I just blogged about Squidoo announcing you can't have eBay links there any more either. You can use the Squidoo-sponsored eBay module, just can’t post your own direct links. eBay - No Squidoo or Hubpages Affiliate Links Allowed Squidoo mentioned other sites that were going to be prohibited but this is the 1st I heard about all 3rd party sites being prohibited.
I just noticed on the Account tab of my EPN account that we are required to register all domains that drive traffic.
Darn, that's a pretty big deal. It's not like there's an easy way to change those links either if you've built a lot of pages on sites like Squidoo. **Edit**: Just for clarification, what is going on with the eBay Product Feeds module found on SquidUtils? Are the changes necessary to make this compliant going to happen automatically? They've posted this message on the SquidUtils page: "As of July 20th, this tool can only be used on Squidoo, and only with Squidoo's Campaign ID. All clicks will be automatically attributed to the lens on which the RSS feed appears. Any commissions earnt will be shared with Squidoo, and will appear on the 'Revenue' stats tab for the lens." I really hope that means I don't have to change all those RSS feeds myself.
Oh God. Feebay just killed its affiliate program. You are paid per click now. And let's not talk about the new seller policy. LOL! Bunch of morons running Feebay.
That's a pig if that's the case - I support the free plugin I wrote (WordBay) by encouraging users to share impressions with me. Since such clicks by definition come from sites I don't own, I guess that's the end of my development of WordBay unless I can find a model for supporting it... I hadn't seen that option in the EPN backend before - I don't remember them announcing it or making a big thing about it, so I am guessing that is another thing that is on their list. Right now, it doesn't seem to be something they are insisting on - I certainly haven't verified any of the sites I DO own and traffic from them is being tracked no problem...
That's one reason that I decided not to use ePN to monetize TWP Auctions, I wanted to (it would have been a nice earner), but I knew I'd have no control over the sites my ePN id would appear on. One of the big problems with ePN is that you can't REMOVE a site from your account. It should be like AdSense, where you can add (and remove) domains to a whitelist - and any clicks NOT from those domains are ignored.
Yeah, that's very true, I knew it was a risk, and I guess it's just the relatively low volume coming from third-party sites (a click or two a day from each hardly registers on the EPN radar probably) that's ensured I stay out of trouble. Also, the black-hat guys aren't the sort to share revenue anyway, so most of my "generous" users are regular guys just trying to make a few pennies. Still, I will consider ways to "curb" my users' generosity, I don't fancy getting banned, and I suppose I can live without about a third of my EPN earnings... Stupid you can't delete campaigns...
With the new PPC think, it will change the ePN background. I was targeting high priced items, like cars, and sold an average of 1.5 car/day. Those sales brought about $50-$80 net. Now, with the new program at few cents/click, I don't want to work selling cars and getting 5 cents for it. I'd rather market cheap items and junk clicks, having few cents each. Since people are less reluctant to pay $3 for a chewing-gum pack than $20K for a car, I think I can make much more money now...Leaving much less money to Ebay, who's gonna get pennies on those items and giving them to affiliates....
There has been lots of talk about this issue, and specifically about some possible exceptions for Motors items, over at the forum, like in this thread. Me, I just can't get my head round it all though... The model of "Sell something and get a cut of the profit" made perfect sense, whereas this is just over my head...
Especially since eBay refuse to give any hard numbers on what is considered a "quality" click. The entire TOS is getting more and more difficult to understand. And when the reps respond to direct questions on the ePN forum, it's mostly just fluff.
They don't want you to be able to get your head around it. It is all hidden now so they can pay whatever they want with no connection to a sale and screw over affiliates.