This in away is their way of getting traffic for free most of the time!Below is a post from a affiliate that appears to have done all things right for EPN, and was making good money through the new system!Then the day came, when he couldn’t login to his account!No email….no nothing, until he questioned it from EPN.TERMINATED!My view is that if you make money from this new system, you will most likely get terminated, as the system has been designed to not allow you to make great money!EPN knows this, and they will be watching those folk that make the money!Of course this doesn’t apply to those affiliates that belong to the inner circle at EPN-they are still on the old system(you did know that the old system is used by a few affiliates, didn’t you?OOOPS!) and are catered to, unlike the regular affiliate!Enjoy the read!

“1st Part

I need some help here. All night I have been trying to log in to my account on EPN and it says wrong username or password but I know I have been using the same username and password for a couple years. (which I know may be a bad idea).

Even when I click on “forgot password” I put in my email and I never get an email with new password instructions. I am having a hard time getting real support from EPN and this is my livelihood here. Does anyone know how I can get a real person on the phone to help me back into my account before too much damage has been done? Or even a live chat would be nice.

Thanks for any help i can get at this point.

2nd Part after some advice from forum members-

Wow, yeah I guess I am very unlucky. Just got a response back from ebay and found that I can’t access my account because I have been expired and didn’t even know it.

I’m sure everyone says this, but I honestly have no idea why I have been expired. My EPC was always very healthy and I was making good money with and for ebay.

Any advice on the next steps to take to get reinstated, or is that even possible? I was just getting rolling with EPN and was always careful to do everything by the book and use white hat techniques. Almost 100% of my traffic was from the search engines as well.“

Like a coup in some beaten down third world country, a new dictator is very much like the old dictator!They are only interested in what they can get, and if it means crushing the masses of people to get that, then by all means it will be done!EPN is very much like this!Steve The Hartless was the old dictator, now you have a new one-JJ McCastrater.New guy same old crap-cover your ass!Geeeeeeeeeeez!

“I also want to introduce JJ McCarthy, who joined the team in November and will be taking over my former role in managing the US affiliate program as I step into the global eBay Partner Network lead role……You’ll likely be seeing him start to post on these boards in the coming weeks.”

I guess that motto has vanished at EPN.Below is an example of just that!This post is in relation to the faulty RSS feed links.As you will soon read, the poor affiliates are left to their own devices!No PINKS have come forward to address it!I am not surprised at all, as this is what the PINKS have been instructed to do.I will also go as far to say, that the links are working perfectly as they have been designed to do.Meaning that they will not work in respect of you the affiliate getting a commission, but will work to get the customer to eBay, where a sale most likely took place!It’s just another method that EPN uses to screw you over.With all the technology and so-called experts out their, you would think that something as simple as RSS feed links and other product links would be a snap, and work like clock work?

But ever since EPN has been around, it has never been a flawless thing!It has been one bad link after another, and it never gets sorted once and for all!So it basically points back to them screwing you out of money!Many will disagree, but if you had a program and it had partners, would you not be doing your very best to help them to be successful, and to insure that they had all the tools they need to do so, and to have tools that actually worked?Well it always goes back to-they don’t want you to be successful, they are screwing you!Anyway have a read of the post below!Geeeez!

“Wondering what has happened to all of the pinks?

Unless I missed something, the last posting by a pink here was from Will on Decemeber 30th, and included this mention of the person who’s taking over from him:

I also want to introduce JJ McCarthy, who joined the team in November and will be taking over my former role in managing the US affiliate program as I step into the global eBay Partner Network lead role……You’ll likely be seeing him start to post on these boards in the coming weeks.

We haven’t heard anything here from this new person.

The Affiliate Summit was not 28 days long….

It would be a good thing if someone from epn would at least address the RSS issue one way or another since epn’s response to messages about this from affiliates is just the automated canned stuff.”

The time has finally come, when someone has put together a survey, that actually ask questions relating to the EPN affiliate program….BRAVO! It seems that many affiliates out their are very unhappy about the ongoing terminations and changes that occur on a continuous basis at EPN.Even though most affiliates do present tons of questions to the staff at EPN, most of the time it always falls on deaf ears.With this attitude, it isn’t any wonder that many affiliates just don’t trust EPN, nor do they build sites to promote eBay anymore, but instead they just hold on to what they have and say a prayer every night before bed!

To me, this isn’t a reflection of a very good affiliate program, and why affiliates try to play the game with EPN, I just don’t understand!In the past month or so, EPN has received a couple of awards!It is plain to see that the people that voted in their favour, really have no clue as to what they are actually like, as far as being a business with you the affiliate as a working partner!Perhaps with this survey, the truth will finally rise to the top, perhaps to the top of the management whom knows?But one thing is for sure, it will be an accurate account of how affiliates fill about the aloof program at EPN.So please hurry over and take the survey!Their isn’t that many questions, but the questions asked are of quality and straight to the heart of the matter!Here is the link: eBay Affiliate Survey

Guess the judges never ever actually talked to any affiliates that have lost everything or got terminated and earnings seized for no apparent reason.The only award eBay is worthy of, is the award for top affiliate program that has crashed and burned the quickest!I don’t think any program on this planet will ever be able to match the stupidity and arrogance of EPN.So please read the piece below and grab a bucket to puke in, it really is something that’s hard to believe actually!

