Affiliate Rant!

You read it right. eBay has announced that effective today it has eliminated all fees within the Developer Program for all users of the new Unified Schema. They have also eliminated all certification fees! Note that free calls do not apply to users of the older schema.

This is huge. In the span of two years eBay has moved from a very, very exclusive and costly web service to a very inclusive and free web service that has proven to be very effective and profitable for affiliates. This move is partly driven by their need to keep earnings growth high but it also represents a significant investment in web services and future strategy. Look for eBay everywhere in a few years.

In related news, work is currently under way to move all API functionality in Affiliate Success: eBay to the new Unified Schema. This work should be complete by the end of first quarter 2006 (done) and is a free upgrade for all current owners (all AS:e upgrades are free to owners) of Affiliate Success: eBay. The main benefit will be that anyone attempting certification in any tier post-January 2006 will need to be using the new Unified Schema.

Read more about the new pricing and features on the eBay Developer’s Program Blog.