This is creating quite a bit of commentary. As of March 31, eBay will no longer allow people to sell downloadable products through the auction system. They will only be allowed in the classifieds section, which costs $9.95/month. Obviously, the people who have been making a good living from this are going pretty nuts.

It’s an understandable decision to me, however. One of their stated concerns has to do with feedback manipulation – it’s very easy to build a good reputation with instant downloads, I understand. But I also think it has to do with copyright issues. I know a lot of ebook sellers who have had troubles with people reselling their products on eBay without permission.

It’s also a nice challenge to marketers. Some are debating whether mailing the product on a CD would get around the restriction.

I had, at one point, considered selling my ebook on eBay. But in the end, it’s a place people go to find bargains. I’d rather get people shopping at my site and build a list of affiliates to sell future products, than sell at too cheap a price.

Scott over at Self Made Minds has another good point: Could this also mean no more selling domains on eBay? They’re transferred electronically too. A little something to watch for, I guess.

This is one of those reminders, of course, that one should never rely 100% on a single source of income for your business. You never know when things will change, especially if you don’t have control.

eBay is making a big change… they’re leaving Commission Junction and bringing their affiliate program inhouse. And to encourage people to make the transition quickly, they’re offering a 5% bonus for all traffic sent through their new network in the month of April 2008.

It opens April 1, 2008.

If you’re using BANS, don’t worry. They will get it updated so that Build a Niche Store will continue to work within the new system. Has to be a bit frustrating for them, since they just finished updating to version 3, but that’s the affiliate life for you. BANS has already sent an email to users who subscribe to their newsletter about this.
Migration needs to be complete by May 1, 2008. I guess I know where my focus will be at the start of April! But I can certainly appreciate that they’re giving us a couple weeks’ notice of the change, and a month in which to complete it. Much better than some programs do when they make a big change like this.