Rewrite eBay Links

[creativepart]

You'll only receive credit from EPN for the USA links if you set the US as the default.

[creativepart]

I haven't used this plugin since I signed up for VigLink it's just some JavaScript that sits in your footer and automatically converts any link (to eBay, Amazon, or any other site which has a large referral program) to an affiliate link.

If you want to get the referrals from eBay yourself, you should just use this plugin, but it's quite old now.

Skimlinks is another company that does this -- I've used both Skimlinks and Viglinks and find Skimlinks has been much better in every metric. One good thing about Skimlinks is that you can run it and still rewrite your own links, too. Skimlinks ignores any link on your site that already has an Affiliate code on it.

[Majora]

'707-53477-19255-0' => 'eBay DE',

please Update your plugin! ;)

[tommyxv]

Quoted links is causing redirect loop browser page errors. Any idea how to resolve that?

[joeychgo]

Skimlinks is another company that does this -- I've used both Skimlinks and Viglinks and find Skimlinks has been much better in every metric. One good thing about Skimlinks is that you can run it and still rewrite your own links, too. Skimlinks ignores any link on your site that already has an Affiliate code on it.


You can do this with VigLink also -- but I don't use it. Reason being, if someone else posts their affiliate link, I want it rewritten so I get the credit.

Ive tried both also and VigLink does much better for me. Also VigLink is a US based company, Skimlinks is EU based.

[TrumpetMaster]

Will this work on 4.2

[pjkcards]

A link was posted on my site today such as lodebay.com. All of their links redirected to ebay.com, even though it wasn't supposed to. I imagine this was because the domain has "ebay" in it. This appears to be a bug. Anyone have a quick fix to it? I'm willing to pay for a solution.

Thanks!

[creativepart]

This has been a problem for a long time. But the magnitude of the problem is so small that it's a non-issue. And the way EPN is paying these days it's possible that lodebay will pay better - j/k.

[pjkcards]

This has been a problem for a long time. But the magnitude of the problem is so small that it's a non-issue. And the way EPN is paying these days it's possible that lodebay will pay better - j/k.
It is somewhat of a big issue. I've had to disable this mod on the entire site, which generates a decent amount of revenue via EPN. How do you deal with these links? People are complaining about them redirecting to ebay, so I've had no choice but to disable this until I find a fix.

[The_Hawk]

I'm going to start by saying I'm no expert, but have looked at the code for the last couple of versions.

What version of the mod are you running anyway?


When I look into the re-write it's only supposed to match things with '.ebay.'

// check if this URL is an eBay one
if (!strpos($parsedurl['host'], '.ebay.'))

Does your alternative URL contain .ebay. (with both dots) or is this mod searching wrong??



PS. If you are grabbing a new version to update, just remember you may need to apply this little fix back form post 334/479:

Hello

I have found the Problem

Replace in /includes/functions_rewrite_ebay_links.php:

$encodedlink = urlencode($rightlink);


$encodedlink = $rightlink;


Thanks @ the German Vbulletin Team!

[pjkcards]

Ah, I'm running version 1.2. Perhaps that is the issue. Thanks for the info.

[oldengine]

Unintalled

[oldengine]

Unintalled

[Jah-Hools]

How is Geo targeting handled with this?

Is it still operational?

[creativepart]

Unfortunately, Geo Targeting isn't handled by this. You'd have to change the plugin yourself.

It still works for me on 3.8, 3.7 and 4.1.

Of course, Ebay changed the EPN program last year and we all earn 60% less under the new policies.

Alternatively, you can use Skimlinks or Viglinks instead - and they will Geo Target for you. But you'll give up 25% of the income to them in commissions.

But overall I think Skimlinks is an excellent way to handle this. It all depends on how much you earn. If you're earning $5000 a month in EPN via a direct rewrite then you don't want to give 25% to anyone. But if you're only earning $900 a month then why not and give up the hassle of doing it yourself.

[creativepart]

Does this ignore rover.ebay links? (Links already converted to affiliate links.)

It rewrites all Ebay links - regardless of any other factor. In fact, it will rewrite a URL like "galebay.com" because ebay.com is contained in the URL.

I'm sure this could be updated, modified and improved. But few folks rewrite their own Ebay any more because of the services that will do it for you with greater efficiency. Though I don't because they take 25% of the income as a commission.

Skimlinks is one of those services and they will automatically ignore all links on your site with an affiliate code - you can use this to rewrite your Ebay links and let Skimlinks pick up the rest.

[Reece^B]

Will skimlinks do what this mod does for ebay?

[tpearl5]

Will skimlinks do what this mod does for ebay?

Yes, pretty much. Except you can't change the affiliate ID to your own in Skimlinks, so everything would go through their system.

[Reece^B]

Understood, does this mod still work properly? I know somewhere in this thread someone made a edit?

At 1 point when you clicked an ebay link on my site it wasn't taking you to the item just ebay just gave a error message. Now they seem to work, but does EPN still pay you for links?

[tpearl5]

FYI, while this mod may work but it is missing the tracking pixel and the pub ID.
I made a new mod for 4.x that rewrites the EPN links on the fly, selects the network based on the ebay domain, will not overwrite existing links with your ID in them, and adds in the tracking pixel: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=314726

[creativepart]

I made a new mod for 4.x that rewrites the EPN links on the fly,

Great! Does it work for 3.8 as well?

[tpearl5]

Great! Does it work for 3.8 as well?

I haven't tested it on 3.8, but it should.

[AzHousePro]

Out of curiosity, what doesn't work without the tracking pixel and pub id?

Mike

[creativepart]

I know that without the tracking pixel you don't see how many EPN impressions you serve. I had the original rewriter modded to include the tracking pixel back in 2009. Mostly I was concerned that EPN would balk without it. But I doubt now that they would have.

I'm not sure why the pub id was added ??

I tested this on my DEV forum yesterday. It's VB 3.8.7 and it seemed to work just fine. However, when I tested a ebay.co.uk link I wasn't sure that it rewrote the link as I expected.

I expected to see rover.ebay.co.uk but saw rover.ebay.com instead. Though when clicked I was taken to the ebay.co.uk page and it did have my campid etc in the link. So, I guess it's working.

I plan to remove my current EPN rewriter on one of my sites and see how this one does.

They also have an Amazon rewriter available too. I have my own Amazon rewriter that I've used for years, but I'll probably give that one a try as well.

[tpearl5]

I know that without the tracking pixel you don't see how many EPN impressions you serve. I had the original rewriter modded to include the tracking pixel back in 2009. Mostly I was concerned that EPN would balk without it. But I doubt now that they would have.

I'm not sure why the pub id was added ??

I tested this on my DEV forum yesterday. It's VB 3.8.7 and it seemed to work just fine. However, when I tested a ebay.co.uk link I wasn't sure that it rewrote the link as I expected.

I expected to see rover.ebay.co.uk but saw rover.ebay.com instead. Though when clicked I was taken to the ebay.co.uk page and it did have my campid etc in the link. So, I guess it's working.

I plan to remove my current EPN rewriter on one of my sites and see how this one does.

They also have an Amazon rewriter available too. I have my own Amazon rewriter that I've used for years, but I'll probably give that one a try as well.

That is correct. I included the tracking pixel because it was fairly easy to do and it can only help you.

I tested the different regional program links, and they all begin with "rover.ebay.com". I guess that's just how it is setup.

You should definitely try the Amazon one too - there are some improvements in that as well.

Glad it's working for you!