This video demonstrates the ease of  Installing My eBay Script as well as adding content and eBay product menus.

Many customers have been troubled by eBay’s TOS to where it states that you are in violation if someone visits an eBay site or any of there partners and is directed to your eBay Store, clicks on one of your links then again taken back to eBay and makes a purchase.

I’ve heard many affiliates talk about this on the eBay Forum. So what we have done in this release of MeS, version 1.5.7,  is to track and include a reporting module that will show you where your visitors are coming from. This type of reporting could be key if you are advertising your eBay store on any of the search engines via PPC. eBay does display PPC ads from Google and Yahoo. You need to keep a keen eye on this or you could be flagged for termination.

Those eBay Affiliates who have not yet purchased your copy of My eBay Script, you can download a standalone referer log reporting script from here: Referer Tracking Script

If you are using PPC to promote your eBay Stores, here is a list of eBay sites that you can put into your PPC exclusion list:

ebay.chodientu.vn
ebay.com
pages.ebay.com/nz
shopping.sanook.com
www.auction.co.kr/default.html
www.eachnet.com
www.ebay.at
www.ebay.be
www.ebay.ca
www.ebay.ch
www.ebay.co.uk
www.ebay.com
www.ebay.com.au
www.ebay.com.hk
www.ebay.com.my
www.ebay.com.sg
www.ebay.de
www.ebay.fr
www.ebay.ie
www.ebay.in
www.ebay.it
www.ebay.nl
www.ebay.ph
www.ebay.pl
www.ebayanuncios.es/ebay
www.gittigidiyor.com
www.half.ebay.com
www.kijiji.com
www.mercadolibre.com.ar
www.mercadolibre.com.mx
www.mercadolivre.com.br
www.microplace.com
www.paypal.com/ebay
www.prostores.com
www.rent.com
www.ruten.com.tw
www.shopping.com
www.skype.com
www.stubhub.com
www.stumbleupon.com
www.tradera.com

Enjoy

Most people build their link building strategies around blog and forum postings. This makes sense and is certainly part of our plans as well. However, it stands to reason that Google also knows that most marketers who are using SEO tactics to rank their sites are doing this, and it makes sense that they will be looking for a much more diverse backlink pattern to award the highest rankings to.

With that in mind, I’m going to share the top 5 non-forum/blog backlink sources that we teach in Commission Blueprint 2.0.

1. Squidoo Lists

Squidoo.com is a great place to get links back to your site. Type the following into a Google search:

“add+to+this+list”+site:squidoo.com

You will be presented with a huge list of Squidoo lenses where you can add your site, with custom anchor text. Many of these have very high PageRank as well!

For extra credit, append +”keyword phrase” onto the end of this query, and you can target your links for relevance. For example, if you were trying to rank a fitness site you could type:

“add+to+this+list”+”fitness”+site:squidoo.com

2. Web 2.0 Profiles

Many Web 2.0 sites that allow you to create profiles and interact with others provide high PageRank, “do follow” links to the website listed in your profile. Some examples include www.linkedin.com, www.flickr.com, www.twibs.com, and www.zoominfo.com.

When creating profiles on these sites (which you could do for every niche you’re in) you’re able to list your website, which becomes a high quality backlink to your site.

3. Article Marketing for Links

Most marketers are familiar with writing articles to get traffic, but we write most of our articles for backlinks. If you’ve put a link to your site within the article (and let’s certainly hope you’re doing that!), every article that gets posted becomes a backlink (or even 2 or 3). The more articles that get posted, the more links you can build.

To get started, you simply have to write the article and submit it to a few article directories. I recommend: www.Ezinearticles.com, www.goarticles.com, and www.articledashboard.com.

There is absolutely no problem or penalty with submitting the same article to all three places (submit to Ezinearticles first, though, as they are the strictest with regard to unique content), and if you are accepted by all three and have 2 links in each article, your article will result in 6 high quality backlinks!

