*** Important Update Regarding BayRSS:
Due to unavailability of support for BayRSS, I no longer can recommend BayRSS to readers of my blog. Please see my comment below for more details.
One of the great things about being a member of Dennis Becker’s Earn1kaDay.com membership site is the wealth of knowledge of the other members there. On top of this collective knowledge and experience, is a strong desire within a lot of the members to contribute generously of both their time and resources.
One such member is Azlan Kasim, a rising IM star from Singapore. Azlan combines boundless energy with marketing savvy and he is also a sharp PHP programmer. He sensed a desire among the members of Earn1kaDay.com to build eBay affiliate sites on top of WordPress. He was also aware of some of the problems and limitations of phpBay for adding eBay auction feeds to WordPress posts.
Azlan’s answer to this need is BayRSS for WordPress.
Here’s an example eBay RSS feed using BayRSS:
Brand New Sprint Apple iPhone 4S 16GB White Smartphone CleanESN w/ Extras sealed | US $360.00 (22 Bids) End Date: Thursday Feb-09-2012 15:53:52 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
★★★Apple iPhone 4S (Latest Model) - 16GB - White (Verizon) BRAND NEW - SEALED!★★
 | US $380.00 (7 Bids) End Date: Thursday Feb-09-2012 15:31:46 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
BRAND NEW SEALED iPhone 4S - 64GB - Black (AT&T) + 100 Game software &200 song
 | US $799.00 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Feb-09-2012 13:00:16 PST Buy It Now for only: US $899.00 Bid now | Buy it now | Add to watch list |
WHITE IPHONE 4 VERIZON 16GB BRAND NEW SPECIAL
 | US $375.00 (0 Bid) End Date: Thursday Feb-09-2012 12:41:21 PST Buy It Now for only: US $450.00 Bid now | Buy it now | Add to watch list |
APPLE iPhone 4 16GB Smartphone Black FACTORY UNLOCKED NEW
 | US $460.00 (23 Bids) End Date: Thursday Feb-09-2012 12:32:36 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
This is certainly a lot cleaner and simpler than the messy approach I was attempting with my inline PHP script and what’s even sweeter is that Azlan’s BayRSS Plugin doesn’t require the Exec_PHP to be installed! The auction listings above only required a very short code snippet directly within the post – no need to jump over to the “Code” tab in the WP editor.
Installation and configuration of BayRSS is a snap via the Options tab in the WP admin panel. Just enter your CJ PID and a few default settings and you’re ready to start displaying eBay auction feeds right within your WP blog posts. The possibilities this opens up are pretty exciting.
It’s clear the trend is moving towards setting up affiliate content sites on top of WordPress. The advantages are pretty evident:
–Rapid site development
–Tons of plugins and template themes
–Loads of SEO advantages
–Interactive Web 2.0 technologies
It may be sort of ironic that people are trying to make WP blogs look like static sites, but it’s really about going after the best of both worlds.
With thousands of categories in eBay and eBay now paying $25 for active registrations to affiliates, it’s a great time to start cranking out affiliate sites around eBay. Throw in WordPress and the BayRSS plugin and you’re ready to rock and roll!
on Nov 5th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
I could use something like this on my JoostList.com website. I was looking around for items to list at the bottom of each video. Ran out of patience with the constant maintenance needed on the affiliate optimization.
How about a blog on optimizing for time?
Know anyone who would like to run affiliate marketing on JoostList?
on Nov 6th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
Yeah, that’s one of the on-going headaches with doing affiliate marketing for physical products such as the ones offered by merchants at CJ.
Maintaining affiliate links can get out of control pretty fast. That’s why I’m liking the idea of product datafeeds more and more.
For now, I’ve been experimenting with RSS product feeds from eBay and Amazon. Just wish more merchants would offer RSS product feeds encoded with PIDs.
I have a Beta project for tiny ads built from the eBay RSS feed. They kinda resemble AutionAds, but are HTML rather than JavaScript and they are completely hosted on your site, so there is no commission sharing — you get to keep 100% of the eBay commission.
You can check them out here:
http://www.lilbiddyads.com
Rich
on Jan 26th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
I bought this product after hearing so much about it. I got sick and was unable to down load it immediately. I sent an email and to this day 3 weeks to be exact, have not received any email or download link.
on Jan 26th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Hi Jocelyn,
I know the author of BayRSS. That really doesn’t sound typcial of him. I’ll contact him personally on your behalf and get you a download link ASAP.
Thanks for your patience!
Rich
on Jan 28th, 2008 at 1:09 am
Hi Jocelyn,
Can you give your email address or the e-junkie transaction id over here?-> http://ask.azlankasim.net
Don’t leave it here or the spam harvester will collect it.
Thanks.
Azlan
P.S. Thanks Rich for informing me.
on Feb 6th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
I was skeptical at first, so I downloaded the free BayRSS lite version and used it on my new metalworking website, http://www.projectsinmetal.com.
The first week I didn’t make anything (but it was a brand new site and I had very little traffic), the second week I made $12 in one day! My affiliate revenue has increased daily, proportional to the amount of traffic to my site.
Since adding this plugin to my site over a month ago I’ve made more than enough with the lite version to pay for the full version. So I purchased the full version today. I am no longer skeptical of the plugin. It works as advertized, and for me it was well worth the $37.
I’m still a little confused about how to make Amazon links work, but the ebay links work perfectly! If anyone has any suggestions on the amazon linking process, please let me know.
