Ebay EPN Alert

by rmholla

Posted: 16 years ago 28 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

If you belong to eBay's EPN then you need to read this.

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=520001583&tstart=0&mod=121936 2646807

I don't know what is going on with eBay but things certainly are going down hill fast.

Rhonda

#alert #ebay #ebay affiliate program #epn

adamv 16 years ago

WOW!
I did not intend to spend so much time but I spent almost an hour reading all of those posts. It's just unbelievable.

Every other day I hear about some other incredibly stupid policy that eBay comes up with. Why the hell would they want to ban so many of their affiliates?

They are banning many of their top affiliates. These people, who are really good at promoting affiliate programs, will now send traffic to Amazon or some other program.

WTF!!!!!

I think I'm just about done with eBay.
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ExRat

16 years ago

Hi,

Geeeezzz.

Thanks for the heads up Rhonda.

I survived the chop this time, but...I've never seen anything so scandalous in affiliate marketing.

Each time I have mentioned that it appears that they are basically closing down their affiliate program (in various forums) I've had tin foil hat accusations.

That's really made my day (not).

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Tamer

16 years ago

I was always wondering who are the "strategists" at these giant .coms!?

Strange strategies and tactics are coming all the time...

Are these policies supposed to be profitable :confused:
I have no idea how this would benefit them on the long or/and short run?!

Tamer

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peteinoz

16 years ago

its not rocket science.. the affiliates help build the brand.. once the brand is established, the reliance on the affiliates is diminished some

ebay is up there for the biggest brand on the web.

What ebay is doing with their affiliates is nothing compared to what Google did to their publishers...

pete

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Carlsbadd

16 years ago

One of the affiliates there sold cars through his website and had something like 4000 winning bids since May. How does any company let an affiliate like that go with no warning?

Time to look elsewhere for all us ebay affiliates

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Richard Tunnah

16 years ago

Wow! That's bad. Real bad. What's even worse is ebay refusing to say what they consider a good and valueable afflliate as they can't say what they base it on in detail!

Rich

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seasoned

16 years ago

I could MAYBE understand this if a substantial amount of traffic from one site substantially and consistantly underperforms but, frankly, I doubt many are doing that. And HEY, Amazon is doing some misleading things that encourage BAD traffic to be directed in such places. Would they just cancel any amazon traffic?

Steve

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moodykitty

16 years ago

I'm one of those affected by eBay's decision to 'expire' their affiliates. Although it wasn't (yet) a full time income for me there was the potential. I have one site that is around a year old, selling a niche in the auto category that's done the best for me so far.
I have about 10 other sites dedicated to EPN (or was going to be) Now I have no idea what to do with these sites/domains as they're automotive/auction related.
i.e. one of the domains is boatauctionsetc.com (haven't done anything with it yet)

any suggestions?

There are others reporting that this was their only income, some reporting $5000 - $8000 per month income - and now it's gone. Wow what a blow.

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Iain Ainsworth 16 years ago

Time to switch to Pepperjam methinks!
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CSwrite

16 years ago

Originally Posted by moodykitty

I'm one of those affected by eBay's decision to 'expire' their affiliates.

I have about 10 other sites dedicated to EPN (or was going to be) Now I have no idea what to do with these sites/domains as they're automotive/auction related.
i.e. one of the domains is boatauctionsetc.com (haven't done anything with it yet)

any suggestions?

There are others reporting that this was their only income, some reporting $5000 - $8000 per month income - and now it's gone. Wow what a blow.

Moody Kitty - so sorry to hear that. This has been terrible for a lot of people. Reading that thread was simply heartbreaking. I was working on a project for EPN affiliates and decided to backburner it until it's clear just how many people will get the axe.

You may want to consider a couple of things for those domain names:

1. Contact some shipyards/docks/marinas/auction houses and see if they aren't interested in buying the names from you.

2. Turn them into advertising sites for the above types of businesses

3. Just try selling the domains to anyone that wants them

4. Build a little info site and flip it

Hope that helps!
Cary

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MizzCindy 16 years ago

@moody kitty - So sorry to hear you got 'expired'. That truly sucks. I hope you find alternative action quickly!

This is another (harsh) reminder to NOT derive all - or even most - of your income from one source. You just never know when something like this might happen.

Big sorry to any and all affected by this new policy!
Cindy
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Iain Ainsworth

16 years ago

Originally Posted by moodykitty

Get a friend/relative that you trust to sign up for the Pepperjam Network (an affiliate network that includes Ebay) and just change the links over.

Iain

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Jelasco 16 years ago

Glad I never bothered promoting them.

The first post there is pure BS. It's as if I emailed all my Clickbank affiliates and blamed them because some of them aren't making as many sales as I would like.
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cashcow

16 years ago

moodykitty - consider starting an LLC and signing up the LLC for EPN.

This is one of the big problems with affiliate marketing - at any time you can get booted or the program can simply close down. It's happened to me a few times with smaller programs where all of a sudden the merchant either goes out of business or closes the affiliate program. It stinks especially if you've spent a lot of time promoting the pages those links are on.

Lee

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e-mail2u 16 years ago

If you are an eBay affiliate and want a good chuckle before it get removed check this out it's the 5th posting on the thread.

eBay Forums: The answer we've all been wanting (From ...

LOL i nearly P***** my Pants...

eBay is going down hill i haven't got my e-mail yet but i'm sure it's in the post maybe. It seems it is eBay who dose not know what affiliate marketing is, they may be big in the online auction business. But lack the knowledge of how affiliate marketing operates..Guess they are lossing too much money!!!
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moodykitty

16 years ago

Originally Posted by cashcow

moodykitty - consider starting an LLC and signing up the LLC for EPN.

