Smartshare links

[enrcay99]

I recently joined the affiliate program with eBay. I am trying to use smartshare to create a link that I can put into my web page like how Amazon does. How do I create a link with smartshare that has an image.  As of right now it is only text.

[shipscript]

eBay's affilliate program (eBay Partner Network, or EPN) does not automatically include a photo wherever they use the phrase "link", since their links are textual.  All of the gallery versions (the ones that display photos) seem to be for categories, rather than for individual sellers or selected items.

However, it is possible to add an eBay thumbnail as part of your link if you manually edit the link code, and it is also possible to create an EPN gallery of your own items, or other specific items, if you structure the link code accordingly. This is pretty easy if you know HTML. If you are not familiar with HTML coding, the basics go something like this:

When you select a listing, copy the image URL from the thumbnail on eBay's search page. The URL will look something like this:

https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/g/FCQAAOSwHAxcH9RW/s-l140.jpg

To turn that into an HTML image, you'll need to surround it with some HTML code, like this:

<img src="https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/g/FCQAAOSwHAxcH9RW/s-l140.jpg">

Next, you will add to, or replace, the text in your EPN rover link code with your image code:

<a href="https://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?campId=5337596094&mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fitm%2Fdescription-template-test-Please-do-not-bid-%2F223236214292"><img src="https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/g/FCQAAOSwHAxcH9RW/s-l250.jpg"></a>

And you would see a clickable thumbnail, something like this:

The Xsellx gallery will allow eBay sellers to display their own items as an EPN photo gallery on their own  web pages and social sites to draw buyers back eBay for monetization.  Simply add or change the EPN# (Campaign ID) within the gallery.

[datasaver2012]

Thanks for this info. I assume that once the item is sold you need to update the image code again. This means a whole lot of constant work on my end since I have lots of items on my site and sellers have a habit of making new listings when they sell out even for high quantity items. With the old Ebay feed you could just make very detailed search parameters and the updating was fairly automated. Hopefully they bring back something like this in the future. I am doing everything in my power to avoid Amazon's program but they do seem to make things much easier. 

[shipscript]

Since that December post, eBay has made even more changes to their Partner Network Program. I haven't had the time to evaluate how much of my December post is still valid.