How To Make Money on eBay Without Selling Anything

In this post, I’m going to show you how to make money on eBay without selling anything.

eBay is one of the biggest eCommerce platforms in the world with more than 19 million sellers having an account. 

It’s largely believed that you can only earn money by putting products on the website and selling them to others. 

What would you say if I told you there is another method to make money on eBay which doesn’t require products or any financial investment at all?

There’s a group of people that are making a lot of money simply by joining the eBay Partner Network and recommending products.

This post will go over what the eBay Partner Network is and how exactly you can earn money with it. 

Let’s get into it!

What is the eBay Partner Network? 

The eBay Partner Network is the official affiliate marketing program of eBay. 

For those that don’t know what affiliate marketing is, it’s a form of marketing where merchant websites use independent marketers, creators, and publishers to promote their products. 

They give the marketers, creators, and publishers that join their program unique links they can use to direct people to the merchant's website.

Every time a visitor buys something on the merchant website based on your referral you’ll receive a commission. 

Instead of putting up listings of your products on eBay, you simply refer visitors to other listings on the website and earn money that way.

How much can you earn with the eBay Partner Network? 

Technically, the sky is the limit but in reality, it depends on multiple factors such as: 

• The product that was sold 
• How many products you sold 
• The price of the product when it is being auctioned off.

To get a better idea of the earning potential you can take a look at the commission rate of every category that you can refer people to. On their website, they’ve what they call a rate card which has all the percentages.

I have made a screenshot of it below. 

The Pros and Cons of making money on eBay without selling anything

Pros 

• Low payout threshold 
  A lot of companies have affiliate programs where the payout threshold is somewhere around 50 or $100. An example of such an affiliate program is the Amazon affiliate program. The eBay Partner Network lets you cash out with earnings as low as $10. 
• Trustworthy company
  There are millions of companies that have affiliate programs that you can join but not every one of those is as popular as eBay. The moment one of the referrals lands on the merchant’s website it is out of your hands if they’ll purchase a product. Since eBay is so well-known the chances of people buying products are significantly higher.
• Variety of products
  eBay has a large variety of products that you can choose from. You’re not stuck trying to cater to 1 specific niche. You can easily switch it up and pick another niche without needing to go apply for a different affiliate program.
• Stable company
  The company has been around since 1995. It has survived recessions so the chances of it going bankrupt and leaving you without a source of income are small.

Cons

• You’re not getting 100% of the money
  At the end of the day, it’s still affiliate marketing which means you’ll only get a percentage of the money the purchase produces. This also happens when you sell your product on eBay but even then you’ll earn more.

How to join the eBay Partner Network

Unlike some affiliate programs, there are no strict requirements for joining the eBay Partner Network. 

You can join by following this simple 3-step process. 

1. Create an eBay Account 
2. Sign-up to become an affiliate
3. Start promoting eBay products 

1. Create an eBay Account

Go to the eBay website and register for either a personal or business account.

Not a lot of information is needed to create your account. You can even sign-up using your Social Media, Google, or Apple account.  

2. Sign-up to become an affiliate

The normal eBay Account doesn’t come with an automatic membership to the eBay Partner Network. You’re going to have to sign-up for that separately. 

When you go to the footer of the website under the SELL column, you’ll see a link with the anchor text affiliates. After clicking on the link you’ll be directed to the EPN sign-up page where you can create an affiliate account. 

3. Start promoting eBay Products

Now that you have your account you can start choosing products, create affiliate links, and direct people to eBay.

It’s a simple 3-step process but you’re going to have to take a few things into account before signing up. To become an affiliate you need to:

• Be above 18 years old.
• Have an active eBay account.
• Reside in a state that accepts PayPal or Direct Deposit as a means of payment.
• You need to have an online platform that doesn’t feature “adult, illegal, or restricted” content.

This means at the very least you’ll need a website or a social media account.

How to promote the eBay Partner Network

The eBay Partner Network offers its members a lot of freedom when it comes to promoting their products. As long as you aren’t creating or using illegal, adult, or casino content everything goes. 

There are multiple ways to promote eBay products but these 3 methods are the ones I have personally had the most success with over the last 4 years. 

1. Starting a website and getting on the first page of Google

This isn’t going to be a random website but a niche blog. 

In other words, you’re going to pick a subgroup of people that are interested in the product you choose to promote and start creating content that helps them with their questions and problems.

An example of a niche could be people interested in air purifiers. 

You’d create the website and start creating content (with affiliate links) around questions this niche might have such as:

• What are the top 10 air purifiers? 
• How long does an air purifier last?
• How can I keep my bathroom well ventilated without having a window?

You’re going to get this content on the first page of Google with the help of SEO so that people can click on it.

2. Start a YouTube Channel

The process of marketing eBay products on YouTube is surprisingly similar to that on a blog. Just like with a blog you’re going to have to pick a niche that’s aligned with the product you want to promote. 

After choosing a niche and setting up your YouTube page, you’re going to answer frequently asked questions that your niche might have regarding the product and situations related to the product. 

In both cases, you’re becoming a digital account manager that helps the niche with everything they need to know and recommends your products as solutions whenever an opportunity arises. 

3. Promote your links on Pinterest

A lot of people think that Pinterest is a social media platform like Instagram but it’s closer to being like Google. Just like Google, it has a search engine that you can type keywords in to find what they call pins. 

These pins are images. What’s cool about these pins is that you can attach a link to them.

 Unfortunately, it’s not allowed anymore to attach affiliate links to your pin but you can create a complementary blog link to that. 

The affiliate links will be incorporated into the content your pins are linking to. Just creating all kinds of pins isn’t going to do you good when it comes to attracting visitors though. 

This is why a lot of people place their pins in group pins to get attention from people that don’t follow them.

Just like with the other 2 examples you’ll have to pick a specific niche again and create content about that and turn it into a pin.

In all 3 instances, you need to remember that you aren’t trying to sell them affiliate products. You’re simply there to provide them with more context regarding the product. 

You can leave the selling to eBay once they land on the website.

How to succeed in affiliate marketing

I’m going, to be honest with you.

The steps to succeeding in affiliate marketing are simple but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. A lot of people fail because they aren’t doing it the proper way. 

I started stubbornly and wasted a lot of time doing it the wrong way. I only started seeing real results the moment I joined an affiliate marketing training platform. 

On that platform, they’ve got step-by-step training that helps people with zero experience create affiliate marketing websites that are capable of not only making money with eBay but every affiliate program out there. 

Interested in learning more about this platform? I have a comprehensive review of the affiliate platform that you check out.

The review shows you what it’s all about and how it can help you with creating an affiliate business the proper way.