Some of the nice features of Shopify are:

- Easy to set up, professional, standards compliant templates that are customizable.

- Product & order management that makes it easy to list products, take orders, manage shipping & control inventory.

- Integration with major online payment processing such as PayPal and Google Checkout.

These are just a few of the basics, there is really a wide variety of options. So if you have just a few items to sell or are interested in a full blown e-commerce site with hundreds of pages Shopify might be the solution you are looking for. I built  a page to list some of my items and it was really easy to set-up. I need to optimize with some better images but with just the free plan it only took a little work until I had my own store. You can see it here -> GarnetStreet Books & Prints

I still prefer Tropical Web Works EPN Tracker because you can upload it to your server and keep your sales transactions to yourself (and it loads a thumbnail), but that being said MyEPNReport states (at the time of this writing) - that they do not store any information and all info is uploaded as a temporary file and deleted after the results have loaded. Always inform yourself of the Privacy Policy folks or ask if you have concerns.

So check it out, see what sells and whether you might narrow your niche for increased sales.

What Did They Buy From Your eBay Affiliate Site

If you haven't switched your eBay affiliate stores from Commission Junction to the eBay Partner Network that is. May 31 was the last day to make the switch.

If click-thrus at your niche stores are still referencing your CJ account after today you will no longer be credited for any sales or ACRUs. So get it together and make the switch. There are enough challenges already - niche selection, theme selection, SEO, everyone & their Grandma launching BANS (Build A Niche Store) sites - to be losing money by not having changed over. One lost signup of a new customer will cost you $25, that is the cost of one .com registration and a month or two of hosting at a majority of web hosts. If you are using .info domains for any of your niche stores well it's a lot of them.

You may have noticed the software I use to build WordPress Niche Stores is phpBay Pro and it has been updated and is ready to go using the eBay Partner Network campaign ID's so what are you waiting for...?

Bell Tower image by lucianvenutian.

In all seriousness, I thought Bluehost on the whole was a very decent host and the only time I had a big problem (which may have been my fault), I received friendly and efficient support over the phone that got me up running pretty quick. There were just a few factors that instigated the switch:

- I built a website for someone else that I provided hosting for and needed them to have access to their own Cpanel and I hope to do some WordPress sites for some other local businesses.
- With the upgrade to version 3.0 my WordPress niche stores using phpBay Pro need the correct version of Ioncube running on my servers. Supposedly this should not be a problem on Bluehost but I kept running into issues and I would rather spend my time optimizing my eBay niche stores than pulling my hair out over Fatal Errors. HostGator ran the new plugin without a hiccup.
- Lastly some strongly worded encouragement (and a coupon) from BloggerUnleashed.com.

The HostGator reseller account was payable by the month which was nice for getting rolling without a big outlay for 6 months or a years contract. There is certainly a bit more to learn to use a Webhost Manager interface (WHM) but it is not that hard and there is still the old familiar Cpanel for my separate sites. So from now on hopefully I am in a long term relationship for a while and my webhost affiliate links will reflect my commitment.

Some of the new features include:

• Display Listings in columns - this is a sweet feature allowing you to maximize display space with selectable number of columns.
• Pagination - Display up to 100 items navigable on separate pages.
• Geo IP Targeting - Increase your customer base to include people from around the world. Multiply your profits!
• SEO URLs - Cloak affiliate links and provide urls that reflect the product for sale.
• eBay Logo - that can be turned on or off at top of your listings so you can brand your niche store more privately or reassure your visitors with major brand name recognition.

These of course are in addition the many features that were already available in phpBay that make it such a powerful tool for building niche stores with WordPress:

• Listing items by seller, zip code, price or auction ending time.
• Keyword exclusion to fine tune your WordPress Niche Store.
• An excellent forum with helpful fellow users and great support from the software creator.

And much more! PhpBay Pro has also added some new tutorials and updated the user manual to help you get the most from the product. So what are you waiting for, head on over so you can quickly start building niche stores with WordPress. If you already own a copy you are of course entitled to any upgrades with your original purchase.


