I Got A $15,882 1099-MISC From eBay Partner Network But It Should Have Been WAY MORE!

[wsotoolz]

Hey Fellow Warriors...

This thread is going to be briefly about my 2010 experience with eBay Partner Network (EPN) and Adsense thin niche sites. Early 2010 I was absolutely crushing it with EPN and hardly making anything with Adsense. I am talking $2,000 - $3,000 months. Fast forward to the end of 2010 and I was barely making $100 each month. So what happened? Take a peak at my EPN chart...

It might be hard to see in that picture but the drop in clicks and revenue occurred in May 2010. Need I say it? I had fell victim of the Mayday update.

Here are my numbers for 2010 with EPN:

Jan $2450.58
Feb $1734.94
Mar $2460.19
Apr $3024.82
May $1121.67
Jun $361.48
Jul $350.09
Aug $303.42
Sep $285.63
Oct $136.89
Nov $76.09
Dec $70.84

By the time December 2010 rolled around I was making more money with Adsense then I was with EPN.

I was running about 100 niche sites all with very thin content. Mostly just a wordpress blog with posts for each item linking back to eBay. The only content was the description that eBay provided on the items.

I struggled for several months trying to pick up the pieces before I pretty much gave up and moved on to other areas of Internet Marketing. Looking back now this was a dumb thing to do. I should have stuck with it and figured out what I needed to do to overcome the Mayday update.

Which brings us to today where I have decided to jump back into this full strength. You don't really see many people talking on this forum about making a lot of money with EPN. It can be done and I am going to do it again.

I have decided to start from scratch and not try and salvage my sites from the past. I am going to start once again with some thin sites and see how they perform. I will also do some thin sites but also add in some backlinking which I never did back in 2010. If all of this does not work for me this time around then I will start to build some thicker sites with more original content.

I decided to share this information with you guys as a motivational tool or challenge for myself. You see the real reason why I never got back on track after Mayday was from me being lazy and giving up to chase an easier buck. Looking back though doing this was pretty darn lucrative and not very hard. I setup the blogs one after another and Google just kept sending me long-tail traffic that converted very well. I had no expenses other then my hosting and domain name registrations.

So through this thread I plan to turn my EPN revenue back around and share with all of you what and how I am doing it along the way. I also plan to grow my Adsense income along the way too. Hopefully those of you that are interested will take some good information away from this thread as it progresses and also make some EPN and Adsense income.

So keep an eye on this thread as I will be updating it with what I am working on and how my income with both EPN and Adsense is progressing.

The first thing that I am going to do is a little keyword research to pick my first niche site. I will post more details on this step soon.

Thanks,
Joe

[wsotoolz]

Keyword Research and Niche Selection

Ok I have decided on my first niche site topic. Let me tell you how I decided on it. First I went to eBay pulse and decided to try the baby category then went into baby gear and then into baby jumping exercisers. The number 5 most popular search in that category was johnny jumper.

I then plugged that keyword into Google adwords keyword tool and got a list of 100 related keywords back. For now I was mainly interested in johnny jumper and it turns out that it gets 1900 global exact and 1000 local exact searches per month. This is acceptable for me. If you go a lot higher it would most likely be harder to rank. Go much lower and it might be not worth your time.

Next I like to check AllInTitle and something I call RCQ which is in Google and is on the last page of results. RCQ tells you how many actual results Google returns for those keywords. I actually checked all this info on all 100 keywords using a tool I created called All In Scraper. Johnny jumper had 3600 AIT and 1200 AITQ (quotes) and RCQ (quotes) of 431. This all looks good to me. I like under 300 but 431 is doable especially after looking at the top 10 results for those keywords.

So that is my next step, to analyze the top 10 sites. 4 sites in the top ten with 0 PR and most with 0 links. So that tells me that with a little work I should be able to break into the top 10 pretty easily.

At this point I am hoping for an exact match domain as I go off to namecheap to check. The johnny jumper .com and .net are gone. The .org is available. Ok I registered it.

It is getting late so I am going to stop here for tonight. My plan is to share this site from start to finish with you guys. I probably will not be sharing all my sites for obvious reasons.

If you have any questions along the way I would love to answer them and get a good discussion going here.

Tomorrow I will be setting up wordpress on my new domain. In the past I did all my own coding using the ebay API but after I got 100+ sites I started to have problems with call limits and such. It was far to difficult to get approved for a higher call limit so I am looking into phpbay pro as a replacement of what I was doing using eBays API.

