I am new to cj network, and wanted to ask people who have worked with it for a while: How accurate is EPC in your appinion? in other words i am looking at Vonage program right now and this are promising $100+ EPC. so i get paid over 100$ for every 100 visitors i bring. Do they normally provide accurate stats or it's all bs? btw to eliminate unneccessary comments - yes i have a targeted site that shows in serps for related keywords.
The only thing I use EPC for is to tell how legitimate a company is. It really doesn't matter that much though. I've made over $40 EPC for a merchant who's EPC was only $8. I don't think CJ is lying about it though if that's what you are asking.
Overall, the EPC shows an accurate picture of what's going on (average across the whole program). There is no way for merchants to manipulate this. Your experience may vary greatly, though - a number of high performers, or low performers, can significantly affect the EPC. I've made $50 EPC when the program's average was $10, and $7 EPC when the program's average was $25. Your traffic mix, promotional methods, etc... will all affect your EPC with that program.