4. Relevant Lists and Resource Directories

There are many websites that function as a resource for people interested in a particular topic. For example, one site may maintain a list of top weight loss sites to visit. A backlink from pages like these can provide high quality, highly relevant backlinks. The relevance of backlinks is being talked about much more by Google lately, and it is assumed that relevance will play a larger role in site ranking in the near future.

The trick is to find these sites quickly and efficiently. We’ve found the following Google search queries to work very well:

“Keyword phrase” + “add url”

“Keyword phrase” + “add site”

“Keyword phrase” +  “add website”

For example, if you’re looking to build backlinks to a fitness-related site, you can search for:

“fitness” + “add url”

Google will return a huge list of sites that will allow you to add your web site, creating a backlink to your site.

One thing to watch out for is that many of the sites you’ll come across will ask for a reciprocal link (i.e., we’ll link to you if you link to us). These should be avoided. It’s worth the effort to sift through these sites to find ones where you can add your link without having to place a reciprocal link on your site, because these links are less valuable for SEO purposes.

Make sure to keep a list or database of all of these great link building sites/resources that you find, so you don’t have to search for them again the next time!

5. Easy EDU Links

I’ve saved my favorite and most unique tip for last. It’s commonly accepted knowledge that .EDU and .GOV backlinks are valued very highly when Google decides on your search rank position. Some people also know the “trick” to finding blogs and forums on .EDU domains, where they can leave useful comments that link back to their sites. If you don’t, here’s a great Google query to find .EDU blogs:

site:.edu inurl:blog “post a comment” -”you must be logged in”

We’re after something more valuable, though. How about a whole page on an .EDU domain where you can put an article or a whole blog post, as opposed to just a comment? All you need is a willing college student!

At many schools, college students are given web space they can use for anything they like. Of course, this web space is hosted on the .EDU domain. All we need to do is to get this college student to allow us to post our material if they like it. But how do you go about finding these students?

If you really think about it, you can’t possibly be many degrees of separation away from knowing someone who’s in college right now. Think about your circle of friends and family, and branch out from there. For example, even though I’m “older” (I have teenage children… sigh), I still have 3 cousins that are attending college right now. If I expand my reach further, friends of my parents have children in college. I’m also getting to the age where my friends are starting to have kids in college. In short, I can’t throw a rock into my personal network without hitting a college student!

All you have to do is approach these students in your network and ask for their help, or give them something in exchange, for the privilege of putting some content on their site. It’s as simple as that.

I hope these tips help you improve your search engine rankings and make you a more successful Internet Marketer!

About the author

Steven Clayton and his partner Tim Godfrey are the creators of several best-selling Internet Marketing information products, including Commission Blueprint 2.0, Niche Blueprint, and SEM Business Blueprint. You can get more great advice and information on their blog.

Original Blog: 5 Killer SEO Tips to Get Backlinks

Some new customers have noticed that after installation they would get errors or could not log into the admin page. We have found that in most cases this was do to their webhosting provider does not have their account set to use PHP5 by default. Below are some tips to solve this issue.

Switching to PHP 5
To identify the version of PHP your web server is using, create a text file called phpinfo.php with the following code and upload it to the root of your server and run it.

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

The results will provide the version number in the banner at the top of the page.

If it is PHP 5 or better, no further action is required. If it is not, contact your web hosting provider and ask them to provide support for PHP 5.

Web Hosting PHP Switch Examples
This list is intended to show examples of how to swap to PHP5 on various hosts. This is not a complete, nor official list. Please check with your web host for specific and updated information.

• 1&1 Germany (Confirmed for
  
  WebHosting 5.0 package) – To parse all php files in php5, the following
  lines of code have to be added to the root directory’s .htaccess file:

      AddType x-mapp-php5 .php
      AddHandler x-mapp-php5 .php

• Blue Host (Unconfirmed) – Open a ticket with the helpdesk who
  will take you through migration.

• Dream Host (Unconfirmed) – Visit Domains > Manage Domains > Edit
  Domain in your control panel.

