Ebay Throws Down CJ

If you’re like me and use ebay as an affiliate, you’ve now got to worry about changing over all your links. Ebay has said in an email this morning that they will no longer be utilizing the Commission Junction system to track and pay their affiliates. Ebay will be requiring all affiliates to sign up and use their new in house system that goes live on April 1st.

What does this mean for you? Well not much really, other then the pain in the ass time it will take to switch over existing links. Ebay is running on Commision Junction until the end of may, then they will no longer be valid cj links. If you fall in line early and adopt the new policy and link structure in April, Ebay is giving an extra 5% bonus on all April earnings.

From the mouth of ebay itself:

“All the great tools and benefits of working with the eBay program will remain the same – access to the Editor Kit and affiliate API, the flexible destination tool, the great payout structure. In addition, the eBay partner network will provide several new features:

• Easy global registration to multiple countries simultaneously
• New, targeted banners and rich media creatives
• New landing page optimization and geo-targeting capabilities
• More detailed reporting capabilities for eBay’s programs

The eBay Partner Network and Commission Junction will run in parallel for one month through this process, so please plan to complete your migration by May 1st, 2008.

You can receive an additional 5% bonus for all traffic tracked through eBay Partner Network in April 2008 (bonus applicable to traffic sent to Half.com and US, UK, Australia, Canada, Italy, India and Spain eBay sites). The sooner you migrate, the more you’ll earn! Just:

• Register with eBay Partner Network on April 1, 2008
• Confirm your registration, and obtain your new identifiers
• Update your links with your new identifiers.
• Reminder: Please plan to complete migration by May 1, 2008.”

Are you concerned? Pissed at changing over links? Will this be a better system?