View Full Version : By Request - Ebay Affilliate Conversion
amykhar
12-05-2004, 10:00 PM
OK. This one is a quick knock-off of the amazon hack. It takes links to items on ebay and converts them to use your commission junction affilliate id.
It is very much a beta and has only been tested for about 5 minutes.
It was requested in this thread:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=72564
Please report any bugs.
sabret00the
12-07-2004, 03:51 PM
nice work :)
how do you determine what your number is?
Looking at it more, it looks like this one and the amazon hack change the link when it's posted, but doesn't change old historical links?
amykhar
12-10-2004, 12:29 PM
Looking at it more, it looks like this one and the amazon hack change the link when it's posted, but doesn't change old historical links?
Right. In the old vb2 version, it did because vbulletin parsed links when they were displayed, not when they were inserted in the database. (If I remember correctly. It's been a while.)
Now, the links are processed when a message is posted or when a message is edited.
It might be interesting to put together a script to go through old posts and change the links, but I don't have time to do that right now.
Amy
amykhar
12-10-2004, 12:30 PM
how do you determine what your number is?
When you go to commission junction, in the section for ebay there is a link to a tool at ebay that allows you to create a link to any item. Create one link and then grab the number from that link.
Amy
Right. In the old vb2 version, it did because vbulletin parsed links when they were displayed, not when they were inserted in the database. (If I remember correctly. It's been a while.)
Now, the links are processed when a message is posted or when a message is edited.
It might be interesting to put together a script to go through old posts and change the links, but I don't have time to do that right now.
AmyI wonder why they changed the system. It seems crazy. Links should be parsed when displayed so if there's a change in how you want links displayed (like here), you only need to deal with it once. sigh.
When you go to commission junction, in the section for ebay there is a link to a tool at ebay that allows you to create a link to any item. Create one link and then grab the number from that link.
AmyYes, but it looks like this:
http://www.cj.com/blahblah/click-yourid-itemid/bla
is it enough to just put in yourid? Looking at the code, it doesn't seem to pull the itemid from the links and insert it into your code?
I haven't studied CJ's/ebay's system much so I'm not sure of the syntax but that's what it looks like to me.
amykhar
12-10-2004, 01:11 PM
It does pull the item id from the links and puts it into the correct format. And yes, it's enough to get your id by using that tool I mentioned and then paste it in.
It DOESN'T work if you snag the id number from an ebay banner ad, etc. You need to get the id from the link generated by the tool or you'll end up on a generic ebay page.
The code takes the id number and the item number and generates a fresh link - so you won't have to worry about somebody else's affiliate id being there too or a session id or anything goofy.
Amy
hankster
12-14-2004, 03:06 AM
Doesn't seem to work for me... nothing gets changed in the link. A question: In the second part of the hack do you put the eBay hack ABOVE the $DB_site->query(" line?
[edited] A little experementing shows it adds the corrected link if I edit the post but does not add it when a new link is posted.
And yes, it's enough to get your id by using that tool I mentioned and then paste it in.
I looked all over but cannot find this tool.
amykhar
12-14-2004, 11:38 AM
Doesn't seem to work for me... nothing gets changed in the link. A question: In the second part of the hack do you put the eBay hack ABOVE the $DB_site->query(" line?
[edited] A little experementing shows it adds the corrected link if I edit the post but does not add it when a new link is posted.
If it works on edit and not on the post, make sure you made the edits in the functions_newpost.php file correctly.
hankster
12-14-2004, 11:45 AM
As far as I can tell I added it in the proper area just below the text // ### POST NEW POST ###
The tool is located at http://affiliates.ebay.com/tools/linking/
amykhar
12-14-2004, 11:51 AM
As far as I can tell I added it in the proper area just below the text // ### POST NEW POST ###
The tool is located at http://affiliates.ebay.com/tools/linking/
which editor are you using when you post? standard or WYSIWYG? Also, if you have problems, it helps me debug if you post a link to your forums.
hankster
12-14-2004, 11:54 AM
I am using the Quick Reply "plain text" and the full WYSIWYG editor.
