It (finally) seems to be a compromise of sorts for the majority of WidgetBucks publishers who seem to be mostly NOT from the US/Canada, and whose traffic is also non US based. But the question now is, “Is it worthwhile to run WidgetBucks anymore?”

I think the hype has somewhat fizzled out for WidgetBucks, but then again, it could have been worse. Take the case of AuctionAds.

AuctionAds started off very promising indeed. But it has fallen by the wayside now, and the broken state of the site confirms my suspicion that the whole venture has gone the way of the dodo.

Now, not a single page on the AuctionAds site works. It’s not even listed on the MediaWhiz website (the owner of AuctionAds and a host of other ad networks).

The latest news indicated that AuctionAds was blaming Commission Junction for its’ troubles, but that doesn’t seem to be the case, as Commission Junction is working perfectly fine for all eBay affiliates (Commission Junction manages eBay’s affiliate program).

I think AuctionAds was undone by some technological flaw in its delivery system which could not be resolved, and MediaWhiz has since lost interest in it; but that just goes to show that not every online start-up will succeed, no matter how promising, or popular it is.

Update: [The site is up again, but I log in to see a blank white page. No stats, nothing. I don't know if anyone is still using AuctionAds, but I'm 95 % sure it's not for me anymore.]

More on AuctionAds that I posted a couple days back; today, I’ll touch on tweaking AuctionAds to display better targeted ads using several keyword rules.

One thing I notice is I tend to see a lot of AuctionAds on many a website, that display ads totally off topic. This could be due to ignorance on the part of the webmaster regarding the usefulness of using certain keyword rules inside AuctionAds itself. Of course, AuctionAds definitely needs a whole lot more improvement; but there are some things you can do to improve the situation.

Many topics can do well using several keywords, not just one. There may be times when you want to display products spanning a few brands but leaving out others at the same time. By adding several more keywords into your keyword string, you may be able to streamline your AuctionAds to display improved ads.

How do you do that?
Although the preview is very “iffy”, you may be able to reduce the off target previews by pressing the “Create” button each time you generate an ad. This doesn’t always work in the preview though.

AuctionAds use several common punctuation marks and definitions as keyword rules:

• the comma (“,”)
• the semicolon (‘;”)
• the minus (‘-”)
• minprice:$X
• maxprice:$X

If you want to have a list of keywords to give your visitors more choices just in case there are no products for the main 1st choice keyword, just specify a list of keywords separated by a comma (“,”) inside your AuctionAds keyword generator inside your AuctionAds account.

This will make AuctionAds first display the ads from the 1st keyword, and then if there are no suitable ones, to display ads about the 2nd keyword and so forth in order of importance/availability.

For example:

Nikon cameras, Cannon cameras, Sony cameras, Olympus cameras

will make AuctionAds show Nikon as the 1st choice, and if not available, to be replaced with Cannon and so on.

Another way is to use the semi-colon (“;”). This tells AuctionAds to display the keywords at random, with no preference.

Example:

Nikon cameras; Cannon cameras; Sony cameras; Olympus cameras

The rules defined above tell AuctionAds to display Nikon/Sony/Cannon/Olympus cameras with no preference for any particular brand.

If you want to omit certain names or criteria, you can create a filter using a minus sign (“-”) in the keyword generator. Lets say you want to sell mp3 players but wish to omit Ipod and Sony. The keywords to use are:

mp3 players -Ipod -Sony

The (‘-’) tells AuctionAds to omit Ipod and Sony, so your ad shows any mp3 players/accesories/stuff, but never anything about Ipod or Sony.

There are might be instances you want to set a higher minimum price because you want to target the end of auctions when the bid prices are obviously higher . You can use the definitions of either “minprice” or “maxprice”.

• minprice:$X
• maxprice:$X

“Minprice” is for telling AuctionAds to display only auctions that are equal to, or more than the value given, and “maxprice” is for telling AuctionAds to limit the prices to not more than the value given (just in case the product ends up being too expensive to garner any interest).

For example:

cameras -minprice:$200

displays cameras that are equal to, or more than $200, all the time.

There is no limit to how you wish to configure your AuctionAds inside your account by the use of the keyword definitions shown above. You can try mixing them up to set up a preset formula of your own, depending on your page, keywords, topic and site.

By the way, there is an AuctionAds plugin for WordPress from OSCandy to make displaying AuctionAds easier for your site. You can define your keywords using punctuation marks from within the plugin’s options page as explained by the authors.

Just like Adsense, your AuctionAds need to be targeted before you can hope to see any kind of results from using them. So here’s to hopefully better profits with AuctionAds!

Then comes along AuctionAds early this year… a concept of displaying eBay auctions via their RSS feeds, in a nice Adsense like format.

According to AuctionAds:

When your site’s visitors click on an Auction Ad 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. AuctionAds is committed to paying out a minimum of 100% of eBay commission revenue. See eBay’s affiliate program for details on the payout.

AuctionAds appears to solve the problem for those who are unable to get approved by eBay due to not being US based. The short steps are just to:

1. Sign up with AuctionAds.
2. Log into your account, generate a piece of code based on a keyword
3. Place the code on your website and you’re done. You can place as many as you want.
   
