Negative Comments on EPN

You may have heard some negative comments surfacing around the net about EPN's tracking. Truth be told most forum posts in the official EPN forum are misleading, don't paint a complete picture, and are made by amateurs who fail to take into consideration the full spectrum of affiliate marketing. I feel that the majority of complaints have no founding whatsoever, generally because there is not enough data, and a few ACRU's can really throw off a week.

My biggest kick out of people are those who collect their dashboard data for a week, showing some big numbers on say Monday and Wednesday and then complain something happened in the latter part of the week with close to zero sales. When these posts claim 'sales' they are really referring to ACRU's. ACRU's payout $25 CPA in the US, which can really spike a graph. The rest of an eBay affiliate's earnings come from getting a percentage of eBay's take, which if you earn under $2500 per mont is only 55%.

I receive over 14,000 clicks per month and take home around $500. It's real easy to sway even these low numbers with a handful of ACRU's, which even if I receicved 4 could spike my monthly earnings by another $100. Do I think it's because their tracking is flawed? No, I just realize that a few big ticket CPA's can vastly obscure actual sales figures, considering only a little over half of my monthly earnings come from winning bids.



As you can see there is a trend forming, in regards to my EPN dashboard graph looking a little bit like shark fins. This is not because I have way down days in regards to actual wining bids, but because I may miss out on only 1 or 2 ACRU's. Just a reminder to keep your eyes out for where your big money is coming from in a slightly more complicated affiliate program. Furthermore, it shows me that I need to focus on a niche where people haven't heard of eBay before. Wish me luck.

EPN 'Make Good' Issued...for some

Many affiliates for the EbayPartnerNetwork are announcing that they have received their makegood for the ACRU reporting errors earlier last month. Unfortunately there are also a number of people reporting that they have not received any makegood, I'm one of those people. I've contacted my account rep and she has verified that I should have received it by now and I qualify for one, but it just has not posted. Below is the message I got back from EPN support:

Thank you for writing us back regarding your 'make-good' field on your
Payment History page.

I have checked your account and I can confirm that this note is missing
from your 'Payment History' page. I've forwarded your email to the
Finance team at eBay Partner Network. They will review your question and
get back to you in the next few business days.

Sorry for the inconveniences you have while waiting.Thank you for your
patience and understanding.

Kind regards,

Hopefully they will be able to give me some news by the weekend. Hiccups in the system like this really effect my Adwords campaigns and other initiatives I make to promote my sites. Also, let this be a reminder to all of you affiliates, make sure and stay up on your reporting and news from the program you are affiliating for. Had I not known a makegood was to be issued, nor had I contacted my rep, I may never received my makegood payment.

I'll be reporting what I received just as soon as I know.