Affiliate Parasites Exposed

I was just thinking the other day, that it would be nice to put forth some great tips that EPN affiliates could use, in order to reduce their chances of getting terminated!As I pondered on the idea at hand, it struck me!!!Their is nothing and I mean nothing that could, or will ever protect you from the mad behaviour of the rabid dogs at EPN.All logic and professional conduct goes out the window with these ass clowns!So be advised, if you really think you can win with these folks, forget it now!

You are merely on borrowed time, before you get smashed in the head, by one of the lunatics at EPN!The best move you can make, is to start bringing in other affiliate programs and working them in.Slowly start to get away from EPN, and if the day comes, and it will, you should be able to switch over easily!You see, EPN, does not want you as the affiliate, but if your willing to take crap earnings, and still drive the same traffic, well of course you will be with them, until you are all used up.If you find a way of making money through their unfair system, count on being terminated quickly!You see, their new system is not designed to reward you, so if if you are a success with it…..bye…bye little affiliate!

Well this isn’t really a surprise!With the new QCP system in place, I would imagine many affiliates have been reduced to making peanuts now!That being said, I’m sure eBay is raking in the profits now, being the greedy pigs they are!Why do affiliates stay with these morons?It boggles the mind!!!My suggestion to any affiliate, is to kick em to the curb, they are not a viable product anymore!End of story, move on and explore other options!EPN is dead!

Hello Partners,

As promised in our blog post from July, we will be removing the minimum threshold again for the November payment disbursement. The payment disbursement from Wednesday, November 25, 2009 will have no minimum threshold. This means that as long as your eBay Partner Network account is in good standing, you will receive your outstanding balance paid in full, even if your balance due is less than 25 (USD, CAD, EUR, GBP or AUD).

For the November 2010 disbursement we will remove the payment threshold again, allowing us to better serve you.

Note that as always, eBay Partner Network reserves the right to suspend payment temporarily if a Partner is placed under investigation for violation of our Code of Conduct or our Advertiser Terms and Conditions. In such a case, the Partner will be contacted.

Thank you for your continued partnership.
The eBay Partner Network Team

Here yet again is just another example of how EPN operates and the lack of support or anything resembling fairness!This poor affiliate like so many others, has been left stranded without an explanation or any support from the EPN staff.You would think since its a “working partnership”, they would do their best to help those people/affiliates, that drive masses of traffic to their site, to at the very least guide them and work with them to insure they are following the ever changing TOS at good old EPN.But instead, they just terminate, without exploring or explaining a damn thing!I look forward to the day when eBay is terminated from the face of the earth!

I am in complete shock. I was just notified that my sites were not generating quality after many years with ebay affiliate program (and high quality ratings the whole time) and what I believe to be very strong content built over many years on membership oriented sites. I had a spike in traffic one day on one site a few weeks ago which triggered a quality review. After providing logs and site info, I am totally shocked that my account has been terminated. I really did not think that would be the outcome of this.

I read about it on the boards happening to other people and thought that those people that get terminated must be doing something really wrong. I am an ebay developer too and I have been integrating ebay items onto my sites and have made tens of thousands of dollars every year for many years with ebay.

Seems like an explanation and a chance to know why there was a problem and take corrective action would be the right thing to do. It’s not like I have one site but a couple in 3 different niches.

Let this be a warning to you. Quality is a secret and most probably an excuse for some other mysterious force. The work you put into your site with respect to any affiliate program can be gone in an instant and you will never know why.

Did I mention I did not think it would happen to me?

BTW- here is the full email sent to me.

Thank you for your participation in the eBay Partner Network.
After a thorough review of your account, our team has determined that your account has been generating low quality traffic as gauged by our internal measures. We wanted to bring to your attention that our team has decided to terminate your account on November 19, 2009. We ask that you please remove your affiliate links and update your payment information within 3 days. You will not be compensated for any traffic associated with your account after that date. If your payment and tax information have been entered and your account has generated more than five units of your payment currency, your pending earnings will be paid by the next payment cycle . You are not permitted to rejoin the eBay Partner Network.

