Epn Paying much higher this month

have any of you notice a increase in how much money you have made with ebay partner network this month? I mean its only been 5 days into this month and i have notice right off the back major increases in the amount of money I am making per day....Usually I average 50.00 a day....This month I am seeing 120-200.00 a day! Its amazing...Did they finally correct there tracking system...so now i am actually getting paid for every commission! or is it just a good month?! Thanks

 

Tracking problems? They had tracking problems?

 

you're joking. right?

Yes, I've had a good 3/4 weeks, partly due to the low A$ versus the US$ but not only that, sales reported have also increased. Can it be an early Christmas spend??

 

Me too - had more ACRUs in the last couple of months, but I think some lucky bigger sales too. Maybe it's just the time of year - I think I'll wait till Jan-Feb before I start jumping for joy!

 

We are in Q4. This time of year is the best for affiliate marketing as we move into the holiday season. It should pick up even more.

 

Yes, I am totally joking. They have had problems with tracking from day 1 and refused to admit it. People lost 80% of their income on the day they switched from CJ to the in-house train wreck that eBay created. Same sites as with CJ. Same traffic as with CJ. Switch to ePN and BOOM - instant loss of revenue.

ePN totally ignored these issues, like they do most important things and glossed over it on their blog and forum.

I firmly believe that ePN is the most loosely run affiliate program on the net and Steve Hartman is the biggest idiot in affiliate marketing. Keep in mind that Hartman is the brain behind bringing Yahoo ads to eBay auctions. Before taking over the eBay Partner Network, Steve Hartman was the Director of On-Site Advertising.

On-Site advertising is a pretty interesting model. Here is how it works:

1. You pay eBay for a listing in hopes that you will get bidders and make a profitable sale.

2. eBay places contextual ads on your auction in the hopes that someone will click OFF of your auctions so they can make money from you and from the PPC advertiser.

3. eBay wins - you lose.

Taking people off-site for any reason seems contradictory to the idea of encouraging people to BID/BIN, right?

eBay and ePN especially, is full of contradictions and hypocrisy. Steve Hartman will say one thing to one audience and then say something completely different to another group, all the while doing something totally different.

Example:

On September 24, 2007, Hartman said this regarding his decision to put outside ads on YOUR auctions:

Let's look at this, shall we?

Ok, who is running the On-Site Traffic Stealing program now that you are screwing up the affiliate program?

Good, at least we know whom to blame.

Steve, what about the sellers? You know, the people that paid for the auction spots - did you consider their "opportunities to find what they were looking for", i.e. people to bid on their products?

Here is an example of a recent "on-site ad":



Nice! Penis pills. I bet that reaches the "right people".

These words were written on September 24, 2007. The penis ads were displayed on October 22, 2008. That is over a year later!

Steve, how long does it take to find "improved ways to show ads"? Wait, maybe these are the improved ads.

First place to shop? I thought the idea was to establish eBay as the first place to BUY... And who's needs are you satisfying? Does offering buyers the opportunity to go off-site to make purchases build a stronger brand? Does it demonstrate an interest in helping eBay sellers increase their sales? The answers are, NO. It is all about greed the misguided notion that you know what buyers want.

Buyers used to want to shop on eBay. Those days are coming to a close and you are speeding it along nicely.

But Steve, what if these people that choose to browse, connect and have fun were sent by an affiliate? Those actions will result in non-engaged traffic and cause an affiliate to be expired.

I was going to place some quotes from Steve and other ePN staff that totally contradicts what was stated above relative to their definition of "quality traffic", but those threads have been removed from the disucssion forum.

I have said this before, what are you trying to accomplish by sanitizing message forums and deleting posts? Do you thik that people don't notice when entire threads vanish?

On Aug-23-08 wrote:

When did that policy change to "we will delete any post that is not 'warm and fuzzy'? My guess is that your "open and frank conversations" model was nothing more than more lip service.

The point of all of this is:

• eBay treats people as disposable
• Steve Hartman is in way over his head.
• ePN has had tracking problems from day one.
• ePN and Hartman's team has lied to everyone from day one.

Please understand that I do not wish to see eBay or ePN fail. On the contrary, I would like to see them succeed. I would like to see idiots like Steve Hartman and a significant segment of his "team" standing in a soup line.

 

He missed his calling. He should go into politics. Business is not his forte.

 

Reminds me of a letter I received years back from My Bank after a merger and how I was going to benefit from them raising my fees.