Though there are a large number of free WordPress plugins available to meet most WordPress blogger’s needs, generally speaking, when you are looking for a quality affiliate marketing plugin, you’re going to need to browse through the premium WordPress plugins available.

In today’s post I want to introduce you to a new premium plugin named Auction Thumbs.   For people that maintain a WordPress blog which discusses products that convert well on eBay, this plugin might be very profitable for you!

How Does Auction Thumbs Work?

If you’ve ever used BANS or another software to build an eBay niche store that takes advantage of eBay’s affiliate program, then you’ll have a general idea how this plugin works.   Auction Thumbs allows any WordPress user to fully integrate eBay’s affiliate program into their blog in just a few minutes.

Simply activate the Auction Thumbs plugin, enter your eBay campaign code (you can generate one in your eBay Partner Network account), and select where you want to place your ads.   With this plugin, you can easily display your eBay ads in any/all of the following places:  display a gallery of thumbnails, display pictures below each post, or as a widget in your blog’s sidebar!   By default, thumbnails will immediately show up in the footer of every current and archived post on your blog upon activation, but it comes with a fully configurable admin panel so you can control everything from the WordPress dashboard.

The plugin will then display relevant auctions (it matches the tags assigned to your post with eBay’s inventory) and when someone clicks on it, they are taken to that eBay auction.   Of course that is only the beginning, as a 7-day cookie is placed in their web browser and you get a percentage of EVERYTHING that person buys during that time.

The author lists the following features which are included with the purchase of Auction Thumbs:

• No messing with script or programming – add Auction Thumbs through standard WordPress plugin administration
• Installation and configuration can be done in a few minutes
• Thumbnail size, border color, count are all configurable
• Track revenue granularity with up to four eBay campaign numbers

Quick note about Auction Thumbs: PHP 5 and curl need to be running on your server. Please ask your hosting provider whether they are present on your server if you are unsure. It will not work on PHP 4.

Where Can I Purchase Auction Thumbs?

If you decide you want to purchase auction thumbs, it normally only costs $47.00, but WPHacks.com readers can use promo code “wphacks” to receive $15.00 off, meaning you can use this plugin on unlimited sites for only $32.00!

To give you an idea of this plugins potential value, when I purchased BANS a few years ago (costs $97.00), I made that investment back in under a month and a half.  Everything after that was pure profit and is still providing steady income today.  I’ve been using Auction Thumbs for a few days now on my video game blog and my book review blog, where I expect this plugin to convert well, and expect more of the same success as I’ve enjoyed with Build a Niche Store.

Depending on the type of WordPress blog you run, you may have an interest in building a small store into your blog.   I’ve found this is a great way to make some extra income to cover your blog costs while at the same time providing your readers with a useful resource.

How to Add a Store To Your WordPress Blog

The method I’m going to cover here is the method I use and have found a lot of success with.  It involves using a purchased software and eBay’s affiliate program to generate income.   Before I get started, I wanted to make one quick point.   This method is not for all blogs.  Because the generated income comes from being an eBay affiliate, this method is best applied to blogs that cover products or services that are regularly purchased on eBay.    Examples would be photography blogs (cameras and equipment), video game blogs (games and equipment), etc.   Things like celebrity blogs, make money online/affiliate marketing blogs, or personal blogs probably won’t find a lot of success with this method because it doesn’t relate well to an eBay product.

In order to get started, you’ll first need to purchase the Build a Niche Store software (commonly referred to as BANS).  It has a one-time cost associated with it, but once you own the software, you get lifetime updates and you can use the software on unlimited sites.   The team behind BANS is incredible with both their dedication to updating the product as well as their support on their forums.   Owning BANS has really been a great experience for me.  The software has also developed a lot of trust over the past 2 years from its users, so it is a very safe investment.

Once you’ve got your BANS license and downloaded the software, you’ll also get instructions on getting your first site setup.  It installs via a script so everything is really easy.  The only thing you’ll need to know how to do when purchasing this software is how to manually create a MySQL database (if you installed your WordPress software manually, you should already know how to do this).   You can always contact your web host to find out how to do this as well.

You’ll want to create either a sub-domain or directory on your site where you want to place your new eBay store.   I generally use directories, but either should work the same.   Inside your new folder you created you’ll want to upload the BANS software and then visit the domain and go through the install.   If you run into any troubles on your first try, you can always consult the installation guide that comes with the product. 

How Do I Integrate Build a Niche Store (BANS) with WordPress?

Now, BANS was not specifically created for use with WordPress, but was instead designed to run solo on a new domain name.   Fortunately, thanks to the hard working team over at The Niche Store Builder, you can now get WordPress themes that were specifically designed to integrate WordPress and BANS together.   In addition to creating their own unique BANS themes for WordPress, with Niche Store Builder you can also get BANS templates that were designed specifically for popular existing WordPress themes such as ThemeSpinner’s Chimera theme and Daily Blog Tips StudioPress theme.   You’ll get a matching skin for your BANS directory/subdomain and also a widget to display on the main site promoting some of your niche stores items.  These templates can be activated from the BANS control panel just like how a WordPress theme is activated. 

Here is a screenshot of BANS being used with the Chimera theme:

And here is one for the popular StudioPress theme:

I’ve been using this method on a few of my sites offering up cookbooks or whatever else is related to the content of the site and the income definitely helps cover domain renewals, hosting expenses, or whatever other costs come up.

If you have any questions or run into any troubles, please let me know in the comments below!