Am I Breaking Ebays Terms Risking Getting Banned?

[joelcommisafag]

I have this method I stumbled across that is making so decent money over the last few days on Ebay. It's not a ton, but I haven't blown it out test it out more. My stats seems somewhat normal..but the EPC is high: $50

Here is Oct so far:
Program Impressions Clicks EPC ($) Earnings ($)
Total 811 411 50.01 205.56

Basically, I have an auction that features more detailed pics on my own site. The link to my site is a stats tracker to see the traffic coming in from Ebay, and to know which pictures people are clicking on. But inside the tracker code, I also redirect through my Ebay affiliate link. They go to my site, see the larger pictures. On the site, I have the live Ebay auction feed or course linking back to Ebay with an affiliate link.


Now. Does Ebay consider this stuffing? To my understanding a cookie stuff is a cookie placed without a legitimate click. (set on the user's pc without the user taking action) But since my clicks are legit (people interested in my items who want to know more click the pics), they are taking action and are redirected through my aff link.

If its not stuffing according to Ebay, could it get me banned? I'm essentially leveraging Ebays traffic to get views to my auction (which is ok Ive learned as long as I dont promote the item outside of Ebay).

Im worried that the stats might give something away and get my account looked at though. I have about a %50 click thru, but this might be normal for a highly targeted (well crafted) auction.

Any ideas?

 

[edc]

I think that a) e*Bay is not supposed to credit you for traffic that comes from their site, and b) that you are not allowed to have links from e*Bay to your own site. So technically, you are in violation of e*Bay's terms; however, this is not technically stuffing. Still, though, good luck - this is dicey IMHO.

-e-

 

[joelcommisafag]

you are allowed to have links to your own site, so long as you dont promote your items for sale outside of ebays marketplace. I know because my first auction was ended early by ebay since I had contact info on my site. they said someone could easily contact me outside of ebay, so they killed the auction. i revised my site, got my fees back, and relisted. so far so good. so the issue is not having links back, that is ok. they may not credit me for the traffic...not sure. if so, i could remove the links on their site, put regular links. once they go to my site, see the larger pics, then go back to ebay, have that click be the aff link.

 

[joelcommisafag]

also, i had a reviewer check the auction, and they said my revisions were fine and allowed. they probably just didnt notice how i was redirecting.

 

[Dan Free]

I got a note recently from eBay because I am a affiliate, which said that it was not allowed to direct people from ebay ( your ebay auction) to your website for the purpose of giving them an ebay affiliate cookie.

But, you can do anything you want as long as you don't get caught. You should also remember that you are paid through Paypal and Paypal freezes account at the drop of a hat.:yield:

 

[verified]

this is hear say, just read the terms of ebay carefully and then decide!

 

[dvdcowboy]

It is against TOS but it is not as shady as cs'ing and it is quite a bit safer.
As long as no one complains, you can probably get a good run before you get caught.

 

[donnieo]

This is explicitly against their Terms as of September 19.

"Any transaction resulting from traffic that has been redirected off of an Advertiser site (e.g. eBay.com) will be disqualified, and you will not receive commissions."

So to answer your initial question, yes, what you're doing is breaking their terms. As far as the risk of getting banned, who knows. If they catch you and you're lucky then they might just tell you to stop. The terms state that you will not receive commissions but does not say that the account will be terminated.

 

[swinter84]

Round Tripping made me aver $20,000 in a few months.

That was before Sept. 19 though. I have been taking a break.

Jumping back in soon...

 

[nam6641]

Round Tripping made me aver $20,000 in a few months.

That was before Sept. 19 though. I have been taking a break.

Jumping back in soon...

Do people end up winning your auction and you get a commission from them? It may stick out that you are earning commissions on your auctions because if the traffic was natural this normally isn't the case I would think...

What did they do on Sept 19th?