Comments on: ePN is Broken – and I Quit… For Now! http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/epn-is-broken-and-i-quit-for-now.htm Learn How to Build and Market Niche Websites Fri, 30 Jul 2010 19:44:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Vivianhttp://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/epn-is-broken-and-i-quit-for-now.htm/comment-page-2#comment-17387 Vivian Tue, 15 Dec 2009 09:02:29 +0000 http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/?p=1102#comment-17387 I just want to add on the bots issue: suckers. I do believe the ebay executives are laughing hilariously how they have pulled the wool over all affiliates eyes to use this bot excuse for paying crap! C'mon, people, wake up! eBay has the technology to filter out bot clicks, and quess what? A lot of people also browse like bots, click click click. It can take some people months or more to finally buy after just mindless clicking. But that aside, I am totally convinced ebay is delighted at how everyone is buying hook line and sinker the bot angle to accept no money at all, or such a severe drop as to negate any pathetic little profit made for that month. That is the biggest scam angle yet from any affiliate program. Bots to withhold payments on clicks! What BS! Gee, how come Adsense hasn't pulled the same crap...let's not give google any ideas! LOL<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('17387','Vivian'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('17387','Vivian','I just want to add on the bots issue: suckers. I do believe the ebay executives are laughing hilariously how they have pulled the wool over all affiliates eyes to use this bot excuse for paying crap! C\'mon, people, wake up! eBay has the technology to filter out bot clicks, and quess what? A lot of people also browse like bots, click click click. It can take some people months or more to finally buy after just mindless clicking. But that aside, I am totally convinced ebay is delighted at how everyone is buying hook line and sinker the bot angle to accept no money at all, or such a severe drop as to negate any pathetic little profit made for that month. That is the biggest scam angle yet from any affiliate program. Bots to withhold payments on clicks! What BS! Gee, how come Adsense hasn\'t pulled the same crap...let\'s not give google any ideas! LOL'); return false;">Quote</a></div> I just want to add on the bots issue: suckers. I do believe the ebay executives are laughing hilariously how they have pulled the wool over all affiliates eyes to use this bot excuse for paying crap! C’mon, people, wake up! eBay has the technology to filter out bot clicks, and quess what? A lot of people also browse like bots, click click click. It can take some people months or more to finally buy after just mindless clicking. But that aside, I am totally convinced ebay is delighted at how everyone is buying hook line and sinker the bot angle to accept no money at all, or such a severe drop as to negate any pathetic little profit made for that month. That is the biggest scam angle yet from any affiliate program. Bots to withhold payments on clicks! What BS! Gee, how come Adsense hasn’t pulled the same crap…let’s not give google any ideas! LOL
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]]> By: Vivianhttp://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/epn-is-broken-and-i-quit-for-now.htm/comment-page-2#comment-17386 Vivian Tue, 15 Dec 2009 08:56:59 +0000 http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/?p=1102#comment-17386 What do you mean, "until they fix it". You got your head in the sand? eBay has it just the way they want it. They pay as little as possible and often nothing, and terminate accounts they owe legit big paychecks to, and know there are half a dozen more new suckers ready to fall for their farce of a program. It amazes me to find in ebay's qpc forum, all the newbies earnestly trying to please ebay, somehow falling for the propaganda there is something wrong with their sites that reflects the ridiculous payments. ebay deserves to be sued in court for fraud on this program. Maybe I'll read about it one day, as I did years before about Google being sued and losing backwhen with their adwords fraud stuff.<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('17386','Vivian'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('17386','Vivian','What do you mean, \"until they fix it\". You got your head in the sand? eBay has it just the way they want it. They pay as little as possible and often nothing, and terminate accounts they owe legit big paychecks to, and know there are half a dozen more new suckers ready to fall for their farce of a program. It amazes me to find in ebay\'s qpc forum, all the newbies earnestly trying to please ebay, somehow falling for the propaganda there is something wrong with their sites that reflects the ridiculous payments. ebay deserves to be sued in court for fraud on this program. Maybe I\'ll read about it one day, as I did years before about Google being sued and losing backwhen with their adwords fraud stuff.'); return false;">Quote</a></div> What do you mean, “until they fix it”. You got your head in the sand? eBay has it just the way they want it. They pay as little as possible and often nothing, and terminate accounts they owe legit big paychecks to, and know there are half a dozen more new suckers ready to fall for their farce of a program. It amazes me to find in ebay’s qpc forum, all the newbies earnestly trying to please ebay, somehow falling for the propaganda there is something wrong with their sites that reflects the ridiculous payments. ebay deserves to be sued in court for fraud on this program. Maybe I’ll read about it one day, as I did years before about Google being sued and losing backwhen with their adwords fraud stuff.
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]]> By: Markhttp://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/epn-is-broken-and-i-quit-for-now.htm/comment-page-2#comment-17315 Mark Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:20:46 +0000 http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/?p=1102#comment-17315 I didn't follow along at the site you mentioned - but have found similar results with Adsense, especially right now at the busy shopping season.Some of the product based sites that were paying .50 last week, have quadrupled to $2+ per click this week with the shopping season in full swing.I have found the best methods to be in moderation... 1-2 ad-blocks per post maximum, with the hotspot ad being a single 125x125 text adsense ad (Large fonts, oddball colors) and then near the bottom of the post, a large 300x250 box, left aligned next to the related posts, or some other text section.Put the highest bidder all by themselves at the top - and the next 2 highest bidders in the closing box.Experiment - experiment - experiment for sure!Nice to see you here Dan...<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('17315','Mark'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('17315','Mark','I didn\'t follow along at the site you mentioned - but have found similar results with Adsense, especially right now at the busy shopping season.\n\nSome of the product based sites that were paying .50 last week, have quadrupled to $2+ per click this week with the shopping season in full swing.\n\nI have found the best methods to be in moderation... 1-2 ad-blocks per post maximum, with the hotspot ad being a single 125x125 text adsense ad (Large fonts, oddball colors) and then near the bottom of the post, a large 300x250 box, left aligned next to the related posts, or some other text section.\n\nPut the highest bidder all by themselves at the top - and the next 2 highest bidders in the closing box.\n\nExperiment - experiment - experiment for sure!\n\nNice to see you here Dan...'); return false;">Quote</a></div> I didn’t follow along at the site you mentioned – but have found similar results with Adsense, especially right now at the busy shopping season.