Joe

[markowe]

Hey, let's try and keep some discussion going here about EPN. I am also interested in reviving my EPN fortunes as I was doing great, even under QCP before Google blitzed most of my sites. They were all pretty thin with me too, so can hardly complain. Just using the WP plugin I wrote (Wordbay), but that leverages the RSS feed so no API call limit problems. I also had one automated site, so not surprised that got slapped.
I am also looking to develop something more sustainable with EPN. People knock the program, often with good reason, and when you look at the value of the average click, 0.10 to 0.15 is good going, so people get put off. But CTR (and consequent conversion) are so much higher than Adsense - eBay still converts like crazy, especially if you pick the right niche. The main problem is Google hates thin affiliate sites and it's all too easy to make a thin site with eBay.
This thread would be good for a bit of EPN brainstorming so let's stay with it.

[wsotoolz]

Originally Posted by markowe

Hey, let's try and keep some discussion going here about EPN. I am also interested in reviving my EPN fortunes as I was doing great, even under QCP before Google blitzed most of my sites. They were all pretty thin with me too, so can hardly complain. Just using the WP plugin I wrote (Wordbay), but that leverages the RSS feed so no API call limit problems. I also had one automated site, so not surprised that got slapped.
I am also looking to develop something more sustainable with EPN. People knock the program, often with good reason, and when you look at the value of the average click, 0.10 to 0.15 is good going, so people get put off. But CTR (and consequent conversion) are so much higher than Adsense - eBay still converts like crazy, especially if you pick the right niche. The main problem is Google hates thin affiliate sites and it's all too easy to make a thin site with eBay.
This thread would be good for a bit of EPN brainstorming so let's stay with it.

I totally agree. I can make money faster and easier with EPN than I can with Adsense even with the QPC method that they are now following. The biggest fear with EPN though is if they are going to give you the boot for some reason. I keep reading about people being kicked out of the program. I like to think that they are doing bad stuff to get that fate but I am not sure.

I thought about using the RSS feed but if I remember correctly it is pretty limited in the information it returns? Can you get the full item description using the RSS feed? I know you can get the title but for some reason I was thinking it doesn't return the description.

Later today I will be back to update you on what I am doing today with loading wordpress and what plugins I will be using.

Joe

[JackPowers]

How does the Ebay Partner Network pay exactly now then? What makes it more attractive than Adsense?

[wsotoolz]

Originally Posted by JackPowers

How does the Ebay Partner Network pay exactly now then? What makes it more attractive than Adsense?

It is QPC which is Quality Per Click I think...

Basically they pay you per click but the amount depends on the quality of traffic you send them. They do not tell you how the quality is determined though. I found the main factor to be revenue that you generate them.

Someimes your EPC is better then adsense and sometimes it is worse. The reason I can do better with EPN in my mind has to do with ad blindness. I think a ton of people recognize adsense and don't click the ads. I know I rarely click them. But with EPN you have so much flexibility in the way you create your links. They can be text links, image links, in your content or anywhere. So I can put adsense and EPN links on the same page and always get more clicks to EPN because of this one reason.

Joe

[markowe]

With EPN you get paid per click, though the value of the click basically depends on the conversion of the visitor you send. So junk traffic earns you nothing, visitors who go on to buy one or more items bump your EPC up, which is then spread out over that campaign. Which is kind of fair really, just rather non-transparent (is Adsense any more transparent?!) and poorly managed from a PR perspective by EPN at the beginning, when they moved to this system.

Think about it though, eBay products embedded in your page are like an uber-Adsense ad - because there is a highly-targetted product there (if you've done your SEO right), it can have a picture next to it, an exact price, a trusted online retailer, almost limitless numbers of products available, AND there is no limit to your CTR!

Example, I have a campaign that is on a roll right now, paying me an EPC of 0.30 GBP (about $0.50 USD) - OK, this is quite rare, probably due to some good sales I have had, but the CTR on that campaign is around 30%! Try getting that on Adsense without a tap on the head from the Google-hammer!

Now, that can all boil down to a very low actual commission on the items sold, as little as 1%, say, but what makes up for it is the good conversions - eBay sells like crazy. There is no other network on which I could've got an effective average of 10-15 cents per page impression - maybe some people ARE doing that with Adsense (actually, I am not far off that), but EPN is a great model for many people. It's about your personal style too - some people are good at preselling Amazon products and can make more per visitor, well, fair enough, but EPN has got a lot of potential as another income stream and is very easy for newbies to make money from.

