Here’s a chart for my month’s ePN results (top) and an overall result for the past 3 months (bottom). As you can see, things started spiking near the middle of October, which I am attributing to the shift to Quality Click Pricing. I first thought that I may have ranked for a new term in Google or Yahoo and started receiving and influx of hits and sales, but Google Analytics proved that to not be the case.

There are two things that can be said for the campaigns I’ve been running on eBay: they get a LOT of clicks, and they are targeting extremely specific keyword terms.

Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about how to manage ePN affiliate programs. I’ve been banned from the program. I revolted and urged them to re-consider me, and they did. After that, I took on a newer, more paranoid and more strict attitude where all of my underperforming sites were deleted and 301-redirected elsewhere, while more focus was put on a mere handful of sites. These sites were given my utmost attention. I wrote content for them, I made them easier to navigate, better looking and pointed better backlinks to them, as well as to their inner pages. As a result, I think that all of these actions have contributed to better success with the new Quality Click Pricing model.

My EPC has gone from 0.03 to 0.06 – still a dismal and worrisome figure, since 0.03 is the point in which an ePN affiliate can be evaluated for a potential banning from the program. I’m currently working on de-manufacturing two more of my EPN sites, 301-redirecting them to other sources that I own, and hopefully getting better EPC figures on my dashboard once those poorly-converting sites are gone.

What you see here is a restructuring from the old mentality of ePN: creating tons of sites and hoping they all make a few dollars a day. The problem with that model in regard to the new QCP is that it is producing low-quality clicks, which won’t pay off much. Note that you’re no longer getting paid in commissions, but you’re getting paid per click. It’s a blessing for anyone whose ePN site gets tons of [relevant] clicks. If those clicks go through the unseen algorithm being run by ePN, and are deemed helpful and relevant, you’ll be rewarded.

With that being said, I’m looking at ePN in a whole new light. I made exactly 40.17% more between September 2009 and October 2009, and am looking forward to more success in November if all pans out.

Back in very early days of the eBay affiliate program, one could have made a full-time career out of selling used cars on eBay and making tremendous commissions. That practice was nipped in the bud with the inception of eBay Autos, bringing forth a new tier of virtually worthless commission scales for things like used cars, car parts and the like. Changes kept happening throughout the early 2000s, making that “percentage of a percentage of the seller’s fee to eBay” dwindle affiliate commissions.

Enter the ACRU

Then, in August of ’08, the ACRU or “Active Confirmed Registered User” value-based payment system came out. Instead of receiving your cool $20 per eBay user sign-up, you received anywhere between $1 and $50 (more likely the former) per sign-up, per ePN’s new algorithm that auto-ranked each sign-up with a quality rating. This rating determined how “worthy” that new eBay member was, based on their likelihood to continue coming back to eBay and purchasing more things in the future. It’s a ridiculous and irrational system that punishes affiliates for the behavior of other human beings. Either that, or it was a very poor way to punish the entire affiliate community for the select few cheaters who’ve created false accounts on different IP addresses. Reminds me a lot of when the entire gym class was given early morning detention because an asshole jock was fooling around in class, and the teacher wanted to make an example of him.

Later that same month, ePN got ban-happy and started cutting dozens of affiliates from the program with no rhyme or reason. In looking at the old forum posts, it was apparent that both high-earning affiliates and low-performing ones alike were cut. One guy was making nearly 6-figures per year on ePN and got the ban stick, while a newbie just learning the ropes got it, too. Those who didn’t were left shaking in their boots, overwhelmed with feelings of paranoia and wondering if the ePN Grim Reaper would be coming for them, soon…even though they were playing by the book.

Wait, Make That ‘Quality Click Pricing’…

On September 1, 2009, ePN announced that all new ePN members would now be transitioned over to a new “Quality Click Pricing” payment method, and all veterans would be transitioned on October 1st. Quality Click Pricing basically starts everything over at square one. Your traditional EPC (earnings per click) chart will disappear, and a QCP metric chart will take its place. It was then stated that the EPC system was somewhat of a beta test to see how affiliate sales have worked, solely for the reason of eventually transitioning to QCP. on Not only that,  but ACRU scores will also be removed entirely and will not be available for your statistical review.

What does this mean for you? It means that you better damn well be considered “quality” in ePN’s eyes, or you will be in for a heart breaker of a year in your affiliate routine. Rather than receiving commission like you always did, you’ll now be receiving payoffs on a per-click basis. According to the “How will this affect me?” writeup, you’ll receive the same commission as always. If you’re a high performer, you’ll get more – otherwise, you’ll be earning less. What’s a high performer or a low performer, though? ePN has enimgified (yes, that’s a word I made up just for this situation) their system so much that Einstein wouldn’t even be able to make it out. A blog post noting tips for success with QCP mentions that it’s all about being very drilled down and focused in terms of driving traffic. This might be a serious issue for those of you with “broad” product categories. Even during the EPC era of this program, ePN stated that anyone who had an EPC of .03 or less set off the red flag for a possible banning. At least you knew if you were in trouble with the EPC chart. That’s now gone, making the ePN program even more opaque than ever before.

How will the EPC program work out in the long run? This month will be the true test. Needless to say, marketing forums across the internet are buzzing with fear and grief. Keep in mind, there are people who use ePN as their full time revenue source. This goes to show that it is NEVER a good strategy to rely on just one affiliate program – you truly never know when something drastic will happen, or when they’ll simply die off.

Over the past year, ePN has done nothing short of making a complete jackass of themselves, instilling fear in their affiliate community, and becoming a PR nightmare that has spun out of control. Bannings still happen every day, without reason – and it’s nearly impossible to get back in once you’re banned…much like getting banned from Google AdSense. It also doesn’t help when your plea for a reason doesn’t even get answered by the team, especially since you get a generic “Dear John” letter when it happens.

ePN: where the strategy is “if it ain’t broke, fix it, then disassemble it, then put it back together, fix it, and re-paint it. Then lay off a percentage of your constituents. Then go back to fixing the system that ain’t broke once more. “