Some of the product based sites that were paying .50 last week, have quadrupled to $2+ per click this week with the shopping season in full swing.

I have found the best methods to be in moderation… 1-2 ad-blocks per post maximum, with the hotspot ad being a single 125×125 text adsense ad (Large fonts, oddball colors) and then near the bottom of the post, a large 300×250 box, left aligned next to the related posts, or some other text section.

Put the highest bidder all by themselves at the top – and the next 2 highest bidders in the closing box.

Experiment – experiment – experiment for sure!

Nice to see you here Dan…

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]]> By: Danhttp://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/epn-is-broken-and-i-quit-for-now.htm/comment-page-2#comment-17314 Dan Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:06:17 +0000 http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/?p=1102#comment-17314 I reconfigured all my sites like explained on the Mililtant Affiliate site and now my AdSense earnings are more than making up for my loss of ePN income. I know that many of the people on the phpBay forums have done the same.with their sites and almost all of them are reporting the same results.<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('17314','Dan'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('17314','Dan','I reconfigured all my sites like explained on the Mililtant Affiliate site and now my AdSense earnings are more than making up for my loss of ePN income. I know that many of the people on the phpBay forums have done the same.with their sites and almost all of them are reporting the same results.'); return false;">Quote</a></div> I reconfigured all my sites like explained on the Mililtant Affiliate site and now my AdSense earnings are more than making up for my loss of ePN income. I know that many of the people on the phpBay forums have done the same.with their sites and almost all of them are reporting the same results.
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]]> By: Dannohttp://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/epn-is-broken-and-i-quit-for-now.htm/comment-page-1#comment-17310 Danno Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:16:12 +0000 http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/?p=1102#comment-17310 I say "amen, my brothers" amen! So many posts mirroring MY Epn thoughts.............I have been in a total out of control tailspin since the announcement and roll out of the QCP. I have been an affiliate with EB since 2003, I "lost" my full time job a year ago and I was caught in the middle of a major expansion of my sites, all based loosely on a fairly successful (formerly) format that I had been using with EPN over the years.When the QCP program was announced, I put on the brakes for developing any more sites, to see what the fallout would be....and so far it's been 8 weeks of steady "fallout", a decline in earnings that was averaging $600-$800/mo has turned into $100- $125/mo.Like many others, I have tried to "second guess" what EPN now wants, and have been left with no clear thoughts nor honest direction from Ebay. And then its the 'bots" issue, which they claim is not an issue, IT all just seems to me to be a losing battle.Like other posters here, my sites have been mostly built around traffic going into Ebaymotors, so it's been difficult to find a viable alternative, without a total re-work of the sites that are now active, and those that were in development stages.The optimistic side of my nature has tried to convince me NOT to make any major site changes, AS perhaps someone at EPN would see the error of their ways, and come up with a viable solution....but the pessimistic side is now winning out and think I'm going shoppin for a new strategy. They have lost my trust, way TOO many horror stories for me to ever put my full faith in them again, no matter what they end up doing.I have been trying to figure out what Ebay's angle is since the QCP announcement, as well as the motivation for screwing over the Ebay Store Owners at the same time. My first thought was that they might be trying to reduce their 100,000+ affiliate number to a more "manageable" number, as a cost reduction effort. But none of it makes any sense to me, and I only end up with an Excedrin Headache #42 when I spend too much valuable time thinking about it all...... SO I have decided to quit wasting time thinking about EPN, and spend more time looking for an viable alternative.