I expressed my disappointment with them and got a thoroughly confusing response about how the QPC thing works. At least they responded, and I haven’t been banned yet for voicing my disapproval (although that doubt is always in the back of my mind). What the email came down to is… this is the way it’s going to be.

But if I can’t understand their system, I’m less likely to trust it. And truthfully, however they couch it, if I’m sending them traffic and getting paid $0.01 per click or even $0.08 per click, it’s not worth the time and effort. Oh, I know there are things I can do to improve it with .htaccess and I have tried and it did work for a while, but I do not have the time or inclination to constantly police the users on my sites.

I have removed ePN from several sites and replaced it with other programs. And I’m focusing more on Adsense, which is currently paying more than ePN. This is working out nicely.

The funny thing is that ePN decided to couch their new system under this “quality” label. However, if Google slaps your sites if they have too many ePN links, then the simplest way to improve the quality of your site is to remove the ePN links. Am I right?

I could be wrong, but it’s what I’m doing for now on my high traffic/content sites. I’m leaving ePN to soak on my medium traffic, lower content sites, and I’ve removed them entirely from my newest sites. If ePN comes about and changes their system, I’ll re-evaluate my approach then.

If they drop me for low earnings, then I didn’t need them anyway. I refuse to live in fear of their willy-nilly approach to affiliate relations. At least with Google you get a warning email when you unwittingly violate something in their TOS.

If ePN’s goal was to send their affiliates running into the open arms of their competitors, they are doing a bang-up job.

I’d be interested in hearing how your partial residency plan works out. Please keep us posted.

FYI – I work full-time in the e-commerce industry and your sales tax in Charlotte-Meck is the highest in NC now at 8.25%.

Brad

Yes… it sucks. Horribly.

BUT… I am lucky enough to spend several days of each month at my sister-in-laws home in Greenville SC, so we are looking into establishing partial residency with her, just in case we ever need to have mail sent their.

In the end, EVERY state will end up like we are. The “Internet Sales Tax” has been a hot topic since 1999, and now with individual states stepping in and applying their own taxes, its only a matter of time…

NC has quickly become VERY taxed!! Just in the past week we had new sin taxes added, and an increase to +8% local here in Mecklenburg County. Heck, i it continues.. we may just MOVE to SC! LOL

Mark

Thanks

Brad

I also believe that the LAST THING ebay would want to do in this first period of the changeover is drop commissions because it will cause too much of an outrage.

They may well do it in 6 months time using their invisible stealth quality measurements, but right now, I seriously believe they are not out to shut you out.

As a sidenote, I do have a few EPN sites and for the last 4 months I’ve made atleast £150 per month steadily. So far my stats look just below previous earnings but I am in agreement with a few of the other posters here and think that you should wait at least 2 months before you change your whole strategy.

As an additional sidenote – you shouldn’t ever be relying on one source of income anyway! Google might die tomorrow ;-)

I agree with Ben’s assessment of the overall QPC system – there is no reason to just run out and drop ePN listings from your sites.!

The list above is just a set of alternatives IF you need them! :-)

I am working on one main site that has tanked in the EPC structure, after 30-45 days, I will review it again. If its just NOT going to fit into the system, I will evaluate other options for that campaign then.

Mark