eBay Partner Network EPC Going Down the Toilet
It appears as though the end is near, and I’m not talking about 2012. Many eBay Partner Network (ePN) affiliates seem to have one thing in common, we’re all experiencing a massive November fail with this program. Just when I got enthusiastic about the new QCP program, I logged in to see five days of 0.01’s to 0.03’s, with a current average of 0.03. I went from my best month of all time (October 2009) to tanking like a rock. Needless to say, I’m very afraid.
Those are my current stats. I’m hanging on by a thread. I’m at the “danger zone” with a rock bottom 0.03. I’m almost afraid to even check my email at this point.
It’s not news to mention how ePN is ban-happy, and it has been worse than ever according to what I’ve been reading on the eBay Partner Network forums. More high-tier affiliates with many years of ePN service are being banned for no reason. When honest top performers get the ax, how else could it possibly look to the rest of the affiliate community? It’s like a crowd of chickens in a slaughterhouse watching their comrades getting their heads get cut off a few feet away. Especially with an affiliate program that has been notorious for invoking absolute terror in its affiliates, and even suspending and strong-arming them into handing over their server data (tell me where that was ever mentioned in the TOS?)
I don’t know about you, but I’m scared. I’m doing nothing wrong, but I’m still scared. It’s because this program is merciless on people who perform well, let alone the ones who don’t. I rely on ePN as my main source of at-home income. Thanks to the newly [enigmatic, secretive] mathematical EPC/QCP/ACRU system that has been put in place, I am at an absolute loss as to how I can perform to fit ePN’s standards anymore. I’m ranking highly for many “action-based” keywords, I’m promoting high price tag items that don’t sell frequently, and I have an overwhelming feeling of doom over a program that doesn’t show any mercy, provide any assistance, or even any forewarning.
I don’t know about you, but I will be scrambling over the weekend to start up several more affiliate stores from other affiliate programs, as I have relied way too much on this program, whose outlook is very grim.
This is a bleak holiday season for eBay affiliates, to say the least.
I’m not having any issues with QCP so far. For the month I’m at .26 per click and have increased traffic nearly 30%. While this is my first visit to your site, you do mention you are targeting high ticket items. I on the other hand am the complete opposite. Also, I have found some great white hat techniques with Wordpress to increase my click throughs that is generating even more money. I’m going to start blogging about what I’m doing this holiday weekend once I get my holiday site complete. I’ll stop back by and post the url here sometime.
Good Luck.
Mike – thanks for your feedback, and do come back with that information! It seems as though people with high-ticket items are getting slaughtered with the new QCP.
Agreed! Something is wrong and I am pissed! I quickly found your article and find myself in the same boat. I emailed EPN when I first noticed a dramatic drop in my figures. They sent a canned/generic response which only added fuel to my fire. A day or two later, I received a link to complete a survey … I took the survey and left a honest opinion. This is a joke and I hope ebay has a fix soon!
I really like your writing style, its not generic and extremly long and tedious like a lot of blog posts I read, you get to the point and I really enjoy reading your articles! Oh, and merry Christmas!
I signed up for EPN a few years back, but never did anything with it until this month. I started off really good (good in my opinion for my first week) and was sitting at around 14 cents EPC. It had been consistent every day for a week and a half, with my clicks slowly increasing and my EPC slowly climbing. Today my EPC went from 14 to 10, and it showed my daily EPC for yesterday at 1 cent.
It’s strange to me, because yesterday was no worse than any other day previous, as far as how many bids were placed through my clicks. In fact, it was actually a little higher than average. No winning bids, though, so I wonder if that had something to do with it?
Anyways I was looking forward to growing my EPN steadily so it could become a solid source of income, but now I’m worried that I’m going to be another one of eBay’s “victims”.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
Frank