<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('17310','Danno'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('17310','Danno','I say \"amen, my brothers\" amen! So many posts mirroring MY Epn thoughts.............\r\n\r\nI have been in a total out of control tailspin since the announcement and roll out of the QCP. I have been an affiliate with EB since 2003, I \"lost\" my full time job a year ago and I was caught in the middle of a major expansion of my sites, all based loosely on a fairly successful (formerly) format that I had been using with EPN over the years. \r\n\r\nWhen the QCP program was announced, I put on the brakes for developing any more sites, to see what the fallout would be....and so far it\'s been 8 weeks of steady \"fallout\", a decline in earnings that was averaging $600-$800\/mo has turned into $100- $125\/mo.\r\n\r\nLike many others, I have tried to \"second guess\" what EPN now wants, and have been left with no clear thoughts nor honest direction from Ebay. And then its the \'bots\" issue, which they claim is not an issue, IT all just seems to me to be a losing battle. \r\n\r\nLike other posters here, my sites have been mostly built around traffic going into Ebaymotors, so it\'s been difficult to find a viable alternative, without a total re-work of the sites that are now active, and those that were in development stages. \r\n\r\nThe optimistic side of my nature has tried to convince me NOT to make any major site changes, AS perhaps someone at EPN would see the error of their ways, and come up with a viable solution....but the pessimistic side is now winning out and think I\'m going shoppin for a new strategy. They have lost my trust, way TOO many horror stories for me to ever put my full faith in them\r\nagain, no matter what they end up doing.\r\n\r\nI have been trying to figure out what Ebay\'s angle is since the QCP announcement, as well as the motivation for screwing over the Ebay Store Owners at the same time. My first thought was that they might be trying to reduce their 100,000+ affiliate number to a more \"manageable\" number, as a cost reduction effort. But none of it makes any sense to me, and I only end up with an Excedrin Headache #42 when I spend too much valuable time thinking about it all...... SO I have decided to quit wasting time thinking about EPN, and spend more time looking for an viable alternative.'); return false;">Quote</a></div> I say “amen, my brothers” amen! So many posts mirroring MY Epn thoughts………….

I have been in a total out of control tailspin since the announcement and roll out of the QCP. I have been an affiliate with EB since 2003, I “lost” my full time job a year ago and I was caught in the middle of a major expansion of my sites, all based loosely on a fairly successful (formerly) format that I had been using with EPN over the years.

When the QCP program was announced, I put on the brakes for developing any more sites, to see what the fallout would be….and so far it’s been 8 weeks of steady “fallout”, a decline in earnings that was averaging $600-$800/mo has turned into $100- $125/mo.

Like many others, I have tried to “second guess” what EPN now wants, and have been left with no clear thoughts nor honest direction from Ebay. And then its the ‘bots” issue, which they claim is not an issue, IT all just seems to me to be a losing battle.

Like other posters here, my sites have been mostly built around traffic going into Ebaymotors, so it’s been difficult to find a viable alternative, without a total re-work of the sites that are now active, and those that were in development stages.

The optimistic side of my nature has tried to convince me NOT to make any major site changes, AS perhaps someone at EPN would see the error of their ways, and come up with a viable solution….but the pessimistic side is now winning out and think I’m going shoppin for a new strategy. They have lost my trust, way TOO many horror stories for me to ever put my full faith in them
again, no matter what they end up doing.

I have been trying to figure out what Ebay’s angle is since the QCP announcement, as well as the motivation for screwing over the Ebay Store Owners at the same time. My first thought was that they might be trying to reduce their 100,000+ affiliate number to a more “manageable” number, as a cost reduction effort. But none of it makes any sense to me, and I only end up with an Excedrin Headache #42 when I spend too much valuable time thinking about it all…… SO I have decided to quit wasting time thinking about EPN, and spend more time looking for an viable alternative.