@Joe, no, the description is unfortunately not available through the RSS feed. that's one of the big disadvantages, because I think that would be great for SEO and I may still go back to the API at some point. Heck, if I did alright out of it, I would pay the cash to have my script verified or whatever and get my call quota bumped up.

I have a lot on my plate right now, but will try to feed back here about any new EPN efforts I make (got the new version of my plugin to finish and then maybe I can actually start earning with it!)

[wsotoolz]

Originally Posted by markowe

@Joe, no, the description is unfortunately not available through the RSS feed. that's one of the big disadvantages, because I think that would be great for SEO and I may still go back to the API at some point. Heck, if I did alright out of it, I would pay the cash to have my script verified or whatever and get my call quota bumped up.

That was what I thought. I did start the process of verifying my script but it became very long and drawn out. The process is more geared towards an application and not a script that you are going to run on 100+ sites. I might look at it again then but I am waiting to hear back from someone that is using phpbay pro for wordpress and that might help make my decision on how I am going to proceed with these new sites.

Thanks,
Joe

[wsotoolz]

Wordpress Setup and Plugins

Last night I uploaded Wordpress and configured it the way I like. I found a tool that can clone Wordpress blogs and I might just pick that up and use it going forward. Since it is time consuming to set everything up and tweak the way I want. With a tool like this I could just clone and change the required settings.

I wanted to touch on what plugins I have installed on this blog which by the way is Johnny Jumper.

All In One SEO Pack - Out-of-the-box SEO for your Wordpress blog. (FREE)

Easy Contact - A simple contact us form for out contact us page. (FREE)

Exec-PHP - Allows us to execute PHP code in our posts or pages. (FREE)

Nice Search - Redirects ?s=query searches to /search/query, and converts %20 to + (FREE)

Google XML Sitemap - This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask.com to better index your blog. (FREE)

phpBay Pro - Add eBay auction listings to your Wordpress posts. (PAID)

SEOPressor Unlimited - SEOPressor automatically optimizes your on-page SEO (PAID)

KeywordsToWebsites - Make affiliate and content sites from a list of keywords. (PAID)

So there you have it. That is the list of plugins I used on this site.

I decided to try a new theme I found called Arras. So far I am really liking the theme but I did have to make a few tweaks on the user.css file to get my phpBay listings to format properly.

After installing Wordpress, setting up my theme and setting up my plugins I made one post with content for my main keyword. Then I made a few other posts with only phpBay listings on them.

It is kind of tedious to go through my list of 100 keywords and make a post for each keyword and then just slap in the phpBay code. I created a plugin in the past that took a list of keywords and randomly scheduled a post between a user specified start and end date. The only thing it set was the title and I dynamically created the page from the title in my singlepost.php file. I think I am going to pull out this plugin and modify it a bit. I am going to make it schedule posts from a list o keywords like I did before but I am also going to have it enter the phpBay code with the specified keyword in that code into the actual post.

So when it is done I could simply say over the next 30 days take this list of 100 keywords and randomly post them on my blog. Then they will just start showing up almost naturally with the phpBay code configured the way I wanted and I will have no interaction other then my original upload of the keyword list. I will probably dig that plugin up tonight and make the required changes.

After I get all that setup I will move on to start building some backlinks for the site. More on that to come.

Joe

[markowe]

Hi Joe,

I missed the bit in your OP where you said you were just going to do thin sites again OK, I get it, you are going to do backlinking to try to prop them up. I would be really interested to hear your results as I have a couple of sites that were doing really well for me, but truth be told were pretty thin and got Google-bashed, so although I would consider trying to give them a boost I tend to agree with you that it's not worth trying to salvage them. Who knows whether Google would ever let them back in the SERPS even with a million backlinks or whatever. So I see the logic of starting out with new sites.

But I am more inclined to go with sites that are strong on content - it's so easy to fill your site with eBay listiings but I think Google sniffs out the footprint sooner or later, like if you have 50 links per page leading to eBay, or posts with little more than an eBay link in, then you are going to get slapped sooner or later. So I am changing my philosophy and going with good content - in fact I am not even going to monetise until much later. Darn', I know that's what the Google-monster wants - they win I guess! But I want to make mini-authority sites that will get link-love on their own merit because frankly I am siiiiick of backlinking! It won't be that much more work, I find it fairly easy to produce good content and I certainly don't want to do any extra coding - all out-of-the-box solutions. MIGHT consider cloaking the eBay image links, but that's all.

Well, keep us posted!

Mark

[wsotoolz]

@markowe - That was exactly why I decided to start some new sites and not try and salvage my old ones. You never know how long or how much work you have to put into them to get them ranking good again. Heck they might never rank good again. Thanks for following along!