Lee

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I learned a long time ago to diversify so I'll be ok but some of the others....

Lee an LLC is a good option but at this point I don't even know if I want to pursue it.

I did sign up for pepperjam but I doubt ebay is approving anyone over there at the moment.

I could try having someone else sign up for me though.

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rmholla

16 years ago

Sorry to hear you were directly affected moodkitty. I am at a loss as to why eBay is doing this. It really doesn't make any logical sense.

I am only hoping that some big time website developer goes into hyperdrive to create a rival site to eBay. There are so many sellers AND buyers who are fed up right now that the affiliate issue is just fanning the flames of discontent.

I use to buy at eBay all the time and sell occasionally. I don't scan eBay for deals the way I use to and the few items I have listed recently don't have anywhere near the views they would have had a year ago.

Please someone create a rival site!!!

Rhonda

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Domains For Sale (make offer): EasyAuctionDeals.com & InstantNicheRiches.com

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moodykitty

16 years ago

Originally Posted by rmholla

Well, if I knew how I might do it. I've got some domains that have the word auction in it....

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Jason Zalesky

16 years ago

Thats hugely bad considering there are a ton of people out there making their living off ebays affiliate program. I just had a buddy of mine that got me into the ebay buisness and he has around 300 ebay sites that makes him a huge amount of money and he got the letter yesterday. At first he though it was some spam stuff and I didnt know to believe it or not.

Just think of how much time and money they have put into that and just to be let go. Is that even legal for what they are doing. They say its not for violating anything and they didnt even give a guideline or warning. Its like they are just laying people off with no notice.

Of course they are going to take the only money making item for the people who dont have the skills to do it other ways.

Arrrg!

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Jason Zalesky

16 years ago

Maybe we all should pack our bags and go to something like uBid lol

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LooseChange

16 years ago

I've been on the fence with EPN since eBay pulled the program out of CJ. eBay was my biggest earner with CJ but after the switch I've been taking a beating. btw, I use both EPN and PepperJam with eBay API, nothing on my end has changed since CJ except my earnings are in the toilet since the switch.

Now we have to put up with these "scare tactics" from EPN?

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mmurtha

16 years ago

I bet I know why they are doing this ...

This may sound far fetched but think about it.

If real marketers are running traffic to eBay, and they say get anywhere from 3%-13% or higher (just picked these figures out of thin air) click thru and buyer/sign up rate, eBay stands to lose more money to the amount of traffic they get to their site.

When they put that EPN into place they messed up because when we send traffic to their site from ours, it's our original traffic and any products they look at or buy, relates to our sites, not eBays.

To me, it stands to reason why our traffic isn't staying on their site longer. EBay should have thought about this in the very begining.

It may be they are getting too greedy for their own good too. Or this is their way of dealing with the present economy lol. What fools they are ...

And before someone asks, I am still in.

Mary

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moodykitty

16 years ago

Hey Mary! good to see you

Well, I just got reinstated last night so we'll see how it goes. I'm definitely going to be cautious about this.

And what about all the others? It's very sad, especially for those who are losing so much.

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mmurtha

16 years ago

Originally Posted by moodykitty

Hey Mary! good to see you

Hey kid,

Good to see you too!

Glad to hear you got reinstated, an so am I going forward with caution. Dang, and I was on a great roll too!

Agreed, it is sad to sat the least. I can see doing this to people who use fowl play or something like that or against their TOS, but to do it to legitimate people is plain silly unless you don't want people to sign up for your program.

Take care ...

Mary

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gkygrl 16 years ago

This has been a frazzling few weeks on EPN. I have a large network of BANS sites that have been relatively successful but am now in the process of really diversifying my affiliate methods instead of throwing all my eggs into one basket.

I was contemplating moving everything to Pepperjam ... but for some reason, I can't even access any of PJN's pages. Not sure what is up with that????
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- MizzCindy 16 years ago
  
  It made me feel a little sick to my stomach when I first read this thread. I'm glad to hear some folks have been reinstated or are still active and that the ones who haven't diversified before are now working on it.
  
  Good luck, everyone, I hope it works out for you all!
  Cindy
  
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  Wayne 16 years ago
  
  Steve has posted on the epn forums that less than 300 accounts out of more than
  90000 were expired. You can read his entire post here (half way down the page):
  http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.j...d=1219570468532
  
  Thanks
  
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  jjpmarketing 16 years ago
  
  I was considering getting into this... I even bought a wso not 3 days ago that showed you how to convert a joomla site into a epn site.
  
  This makes me extremely cautious of dealing with them. Those people making $8000 per month from this... all I can say is this: sue their a55*s... Let's say you have a $2000 per month mortgage, $2000 in car payments, other debts, bills, etc.
  
  And now you suddenly drop to zero income...
  
  With a few mouse clicks they have essentially forced you into bankruptcy within in a matter of months. I'm certain lawyers would tear ebay apart for doing something like that.
  
  In a sense you are actually working for ebay since all of your income is derived from ebay. However, since you don't officially work for ebay there is no unemployment or anything like that you can draw to help you through your zero income months.
  
  That is just shady. Real shady. If the numbers of affiliates that got dropped is large... I am sure they are going to be dealing with lots of lawsuits.
  
  On top of that, I got to looking at some of eBay's fees... and they are just outrageous. I believe we are entering the "ebay has a bullseye on its forehead" phase. It is only a matter of time before some major competition sprouts up to eliminate their monopoly.
  
  Thanks
  
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