amykhar
12-14-2004, 11:55 AM
Also, how are you entering the url? Pasting it in directly as a plain link? Adding the vbb code manually? Using the link prompts? They should all work, but if something isn't, I need to figure out where it's failing.
hankster
12-14-2004, 12:06 PM
Just entering with a cut & paste plain link. Just testing and if I use the link prompt it works properly. If I use the url bb tag it does not.
amykhar
12-14-2004, 12:08 PM
Just entering with a cut & paste plain link. Just testing and if I use the link prompt it works properly. If I use the url bb tag it does not.
which editor? standard or wysiwyg?
amykhar
12-14-2004, 12:12 PM
I just updated the text file with a fix for standard editor issues.
amykhar
12-14-2004, 12:13 PM
Just entering with a cut & paste plain link. Just testing and if I use the link prompt it works properly. If I use the url bb tag it does not.
Also, do me a favor and paste the exact way you are putting in the link using the bb tag when you enter the link. I want to see if it's a whitespace issue that I resolved in the Amazon hack.
hankster
12-14-2004, 12:22 PM
Looks like that fixes the cut/paste text link issue but the bb url code still doesn't work. Below is how I am entering it.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=632&item=4342618326&rd=1
hankster
12-14-2004, 12:52 PM
As a note, I'm still running 3.0.0 but I don't think that would make a difference. I can live with the bb tag problem for now. I doubt very many people use that method.
Amy, any chance for some more direction on finding the correct affiliate code? Thank you.
hankster
12-14-2004, 01:06 PM
Go into your CJ account and find the PID code for your web site
CJ > Account > Web Site Settings
Then go to http://affiliates.ebay.com/tools/linking/ and put that PID code and generate the link. You'll see the click-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX number there.
amykhar
12-14-2004, 01:53 PM
Looks like that fixes the cut/paste text link issue but the bb url code still doesn't work. Below is how I am entering it.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=632&item=4342618326&rd=1
That's the problem. It's looking for [code][url=http://...]text[url]
It's done that way because that's the way the wysiwyg editor handles urls.
So, it will not parse urls put in the way you describe unless you add another section that will look for and parse urls in that format.
hankster
12-14-2004, 01:59 PM
No problem really as I doubt that many use that type of code. Thanks for working on this as it will be very useful.
Thanks. So that pid is the number we want it seems :)
hankster
12-14-2004, 10:34 PM
Go figure, as soon as I make the changes someone posts a link like this ;)
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQgotopageZ1QQsassZteamkmrQQsorecordsperpageZ50 QQsosortorderZ1QQsosortpropertyZ1
amykhar
12-14-2004, 10:41 PM
I am not sure we can convert that type. If commission junction doesn't have a redirect setup for links like that, we're hosed. If you can find a conversion format, I'm more than happy to code the parser and converter.
Amy
hankster
12-14-2004, 10:53 PM
No problem... I just thought it was funny. But I did run it through eBay Affiliate parser and came up with the following:
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQgotopageZ1QQsassZteamkmrQQsorecordsperpageZ50 QQsosortorderZ1QQsosortpropertyZ1
converts to
http://www.qksrv.net/click-XXXXXXX-XXXXXXX?loc=http%3A//search.ebay.com/_W0QQgotopageZ1QQsassZteamkmrQQsorecordsperpageZ50 QQsosortorderZ1QQsosortpropertyZ1
amykhar
12-14-2004, 11:40 PM
Hmmm, it looks like the answer to go to any page might just be to slap on the first part followed by a loc and then the original url. I'll try to play with it later to see if that's true. If it is, it will be an easy fix.
Amy
hankster
12-30-2004, 04:56 AM
Amy, did you happen to come up with anything for this??? Thanks!
amykhar
12-30-2004, 12:25 PM
Not yet. Some symbols need to be parsed out in the middle, and I haven't had time to tinker with it just yet.
It seems this is against the CJ TOS...We've been doing it for months on my site, and we received a warning that we need to stop in 7 days .. That policy is utterly ridicoulous...:(
Email Received:
"It is a violation of the Commission Junction Publisher Service Agreement to include Commission Junction tracking links within a Message Board post/thread. You need to remove all such posts/threads by 1/17/2005."