4. You earn a commission from the cut that eBay receives whenever someone buys something on auction with eBay. Payments are via PayPal.
   

Can I really earn anything from AuctionAds?

The money you can make from AuctionAds can be good, BUT it depends very much on the keywords you have chosen when generating your code, and the type of site you have. What I’ve learned so far is that consumer electronic products are the major draw here, and AuctionAds tend to do well for this category.

In general, most kinds of consumer goods can do well. However, if your subject is some eclectic or intangible topic, I’m afraid AuctionAds won’t perform very well, or the targeting will be way off.

How to adjust the keywords in AuctionAds?

Now, the key is to look at the eBay website itself. Search the categories and you will see what are the keywords to use. The keywords need to be from the keywords in the eBay directory, otherwise you’re gonna end up with a bunch of Nintendo or Ipod ads.

Here, by clicking on any category, you can drill down the categories right into the subcategories until you find a suitable one. Remember, source your keywords from the eBay site itself and you should get ads with current auctions.

I’m still testing AuctionAds and this is what I’ve learned so far. Keywords and content are the main criteria. At any rate it is one of the easiest programs to sign up for. Why not give AuctionAds a go, and see if it works for you?

According to their page:

There are 3 types of user levels for this tool.

From an Internet Marketers standpoint, it is very useful to get access to some very useful data in order to plan what kind of products or niches that are worth considering. Not so much to do trading on eBay, but rather to get insight into the trends, the statistics, and the hot niches.

In addition:

A fast way to find out if the “junk” in your house is actually worth selling, just type in the name of the stuff that you want to sell, and see what actually comes up. You might just find out that there are auctions for that “piece of junk” selling for $50-100. But it’s important to also take a look at the final bid prices (if anyone actually bidded). There are many things that don’t sell too well; and again, there are things that do.

Which means?

Go straight to the closed auctions, and take a look at the final bid prices. Since most bidding occurs only in the final few minutes of an auction, the best way to get an overview is to study the closed auctions. Some products may get listed a lot but hardly sell, whereas others are listed here and there, but sell like hotcakes. These are the hot niches.

A final word – As with all things, trends change; so what may be hot today, could change in a few months or years, depending on the niche. Just something to bear in mind.

When I first got into online business, it was fun just browsing the numerous domains, or turnkey websites for sale. I had fun bidding on an old forum for sale that was claimed to make the previous owner $2K a month. How true that claim was, I wouldn’t know; but in the end, that website sold for under $5K. I still believe eBay is a good place to make money either buying stuff or selling stuff, scams and all. Just ask those who make a good living there.

Everyday, there are millions of items on eBay sold through auction or fixed-price trading. Ebay transactions amount to nearly $50 million every day around $80 million every day! So when is a good time to get into eBay? I think the present time is as good as any, even though many people say it’s being done in by cheap Asian resellers who dump products there. Ebay sells because it’s eBay.

It’s not rocket science. Anyone can sell on eBay once they get their account approved, and a working digital camera, plus some space to store your stuff for sale. You’ll also need shipping and packing supplies; but remember that priority mail boxes and envelopes are free through USPS; though if you start out by selling ebooks, you don’t have too many concerns as far as shipping or packaging are concerned.

The great part about selling ebooks on eBay is that it doesn’t incur high upfront costs, and a is a fast way to build your positive feedback rating. The downside is that this market is saturated (naturally) and therefore is more suitable for selling your OWN ebooks. Otherwise you could end up selling what a thousand other people are also selling on eBay for $0.99 a pop, and have to live with such a low profit margin.

For first timers, they’ll need to learn how to list their auctions. Just go here: http://pages.ebay.com/sell/tools/list/. This is the forum section of eBay that lots of eBay marketers use. More info can be had from the eBay university, a course by eBay that will teach you via training materials.

Listing items on eBay is quite simple – through the use of templates. There are some products that help creating a template a breeze. It’s a process of just practically filling in the blanks. There are some tips and tricks you can learn along the way about listing; but for starters, just follow the logistics of how to put a listing onto eBay. Don’t worry, eBay requires skills that CAN be learned.

It is a good idea to list several items for sale at the same time, in order to increase your chances. Just look around your basement or even inside your PC. It’s amazing what people buy at eBay. When you gain experience, only then do you branch out into your own niche. For starters, just focus on building your feedback.

It’s a good thing that eBay owns PayPal. This means almost all transactions will be done through PayPal. You may also want to accept money orders or personal checks. The more options you leave your buyers, the more likelihood you’ll get more bids; most people (that have the money to spend) are however, comfortable with PayPal.

Many people ship their items sold on eBay by using USPS service. You can print postage online and mail the items from your home. If you are located outside the US, FedEx, DHL and UPS are some of the other services that will provide shipping for you.

The Warrior Forum has some great resources and threads to help you get your eBay business started, mainly in the WSO section. In fact, there are quite a handful of Warriors doing a few grand a month on eBay alone, and these are the guys who know that eBay is profitable.

There are many people who assert eBay doesn’t work anymore these days, but I don’t think so. Ebay is a globally recognized name today for a reason, and for those who are willing to put in the work of learning how to “use the eBay system”, I don’t doubt they will reap the rewards.

Maybe its time to leverage the huge the huge potential of eBay.