Here is a sample listing with many of the features enabled:

US Auctions Australian Auctions Austrian Auctions Belgian Auctions Canadian Auctions French Auctions German Auctions Hong Kong Auctions Indian Auctions Irish Auctions Italian Auctions Dutch Auctions Polish Auctions Singapore Auctions Spanish Auctions Swiss Auctions UK Auctions

Time: ending soonest Time: newly listed Price: lowest first Price: highest first

Camelbak Blowfish Hydration Pack used w-bladder    US $17.10

CamelBak Big Bite Valve Replacement For Reservoirs    US $6.00

CamelBak Ergo Angle Ergonomically Positions Bite Valve    US $4.00

Camelbak Bottle 75L BPA Free Classic Cap Lime Olympics    US $11.00

Camelbak Bottle 75L BPA Free Classic Cap Pink Ballet    US $11.00

CAMELBAK WOMENS 70oz HYDRATION PACK HIKING PINK NWT NEW    US $24.87

Example article about skis from wikipedia:

US Auctions Australian Auctions Austrian Auctions Belgian Auctions Canadian Auctions French Auctions German Auctions Hong Kong Auctions Indian Auctions Irish Auctions Italian Auctions Dutch Auctions Polish Auctions Singapore Auctions Spanish Auctions Swiss Auctions UK Auctions Time: ending soonest Time: newly listed Price: lowest first Price: highest first Olin 170cm skis 170 cm skis bindings set no reser    US $9.99 ROSSIGNOL 105 R 150 CM SKIS BINDINGS    US $9.99 SKIS ROSSIGNOL CUT 104 R 15 CM BINDINGS    US $.99

Snow skis↓ glide on snow because downward pressure, as well as heat from surface friction, melts a thin layer of snow directly under the ski. This creates a very thin layer of water directly under the ski upon which the ski glides.

US Auctions Australian Auctions Austrian Auctions Belgian Auctions Canadian Auctions French Auctions German Auctions Hong Kong Auctions Indian Auctions Irish Auctions Italian Auctions Dutch Auctions Polish Auctions Singapore Auctions Spanish Auctions Swiss Auctions UK Auctions Time: ending soonest Time: newly listed Price: lowest first Price: highest first Tune Up Clinics DVD for P-Tex Edges Wax Snowboard Skis    US $14.99 KARHU WAX BASE 3 PIN CROSS COUNTRY SKIS 160 cm    US $42.00 WW2 NOS SKI WAX RED for SPEED    US $15.00

Ski wax↓ is used to decrease drag by increasing the water repellent properties of the base.

That's the basics of it. I would would love to hear more ideas on cool ways to implement this and thanks to DeUCeD for the tool.

ZinText

ZinText links keywords on your site to eBay auctions. All it takes is a short line of Javascript to be inserted where you want to display the links. When your visitors hover over the linked keywords a small window containing a couple of items pertaining to that word is displayed. The display has a clean aesthetic and for something that pops ads on the screen feels fairly unobtrusive. I installed it in this post and you can see it in action in the blue, underlined keywords.

AdAptive

is a variation that displays banner ads (4 choices of size), that you can suggest some keywords to or opt in for content match. I only tried it on automatic once and did not get contextual results, need to experiment further. Check out an example of one of these banners at the top of my phpBay bocce balls for sale example page.

Both of these are lightweight and easy to use and are about as fast as it gets for putting affiliate auctions on your site.

• You need to be a member of eBay's Partner Network.
• Grab a Campaign ID
• Insert ID into the ZinText or AdAptive Get Started Page
• Generate Code
• Insert code into your site and you're good to go!

According to their site they take 10% of clicks to support the product. No registration is required and all payments and tracking are done with your eBay account. Also, according to Chris Hedgecock, the developer, ZinText has been approved as an eBay compatible application. What exactly that means I don't know but it sounds good. I recommend you read the FAQ and Privacy Policy as well.

Since they are contextual, both of these scripts may conflict with the Terms of Service of other contextual advertising such as adsense so make sure you check before running too much advertising on the same pages.

Tools image by Batega

Besides a couple eBay auctions there has been no online or other promotion of these items and it is is time to change that. I would like to create some more revenue by expanding the customer base as well as selling some more product directly for retail vs wholesale price.

Starting out there are several ways I will consider doing this:

• Online Auction Sites
• Third Party Storefronts
• Online Classifieds
• Creating my own storefront hosted on my own site

Before I start listing items I will:

• Do Inventory.
• Organize Documentation - Take photos, write up descriptions.
• Make sure there are the necessary shipping supplies available.
• Make a list of where to start selling and start at the top .

So, those are some initial thoughts on the process. I will continue to post on the subject as the project moves forward.
If you are considering selling products online or already do I would love to hear any ideas or advice. Leave a comment or drop me a line through the Contact Page.

Lemonade Stand photo by Rochelle

Note that their announcement states that no sales will carry over into June from CJ. Any long auctions or ACRUs that are confirmed after May 31 will not be of any worth to you if you are generating traffic for your eBay niche store on the old network, so keep that in mind as you will probably want to have eBay Partner Network documenting your traffic by then.

Note that Belgium, Netherlands, Hong Kong, and Singapore will still expire on April 30th.

eBay Partner Network Blog

Image by Joe Lanman