TOS Snippet:
2.2 Use of Links to Advertisers. You may not place Links to an Advertiser's Web site or Web site content in newsgroups, message boards, unsolicited email and other types of spam, banner networks, counters, chatrooms, guestbooks, IRC channels or through similar Internet resources. You must place Links to the Advertiser's Web site or Web site content such that it is unlikely that the Links will mislead the Visitor, and such that it is reasonably likely that the Links will deliver bona fide Transactions by the Visitor to Advertiser from the Link. None of Your promotional activities may infringe an Advertiser's intellectual property rights (including but not limited to trademark rights), intellectual property rights of a competitor of an Advertiser, or CJ's intellectual property rights.
In other words, they don't want to pay commissions for traffic that will get to them anyway. I think the appropriate response is to just ban those urls altogether. Ebay pays so little commission and keep looking for ways to minimize how much they pay even more.
hankster
01-13-2005, 01:53 AM
They only pay if someone bids on an item so I don't see why it matters to them how someone got to them. It's not like they are paying every time someone clicks a link, they only pay if someone bids.
Greed. They are very rich and very greedy. Why can't they let the little guy feed his beak?
hankster
01-13-2005, 03:12 PM
While somewhat off-topic I just got notice the eBay fees are going up. Guess it's time to close my eBay store.
Closing Price $0.01
Old Price $25 5.25% of the closing value
New Price 8% of the closing price
Closing Price $25.01 - $1,000
Old Price 5.25% of the initial $25, plus 2.75% of the remaining closing value balance.
New Price 8% of the initial $25, plus 5% of the remaining closing value balance ($25.01 - $1000)
Closing Price Over $1,000
Old Price 5.25% of the initial $25, plus 2.75% of the next $25.01-$1000, plus 1.50% of the remaining closing value balance ($1,000.01 - closing value).
New Price 8% of the initial $25, plus 5% of the next $25.01 - $1000, plus 3% of the remaining closing value balance ($1,000.01 - closing value).
I used to own eBay stock. Maybe I shouldn't have sold so soon.
It seems this is against the CJ TOS...We've been doing it for months on my site, and we received a warning that we need to stop in 7 days .. That policy is utterly ridicoulous...:(
Email Received:
"It is a violation of the Commission Junction Publisher Service Agreement to include Commission Junction tracking links within a Message Board post/thread. You need to remove all such posts/threads by 1/17/2005."
TOS Snippet:
2.2 Use of Links to Advertisers. You may not place Links to an Advertiser's Web site or Web site content in newsgroups, message boards, unsolicited email and other types of spam, banner networks, counters, chatrooms, guestbooks, IRC channels or through similar Internet resources. You must place Links to the Advertiser's Web site or Web site content such that it is unlikely that the Links will mislead the Visitor, and such that it is reasonably likely that the Links will deliver bona fide Transactions by the Visitor to Advertiser from the Link. None of Your promotional activities may infringe an Advertiser's intellectual property rights (including but not limited to trademark rights), intellectual property rights of a competitor of an Advertiser, or CJ's intellectual property rights.
Thinking about this, I understand if they are against you using it in someone else's forum, since that could easily be spam, but in your own forum? That's a whole other story.
It worked very well for me :)
SirSteve
09-27-2005, 03:55 PM
Will this be available as a plug-in for 3.5?
SirSteve
09-30-2005, 03:10 AM
bump...
pcoskat
10-16-2005, 01:43 AM
Will this be available as a plug-in for 3.5?
^yeah that^
KarateKid
02-07-2006, 09:52 AM
^yeah that^
and again...!? ;)
kobescoresagain
02-08-2006, 11:29 AM
Has anyone actually contacted CJ to see if this is fine with policy? I was just wanting to make sure before I try to use it.
amykhar
02-08-2006, 12:12 PM
To answer the porting question, you can modifiy the one I did for Amazon. This never was used much and is not worth my time to redo.
lifesourcerec
11-02-2006, 07:33 PM
To answer the porting question, you can modifiy the one I did for Amazon. This never was used much and is not worth my time to redo.
Ahh, don't be that way :D
Mickie D
02-09-2007, 08:46 PM
will this work with 3.6 ?
and for ebay uk ?
would be nice product :P
cheers
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