Can EPN still work for you?

As of 1st October 2009, the metrics that EPN use to determine how much they pay to their affiliates has changed, dramatically in some cases. Before this date we knew exactly what we would be paid for and how much we would be paid. We could target our niches at appropriately priced products and earn a percentage of the auction fees associated with those products. And if a new member signed up to eBay to buy products through our sites, we received a nice little bonus. But now all that has changed because some “wizard” at EPN has come up with, what they term, Quality Click Pricing or QCP. A reward system supposedly based on the measurable quality of the clicks you send to eBay.

I do have a hard time believing that these metrics are in any way associated with what I understand by quality. Firstly, EPN do not know specifically what part of our sites send the clicks/buyers. I may have a website focused on digital cameras then write an article about fishing boats because I spent some time photographing them. Then I monetize the article with some auctions for fishing boats. As far as eBay know, assuming I’ve registered my domain, they’re getting clicks on fishing boat auction from a site selling digital cameras. Hardly top quality at a domain level, but significant quality at article/page level. Is this real quality measured by EPN? I seriously doubt it.

What I believe EPN does (and this is just my opinion), is count how many clicks you send per day from how many different campaigns (a new campaign is usually created for each site). They then calculate the income you generate for them with these clicks and how long after sending the click was the income received by eBay. The latter 2 metrics are used to present a figure for the EPC (earnings per click), which they then multiply the number of clicks you send the previous day to calculate earnings for that day. There are probably more “hidden” components to the complete picture but I guess these will remain hidden in the depths of the EPN internals until the next change.

Many affiliates have noticed a significant downturn in their income from EPN, many more have noticed a significant upturn. I do not have the data from these groups for comparison to work out what’s gone right or wrong but that is a piece of work that needs to be done.

As affiliates, what we have to remember is that EPN is eBay’s business and so designed to make them as much money as possible. We have the choice to work with them or not, it’s that simple. What we do have is the power to change our marketing strategies to make best use of their business.

To get back to the title of this post, can EPN still work for you? Absolutely it can – and, we will tell you in future posts, how we continue to succeed despite such significant changes.

No related posts.

Tagged with: epn • epn affiliate program • Internet Marketing

Filed under: Internet Marketing

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!