• Gradwell – Visit the Control Panel > Hosting > Manage Domains >
  Click on the domain name. Change the zone file to Default hosting on php 5
  cluster. Click update. In “Unix Hosting,” edit the domain and switch to PHP 5.

• GoDaddy – From the Hosting Control Center, select Content >
  Add-On Languages. Select “PHP 5.x” as the version, then click Continue and Update.

• Media Temple – Check the knowledge base for help on upgrading.

• cPanel (checked on PAC WebHosting, but probably applies to all
  cPanel based web hosting services) – On the cPanel main page > Software >
  PHP Configuration. At the top of the PHP configuration page, where it says “The ‘.php’ file extension will be processed by” and select PHP 5 from the dropdown box. Click the “Update” button.

FAQs on Moving to PHP 5

Will I have to redo my whole site over?

No, in most cases there would be no need to change anything on your site.

Can I ask my web host to install PHP 5 or do I have to do it myself?

This will vary from host to host. In some cases, a request via a support ticket will get you an answer from your web host provider. Others will offer the option through your host’s control panel. It is usually a simple
procedure.

What if my web host doesn’t offer PHP 5?

Most responsible host providers have already made the switch. Ask if they have plans to introduce PHP5 support. If they are planning to introduce the support soon, then it shouldn’t be an issue. If they have no such plans, you might want to look around for alternative providers.

Why Switch to PHP 5
In August 2008 PHP 4 became an end-of-life product. This meant that no further effort would be expended in fixing bugs, improving, or patching security holes found in PHP version 4. Development effort moved to PHP 5.

Since then, web hosts have gradually been introducing PHP 5 based offerings into their portfolios. Most decent web hosting providers will now allow PHP 5 hosting – though for some it may not be the default.

Compared to PHP 4, PHP 5 is faster, easier for developers to maintain and code for, and integrates better into web services. Perhaps most importantly, it is also a current, supported, product.

As we all know, there were thousands and thousands of people (affiliates) promoting eBay products. Most of which had junk sites meaning no real content and the quality of their web sites traffic was blatantly poor. eBay’s Quality Pricing structure will penalize those types of sites.

In the past, earnings were based on sales and new active confirmed registered users (ACRU). So, affiliates were paid on a final sale basis and for those new users who signed up to eBay. At a minimum, ACRU’s were about $25. This was very nice. Now earnings are base on the new Earnings Per Click system (EPC).

What’s Quality Click Pricing?

Until now, eBay Partner Network has paid for sales and leads. With Quality Click Pricing, we will now instead pay affiliates for each click sent to an eBay site. The price paid per click will still depend on the short-term and long-term revenue of the traffic that the publisher drives to eBay, but will now also take into account the incremental value of that traffic to eBay, i.e., whether a sale happened as a direct result of the publisher’s actions. The greater the incremental revenue and the higher the expected lifetime value of the customers an affiliate sends, the higher the EPC and total earnings the affiliate will receive. Earnings Per Click (EPC) will be set daily for the previous day’s traffic.

As you can see now you will need to change how your website attracts traffic. Quality of traffic and the expected long-term eBay customer is what eBay is now looking for, not just the quantity. So for example, don’t just build a website with very little content and is almost no value to the visitor. Instead build your website with a theme or niche, add content that your visitors would like to read and then display the relevant eBay products.
Even though I made great profits under the old eBay payout structure, the new Quality Pricing Structure (although started out dismal) is showing some promises.

Once you have a few sites that are getting hits and you are making you money. Focus on adding some articles to your MeS eBay Store as well as getting your site posted on some of the social networks and forums out there. The more traffic you get to your site the more money you will make.

Check other posts on this forum on how to increase traffic to your eBay Store Front.

Building your eBay Affiliate Storefront website was just the first step. As with any new website, it is going to do you no good unless people know about it. So you must now put on your Affiliate Marketing hat and start promoting your site and what you have to offer the world. Yes, The World. With your new website you will be marketing and selling to anyone who finds your site no matter where they are located on Gods Green Earth.

