Post from: EveryJoe

Grow Your eBay Business – Use Your About Me Page to Generate Leads

Most of the concern about this change revolves around affiliate programs and website links on eBay users’ About Me pages. The About Me page is the only place on eBay where users can link to their own website, affiliate programs, groups, forums, blogs, etc. Larger sellers use this feature strictly for lead generation, building their customer base, or post transactional marketing.

On July 31 on the eBay Announcement Board, John McDonald posted that the links policy WILL NOT be changing after all. At least not at this time. The policy is still under review and will remain “as is” until further notice.

Read the complete links policy to make sure you are abiding by the rules.

Post from: EveryJoe

Announcement: eBay Links Policy Remains the Same

Add another item to the “Not allowed on eBay” list.

Historically, an eBay seller’s About Me Page has been a place where sellers can explain their policies, tell a little bit about their business, and until now, provide links to their own website or other affiliate programs. Those days are gone.

The updated eBay Links Policy states: “You may include links to your About Me page in your listings. However, you may not include language within those links that promotes items or other Web sites.”

Over the years, entrepreneurs have discovered how to use eBay as a portal to capture a segment of the consumer market who always starts their search for products on eBay. In fact, I have consulted several entrepreneurs and business owners who wanted to set up an eBay store for this very reason – they understand how powerful eBay is as a place where buyers congregate and shop. Their intent was not to make money on eBay, but to have a presence and use the About Me page to drive traffic to their own website.

Other eBay sellers use their About Me Pages to drive traffic to their affiliate programs such as Big Crumbs, eBay enhancement services, eBooks, and groups and forums. All good things must come to an end. Be sure to remove these links from your About Me Page to avoid action by eBay for a policy violation.

[Image Source: Flickr]

Post from: EveryJoe

eBay Policy Change – No More Outgoing Links on About Me Page

“We realize that any time sellers need to change their listings or templates, it costs you time and energy. To minimize the effort it takes for our sellers to accommodate our changes, here is a quick checklist of changes you may need to make in the coming weeks, based on the changes we’ve announced:

Remove any links to 3rd-party sites to stay in compliance with recent updates to eBay’s Links Policy (Read our previous announcement).

Specify shipping, return policy, item condition & handing time in the specified fields. This information will be required soon so now’s the perfect time to get started.

Remove any email addresses from your listing descriptions by September.”

This should clarify the confusion regarding what is allowed on your About Me pages. Currently, and since the inception of the About Me page, sellers have been able to add third party links to affiliate programs, groups and forums, blogs – the About Me page was the only place eBay allowed outside links. Goodbye to that option! See a complete overview of changes for sellers coming soon.

Post from: EveryJoe

Checklist of Changes for eBay Sellers