I am basically fine-tuning this site to get everything the way I want before I get ready to mass produce them. I would like to see this one ranking at least on the front page of Google before I start cranking them out. That way I know that I will not be wasting my time on something that doesn't work. Also keep in mind that I am not only going after that one keyword but I will be hoping for a lot of very long-tail keywords as well from the titles in the eBay listings. Regardless, I have decided to add more content to all the pages but I think I am going to use a product called KeywordsToWebsites. This time around I want to use all out of the box products too and not have to worry about coding stuff my self. Plus this will make the process copyable to others on this forum.

So scratch that idea I had about digging up that old plugin that scheduled posts from a keyword list. Instead I am going to try KeywordstoWebsites. The reason I am choosing this product is because it has the capability to create posts from a list of keywords. The other thing that it can do that I am really excited about is content spinning. So basically it will allow me to setup the content in a spun format using a program like The Best Spinner and it will automatically insert my page keyword for me into the spun content. So I can get original content on each post all from one article that I spun. so at this point this is the plan.

So I plan to avoid pages with only links to eBay. I know I have a few now on the site but as soon as I get everything configured and setup I will be re-creating those pages and you will see some content on them going forward.

Joe

[Haroon Ballim]

As a matter of interest , many people have mentioned that of late its virtually impossible to get into the ebay affiliate programme.
In fact for the past two years now at least.
When did you get in and any tips you have that might help others on getting approved for the EPN

Thanks

[markowe]

Originally Posted by Haroon Ballim

As a matter of interest , many people have mentioned that of late its virtually impossible to get into the ebay affiliate programme.
In fact for the past two years now at least.
When did you get in and any tips you have that might help others on getting approved for the EPN

Thanks

I don't know if this is ANY help, but EPN did this video interview on the subject recently: eBay Partner Network Blog | eBay Affiliate Program News » Blog Archive » Chatting with eBay Partner Network

I guess just have a decent-looking site that looks like it could be monetised with eBay products. I think a lot of people just try to apply with some one-page Adsense wonder and then are surprised when they don't get in. Probably a product-based blog is a good bet. And also follow the instructions they give you in the video.

I got into EPN waaaay back as I was an affiliate when they were with CJ and just moved across. I (nearly) got suspended a couple of times though, not really through my own fault, but managed to get back in - they were reasonably understanding and flexible, which I was surprised about, I must admit

[markowe]

Joe, interested to hear your approach.

I won't hijack your thread and anyway I don't have time to invest full-time in developing my site right now and reporting back, but I am working on a completely different tactic and I will try to get back with the results at some point.

Basically I am going to go with some kind of mini product blog which I MIGHT automate at some point along similar lines, but right now I am literally JUST gradually adding content. I have only managed 3 or 4 articles in the last couple of weeks, static pages in Wordpress, using a totally white generic framework theme - http://themeshaper.com/thematic/ These articles are going to be my linkbait - they are going to be the best possible articles you can find on the net on this subject and they are the kind of thing people will link to (that's the plan)! I may even go for a Wikipedia backlink or two. I have also added social bookmarking buttons and once I have got at least SOME content on the site I am going to put it in my sig on a related forum and invite people to 'help add to this resource' or something like that, and hopefully get comments, Diggs etc. that way. There will be NO attempt to monetise to begin with, no ads, no eBay, nothing, so I won't get on the wrong side of the forum owner.

ONLY when the site has stabilised on page one (it is currently at around no. 27 which is where it went in at, with just two pages of content - it's a .org EMD), will I consider gradually introducing product reviews, product listings, MAYBE auto-posted eBay stuff etc.

This for me is actually the least possible amount of work since I am knowledgeable on the subject, don't mind writing, and I just plan to not worry about ranking, backlinks or any of that stuff too much, but just try to promote on the basis of strong content, and doing all the other stuff as and when I get time, with no pressure whatsoever - submitting to various blog directories, blog commenting, fleshing out the site template will all happen along the way, as and when I get time. So I couldn't care less about the ranking, I just KNOW it will get there eventually, and hopefully knock the .com and the .net down page one, since they are mostly thin, auto-generated content. I will hopefully have a more natural backlink profile too.

