One of the things that frustrates many Build A Niche Store users and eBay affiliates in general is that they can’t figure out what specific items they’re earning commissions on. I see this question, or rather frustration, expressed in many forums, blog comments and many other places on the net. This would be valuable information for the affiliate marketer because you could then target this info better on your site if you knew what your hot selling items were.
So you can’t know for sure what you sold through the eBay affiliate program, that’s a bummer. Oh, but you can, and it’s not all that difficult. All you need is Microsoft Excel or any program that opens Excel documents or tab separated files and access to your CJ account.
Here’s how you do it:
Log into CJ and click on Run Reports in the top left tabs. Next, right below where it says Run Reports - Transaction Reports, click on Report Options and you will get a box that looks like this:
Once you do that, click on the drop down box under Select Report Type and select Commission Detail. When you do that, the next box below will change to say Advertisers: All. Click on that drop down box and select eBay from your list of advertisers. Go to the next section down labeled Filter Results By and in the box labeled Web site: All, select your web site that you want to see eBay stats on.
Next, go over to the right a little and under Select Time Frame, click the radio button that says Date Range and select the date or dates that you want to find specific transactions for. Your screen should now look like the one below:
Click on Generate Report and you will then be taken to a screen that looks similar to the one below. You could have either more or less transactions depending on how many sales you had that day for that site.
Once you are there, scroll down to the bottom of the report where it says Download Report and select Excel from the drop down box and then click Submit. You will then get a dialog box that asks you if you want to open or save the file, click Open and Excel will open with your details. With my example there will be only three lines in the spreadsheet, one is an Advanced Lead and the other 2 will say Winning Bid under the Auction Name column. Follow the Winning Bid row and scroll over the the far right of your spreadsheet and look for a column that says Order ID. If you followed everything correctly you will now see a cell full of numbers like the one below:
BAM! You now have exactly what you’re looking for. Highlight the second number in the cell and copy it to your clipboard. Now go over to eBay and plug it in to the main search box and see what comes up. Item number 310023014821 on eBay is a Romanian 500 Lei silver coin that earned me a $1.66 .83 commission.
Pretty cool, huh? You can do that with any item sold on eBay and you never have to wonder again what you’ve sold through the their affiliate program.
But wait, there’s more…
What if you want to check out all the items you sold in a particular day or period of time? It would be a drag to have to plug in every number one at a time to find out which items you sold if you had several. Today is your lucky day because there’s a way to list all your items at once. On the right hand side of the main search box on eBay click on Advanced Search and you will get a screen like below. Make sure you click on the box that says Completed listings only and put in all your numbers either space or comma separated. You do have to sign in to eBay to use this feature. If you don’t already have one, you can get an eBay account here.
Click on Search and see what you get:
As you can see, I sold the coin mentioned above and a Dell keyboard through the same site. That’s the beauty of the eBay affiliate program. You can earn commissions on two completely unrelated items because you get credit for whatever purchases someone makes within a 7 day period.
Use this valuable information to target your visitors with the most popular items you’re selling or just to see what’s bringing in the big commissions. Have fun and earn some bucks with the eBay affiliate program.
Cheers,
Alan
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