Home Business Income

Open Auctions is a free, open source Wordpress Plugin that allows you to display eBay affiliate auctions and collect commissions when visitors click on an auction and buy something from eBay. The plugin works with the Pepperjam Network, eBay Partner Program, ShoppingAds, and even a custom URL structure if you wish to cloak your eBay auction links.

This plugin is completely free to use and is open source using the GPLv3 license. That means that you are free to use it on any of your sites and modify the plugin however you wish. You are not allowed to sell the plugin or any modifications to the plugin as your own work. Please see the full license for more details.

For an example of the plugin in acution, check out Auction Site.

The current version of the plugin is 1.0 and was released on December 22, 2008.

Installation

1. Click here to download the plugin.

2. Copy the open-auctions folder to your wp-content/plugins directory of your Wordpress installation.

3. Activate the plugin

4. Under Open Auctions settings in the WP control panel, select the affiliate network you wish to use.

5. Create a site prefix something like sitename- (for this site, I could use hbi-). This is used for subid tracking.

6. Insert your affiliate tracking url that you get from your affiliate network.

For Pepperjam Network go to the text link generator for the eBay program. You can use the encrypted or unencrypted link. It will look something like http://www.pntrs.com/t/1-11111-111-1111.

For eBay Partner Network go to the text link generator and generate a text link for one of your campaigns. Then copy the link up until the &customid= . It will look something like http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/111-11111-11111-1/1?type=1&campid=1111111111&toolid=10001

For ShoppingAds(formerly AuctionAds), go to the text link generator and generate a link for one of your campaigns. Then copy the link without the destination url. It will look something like http://ads.shoppingads.com/pagead/link_7d9df7f6b2508f8df3a6_b416342912fdc7c5fc1a383ac7d107ae_

7. Copy the code below into your blog template where you want to include the eBay auctions.

<?php showAuctions(10, get_post_meta($post->ID,”oa_keyword”, true)); ?>

You can change the number of auctions shown by changing the first variable in the code above, 10 to whatever number you want it to be.

8. Copy the styles below into your theme stylesheet and tweak them to match your site’s colors and content width.
/******************************
*        Open Auctions          *
******************************/

div.openauctions-box {
position: relative;
float: left;
width: 268px;
height: 90px;
}

div.openauctions-image {
position: absolute;
top: 0px;
left: 0px;
padding: 5px;
width: 64px;
height: 64px;
border: solid 1px gray;
}

img.openauctions-image {
width: 64px;
height: 64px;
}

div.openauctions-info {
position: absolute;
top: 5px;
left: 83px;
width: 185px;
height: 80px;
font-family: Arial;
font-size: 14px;’
}

div.openauctions-title a{
text-decoration: none;
color: #e1a523;
}

div.openauctions-price {
position: relative;
left: 0px;
}

Frequently Asked Questions

Ok so it’s free, what’s the catch?

There is no catch. It’s completely free. You don’t have to sign up for an e-mail list to get it, I’m not going to steal every fourth click. It’s just free.

Are you going to take any of my clicks?

Absolutely not! This is open source software. Go check the code yourself. There is no hidden tracking, cookie stealing, anything.

Why are you giving it away for free?

I want to give back to the affiliate marketing community. I’ve learned a lot over the years, and I thought it was time for me to give something back.  Also, it’s helped me make money, so maybe it can help you make money.

Why is this open source?

I open sourced this software because I wanted it to be truly free. Also, by putting this under the GPL license, people can’t repackage it as their own and sell it. Last, by making it open source and completely free, it can reach the largest audience possible. Thus, it can help the most people by not just being free as in beer, but by being free as in freedom.

What are the requirements?

Open Auctions requires Wordpress version 2.5 or higher. I’ve tested it on the 2.5 versions all the way up to the latest 2.7 version. It also requires CURL, which most PHP installations come with by default. If you are interested in a non-CURL version of this plugin, leave a comment below.

Future Plans

Going forward there will be themes designed to make integration easier as well as other features added to make this plugin even easier. If you have any problems or questions, please leave a comment below.

Enjoy!