Thanks Azlan for a great plugin. Keep up the good work!
on Feb 21st, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Is Azlan on a scam trip. For weeks no response to direct emails, emails from my paypal for refund issue, no response in his own forum, and there are several others who have not received a refund or communication from Azlan.
One of his product sites has been de-activated by host. All whois name and address are hidden, but he takes the money……..
It is a shame. I cannot recommend his pot product, because it does not perform as advertised, and seller does not respond and live up to his 60day, 100% money back guarantee. ….
on Feb 22nd, 2009 at 12:28 am
I’m sorry to hear about your experience. I do consider Azlan to be a friend having met him online a few years on the Earn1kaD forum. However, I can no longer recommend his BayRSS plugin for the reasons you’ve mentioned. I’m not clear on which of Azlan’s products you couldn’t get to work, but I still use BayRSS without any problems.
Having said that, Azlan does seem to have disappeared from the online world.
I don’t want to discuss too much about his personal business, but I do know that he was seriously ill several months ago and had to be hospitalized. He also was and probably still is facing some rather serious financial challenges and this probably explains why his sites have been suspended and he can’t be reached. It would have been good if he could have managed to notify his current and potential customers while he still had Internet access.
I really don’t believe that Azlan is or was out to scam anyone. I’ve always known him to be extremely generous and caring with everyone he dealt with online, including myself. I will be removing ads for BayRSS soon and will also place an update on my BayRSS post – I think I still probably rank pretty high for BayRSS keywords in Google.
Sometimes it’s worth remembering that bad things happen to good people. Now, more than ever.
Rich
on Feb 22nd, 2009 at 3:07 pm
I do not recommend buying this product either. It’s not so much that it doesn’t work it’s more that Azlan doesn’t respond and share information like you would expect for a purchased product. Even worse, when asking for a refund Azlan plainly ignores his customers. For me it’s been about a week now and I’m kinda worried. I’ve posted on his so called “customer support forum” and no word from him there either. See this thread here: no response – do not buy What’s most disturbing is that you can find spam postings on the forum, including porn. Apparently this guy has become extremely negligent or just doesn’t care? If you’re right Rich that this guy is decent and just going through a tough time then I’m sorry to hear that. However he should be especially communicative then, problems won’t get solved without talking. This just makes things worst and he should not think that he can escape his responsibilites.
It’s good to see that you changed your endorsement of BayRSS due to these recent developments, Rich. I’m wondering if other affiliates will follow your example. I am posting comments with them too. In my eyes they are accountable too. As a matter of fact it it wasn’t for these positive reviews I probably wouldn’t have bought this plugin in the first place.
For those interested: Three major issues I had with BayRSS was that “time ending soonest” didn’t work, that after several days the ebay link were completely broken and that the CSS file was very user-unfriendly and difficult to customize, especially for a newbie like me. I switched to the FREE wordpress plugin Wordbay now, it works like a charm for me and the CSS is easy to modify. It also has more features and the author is very open and responsive. Unlike Azlan! So if you asked me I would recommend Wordbay over BayRSS, because at the very least you won’t have lost any money. If you want to see Wordbay in action feel free to visit my blog at DT’s Flash Drive Blog
on Feb 22nd, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Thanks for your comment Dennis. Again, I agree that Azlan would have better served both himself and his customers if he had communicated his problems to them. I don’t condone just disappearing and leaving things hanging, but at the same time, I can understand how things can spiral out of control to the point where one can just let everything go.
Like any software product, and especially with WP plugins, constant maintenance and improvements are mandatory. I know this from my own experience as a former software developer. It’s not like cranking out info-product eBooks and moving on to the next project. In this regard, BayRSS had been getting a bit long in the tooth quite some time ago. A feature that I really need from an eBay WP plugin is the ability to support keyword-level tracking from PPC search engines such as Adwords, MSN Adcenter, and YSM. I mentioned this to Azlan a while back and he said he would look into it. Obviously that’s not going to happen at this point.
I too am moving on to other eBay plugin alternatives.
I think I’ve found one that I can modify the PHP code for to do what I need. To be perfectly honest, there really isn’t much incentive to develop these kinds of plugins for sale as most people expect them to be free or else they get cracked and nulled and then put up on torrent sites for everyone to help themselves to. Azlan told me this is what happened to BayRSS – so even less of an incentive to continue supporting it. Again, not an excuse to leave his customers in the lurch, but the community at large needs to know why creating and supporting software products is such a thankless endeavor and why the more successful products cost a small fortune.
Rich
on Feb 28th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Update: I finally received my refund now probably due to public pressure. However, no word of apology or explanation from Azlan.
on May 11th, 2010 at 6:55 pm
I need to update my previous comment. The BayRSS plugin is no longer working for me. Now when users click on the links in my website they go to a generic ebay page, not the page for the actual auction. Very dissappointing!
Has anyone figured out why the plugin has stopped working? Is there a fix?
To see what I mean, here’s my site http://www.projectsinmetal.com
Thanks in advance.
on May 11th, 2010 at 8:05 pm
Hey Tyler,
I ran into the same problem a while back with the links just opening on the main eBay.com page. If memory serves, I rolled back my version of BayRSS – I’ll need to check my other installations to find the most recent one that worked. The one installed on this blog is v2.3.2 and appears to still work. I think going forward to best solution is to switch over to phpBay like everyone else has. Seems you and I are the last holdouts LOL!
Rich