Radical huh? Never really done something like that before, so keen to see if that pans out - it kind of should really, since I am going for quality. Ahem, not that I didn't before, but I guess I often got sidetracked with the money-making side of it very quickly and ended up on the wrong side of a Google slap. This one's going to be different

[wsotoolz]

Originally Posted by Haroon Ballim

As a matter of interest , many people have mentioned that of late its virtually impossible to get into the ebay affiliate programme.
In fact for the past two years now at least.
When did you get in and any tips you have that might help others on getting approved for the EPN

Thanks

I agree with what Markowe said. I think a ton of people slap together a crap blog and apply. They do not approve sites like this and then everyone says you can't get in.

I also got in from the transition form CJ to EPN. So I can't say that I had a hard time because I didn't.

There is a guy that runs a site where he will create you a nice blog full of content that he guarantees will get you into EPN. I don't recall what the site is but my point is that so many people think that you can't get in that he created a business model around it. If you spend the time and create a quality site you can get in... bottom line.

What you do after that is up to you since you are allowed to run EPN on other sites you own besides the one you got approved on. I think there is a requirement though that you must own the domain to put your affiliate links on it.

Joe

[wsotoolz]

Originally Posted by markowe

Joe, interested to hear your approach.

I won't hijack your thread and anyway I don't have time to invest full-time in developing my site right now and reporting back, but I am working on a completely different tactic and I will try to get back with the results at some point.

You will have to stay tuned to hear my total approach as it is still a work in progress. I gotta say though I love the KeywordsToWebsites plugin for autoposting content that is spinned. It worked like a charm. I may have to clean up my spinning a little just to make sure it reads better. I am not using that plugin though to list the eBay auctions as it is not as robust as phpBay. So I am currently doing a hybrid between the two.

I like your tactic but it just would not work for me. I do not have the time or attention span to focus that much on one site. I wish I could because I think it is the best method if you can do it. You will last much longer in the SERPS over time. It just takes a long time to keep at it and get the long term results your looking for. Good luck and keep us posted how its working for you.

Joe

[TheGrooby]

Originally Posted by Haroon Ballim

As a matter of interest , many people have mentioned that of late its virtually impossible to get into the ebay affiliate programme.
In fact for the past two years now at least.
When did you get in and any tips you have that might help others on getting approved for the EPN

Thanks

I got into EPN just over 2 years ago and it took 2 applications to be accepted. My first attempt was thwarted because I had a fairly simplistic site with very little content. It was highly unorganized.

I spent another week adding content and getting the site organized and built up and then re-applied along with an explanation to EPN as to why my site was not completely built out.

They accepted me and the rest is history.

I've made pretty good money considering the majority of my clicks come from only 2 sites. I see anywhere from $400 to $1,300 a month depending on if Google shoves me down the rankings or not for that month.

If Google does push me down, I see less obviously... But when my site resurfaces in the top 10 my money shoots back up. More recently I've been seeing a steadier income of around $600 - $800 a month.

I've never had much success with the thin sites. My money makers are both meatier sites. Not huge, but still more original content than the thin sites being described in here.

[wsotoolz]

A quick check on Scroogle shows my site in spot 81 for Johnny Jumper...



The funny thing is that my post which is optimized for this keyword did not show up yet in the index. 4 other pages showed up so far but no the main page or the post optimized for Johnny Jumper.

So I am heading in the right direction, that is pretty much page 8. I am hoping the optimized page shows up in a day or so and does a little better like page 3 or 4. Guess we will have to wait and see.

I want to put out a few more posts using KeywordsToWebsites tonight and then start on my backlinking. I will do a seperate post then about the backlinking process but for this site I think I will start with a directory and profile blast with Sick Submitter and then maybe some article submissions using Article Marketing Robot. More on that to come later.

[wsotoolz]

Wow...hold the press... I just went back to Scroogle to check something after making a few new posts... take a look at this!



I am pretty happy with that as a starting position... just hope it sticks... A little back-linking and we just might be in business for front page!

[williamd52]

Funny how this thread started just when I FINALLY decided to do more promotion of my EPN sites. Been an affiliate for about 3 or 4 years (all the way back to the BANS days). Use phpbay pro now with MUCH better results.
In December I had my best month ever, although nowhere near the results the OP has had, but good none the less.
So I am now concentrating on articles for traffic and backlinks to my best performing site. This site already ranks very well on google and yahoo for a few keywords. Problem is I am missing a ton of traffic for other keywords that are relevant to my actual ebay products pages.
I have missed the boat by not building links and traffic to my inner pages, which should bring more traffic and sales.
I have been disgusted with my epn earnings many times, but I failed to see that the actual earnings percentage was far greater than other shopping sites such as Amazon has ever offered. Not to mention the ebay cookie which lasts for 7 days, not just one.
I should be busy promoting my sites instead of replying to this thread, but the fact is epn can be a good way to earn affiliate income.
So I'm off to do more promoting and hopefully make a steady and much larger income from EPN in the months to come.

