I just read about the DevCon session via the eBay Parter Network, where they shared a presentation on “How to Monetize Your Application” by Jonathan Gabbai and Cian Weeresinghe. Basically, it talks about making money from the merchandising API and research API by eBay. And, they summarised the key points from the full presentation as such:
• To make money, eBay users have to need your application. Ensure that your application either solves a user problem (e.g. searching for items in your area) or does something that eBay itself doesn’t offer (e.g. surface misspelled listings that are likely to have fewer bids)
• You need to choose the right monetization method for your application. If your product is downloadable, you could charge a subscription and if your application is web based you can monetize through onsite advertising or through the eBay Partner Network when you drive a transaction on eBay.
• Marketing your application. Find the best free levers – PR, blogging, natural search and cross-promotion. If you do have to pay for traffic, monitor the effectiveness of your campaign.
• Once people are using your application, monitor its performance. See how many people are signing up, cancelling, buying on partner sites or look at the advertising revenue you are earning. Measure how well your application is monetizing on a daily basis and understand any issues in the flow from visit to payable event.
I found this interesting because this is an aspect of making money online that I haven’t really given much thought to, since I’m not a web developer. But, reading these tips on how to monetise eBay applications made me think that they can also apply to other sites/services that offer their API to developers (see Open API). A good reminder that web development is another area that people can look in to when trying to make money online.
You Might Also Be Interested In....
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
This is the whole reasons companies have been opening up their API. Google, eBay, Facebook and many many .coms.
It allows others to add functionality to your site/company that you might not have time to or have thought of doing. And then others can benefit from that too. Everyone wins this way, the users, the developers and the companies.
I know Ebay charged $1500 for their API license, unless you are doing a very small non-commercial application equivalent to approx 33 pageviews on static content per day. If sufficient funding is available for your company it is possible to have almost limitless access with Java and .Net libraries for application development.