Free eBay Wordpress Plugins

TWP Auctions is a free eBay Wordpress plugin that displays auctions in your blog posts or pages by adding some PHP code. This is not only dangerous, but more than the average blogger would want to do. In addition to that the end of each block of auctions has a "powered by TWP auctions" link. The layout of the auctions is very clean. I don't like the fact that the links to ebay are what we call "rover links", anit d there has been some discussion in affiliate forums about these being bad because google will target your site and de-index you. Some people digress and say if you nofollow the links it doesn't matter. In any event with this plugin you have no choice whether the links are "masked" or not. In addition there are no options for filtering by sellerid, category, or zip code (which many people like to use). You can download TWP Auctions free here. This picture is an example of auction layout with this free wordpress plugin.

Open Auctions is a free eBay Wordpress plugin, and it has link masking (no rover links) - but you also have to add PHP code to blog posts or pages in Wordpress in order to add the auctions. It seems quite configurable and hackable - and at least with this plugin you can completely control the auction display by using some CSS code, even to get the auctions to display in multi-column format. There aren't many configuration options though, so you can't sort by sellerid, zip code, category, etc. I would recommend this plugin only for Wordpress bloggers knowledgeable in PHP and CSS. This picture shows sample auction layout with the default CSS options. You can download Open Auctions here.

eBay Sales Lister is a Wordpress plugin that doesn't work with eBay Partner Network, it's really only meant to add your own eBay auctions to your blog sidebar. So, if you were selling things on eBay and wanted to feature them in your sidebar - this would be the perfect plugin. I only mentioned it here because it is free, and many people want to add their own eBay auctions to their blog - and it's really the only one that works in the sidebar for auction display. You can download eBay Sales Lister here.

Wordbay is a free Wordpress eBay plugin that's been available for more than a couple years now. I remember when I first checked it out it was pretty basic, but now that it's gone through multiple revisions it has more features than you would figure it would for something that's completely free. It has URL masking, and auctions can be displayed in multiple columns. You can also completely control auction layout via CSS file. The unusual thing about this plugin is that it has "geotargetting", or the ability to show auctions specific to a visitors local. It also has the ability to choose category by country. The only things I don't like about it are the links have no SEO qualities, you can't filter by zip code or sellerid, and it doesn't work with Pepperjam Network. Unlike the earlier eBay plugins on this page, Wordbay allows you to add auctions to Wordpress blog posts and pages by adding a simple tag with keywords where you want them displayed. It doesn't however have any sidebar display options. One of the biggest things I don't like about Wordbay is the fact that all the options are setup in the plugin admin screen and you can't override any of the them in the keyword tag (like you can with premium plugins). You can download Wordbay here.

WP ZinText is also a free eBay Wordpress affiliate plugin, but it's quite an unusual one because it displays the auctions "contextually". You've probably seen pages with double lined links that when you mouseover display a popup bubble with a text ad. ZinText takes your eBay Partner Network ID, and a list of both positive and negative keywords and then adds double lined links on your blog posts and pages. But when you mouseover, the little bubble that appears shows eBay auctions and when people click and buy you make commissions! I'm amazed this plugin is free and doesn't seem to give any link juice or percentage of clicks back to ZinText. You can download WP ZinText here.

My name is JTPratt and you can find me at JTPratt.com. I write about my Blogging Mistakes and how I learned through trial and error to make money as a blogger, both part (and now) full time! Maybe you would benefit from my free article series about Hacking Wordpress, or even how to build a Wordpress Affiliate Store.

Free plugins are great, but they don't always do exactly what you want. I probably use 90% free Wordpress plugins and 10% premium ones. That's because when I see one that does exactly what I want why shouldn't I pay for it? Especially if the price is less than what I make in a single day of eBay earnings?

Last week I tried Auction Thumbs which is a premium Wordpress plugin that auto-ads ebay auction thumbnails to the bottoms of blog posts and it even has a sidebar widget! Just set the options up one time and then forget it! I couldn't be happier with this "set it and forget it" method of monetizing by blog as an eBay affiliate.

Click here to read my Review of Auction Thumbs

Click here to find out how to buy Auction Thumbs

Free eBay plugins aren't always the best solution. Since they are free, the author's have no incentive to build new features or support them. Many times the plugins were created to do the one or two things the authori originally intended, but no additional features were ever added. Because of it's advanced features and nearly unlimited possibilities - we recommend the eBay Plugin WP-EASYBAY.