Why eBay Partner Network Makes 22 Times More Money Than AdSense On My Blog

Updated on March 5, 2009: I noticed a huge discrepancy with my Google Analytics pageviews versus the impressions being reported by eBay Partner Network.

Needless to say that changed my calculations. I reworked the numbers and found that instead of 200% in the original post, eBay makes me 22 times more money than AdSense! Or in percentage terms, 2,100%. Of course, with this new knowledge, I’m very motivated to put eBay links on all my relevant posts, not just my most popular ones

I’ve been pretty excited the last couple days. I finally found an income stream for my gaming blog that actually makes a decent amount of money without hurting the usability of my readers.

At first, I tried AdSense but the ads I got were very irrelevant. My gaming blog is about a collectible card game called Magic The Gathering. As a card game, the word deck is huge keyword. However, that word was a problem since it would show ads about building a physical deck for your house. Also, since the title of the game has the word magic, I would get ads about magic tricks and how to cast actual spells.

I estimate that 70-80% of my ads were irrelevant. As such, I knew my readers were having a poor reading experience on my blog. I even hated looking at my site. The big intrusive irrelevant ads were a turnoff. I tried smaller ads but my income sunk too much. But even with the big ads, my income was not very good. Relevance is huge if you want to make money and very few people were clicking my ads.

My sister has a dating blog that gets less than half the traffic as my blog. But she has earned more with AdSense since her blog shows more relevant ads. After a while, I couldn’t optimize AdSense to make more money. My income was so low that I decided to drop the program and look for other ways to make money.

I tried affiliate programs from online retail stores but I couldn’t find a quality program. Surprisingly there was no info product I was comfortable with endorsing that had an affiliate program. I was close to giving up. I thought I would have to focus solely on creating my own products to make decent money from my blog. I’m working on my own info product but it will take a couple months to complete. I wanted to make some money right away without resorting to AdSense.

To add to my frustration, my blog was reaching new traffic highs every month for the last couple of months. I had recently reached the 1,000 daily visitors milestone.

eBay Partner Network

As a last ditch effort, I turned to eBay’s cost per click (CPC) program called eBay Partner Network (ePN). I knew they could be a great income source, since they have a lot of traffic and there is an active eBay market for the cards I blog about.

I sent my application but immediately regreted it when I read this article about how to get accepted in the network. Yeah, I know. I should’ve read the article first! My excitement and impatience got the best of me when I found out that eBay had a CPC program.

In my application, I wrote a 50 word blurb about my site. I didn’t put any effort in explaining why my site was a good fit for eBay. Needless to say, my site was rejected after a couple of weeks.

I then wrote them a 380 word email message asking them to reconsider my site. I explained my business plan and gave multiple traffic stats. I even included my experience as a search specialist and blogger. I knew my site was a good one for eBay so on the second try, I spent the extra effort to communicate that fact.

I couple days later I was accepted into the program.

I immediately create a couple eBay links and placed them on my most popular pages.

After a couple of days, I looked at the numbers and was very happy to discover that eBay made 22 times more money than my previous AdSense numbers (based on CPM, or cost per thousand page impressions)

Plus, the best performing AdSense ads are the big square ads that take up a lot of space and make your blog look cluttered. On the other hand, eBay has text links that can be placed in the middle of your posts. Therefore, you add value and an income stream without making your blog look cluttered with ads.

My blog doesn’t have any ads right now and it’s a great feeling. I do plan to sell ads on my sidebar in the future but I’m glad I don’t have to put ads in the content section of my blog. That section is the best place to put ads if you want to make money but it’s the worst spot from the user’s perspective.

I’m excited about the future with ePN. I haven’t done any testing on my eBay links so I think there’s room to optimize and earn more money.

If you have a product driven site, I definitely recommend eBay Partner Network.

Performancing offers blog management services.

Your Product Doesn’t Have to Contain 100% Unique Content

Many bloggers seem to find the task of creating a product daunting. I know I did.

I knew creating a product could greatly increase my income, but coming up with content to fill up an ebook, video, membership program, or any other product seemed like an overwhelming project.

However, after listening to this interview with Pay Flynn and thinking back at products I had bought, I realize that creating a product doesn’t have to be this huge audacious goal.

