctionAds (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=144468) hack.

I wondered about that - what are the benefits of signing up for it, if you're not going to display the ads on your site?

What the rewrite does is this..

When someone on your forum makes a post and includes an ebay link, this hack does a rewrite on that link and makes it your AuctionAds link. So, if anyone buys that item, or any other within 30 days, you get the commission.

Its free money.

hhmmmmmmmmmmm....

Just signed up *crosses fingers*

Chase, I signed up Friday (3 days ago) and already have some earnings in my acc't info :)

This is great. I've been trying to figure out a way to get a commission on poker supplies that people sell in my forums. None of the existing products let you do that. Now all I need to do is force people into listing on ebay. Will this work if you are ebay banned? Ebay hates me. My paypal works OK though. :D

-Raymond

I dont think your Ebay status has anything to do with this and it should work

For me, this is rivaling my adsense income - and its in addition to adsense. I havent replaced Adsense.

I said it earlier - Even if you choose not to display ad units on your forum, I highly recommend you sign up for AuctionAds (http://www.auctionads.com/refer_0733ce92e4963d1b7a18) and install Rewrite eBay To AuctionAds (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=144468) hack.


lol how much you getting a ref?

I get 2% of your earnings - not much at all.

Im not promoting this for the referral money. I am promoting this because I really and truly belive this is better then Adsense for many forums. I am using this on ALL of my forums.

I agree, plus Joey put a whole lot of time and effort into making this great site.

and i have seen auction ads at ALOT of places too, now you can see them on Talk Delaware ;)

heh - that piddly little 2% is nothing compared to the benefits for forum owners.

2% isnt much. Even if you earn $1000 -- I get $20.. Not much at all. Its not why im promoting this.

I am using this on ALL of my forums.
Joey, are you using multiple accounts or just changing up the keywords for each forum?

They're a little vague about this. They ask for a site address, but no mention is made of multiple site use.

You can use the code on as many sites as you like. You dont need multiple accounts.

You can set up multiple campaigns if you like - which is what I do... Campaigns are a way to track specific ads. SO you could have a campaign for each site like I do, or if you want to track individual ad unit earnings, you could have seperate campaigns for that.

This is set up very similar to adsense, but its not contextual and only shows ebay auctions.

It's doing better than I expected on TBD. I have a feeling it will do very well on the
forum that I plan to start up at the end of the summer.

This looks very promising!

Give it a try matt - you have nothing to lose ;)

I have some questions....

Would the rewrite have any problems with ebay links that are already affiliate links? For instance, I have an affiliate account for ebay through commission junction. If I placed a link (w/affiliate id) in a forum that has this rewrite will it ignore it or rewrite it?

Is there any conflict with AuctionAds and Adsense, specifically with Google's TOS? I have adsense ads throughout my forum and wouldn't want to violate the TOS.

Forgive me if this was already asked, but is there a demo or example I can see somewhere?

Thanks!

Some of your questions are answered here -

http://www.vbulletin-faq.com/forum/auctionads.php


I dont know what effect this will have on your CJ links - BUT - you dont want to use them, you want to use this. Here is why. Unless you sell a tremendous amount yourself, you wont reach this higher payout tiers. AuctionAds has the benefit of being able to hit those high tiers. Plus, it rewrites ALL ebay links for you automatically.

Absolutely no problem with Adsense TOS. You can run both on the same page because AuctionAds isnt contextual. You set the keywords manually.

I'm seeing a really great click thru rate so far, hopefully it will translate to $$

Thanks Joey!

This seems very buggy to me. I signed up last night and created an ad using keywords specific to my forum. Got the code, pasted the code, everything looked great.

Tonight, I'm seeing auctions for Coach handbags (this is a NASCAR site). :confused:

Okay, so just go back and create a new ad for my campaign, right? I tried that, but I'm told that there are ZERO results for NASCAR and the other keywords I tried. I beg to differ - there are several thousand results for my keywords when entered on Ebay.

This seems like a really cool tool, but it's useless if it won't display relevant content.

They are having ad targetting issues - its temporary.

And that's mentioned where? Certainly not on the home page, or the blog, or the FAQ and as a registered user, I have received no messages of any kind stating that there are issues.