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]]> By: Militanthttp://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/epn-is-broken-and-i-quit-for-now.htm/comment-page-1#comment-17275 Militant Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:34:12 +0000 http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/?p=1102#comment-17275 There's really no point in beating yourself up trying to figure out "why" the bot clicks are happening with ePN links. It's good enough to just know they are, and they ruin your EPC despite ePN's rethoric about "smoothing" and other such nonsense.Maybe ePN should ask CJ or Amazon for help. When's the last time you signed on to your Amazon dashboard and seen 1200 clicks where 200 should be? You never have and never will.Unless you're living in some alternate universe, it should be clear by now that ever since April 2008, the eBay Partner Network has been managed by idiots.<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('17275','Militant'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('17275','Militant','There\'s really no point in beating yourself up trying to figure out \"why\" the bot clicks are happening with ePN links. It\'s good enough to just know they are, and they ruin your EPC despite ePN\'s rethoric about \"smoothing\" and other such nonsense.\r\n\r\nMaybe ePN should ask CJ or Amazon for help. When\'s the last time you signed on to your Amazon dashboard and seen 1200 clicks where 200 should be? You never have and never will.\r\n\r\nUnless you\'re living in some alternate universe, it should be clear by now that ever since April 2008, the eBay Partner Network has been managed by idiots.'); return false;">Quote</a></div> There’s really no point in beating yourself up trying to figure out “why” the bot clicks are happening with ePN links. It’s good enough to just know they are, and they ruin your EPC despite ePN’s rethoric about “smoothing” and other such nonsense.

Maybe ePN should ask CJ or Amazon for help. When’s the last time you signed on to your Amazon dashboard and seen 1200 clicks where 200 should be? You never have and never will.

Unless you’re living in some alternate universe, it should be clear by now that ever since April 2008, the eBay Partner Network has been managed by idiots.

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]]> By: Cheriehttp://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/epn-is-broken-and-i-quit-for-now.htm/comment-page-1#comment-17272 Cherie Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:42:15 +0000 http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/?p=1102#comment-17272 have found another plugin, this time for CJ and it's free. here's the link http://wpnicheground.com/<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('17272','Cherie'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('17272','Cherie','have found another plugin, this time for CJ and it\'s free. here\'s the link http:\/\/wpnicheground.com\/'); return false;">Quote</a></div> have found another plugin, this time for CJ and it’s free. here’s the link http://wpnicheground.com/
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]]> By: BORINGhttp://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/epn-is-broken-and-i-quit-for-now.htm/comment-page-1#comment-17267 BORING Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:05:55 +0000 http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/?p=1102#comment-17267

I went from .28 epc on October 27th, to where I sit now… at .05 cents per click.

Welcome to my world! Went from $0.15 to $0.08. Not as bad as yours, but still bad. :(

For myself, that equates to rebuilding affiliate links on several sites

I wish it’s easy like that. I have tons of links buried deep inside individual posts (to make it more targeted). Going though all those posts will take me tons of time. I guess if I decide to dump EPN, I just remove all those links all together from the database.

I have been around affiliate marketing for MANY years – and never seen a program so quickly run into the ground.

Hopefully, they understand that until it’s too late.

Great post by the way!

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]]> By: Cheriehttp://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/epn-is-broken-and-i-quit-for-now.htm/comment-page-1#comment-17263 Cherie Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:48:07 +0000 http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/?p=1102#comment-17263 @Mark Weirdly it's back!, definitely not there yesterday, now it is.<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('17263','Cherie'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('17263','Cherie','@Mark\r\nWeirdly it\'s back!, definitely not there yesterday, now it is.'); return false;">Quote</a></div> @Mark
Weirdly it’s back!, definitely not there yesterday, now it is.
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]]> By: Markhttp://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/epn-is-broken-and-i-quit-for-now.htm/comment-page-1#comment-17262 Mark Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:57:45 +0000 http://www.thenichestorebuilder.com/?p=1102#comment-17262 @ Cherie -May have something to do with Google and its new search algo getting ready to roll out. They announced late last week that they are bringing on only one datacenter right now and the rest after the holidays.Aside from that though - it might just be that someone reported it as a spam site.Do you have it listed within Google Webmaster Tools? If so, you could try a reinclusion request, but I have never had any luck with that.M<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('17262','Mark'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('17262','Mark','@ Cherie - \r\n\r\nMay have something to do with Google and its new search algo getting ready to roll out. They announced late last week that they are bringing on only one datacenter right now and the rest after the holidays.\r\n\r\nAside from that though - it might just be that someone reported it as a spam site.\r\n\r\nDo you have it listed within Google Webmaster Tools? If so, you could try a reinclusion request, but I have never had any luck with that.\r\n\r\nM'); return false;">Quote</a></div> @ Cherie –

May have something to do with Google and its new search algo getting ready to roll out. They announced late last week that they are bringing on only one datacenter right now and the rest after the holidays.

Aside from that though – it might just be that someone reported it as a spam site.

Do you have it listed within Google Webmaster Tools? If so, you could try a reinclusion request, but I have never had any luck with that.

M

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