“eBay Partner Network Wins Pinnacle Award for Exceptional Merchant at ASW10!
January 21st, 2010

We’re pleased to report that eBay Partner Network (ePN) won the Pinnacle Award for “Exceptional Merchant” at Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas, the US’s biggest affiliate event of 2010.

Judged by the Affiliate Summit Advisory Board, the Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards are affiliate marketing’s most prestigious and competitive honor for the leaders in the space. According to Affiliate Tip, award winners are recognized because they are innovative leaders with vision and influence.

This award is great testimony to the thought leadership and execution shown by the entire team. We’re proud of our accomplishments during the past year, including the move to our Quality Click Pricing system, which has allowed us to reward affiliates driving high-quality traffic to eBay with one of the most competitive payouts in the industry.

This is the second accolade in two months for ePN: in December our team won the eConsultancy Innovation Award. We’re working hard to promote quality in performance marketing, and it’s exciting to see our efforts being recognized throughout the industry.

Thanks to the Pinnacle Awards judging staff, and thank you to our publishers who continue to drive valuable traffic to eBay every day!

The eBay Partner Network Team”

Without great staff, that bend over backwards to help affiliates, this award would of never been achievable!

When are EPN affiliates going to stand up to EPN and tell them where they can stick their program?Instead it’s the same old story, they all wait to see if things will get better, or perhaps EPN will wise up and go back to those sweet ole money making times!Wake up you empty heads!EPN can be compared to a dog that has discovered the lovely taste of raw eggs!And you now the saying…”You can’t break a dog from eating eggs”

In this scenario the eggs are basically your hard earned commissions!The only way you can stop EPN from taking your little basket of eggs, is to piss off from the program!EPN has no intention of changing, they cant!So there you go…make sure you move most if not all your eggs from your basket from the money egg sucking dog EPN!

Well as predicted, many affiliates just aren’t making any money on EPN’s new and fantastic QCP rip off model.I’m sure this trend will continue as many affiliates feel the sting from EPN.My guess is that eBay reckons they are just too big, to suffer anything.Well my guess is, that eventually they will feel the sting, and fall over dead.All affiliates I know that have left or been terminated, are highly motivated to drive all their traffic to eBay alternative sites.So eBay!….you think your invincible?think again big guy….your going down sucka! The affiliates post is below-

Well the word came down from the partnership group of my company yesterday that we will be getting permanently out of the affiliate business…. at least for our main site (which is where most of the traffic comes from). I noticed as we removed a lot of the API of our main site that our EPC actually plummeted even though the API was the lowest before we started. I thought it would actually help but once again…I don’t understand QCP and I can honestly say…I never will (because I’m being moved on to another project)

Simply stated…we never did understand this QCP and frankly the transparency is not where it has to be for our needs… all we see is that our EPC keeps dropping…December was the worst month we ever had…well except for January which will be the all time worst… regardless of the reasons, it’s not worth it for us to continue with promoting EPN at this time. It’s probably just as simple as the new format just doesn’t work with our retail business model.

Since we removed the API our sales of our own products shot up….we don’t think it was a coincidence. Removing the API made our site a lot faster and perhaps having eBay on our site confused some of our real customers. In the end it was decided that at least for now we are getting out of the game. All is to be decided now is if we even keep selling our returned items from our eBay store or simply create our own clearance center on site and whether to continue with EPN on our smaller sites or not. That’s still being debated but my guess after coming from the meeting is that they will be dropped there as well.

Of course with our EPC hitting 0.01 we might get banned before we can even leave on our own terms. I hope not because if it ever becomes a profitable option we would like to keep the door open…but at this time… eBay was getting excellent targeted advertisement for substantial less than they would have to pay let’s say Google, Yahoo or MSN PPC.

We would be open to sell eBay advertising space but not at the present ‘deal’ they have on the table via EPN. Sorry but space on our site is too valuable and we put this off for as long as we could. It simply is not working for us anymore.

This is not saying we won’t keep some of this going on our smaller sites etc. unless of course we get banned for not producing enough…lol. That again is still being debated.

All I really want to say is thank you to all the affiliates that helped me over the years here…. and special thanks to the EPN reps that also helped us with varying issues that we faced. It was not a bad experience but this is not going in a direction that warrants further development effort on our part.

I doubt I will be back here for any reason going forward since I’ve been re-assigned so I would like to take the time to wish you all well and hope you all are prosperous in 2010. Perhaps us getting out means more for the rest of you.

Cheers

Normally the staff of a company that is ending or in trouble, will get the heads up, and given a chance to escape before it all caves in.I predict this is the case!EPN has had one thing in mind, and that was to end the program for most of its affiliates.However there are some special affiliates that will remain and continue to make tons of money, after the dust settles from the up and coming crash!These folk are EPN insiders,friends,family etc.They are also on the old system of commissions, not the new rip-off QCP program.I also believe google is in on it also, as they are very experienced at screwing people as well!Not only this but, they have been de-indexing/banning-Bans,phpbay sites!Sort of a Internet Cleansing on a mass scale!So for all you EPN affiliates out their…..the end is near!