AuctionCut

Apparently it is against eBay policy to post a link to an outside site on your eBay auction pages.

Two questions:

1) What are the chances that I will be caught if I do? I am planning a big push this week and want to drive traffic to my external site through my eBay auctions. I would just do it once, on about 300 auctions for one week in a category that has about 40,000 total listings at any given time.

2) If I were to be discovered violating this policy (I am a Silver Powerseller 3000+ feedback and 10 years on eBay without any violations at all), what would they do about it? Just take down my auctions and tell me not to do it again? Suspend my account? What?

It seems like your planning it on a big scale, so I'm unsure of the action ebay would take.

The normal action by ebay is to simply cancel the auction, refund the listing fee, and send a warning email saying more repeated violation of this policy could result in suspension . I guess with your case it will depend on whether they see it as one violation on all the listings or 300 seperate violations which could be dealt with more seriously.

Why would you want to do something (you know and we all know too) which is NOT allowed? Do you think it would really be worth it? I mean you are a silver powerseller - this could possibly destroy your current standing..

Spencer's right, your listing will be removed and a warning will be issued. But you may also be subject to a range of other actions, including limits of your buying and selling privileges and suspension of your account.

There are other ways you can generate traffic to your off-eBay site. Check out this thread:

how-to-build-traffic-to-increase-sales-t2281.html

All the best

Why would I do it? It depends on the risks involved. If there is a very small chance that they will take any action at all, if there is a small chance that they will even know that I did it, then it is worth it.

Thank both of you for your opinions as to what actions they may take if they did discover my violations, the more important question, to me, is: Will eBay even know that I did it? As the title of the thread states, what are the chances that they will "catch" me doing it?

Chances are that you will get caught. Ebay may not see it right away but competitors
or just any other member may report you. Most likely they will check your other listings
and report as many as they can.

Because there are so many listings in that category you are most likely to have a lot of
competitors.

Ebay traffic is getting worse so think if it is even worth the effort of getting caught for a
few visitors to your website.

You're welcome James.

Personally, I don't know but with eBay always expect the unexpected! All the best! And if you do proceed to do what you plan to do please let us know how it goes

Cheers!

James,

Did you try to post the links?

If you did so let us know if you got any listings removed.

This would be for those who are thinking about doing the same

thing in the future.


Thanks

James,
Personally, I think you might get away with it, but why risk Silver PowerSeller Status? You're right that chances of getting caught are minimal, but the consequences are potentially huge. I agree with the others, that if caught, you would probably just get a nastygram from eBay, and that your auctions would be canceled, but who knows? I've seen eBay bring in the big guns before. This must be some promotion to risk Silver PowerSeller status!

Oh, I just checked the date of your post, and I see that the big week has already come and gone. So, did you do it? Did you post the links? Did it work?

Valentina
Start an eBay Home Business

Hi James

I personally wouldn't, but I would do it in the classified ads section and have an ad on for 30 days with your link in that way your not breaking any rules.

Regards

Steve

Why not set up a Facebook account and start telling people what you are selling?

This is one way I have used to get tons of free traffic without breaching eBay rules and risking getting booted off.

If you go about things the right way on Facebook and set up a Group that is related to your niche, you can build a list of people interested in your product and you can discuss and answer people's questions as an expert. The traffic you get from Facebook that is targeted and that subscribes to your discussion are more likely to buy from your website, if you make the effort to discuss their problems and your product is capable of solving them.