There’s been a bit of buzz going around in some circles about the relatively new eBay listing format, the classified ad format. It’s only available for a limited subset of categories, but the purpose is to allow sellers to generate leads for their “items, services, or properties”.
With classified ads, there is no bidding, there can be multiple buyers, and the fee is generally $9.95 for each 30 day duration.
What’s unclear, even among eBay employees, is whether or not it is allowable to include a link to a web site in a classified ad. It appears you can, but some sellers have been shut down for doing so. Some who were shut down were allowed to resume the ad with the link intact.
What is exciting, if in fact links are allowed, is that it could be used to market products as an affiliate. If you have a product that gets a good amount of keyword searches, and it fits into the categories that allow classified ads, you could make a killing.
One of the categories allowed is “Everything Else”, and in that category, the sub category “information products”. So if you are an affiliate for something that shows up on eBay Pulse as a hot item, you could do very well by only spending $9.95.
There are no final value fees. The sales are all done off auction.
Once this shakes out, it could be a booming opportunity. Or it could be snatched out from under us if eBay decides they’ve given up too much advertising space.