[wsotoolz]

Originally Posted by williamd52

So I'm off to do more promoting and hopefully make a steady and much larger income from EPN in the months to come.

The opportunity to make really good money with EPN exists but it is not a magic bullet... it takes work as you know. Those that stick with it and put in the extra work will reap the rewards.

That 7 day cookie has gotten me a ton of add-on type sales that I would have never gotten with Amazon. Take this site that I am working on in the baby niche. Parents like to spend money on their kids. I know for a fact that I will see a lot more sales from this site then just Johnny Jumpers. They will come back over those 7 days and anything they buy we get credited towards us and that helps our EPC go higher.

I have talked to several folks that said last month has been their best yet also. Thanks for sharing your success and good luck.

[wsotoolz]

Looks like we are up to spot #12 now in Scroogle and in my local G search too!

That is awesome considering that I did not even start doing any back-linking yet other then the one link in this thread and I also did this IMT Website Submitter which is said not to really work in another thread but I thought it would help kick start things and couldn't hurt.

I am still working out some issues with my theme and plugins to get them all working together exactly the way I want. As soon as I get that resolved I will start back-linking some more and then maybe I will be ready to start mass producing this style site.

[wsotoolz]

I wanted to emphasize how important the keyword research phase is. Actually I would even venture to say it is the most important part. One thing that I forgot to look at was Google Trends. Always use this or another tool that provides the same details.

When I looked at it I realized that there is another meaning to my keywords and the most searches are coming from the Phillipines and Mexico on the basis of the other term. So this may have impacted my decision to pursue this niche if I had done this research up front.

I am still going to give it a shot anyways as without quotes I am sitting around 12 and with quotes I am on page 1. I checked the Philippines and Mexico and I am on page one as of the last check although I dont think that is doing me any good. I also checked Canada for some strange reason and I hold the #1 and #2 spot there.

So I will continue my backlinking and go for the #1 in g dot com. I am not sure that it is going to be a great site after this keyword mistake but it still was fun and most importantly I got a site and set of plugins setup to start mass producing these type of sites.

I will be posting in a few days my exact backiling campaign for this site.

Thanks for following along!

Joe

[wsotoolz]

I have not updated this thread in a while as I got busy with some other stuff I was working on. This site was sitting between position 5 - 7 on page 1 and just 2 or 3 days ago it dropped off and start bouncing around and now it is gone.

So I started to hit it with some back links yesterday and so far I am not seeing it come back yet. Kind of disappointing. I am hoping this is just a normal dance and eventually it will pop back. All of my pages on the site are still indexed but just not showing in the top 100.

I guess it is just best to keep building a few links a day and wait to see what happens...

[markowe]

Hey, was wondering how you had got on with your little project. Mine is going VERY slowly but I am on a firm position 15th for my EMD keyword with almost no SEO work, simply by writing LONG, GOOD content and putting the site in my sig on a relevant forum, and a (VERY) few relevant blogs in the niche. Because the site has NO ads on (yet), just pure information, no-one will consider it spamming. I am going to continue with that tactic for a while as yet before putting any eBay or anything else on there. Seems slow, but to be honest I don't think it's any slower than trying to monetise out the gate and doing all that other tedious SEO stuff.

[wsotoolz]

Originally Posted by markowe

Hey, was wondering how you had got on with your little project. Mine is going VERY slowly but I am on a firm position 15th for my EMD keyword with almost no SEO work, simply by writing LONG, GOOD content and putting the site in my sig on a relevant forum, and a (VERY) few relevant blogs in the niche. Because the site has NO ads on (yet), just pure information, no-one will consider it spamming. I am going to continue with that tactic for a while as yet before putting any eBay or anything else on there. Seems slow, but to be honest I don't think it's any slower than trying to monetise out the gate and doing all that other tedious SEO stuff.

I used to put out my sites that way where you hold back all the ads and then throw them on later. I got away from it though as I didn't think a made a huge difference. Maybe I will need to go back to doing that again who knows.

Long tail traffic was growing nicely on Johnny Jumper. I really like the SEO SearchTerms Tagging 2 plugin that I started using on this site. It keeps track of all the search terms and can do many things with them like place the recent terms used to arrive at the page after the post. Through methods like these I was seeing my long tail traffic grow almost daily. Now this was a very small niche and not a lot of traffic to begin with but I was going from 1 or 2 clicks a day up to 25-30 a day before it dropped of the face of the earth.