See you don’t need your product to have 100% unique content. This realization takes a lot of the work out of the equation. You can repurpose some of your existing content and include it as part of your product to make the task easier.

This may seem like a scam but your customers won’t mind.

Flynn created an ebook with 15% unique content. The other 85% was already existing content from his blog. Yet he doesn’t get complaints from his customers and he sells many ebooks every month.

I look back at one of my favorite purchases, the ebook that SEO Book used to sell. This ebook gave me a great SEO foundation and I was able start a successful freelance SEO business. About 60% of the ebook was something I had already read on the SEO Book blog, but I didn’t mind.

So why do people not mind repeat content in a product?

Let’s look at 5 reasons.

1. They forget what they read.

People are usually in a browsing/scanning mindset when they read blogs. They are not very focused and forget a lot of what they read.

Therefore, the product seems much more unique when they consume it.

And once they pay money for it, they are willing to concentrate more since they have invested money. So they get more out of the product than reading the blog.

Also, products contain much more content than a blog post, which makes people set aside more time and focus to consume them.

2. They haven’t read the existing content.

Most of your readers have not read all your content. For example, anything older than 6 months is often brand new to the bulk of your readers.

3. The content organization adds value.

When I read the ebook from SEO Book, I started seeing how different SEO elements connected with each other. In the past, I had looked at SEO as a bunch of unrelated tasks. But through the ebook, I saw the effectiveness of holistic thinking, which made me a much better search specialist.

A well-organized product allows you to lay the proper foundation for your topic. You can sequence your content in a way that adds a lot of value.

For example, a good ebook will have the beginner stuff first, then intermediate, and close with advanced subjects.

In contrast, the order in which blog posts are published typically don’t add much value. And anyways, many of your readers are not reading your posts in order.

4. The unique content is very valuable.

Pat Flynn’s ebook is a guide to passing an architecture test. His 15% unique content in his ebook contains many of his best studying tips.

So even if a customer realizes that most of the ebook is repeat content, if they are able to pass the test using the unique content, they will be grateful they spent the money.

Here’s the takeaway: Give a lot of value for free on your blog, but save some of your best stuff for your product, the stuff that’s worth paying for.

5. Repetition is useful.

Finally, don’t underestimate the repetition factor. The more you read the same piece of info, the more you will remember it and be able to apply it in your life.

I hope this blog post has given you more confidence to create your own product. It’s not as big of a process as you think. You can include some of your existing valuable content to lower the workload.

Good luck!

Performancing offers blog management services.

The Best Way to Differentiate Your Blog

One of the blogging tips that I hear a lot is be different. Be unique. Stand out from the crowd. This is a great advice for typical businesses and it’s also helpful for probloggers especially with all the competitors on the internet.

But how can you apply it practically to your blog?

I’ve been thinking about this advice for the last couple of years and from my experience, I think I’ve realized the best way to differentiate your blog. The answer is pretty simple so it might surprise you.

Narrow your topic.

That’s it. Nothing too complicated or revolutionary, but this suggestion will make your blog different from 99% of the other blogs.

Copycat Blogs

I wrote last week that copying A-list blogs is not a good idea for the average problogger. Yet, most blogs look to the A-listers as examples. I said that reaching the success of the most popular blogs is very unlikely. It’s much better to implement the strategies of successful mid-level blogs. These blogs may not earn the millions that the A-listers earn but they still make a decent wage and their success is much easier to achieve.

But there’s another reason why A-list blogs should not be your example. A-listers are all about getting a lot of raw traffic, so they cover a very wide range of topics. This lets them reach the most amount of people.

But if you try this tactic, you’ll end up fighting a losing battle. See the A-list blogs have much more resources than you. They have more money, more staff, and better partnerships. They will cover your niche much better than you. If you copy them, you’ll end up with a subpar copycat blog.

And here’s the big question. Why would someone read your copycat blog when they could read the A-list blog?

Go Deeper Not Wider

Fortunately, with many bloggers copying the A-listers, there’s a lot of opportunity for probloggers who choose to specialize and focus. Instead of focusing on all usual subjects in your niche, pick only 1-2 and really learn them well. In other words, go “deeper” instead of “wider”.

