Feeds Discontinued and WP eBay Feeds 3

So, last week I woke to the news that eBay were discontinuing their RSS Feeds Generator. This is actually a crucial part of WP eBay Product Feeds, so I thought I’d share a rough plan, and hopefully provide some reassurance going foward. Plus this will be something I’d point people towards in the next few weeks.

What’s happening?

Well, eBay are discontinuing their RSS Feeds Generator. The plugin uses feeds to display eBay listings on sites, and the idea is that once somebody clicks on your feed, and buys, you get commission. This was the easiest way to display feeds, but it also wasn’t the most useful. A better way was using the eBay Browse API, but this is harder to setup both from a user perspective and a developer’s perspective.

The discontinue date is 30th June 2020 (the end of the month).

What am I doing?

This has changed since last week, I did think about rebuilding with the API, but another solution has presented itself.

This solution is building our own RSS feeds so we can plug it into the plugin, as well as in any piece of software that uses RSS feeds. I’ve partnered with a developer who has largely built out this system already. To cover the cost of running this, we’re proposing two price points:-

• For eBay Sellers (who don’t really care about the ePN Revenue): we’re proposing a free tier, where you access and place the auction feed on your site. This will contain our affiliate link, that if you achieve a sale, we take a small commission. This commission comes from eBay, so you won’t know or pay us.
• For eBay Affiliates: we’re proposing a paid tier, which will allow you to continue earning from eBay. This paid tier we’re still working out a price point, but it’ll be definitely under $10/month (with discounts for year long subscriptions), with a free trial as well so you can see how it works.

The benefits of this approach is that the approval process for the new API is a nightmare. So effectively I’ve taken that process out of the users hands.

We’re going to be building a link generator, to replace the one that eBay has, so you will have to replace these. We’re aiming to get this live before the end of the month.

What do you need from me?

We’re running a survey to gauge numbers/interest, as well as find out more about you. I know I’ve a number of businesses and charities that use my plugin, but I don’t know too much about this. So I’ve prepared a survey for you all to fill in.

Take our Survey

What’s the rough roadmap?

Well, the rough plan for the users of the plugin is this:-

• Get the new feed builder live.
• Update the plugin to include imagery and links that point to the new feed builder product.
• Build some sort of “Auto Updater” to update links from the old location to the new location (this is scaring me!).
• Update documentation and guides on this site to inform people of the new feed builder.

I’d hopefully be able to get most of it done before the end of the month, but it remains to be seen, as the time is tight. If I can’t, I’m sorry.

I’m taking two days out of work to work on this, the next two Tuesday’s before the end of June will be spent working exclusively on this. I’m confident with these, and other times working on it, I’ll be able to get something done by the end of the month.

How can I help?

Right now I need testing. Testing will be taken place in two places:-

• The Github Account
• The Support Forums (Premium)

If you want to help please send me an email and I’ll point you in the direction of things when they’re added.

I think that’s everything. Wish me luck!