Epn

fish · Oct 13, 2013

Another decent(ish) partner program goes t*ts-up

With earnings:
18 months ago I used to be able to pay the mortgage
12 months ago I could pay the utility bills
6 months ago I could by a round of drinks

Now with recent changes I couldn't event pay the fees to list and sell an item on ebay....

Skinner · Oct 13, 2013

You know I have been meaning to get EPN sites up and running, but never seem to have the time, looks now I don't need to.

It is that bad all around your various sites or just 1 or 2 sites taken a hit and those 1 or 2 was the big earners ?

fish · Oct 14, 2013

It's not the sites at fault.
Ebay have been changing their payout structure and qualifying terms to generate commissions.
Now they have introduced a 24 hour cookie so the referral has to buy within that period, not much use if the auction ends in 2,3,4 or 5 days

martin-s · Oct 14, 2013

Good to know - thanks for this.

TheAngryDog · Oct 14, 2013

The way in i understood it as long as the user bids within the 24 hours you would be credited? could be wrong tho

Skinner · Oct 14, 2013

The 24 hour cookie does take the piss, I won't use affiliates who offer 7 days yet alone 1 day.

They can do it because people who chose EPN will have invested good time and money and keep flogging the pony rather than jump ship.

fish · Oct 14, 2013

TheAngryDog said:
The way in i understood it as long as the user bids within the 24 hours you would be credited? could be wrong tho

Correct for items listed as BIN only.

Looking further into it there's a new post on their forum saying that auction item cookies WILL be tracked for the duration of the auction so a u-turn in what they originally proposed.

seemly said:
Maybe create a script that will only show results that end within the next 24 hours. That way, ebay don't get your "free" traffic?

Going to do exactly that and exclude all BIN items

even so, the commission payout is pants to what it used to be.

retired_member36 · Oct 14, 2013

My epn sites regular earnings have dropped off but the one off earnings are earning me more than before. This month to date ive earned 62.60 and 8 of those days earnings were £0.

I, now wondering if id earn more through an other affiliate marketplace though, especially since the cookie period is now only 24 Hours. Until then i might just show BIN related items on my sites, atleast then if someone sees something of interest there is more of a chance of them buying it there and then.

fish · Oct 15, 2013

I downloaded the report for this month and going through the referrers & earnings I noticed that a site I took down 6 months ago is getting hits & earned a small amount this last week .....

This could be an error on my side where I've used that site's ID on another site, I'm going to go through them and see if this is the case or not.

mat · Oct 15, 2013

Auctions will only get a 10 day cookie IF the user bids on the item within the first 24 hours. Not many people do this, which makes it quite unfair. What if someone watches the item and bids on the last day? We should be credited for that.

90% of my EPN sites promote BIN items only, I have always found this works the best for me. Any sites that have both BIN and auction items are set to "Best match" as a standard. You will notice that the Best Match items list tends to list just BIN items and auction items ending within 24 hours, so these new rules almost tie in with what ebay has been pushing for the last few years.

If you drive new users to EPN you now also get a 200% bonus on anything they buy.

I for one am working on diversifying out my EPN portfolio as we speak

fish · Oct 15, 2013

mat said:
Auctions will only get a 10 day cookie IF the user bids on the item within the first 24 hours. Not many people do this, which makes it quite unfair. What if someone watches the item and bids on the last day? We should be credited for that.

90% of my EPN sites promote BIN items only, I have always found this works the best for me. Any sites that have both BIN and auction items are set to "Best match" as a standard. You will notice that the Best Match items list tends to list just BIN items and auction items ending within 24 hours, so these new rules almost tie in with what ebay has been pushing for the last few years.

If you drive new users to EPN you now also get a 200% bonus on anything they buy.

I for one am working on diversifying out my EPN portfolio as we speak

Interesting input, thanks. Now please expand on 'diversifying'

monaghan · Oct 15, 2013

Interesting thread, I had my EPN closed ages ago and haven't been able to get it opened again (I think it was part of the migration from the affiliate company to the in-house system), I guess it's not worth the effort of trying to get a new account then?

dragon · Oct 15, 2013

fish said:
Interesting input, thanks. Now please expand on 'diversifying'

Can prob try with adsense, affiliate products/services related to niche, selling ad space doing deals directly with companies, selling links/guest posts, capturing leads and selling them, capturing emails and doing a newsletter/weekly deal linking to aff products, etc.

fish · Oct 15, 2013

monaghan said:
Interesting thread, I had my EPN closed ages ago and haven't been able to get it opened again (I think it was part of the migration from the affiliate company to the in-house system), I guess it's not worth the effort of trying to get a new account then?

Worth a go if you have the time to spare (read waste), have great sites with 1000s of UV daily and you a personality that can easily cope with disappointment ...

monaghan · Oct 15, 2013

fish said:
Worth a go if you have the time to spare (read waste), have great sites with 1000s of UV daily and you a personality that can easily cope with disappointment ...

That good then

chippyb · Oct 15, 2013

What part are you using to display for ads? the custom banner or what?

Signed up but never used it

fish · Oct 16, 2013

@ Mat, what script / SW / theme are you using to post your eb ads?
I use A2P, if you use the same promoting BIN items then I will give it a go myself.
I guess to a degree it will depend on the niche whether works well or not?