For example, let’s say you have an interest in video games. Instead of trying to cover every single video game like Joystiq, you decide to only write about Xbox games. You could even narrow that subject down. Maybe just do Xbox reviews. Or only blog about future Xbox games. Or just create Xbox strategy videos. You get the idea.

After some time, by focusing on a small topic area, you’ll get enough experience to draw from that will help you generate truly unique valuable content. Quality goes down when you’re juggling too many things but it goes up when you concentrate on a few things. You’ll actually become an expert instead of a so-called expert that just spouts the same old advice that everyone’s already heard.

Going deeper is better too because you can make more per visitor. You’re delivering more value so you can charge more. You won’t need a ton of traffic to make a decent living.

Performancing offers blog management services.

A-List Blogs Are Not Good Examples to Follow

Photo by Kriss Szkurlatowski

When I first learned about problogging, I definitely looked up to the A-List blogs. You know, the TechCrunches, the Gizmodos, the TMZs, the Daily Koses, the Mashables. These were the blogs that had made it. They were the most high profile blogs. They had the most traffic. And more traffic meant more money, right?

Therefore, I thought of them as good examples to follow. I patterned my first couple of blogs after them. But after a couple failed blogs, over the last couple of months I’ve realized that for most of us those blogs are not the best examples to follow.

An Easier Way to Make a Living

I realized that it’s very difficult to reach A-List levels of traffic. Just from a odds perspective, only a few can reach A-List status. Not everyone who seeks A-List status will achieve it. There just isn’t enough demand for many A-List blogs in any given industry.

Think of the classic bell curve. Most of us will languish in the middle of the curve.

However, that doesn’t mean we can’t make a decent living. I realized that there are many mid-level bloggers that make a good living. They don’t get a lot of press because they don’t have nearly as much eyeballs as the A-List bloggers. But they love what they do and they provide value to their industry.

If your goal is to earn a decent living with blogging, those mid-level bloggers are much better examples than the A-List ones. It’s much easier to get the mid-level traffic than A-List traffic. Sure, you probably won’t earn millions of dollars but you’ll have a much better chance of being able to quit your job.

One thing I noticed a lot with the mid-level blogs is they have their own product. This is one of the main things that separates them from the A-Listers. A-List blogs need a ton of traffic because their main income source is advertisers. But mid-level blogs have learned how to make more money per visitor.

Creating and selling a product is the key. With a product, you can earn more with less traffic because you don’t have to split profits with advertisers and affiliate programs. It will take more work to create a product than to manage ads and affiliate products, but once you’ve done it, you have a recurring income stream all to yourself.

Performancing offers blog management services.

How to Find Guest Post Opportunities For Your Blog

Guest posting is a great way to increase traffic, network with other bloggers, and build links. But how do you know which blogs are good guest post opportunities?

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been doing a lot of guest posting for various blogs so I thought I’d share what I learned from my experience.

Check Blogs For Previous Guest Posts

The strategy that worked the best was checking blogs to see if they published guest posts previously. If a blog had published them in the past, then there was a really good chance they would publish my guest post.

You can search for “guest post” if the blog has a search box. If not, you can type in “site:example.com guest post” on Google to search the blog.

This strategy also helps because you can get an idea of the kind of guest posts that are published. You can then use that information to create similar content.

Investigate Forums

Blogging or internet marketing related forums can be a good place to find guest post spots. I had success finding some opportunities on the ProBlogger forum.

My Blog Guest forum is another good option. I like it because it’s caters primarily to guest bloggers. It was recently created by Ann Smarty, a prominent search expert, and she’s attracted a good number of quality sites looking for guest posts. I’ve already gotten a post published on a PageRank7 blog.

In forums, you’ll find many off-topic blogs so you might have to do some digging to find a blog in your niche. To save time, you can create a thread saying you’re interested in guest posting and hope that a relevant blogger finds you.

Also, if your niche is relatively obscure, you may not find a related blog. Still, you can get good off-topic links, which is fine for SEO just as long as you get them from trusted sites and you don’t overdo it.

Over to You

How do find guest post opportunities for your blog?