This type of thing happens all the time in internet marketing... guess that is why it is so challenging... keeps me on my toes... You can't get discouraged... you just have to learn from it and move forward and take more action!

[markowe]

Good tip re: the search terms tagging plugin, I haven't used that before.

About not monetising out of the gate, I agree that in SEO terms it makes no difference - I think what it does is help ME focus on the quality of the content a little more. Otherwise I would spend (and have spent in the past) all my time on tweaking the listings, the template and who knows what else. Also the idea is to get a little bit of authority on the particular subject of the blog - get some blogroll links, that sort of thing, and it's much easier when your site doesn't look commercial I feel. So that's the rationale behind it, I certainly don't do that with every site, mostly because I am not THAT knowledgeable or passionate about other niches like electric cheese graters

As for your site disappearing from the SERPS I am willing to bet 95% it will be back within a few days. Another site of mine, I hurled an AMR blast at it the other day (it was around 18th position) and it divebombed down to page 40 (all pages), yet is back at 15 now within 48 hours. I was surprised actually that the effect is so quick.

So all that people say about the 'Google Dance' I think is true - don't sweat it, if you are doing all the right things it's unlikely this is a long-term problem.

[wsotoolz]

Originally Posted by markowe

Another site of mine, I hurled an AMR blast at it the other day (it was around 18th position) and it divebombed down to page 40 (all pages), yet is back at 15 now within 48 hours. I was surprised actually that the effect is so quick.

I have been meaning to do a AMR run on this site but have just not gotten around to spin an article yet. Maybe I will do that tonight or tomorrow.

I agree it should bounce back sooner or later.

[Rita012]

I'm struggling with ebay. I'm making sales, but not being paid for it. In the last 7 days, I've made 127 sales and have been paid around $40. Pathetic.

When I analyze campaigns, my best paying campaigns don't have sales. My highest converting campaigns are my lowest paying campaigns. I'm convinced that sales is just a small portion of the algo. ( Wish they could be more transparent. They certainly demand that from us).

They do mention that impressions are part of the algo. I have some sites where I've included a widget in the sidebar. That of course increases the number of impressions, as it shows on each page of the site.

I'm curious if you think that a higher number of impressions has a negative effect on QCP. I would think that only a click matters.

I wish I would just get paid for sales. I don't like all these other mysterious factors they have in the algo. It's very unmotivating.

[wsotoolz]

Originally Posted by Rita012

I'm curious if you think that a higher number of impressions has a negative effect on QCP. I would think that only a click matters.

I never pay any attention to the impressions. I sure hope they would not be using those in their calculations. From what I can tell the biggest factor isn't the number of clicks or even number of sales but rather the winning bid revenue. Sure I think a lot of other factors come in to play but I still think how much money you are making ebay is what really matters.

So sending them 127 winning bids is good but what is really more important is what was the WBR. Usually after I see an increase or spike in WBR my EPC will increase as well the following few days. Keep your WBR up and your EPC will stay up. Your WBR drops off then the following days I see the same in my EPC.

[markowe]

Never got round to weighing in here and addressing Rita's problem - I would quite like to try to analyse it and figure out what's going on to get a better understanding of their algorithm and/or back up what THEY say about the QCP model - i.e. whether you are doing anything that they have clearly stated will earn you low-value clicks.

Originally Posted by wordpress_seo

I never pay any attention to the impressions. I sure hope they would not be using those in their calculations.

I do not pay much attention either, other than to see how my campaigns are performing. I am pretty sure they are not factoring in CTR - I only have impressions running on one campaign and I don't see much difference in my EPC one way or the other. Rita, where did you see any mention of impressions affecting the QCP calculation? I would be intrigued to see that.

From what I can tell the biggest factor isn't the number of clicks or even number of sales but rather the winning bid revenue. Sure I think a lot of other factors come in to play but I still think how much money you are making ebay is what really matters.

Yes, and I know they don't like people targetting low-priced items - I know people even lost their accounts for that reason. Rita, I hope you are targetting items that are more than a few bucks. Also, how are you actually getting people to eBay? I presume you are not linking to the eBay homepage, but rather to specific products? The former will definitely not earn you much - EPN have clearly stated this. I consistently get $0.15 per click by ensuring I am a) linking to specific items (using the RSS feed so they are always up-to-date) and b) targetting reasonably high-priced items.