As stated in the ePN Network Agreement Section (L)(3)(i):
(3) Termination by ePN or an Advertiser
i. ePN may terminate this Agreement and your account, one of your websites, your use of a Promotional Method or your participation in a certain Program at any time for convenience in its sole discretion upon 3 days notice. An Advertiser may terminate your participation in its Program or your use of a Promotional Method at any time for convenience in its sole discretion upon 3 days notice.
Again, we thank you for your efforts and wish you the best of luck. At this time, we are not reconsidering our decision. This is a one way email address. Please do not respond to this e-mail.
- Hide quoted text –

Regards,

The eBay Partner Network Quality Team

Spike in traffic, quality review, useless exchange of information, then termination.

EPN Forum Sucks!

Most forums on the internet, can be a good source of knowledge and fun.But like most things in life, their are always those that fall short…some very short indeed! The EPN forum is one such forum……it’s perhaps the worst forum I have ever had the misfortune of visiting!The forum monitors hardly if ever come forward to put things right about policy changes and general questions.They tend to leave all affiliates in the dark, where they are confused and set upon by smartass affiliates that hang-out on the boards.I’m sure the PINKS(as their called), have been instructed to ignore all questions from affiliates….by the EPN legal team.You don’t answer, your not liable….thus no court actions against good old honest EPN.

It would appear that this stance is intended, so as to not allow affiliates to flourish and succeed.By keeping all affiliates in the dark, you have power over them, and can ban them anytime you please.Those affiliates that have an attitude and are rather smartasses, are nothing but brownnosers!Sadly they just don’t understand that they too are potential banning targets!The only affiliates that are safe, are the black hatters!If they get banned, they just get another account, and continue!So a my advice to all affiliates that go to the EPN forum, is to stop…..they will never help you, instead they want to eventually ban you…so wake up!I would also say, that going the black hat way is best!Just do it!Affiliate marketing is cut-throat and run by crooked companies like eBay!To win you must fight fire with fire!

EPN is the inhouse affiliate program for eBay.One of the things EPN constantly complains about is low quality traffic from it’s affiliates.Many affiliates have been banned due to this.As with many of EPN’s policies, this is another one that shows just how stupid they are really.I mean, how can you control what people do on your site….you can’t!Some are just looking around, others are ready to buy…simple as that!Alot of click thrus are a result of bots.EPN says that they filter out some bots, but not all.Here’s the funny thing, EPN has their own bots.Yes these bots will go to your site and click through, so as to lower your epc, so you don’t have high quality of traffic…..saves them money you see, and puts you in the banning arena for the future.

It also alows them to mine your keywords…by which they store in their data base.Once they get enough long-tail keywords, you can expect to get the chop!Then they take over the high ranking search slots you once had.It’s all part of their plan…you do all the hard work, they gather your long-tail keywords…..they over-run you with their bots, and say that you have low quality traffic…they then make up the story that you are sending low-quality traffic…and then you get banned!Pretty good plan for them…all win-win for eBay!Do yourself a favour and just get out of the game, they will eventually screw all affiliates, that are not blackhat!Why do you think so many affiliates turn to blackhat tactics…..now you know!Bastard companies like eBay…spawn blackhatters!I know several affiliates that have 200 plus EPN accounts each….they know how to play EPN and win.And to win…you must be as crooked as EPN!

EPN or “eBay Partner Network” is a publisher network affiliate program, where you earn commissions by simply referring people from your website to eBay. This is one tough program to be a member of for one simple reason: it is very easy to get banned……..read

The days of making big money from eBay as an affiliate is a thing of the past.Their was a time, when a honest affiliate could work his ass off and drive good traffic to eBay and thus get rewarded for his efforts.Well things have changed a little, eBay doesn’t give a damn about it’s affiliates anymore.I know that there are a few affiliates making good money, but they are few and far between.I also believe they get special treatment.In fact they have a hotline to the eBay management I reckon.The new game that eBay uses nowadays, goes something like this.The reason they left Commission Junction, was that it was damn hard to screw over affiliates, when your system was being monitored by a separate party.Not to say that Commission Junction is a noble site, which their not…..their as crooked as the rest…but that’s another story.

