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Sun June 7 2020 13:51:30

eBay Kills Affiliate Tool that Drives Traffic to Seller Listings

By: Ina Steiner

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eBay is killing a popular tool used by affiliate marketers to drive traffic to sellers' listings. The eBay Partner Network (ePN) program gave participants only a month's notice that it will decommission the ePN Dynamic Feed Generator (globally). See update below.

As the eBay help pages explain, "The Dynamic Feed Generator enables you to create a trackable feed URL that provides users with dynamic eBay listing content on your web site. The RSS feed created by this tool provides live eBay listing information, such as a gallery image, price, end date, and a link to add items to a user's eBay watch list. You can also use this data to build customized ads for your site."

eBay won't be replacing the tool, and some participants said the suggested alternatives would not work for them - with some saying they would instead start marketing other marketplaces through other affiliate programs such as Amazon Associates.

eBay Partner Network describes one of the main benefits of the Dynamic Feed Generator as not requiring the use of an API.

The reaction from eBay affiliates was incredulity. Some said they are inexperienced with using APIs, others said eBay severely limits the number of calls a site can make through APIs, making it a poor substitute for the feed generator that's being killed off.

One alternative eBay suggested is called Smart Placements, but some affiliates said its functionality is limited. For high-volume sites, eBay suggested Data Feed and Feed API, both of which require affiliates to apply for a chance to use them. 

eBay also said it is working on a "Deals & Events" API that would become available "soon."

Affiliates who use WordPress to power their websites discussed the issue, with one participant writing, "Frankly, the Dynamic Feed Generator has been the only eBay advertising tool of theirs that I use or have any interest in. Why in blazes would they be bringing it to an end?"

One WordPress developer said he would be working on a plug-in and hoped to release "WP eBay Product Feeds 3.0" by July 1st.

eBay notified affiliates of its decision to end Dynamic Feed Generator via email on June 3 and advised them to move off it completely no later than June 30.

Update 6/7/2020: eBay's ePN will be launching a plan for sellers, see more information in today's EcommerceBytes Newsflash.



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Perminate Link for eBay Kills Affiliate Tool that Drives Traffic to Seller Listings   eBay Kills Affiliate Tool that Drives Traffic to Seller Listings

by: OnlyPollyPocket This user has validated their user name.

Mon Jun 8 16:43:38 2020

Sounds easier to just remove any mention of ebay off my website.  Hmmm, darn shame.

Perminate Link for eBay Kills Affiliate Tool that Drives Traffic to Seller Listings   eBay Kills Affiliate Tool that Drives Traffic to Seller Listings

This user has validated their user name. by: RKTOYS

Mon Jun 8 19:16:50 2020

This is disturbingly typical of software.  Stable, useful products are replaced by buggy junk with no features.  What's happening is that eBay's "Indians only" hiring is catching up to them and they can no longer support much of their tech infrastructure.  They're not willing to take corrective steps, so they'll manage expectations as low as possible to save face.

Perminate Link for eBay Kills Affiliate Tool that Drives Traffic to Seller Listings   eBay Kills Affiliate Tool that Drives Traffic to Seller Listings

by: Flying Childers This user has validated their user name.

Mon Jun 15 13:15:13 2020

Interesting article about Ebay indictments from Seeking Alpha:

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3583099-former-ebay-employ
ees-indicted-in-massachusetts?utm_medium=email&utm_source=seeking_alpha&mail_subject=ebay-former-ebay-employees-indicted-in-massachusetts&utm_campaign=rta-stock-news&utm_content=link-3

Perminate Link for eBay Kills Affiliate Tool that Drives Traffic to Seller Listings   eBay Kills Affiliate Tool that Drives Traffic to Seller Listings

by: NexusSoftware This user has validated their user name.
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Sun Sep 20 17:31:03 2020

Interesting and surprising. We have been using Ebay's APIs long before they had the RSS feed generator. When the feeds were deprecated we quickly created our own RSS feed generator using the findItemsAdvanced API. Because the feeds are easier to implement for sites that don't require the advanced functionality. That being said, Ebay's APIs are easy to use, have a lot more functionality and you get at least 5,000 production calls per day without approval.  



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