Originally Posted by wordpress_seo

So sending them 127 winning bids is good but what is really more important is what was the WBR. Usually after I see an increase or spike in WBR my EPC will increase as well the following few days. Keep your WBR up and your EPC will stay up. Your WBR drops off then the following days I see the same in my EPC.

Agreed - the actual proportion of winning bids to traffic sent seems to have some bearing. If you send thousands of visitors and only, say 5% convert, they might conclude you are sending them junk traffic, for example. Not saying you are, I'm not even saying that EPN is totally transparent and fair (heaven forbid!) - I am just saying there MIGHT be measurable reasons why you might not be getting the results you want with EPN.

What EPN really boils down to with me is - can I earn a higher CPC with it than with Adsense? That's it. If I get 100 targetted visitors per day to a niche site, of whom 50% click through to eBay (try that kind of CTR with Adsense and see what happens!), and whose sales translate down to an EPC of $0.15, and that is MORE than I can earn with Adsense in the same niche, then I will stick with EPN. Some niches just don't have relevant Adsense ads (I dunno, 'vintage telephones', for example) but can fetch a high EPC in EPN - so that's a niche that you cannot monetise any other way than with EPN. EPN also gives you nice product pictures and prices for users to click on, and even add content to your site in a sense (though careful with that - where is BANS now!)

Erm, where was I going with this? If it's not earning you money, move on, I guess, either to a different program or a different niche.

[jacked]

Great thread, I never tried out EPN. Will have to look into this.

[wsotoolz]

Originally Posted by markowe

Erm, where was I going with this? If it's not earning you money, move on, I guess, either to a different program or a different niche.

Thanks for adding in your thoughts. I often time find that I can earn more with EPN then adsense. Some people... myself included... avoid clicking adsense ads. EPN on the other hand I often times find myself clicking through to eBay and not even knowing that I was going there. You have a lot more control with your affiliate links with EPN then adsense. So you can make your affiliate links a little harder to spot in the eyes of the end user... but at the same time you are giving them what they really are looking for if your site and links are targetted.

[vision025]

Great thread and a topic not discussed much.
Bookmarked, good luck!

[hleeforum]

Is anyone has success story with eBay Motor?

[wsotoolz]

Originally Posted by hleeforum

Is anyone has success story with eBay Motor?

I practically forgot I started this thread. LOL. I pretty much dropped EPN all together. I never did motors but from the EPN forum I heard that there is not much money in it like there used to be. Can't say for sure... that is just what I read. Might pay you to check their forum again for discussions though.

[bestbuddy1986]

Hi, so ur ranking on page 1 now for main keyword Johnny Jumper.

Can you share its traffic and earnings now.

[wsotoolz]

Originally Posted by bestbuddy1986

Hi, so ur ranking on page 1 now for main keyword Johnny Jumper.

Can you share its traffic and earnings now.

I will share this information and a tip with you at the same time.

That tip being... CHOOSE YOUR KEYWORDS CAREFULLY!

This website was a perfect example of not doing enough research up front.

The site is getting some traffic and probably could be optimized better for monetization. However I believe that much of the traffic is not even looking for a kids jumper but instead something called Johhny Jumper Roosters. So I optimized the site for "Johnny Jumper" and got on page one... but the bottom line is that keyword is not a keyword that is going to bring in much money.

So here are January's Stats for the Johnny Jumper site:

Jan Traffic -> 333 visits
Jan Adsense Clicks -> 2
Jan Adsense $ -> .29 cents
Jan EPN Clicks -> 19
Jan EPN $ -> 1.50

[mooble]

Cool thread. I was just wondering about Amazon vs. EPN. I have applied to EPN multiple times over the past years and been denied every time. But i make good money with Amazon. I'm wondering if you consider EPN to be THAT much better than Amazon. Am i really missing out on money with that 7 day cookie?

[wsotoolz]

Originally Posted by mooble

Cool thread. I was just wondering about Amazon vs. EPN. I have applied to EPN multiple times over the past years and been denied every time. But i make good money with Amazon. I'm wondering if you consider EPN to be THAT much better than Amazon. Am i really missing out on money with that 7 day cookie?

You know at this time I am not heavily promoting either. I am not sure I would say one is a ton better then the other. They both have pros and cons.

For example the 1 day cookie versus the 7 day... winnner eBay

But then eBay has that crazy QPC where they pay you what they want... winner Amazon

I could keep going... but I won't.

My recommendation for you... is if you can get in... do some split testing and decide for yourself.

Getting in requires a nice looking site that provides value to your visitors. No thin sites... but once your in you can run it on all your sites.