So eBay left CJ, and developed their cunning system that basically rips off all small affiliates.It’s a very simple plan….you allow the affiliates to make money, but nowhere near what they were making…even though they are in fact making good money(they just don’t see it).You see, as an affiliate you must trust and rely on what eBay’s stats say.I guarantee you that if you sent 100 people(through your AF ID) to eBay, and they all made a purchase, you will only see credit for 10% of the actual sales.The other 90% was taken by eBay and hidden, because they can do this.Each campaign has it’s own ID number, so if it’s in eBay’s tracking system(which it is), it can easily be blocked from certain sales that may be pretty good for a affiliate.Not only this, eBay has several image providers like Auctiva,Vendio, Inkfrog and others, that have special arrangements with eBay that allows them to over-write a affiliates cookie…thus stealing your commissions.

I wouldn’t be surprised at all, if eBay owns some of these companies.Most affiliates will not agree with what I say here, as their happy to just plod along and make tiny amounts of money!And for you that feel this way…well done, you are doing exactly as eBay has planned….they know human nature.They continue to give you a few crumbs to keep you eager and hopeful, knowing that you will hang in their and continue to push traffic to them, and when people eventually buy something, they will block those sales they see fit to block and collect a big part of your commissions for themselves.However you will still make those tiny sales everyday, and like most money hungry affiliates you will always have that dream of the next day being that big money maker…..the illusion is what blinds you and eBay continues it’s fraudulent practices.In closing, the affiliates of eBay, remind me of the old prospector that had been in the mountains for nearly 30 years searching for the big strike!Even though he found little bits of gold here and their, the mother load had always escaped him.Undaunted he continued his quest each and everyday, with the illusion that tomorrow would be the big strike!Sadly he died bewildered, and eat up with a great addiction for wealth that had eluded him for 30 years.Wake-up affiliates, eBay has already taken your mother load, and you will never strike it rich with them!

eBay Powersellers that use Auctiva, Vendio, Inkfrog and other image providers, will be blocked From Affiliate Sites that promote eBay items!

The Powersellers of eBay have had a rough go of it for a while, in fact all sellers have!With all the hassles of the new policies that eBay has introduced recently, it has become a very tough game for all sellers.It isn’t any wonder that most Powersellers, have jumped on the free image offers from Auctiva,Vendio, Inkfrog and others.This has no doubt made their lives easier, and all for free….Right?…WRONG! It may be free for the Powersellers/sellers, but this clever little arrangement overwrites an affiliates cookie when an image is clicked on to enlarge it.Yes, you heard right!The affiliate sends traffic to your eBay shop, and if you are with Auctiva, Vendio, Inkfrog, or someone else that also offers free image, that affiliates cookie gets overwritten by one of these guys!Yes it is stealing,theft,parasitic, but it’s allowed to go on…and why?

It seems that nothing is being done to combat this, so guess what?Some affiliates have already started blocking out those sellers that use these image provider companies.In other words, your listings will not be presented on that affiliates website! All traffic will be funnelled to those sellers that provide their own images.It is sad and harsh in away, but it is very harsh for those affiliates to work very hard driving traffic to your shops, only to hand over their hard earned commissions to these image cookie stuffing parasites.If I were a seller, using these people, I would have a re-think, as they are only their to steal the commissions, they will do very little to push traffic to your site, when you have run off, all of your affiliates…and then what will you do?….you will fade away to dust….no more…..nowt…business goes belly up!So take action now, and understand that their really isn’t anything for free in this world, if you don’t listen nor take action, you will no doubt suffer greatly with your foolish choice!You can get it free now, but you will pay big time later on!