I'm not doubting you at all, I'm just saying that anyone putting something like this out for people to use needs to be proactive when issues arise and let people know.

Yes I've seen the same thing on and off today, Louis Vuitton handbags and Nintendo Wii ads showing up on my motorcycle forum. Hopefully they will have it resolved soon. If not maybe I'll start a forum for handbag wearing gamers :p

I'm not doubting you at all, I'm just saying that anyone putting something like this out for people to use needs to be proactive when issues arise and let people know.

I agree. But, remember, this program is 3 months old and has grown WELL beyond expectations. They hoped to have 1000 publishers by now, they have 18,000. Alot more then they expected. I am not making excuses for them, but I am sure they are a bit overwhelmed.

Call it growing pains.

My best suggestion is to limp along with the occasional troubles. It'll all work out before long and im sure you'll be glad you did. So far, for me, the income is far too good to complain about these minor glitches.

I'm going to stick with them, Joey, don't get me wrong. I can understand that they might be a little overwhelmed and my comments were more food for thought than outright criticism.

I just hope they'll work on the communication end of things should future issues arise.

I am sure they will. Right now, I think its just a few people running everything, which is all they expected they would need. The targetting issues come and go. Im not sure whats causing them, but I am sure they will be fixed in time.

I haven't had any targeting issues - so far....

I noticed some screwy things last night with ads showing women's handbags but it resolved itself pretty quick.

I had a few things too last night, but straightened out pretty quickly.

What the rewrite does is this..

When someone on your forum makes a post and includes an ebay link, this hack does a rewrite on that link and makes it your AuctionAds link. So, if anyone buys that item, or any other within 30 days, you get the commission.

Its free money.

That seems like a great mod. I am with AuctionAds already before even signing up these forums. I may install this mod.

Does the 2% come from ebay, the seller, or something else? I'm wondering if ebay looses part of the fee they take, the seller looses 2% of the sale, or something else is happening.

-Raymond

Hey I heard tell that Mike54 is getting rich off of AuctionAds nowadays... that true Mike? :frog:

Does the 2% come from ebay, the seller, or something else? I'm wondering if ebay looses part of the fee they take, the seller looses 2% of the sale, or something else is happening.

-Raymond


On that one I am not sure. Its not administered by ebay, but by AuctionAds. Its important to know - eBay and AuctionAds are different companies. AuctionAds simly takes eBay's affiliate program and makes it real easy to use - and offers an economy of scale so that its publishers get more commission because they are on the top tier of eBay commissions.

Peggy, I'm certainly not getting rich, but on Day 2 of running the ads I earned enough to pay a couple month's hosting expenses. Which is more than that forum has earned me in the last 2+ years. Remember, I am a Google outcast. Auction Ads earned me more in that one day than anything else has earned me, period.

I was teasing about getting rich of course, but I'm with you. I've earned more in the 2 weeks I've had AA on my site, than I have from adsense in the 8 months I've been with them.

It seems some people are doing better than others with AuctionAds. I'm definately not doing as good as some others. lol

Newbie with a tip. Those who are having targeting issues it is due to the low traffic on your site. If there is not a hit on your site at least 1 time every 10 min it reverts to whats hot on Ebay.

Thanks for the tip. I don't see much point why they would do that though.

I had a few things too last night, but straightened out pretty quickly.
Sounds like you had some fun there honey... :)

Thanks for the tip. I don't see much point why they would do that though.


Its because new ads are cached every 10 minutes to provide fast delivery of ads.

Sounds like you had some fun there honey... :)
oh you have no idea.... :bunny:

Joey, I just joined *created a account from clicking your image* I guess I just made you rich...Since you will not have the time to spend all the $$ can I have your forum? http://teamstersonline.com/forums/images/smilies/hysterical.gif

I am going to give it a shot. I used your referral link. Hopefully I can make us both lots of money. Thanks for the idea.

I am going to give it a shot. I used your referral link. Hopefully I can make us both lots of money. Thanks for the idea.

Just be aware it takes a little while for cookies to get set on computers for you to start making money, and that their reporting is horrendous but does eventually get caught up.

Yeah - AuctionAds reporting is usually a few days behind.

The other thing, eBay just recently changed their affilliate program and things are still wierd a bit for ALL eBay affilliates.