How To Get Accepted To The eBay Affiliate Program (ePN)

The eBay Affiliate Program is one of the best ways to make money as an affiliate, but eBay has become very selective about who it allows to enter its program. To improve your odds of being accepted, make sure your site is fully developed before you apply. Ebay has become very “snobbish“ since they took their affiliate program in-house and away from Commission Junction. Most webmasters have determined that eBay seems to favor a certain standard.

The following is a checklist to help you get into the eBay affiliate program (ePN). Though it seems like a lot of work, you only need to do it once. You need not get approval for any other websites you build, though you do need to keep those websites within the guidelines of the affiliate contract you agreed to.

Always have the following before you apply:

1.) At least 30 articles of original content about the niche your website covers – eBay wants to make sure you are building a website that is likely to attract repeat business and not solely concerned with making money (right!).

2.) No other ads – do NOT have any adsense or ANY affiliate banners/links on your website. eBay, for reasons that likely reflect their desire to be the lone player on your website, really dislike these features. Have your website free of these monetization methods when you apply. Once you are approved, however, it’s fine to add the other money making affiliates you join.

3.) A Privacy Policy – eBay despises spammers and a privacy policy makes you legitimate. Many good privacy policies can be found. Simply copy and paste one to your website, changing the name used, to your own website name.

4.) Add a “Contact” page – this also makes you more legitimate. It need only be a page with a working email address, but should be easily found.

5.) Multimedia of some type – add videos, pictures, polls, or something other than just text. You want the overall appearance of your website to look nice and will cause people to eventually find eBay through your site, resulting in a purchase.

6.) Though debatable, some webmasters believe your odds of acceptance can be improved by actually becoming a member of the eBay auction site. Personally, I don’t give it much weight, but perhaps they do cross-reference their database to see how involved you are with eBay. In any event, I suppose it can’t hurt to join. If you are not already a member of eBay you can register.

When these guidelines are followed to the letter, few people fail to be accepted due to their website. Most often it is for other reasons (such as having been previously banned), or having obtained an “aged” domain name that was banned from the eBay affiliate program.

Regrettably, eBay has a bad policy of not telling people exactly why they weren’t accepted. Hopefully that won’t be a concern for you. If you follow the guidelines above, it shouldn’t be.

Tips for Getting Your Site Approved

Here are some suggestions and tips to give new affiliates a higher chance of being approved for ebay.

The website you submit should:

*Be a functioning, established website.

*Be (Self=Hosted) Meaning YOU control the hosting and content of the entire site. Not using a free blogging platform, etc.

“Have original, informative, unique content. Especially the homepage. The site should not be just a ‘placeholder’ waiting for a phpBay or BAN’s installation.

*Have content on the site related to items sold on Ebay.

*Have a ‘Contact Us’ page on your site with accurate contact information, not just a form.

^Have a Privacy Policy

*Website owner be based in USA.

On the application you can also include (comments) any positive information about why you think your site would be a good fit for ebay.

Rejected! / What Next?

So you got the “rejection” e-mail from Ebay? What can you do now?

Well for starters, you can send a reply email.
Be polite, and let them know why you think your website would be a good fit for ebay. Include specifics, such as your search engine traffic details, referrals from authority websites, subscriber information, and anything else you can think of to put your website in a positive light.

Do Not:

*Buy ebay accts. thru ‘blackhat’ forums. These may have worked for awhile, not now.

*Apply again using the same website and ip address.