This little blog article will be the first in a series of posts that explains Affiliate Internet Marketing and some of the tools and techniques to get you listed on search engines fast and to get your eBay Affiliate Store in front of as many people as possible.

If you are new to Internet Marketing you will hear of the term SEO or Search Engine Optimization. What this means is that you must make sure that the top search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN / Bing like and can read your website and it’s contents. Every so often these search engines unleashes a program called a Search Bot that scours the internet for new sites and catalogs or indexes each sites content. This way when someone does a search, they would already have a database full of results.

One of the most affective ways to help the Bots out is to include a few HTML Meta tags onto each page your site serves up. The key Meta Tags are Title, Description and Keywords. With My eBay Script, this is done automatically for you and changes regularly with each menu option clicked and on each search results page.

Search Engines not only indexes your sites content but they also rank it. Meaning that if they feel that you have a website that is very specific in a particular area and have solid unique information. They will rank you higher thinking that people searching for an answer in your niche area, will actually get what they are looking for from your site. This is very key to getting tones of traffic but is not always an easy task.

Another very important part to help Search Engine Ranking is to have other websites in a like niche market as yours, link back to you. This is called inbound links. This type of linking tells the Search Engines that not only do you think your content is good but others in your niche market do to.

More on SEO Tips and Tricks in future series.

Ok, lets get your indexed within 48 hours of going live.

Press Releases

I am saying contact your local newspaper or radio station all though that is not a bad idea. But I am talking about doing a little write-up on you, your business and what your website has to offer and submit this to some online Press Release sites. Here are a few that I use and they are great.

• PRLog
• Free Press Release.com
• IM Newswatch.com

Writing Articles

Lets say you have built an eBay Affiliate Storefront that sells wood working tools and you have been working in this industry for years and have many wood making ideas and projects. Cool, write a few articles explaining how to do something or how to properly use a tool or which tool is best for which job. Write an article about 5 or 6 paragraphs long and submit it to some of the online Article Farms. These farms or websites is where people go to get articles for there site or news article or even magazine article. At the end of your article you place a link back to your new affiliate site. When someone wants to use your article on their site. They will copy it in it’s entirety with your link in it. Now you have an inbound link. Remember that from above when we where talking about SEO? Here are a few good Article Farms of choice.

• EZine Articles.com
• Articlesbase.com
• Go Articles.com

Blogs

Unless you were born yesterday, you must have heard of Blogs. What you must do here is find a blog that talks about the same thing that you have designed your eBay Affiliate Store for. Using the same example as above in the Writing Articles section. Find a blog that talks about wood working. Join it then get engaged in the conversations. You need to find a blog that allows you to make comments and generally you will see that you must type in your name and website then your comment. For the name, you don’t always have to use your real name. Try for example, WoodWorkingKing. Then include your website URL. Then add a comment that is worth while. If you just put in garbage or gibberish. The moderator of the blog will just mark it as spam and your comment will not even show up.

Here are a few more tips to get your site out there and also to promote some of the products that you are offering.

Social Networks

Social Media seems to be the craze now and millions of people all over the world are joining and chatting. Join up with some of them and start talking about your site and products. Don’t make it sound like advertising but just conversation. Some of the well known Social Networking sites are:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Myspace

I also like to use:

• Hubpages
• Squidoo

Forums

Forums are much like the Blogs I talked about above. Find forums that discuss your niche market and start contributing to the conversations. Some forums allow you to have signature blocks. What this is is when you post to a forum at the end of your post there will be a section for your signature. Almost like that of an email signature block. What you do here is configure your signature block to say something like “Wood Working Specialist” on the first line then your website URL on the second line. If you provide good sound advice or comments, people will think you know your stuff and will venture to your site to see what you have to offer.

These are just of few good eBay Affiliate Website Promotion Tips to get your started.

More tips coming soon.