epnStore.com :: beta users needed :: make money with eBay

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radio

radio

Unconsciously competent.
Nov 18, 2007
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auction2post.com
I developed this site during the No More Excuses Part II exercise but then let it sit after hitting a wall. I couldn't make it idiot proof and easy to use. There were too many hurdles to make the thing work - registering at ebay partner network (and getting approved), enabling a plugin, configuring settings, etc. Sure, easy stuff for most - but have you seen the caliber of n00bs through here lately?!

Link: epnStore

Now, however, it's as easy as inserting the tag

[epnstore]nintendo, 10[/epnstore]

and you've populated your post with ebay listings and are on your way to making bank. Plugin is preinstalled. Custom IDs are created automatically to track earnings, paid out monthly via paypal to the store admin email. Now it just needs to be prettied up. But before I spend my time there, I'd like to get some user feedback.

Here are some basics to get you started:

plugin works like this:

[epnstore]keywords, number of listings, category, seller, country, new window override[/epnstore]

keywords = what you're searching for
number of listings = number of listings to display
category = ebay category to help narrow and refine your search
seller = ebay seller
country = country code (au,fr,etc) default is united states
new window override = override link opening in new page (default is blank, type anything to override - 'no' for example)

Pages show up under your Product Listings. Posts show up under your Articles. You get one theme right now and no widget support. Will be adding more shortly.

send me an email at radiowf@gmail.com if you want more detailed explanations than that or hit me up on aim: radiowf

I will be going through it and making a default page and post on store creation and trying my best to pull out the blog references and replace w/ store. There will also be a forum w/ link to follow.

I see all these n00bs trying to write the next entertainment blog / coupon blog and then getting discouraged when they've only made $1.70 after a month. I don't see how you break through with a blog like that. I know it's mostly so they get comfortable with DOING, but at least with an ebay type site you have a better chance of making some real money since that traffic seems to be easier to monetize, even when it's not significant traffic.
 


Things I plan to add to make the process easier:

Tutorials
Forums
Screencasts

Working on a plugin to display earnings per blog in Dashboard for motivation.
 
It'll be interesting to see what niches get selected by the "noobies." I wonder if you can create some sort of anti-collision code. You know, not everyone can put up stores for "1922 ford bumpers" :)
 
that's kind of the drag of the site - all niches are out in the open with a quick search. i do have a target audience besides n00bs who i think would be very interested in this - an audience who have already proven to be somewhat computer literate... and interested in earning back some of the commissions they pay into eBay!

I would also like the ebay links to be cloaked or mod_rewritten (or whatever) - any one can offer that info via pm, that would be great!
 
On a site I have that's not using phpbay, I use a md5 hash on the auction rover link and a salt, store that in the database as an index, and then direct it through a calling script like results.php?code=(md5hash), which does the header redirect (or meta refresh, depending on which way I have it configured ). Store the code in the db, don't calculate the md5 for each query (storing the md5 will be more efficient than 'select * from auctions where md5(concat(link,'your salt here'))='$_GET['code']' )

But that means I have a script that runs that gets current auctions, saves them into the database. If you don't keep the auctions in the database, you could use some sort of encryption process like that, but one that's decryptable.
 
argh01 said:
AUGH you broke it :(
Click to expand...

lol - new files uploading now... i did a find and replace where ever it said " blog ", i replaced it with " store " - figuring i would be pretty safe... well - i messed up... hey, it's beta! :D

UPDATE: woah - uploading the files shouldn't effect the database - looks like some users / blogs were dumped. is that possible?!
 
i'll have to do some research on what happened there - but note to self, always backup db before trying to upgrade. i'm actually much more pleased now (even though some of you lost work - sorry) because it's a fresh install on a clean db w/ the latest version of MU. i've had the site up for some time and there was a lot of garbage blogs in there and they've been removed.
 
That's a great concept you've got going.

You might want to template a privacy policy and a contact page using plugins into each store.

Having EPN in the URL might get people booted from the ebay partner network though. Just something to consider.
 
Good call on the privacy policy / contact page. This doesn't require people to sign up for EPN - so really it's my account on the line! ;) I talked with some people about this and the general consensus was that epn would be okay - nothing official from ebay though.
 
plugin has been improved significantly, but now takes in the parameters a little bit differently - shouldn't be too many changes in the future as the parameters shouldn't change that much - added sort, distance, free shipping, buy it now, etc. as things to query. check the epnstore forums for updates - wouldn't have posted this here if i hadn't given the tag above.

[epnstore]wii, 10[/epnstore] still works

all future updates (not wickedfire related) will happen on the forums.
 
Seriously slick idea, but it will take a lot of work to iron it out:
- Spammers (free links etc.)
- People uploading shit (viruses...)
- Security, all of the different systems in place could leave security holes

Overall well done for an innovative use of Wordpress and an idea which could grow exponentially and challenge PHPBay and BANS. I've signed up.
 
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