EPN Announces ACRU Tiers
Let me start by saying I'm very, very excited about the new program eBay Partner Network will be putting into place, which will promote quality registrations and help weed out the thin affiliates. Their plan, which will effect new signups but not existing EPN members until November 1st, is to not pay a flat $25 for all ACRU's in the US. Instead, EPN will give payouts at the end of the month based on the quality of traffic sent and how eBay views the new registration, in terms of longevity and potential revenue to eBay. If you derive most of your EPN affiliate revenue from winning bids, then this won't really effect you because those tiers are not changing, only ACRUs.
The tiers for the new ACRU system is wide and I mean wide, meaning that you could earn as little as a dollar for sending crap traffic or as much as $50! I'm hoping to be at the latter end of the scale, since repeatedly my new signups purchase multiple items throughout the eBay cookie length.
To aid in the shock of this new system EPN will be providing parrallel stats until November 1st which will show you what affiliates would be making and will be making on the new system. However, actual payouts on the new tier ACRU will only take effect in November, so if you are a thin affiliate sending craptastic traffic it will give you an opportunity to bail out and find something else. On the flip side, it'll be hard to stomach those bigger numbers when you know you can't get them till later on in the year.
Big Question
There is still talk that EPN is having trouble tracking ACRUs and even winning bids and on a large scale if you believe the official EPN forums. Will they be able to accurately track this new level of data? I would expect some serious discussions going on between now and November 1st, most likely very heated discussions.
It was just last month that eBay announced that they would be hiring an outside firm to help test EPN tracking. Would be nice if they would at least publish these results fix or state things are running smooth before rolling out a completely new revenue system. But, I'm just a worker bee, not a thinker bee.
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Programs I use to generate EPN ACRUs are phpBay and Build A Niche Store. Two great scripts that I highly recommend to any affiliate marketer new or experienced with eBay.
Add Amazon Affiliate Links To Blog Posts
I'm always game for finding a way to simply my work and currently I'm using a number of helpful scripts to get my job done. Often times finding a script that makes adding affiliate links to Word Press blog posts is just what the Dr. ordered, which is why I utilize phpBay. I've also discussed the benefits of using phpBay, how it can also help with unique content and getting search traffic for long tail keywords.
Today I came across a new plugin that I'm hoping will make my life easier, WP-Amazon. This neat little plugin makes configuring my Amazon Associates ID and searching items to add to posts a breeze. WP-Amazon adds an Amazon search bar to the side of your 'Write' post screen, where you can find an item, select options and automatically add it to your posts. I'm eager to see how this will save me time and convert visitors to affiliate sales.
Perhaps the maker of WP-Amazon should look into creating a similar plugin for big CJ affiliates as well. There is no doubt I could find a use for a similar wp plugin for NewEgg and others.
See below for an example of what an Amazon product added to a blog post with WP-Amazon looks like.
I'll be coming up with a full review of this plugin, along with other suggestions in the next few days. After my first post I'm noticing a few bugs that screw with my display, but no big deal. Furthermore, having a nice template print out instead of a drag and drop image and title would be beneficial as well. I'll do some searching and be back later.
Auctiva
[original content removed]
First, thanks to the CEO of Auctiva for having a pair and calling me direct on this, it does say something about the character of the owner. Second, this post will be reserved for further insight into the Auctiva business practices that have been reported to me, with the hope that case studies will become available so that I'm not considered just a blogger spouting lies. Lord knows I don't have the pocket book for that and also have what some would consider morals. If what I find is completely contrary to what was originally reported on Auctiva, yes, an apology will be written.
Lastly, to whom it may concern, threatening a person willing to work and listen to you is just bad business practice and frankly makes you look like a dick. Check in your support department, I'm the one who called you back.
EPN Announces Problems and Fixes
It looks like the eBay Partner Network is finally addressing some problems that date back to the beginning of April, unfortunately it doesn't look like problems that most are concerned with. You can find a list of fixes and bugs that they've squashed on the EPN Blog. Judging by the EPN discussion forums and other webmaster forums most people were concerned with actual ACRU and revenue reporting issues. Personally, I've not experienced any problems.
According to the EPN blog they have addressed issues like Customer Support downtime, confirming registrations, API Id's and the like. These issues do not discuss anything to do with their possible reporting errors with a small percentage of their publishers. I'm still assuming that the ones having problems are just not use to the swing cycle of online marketing, especially on a garage sale affiliate network. Guess what, people are outside this time of year and they don't have any money anyways.
I think Yoda knows what he is talking about, 'Patience'.
Check out the full post for the list of fixes on the EPN.
Finding The Holy Grail of Adwords
I've been involved in the online marketing game for a little more than 2 years and in those 2 years I've improved exponentially almost daily. It amazes me at just how much free and valuable information is available, if you can spare the time to educate yourself. But don't misinterpret what I'm saying, taking valuable information and applying that same knowledge is two different things and that is often where the breakdown happens. I myself have just recently been able to break the Google Adwords conundrum, after playing around with it for almost 1 year.
Time in the past could have been better applied to perfecting the balance between on-site optimization and attention to page quality score. Just now, in the past 2 months I'm realizing the benefit of optimizing my page score and finding the right balance to get my bid on keywords to an all time low. This my friends is how it's done, this is how people are becoming profitable, and this is how you turn a costly investment into a comfortable daily expense. In a matter of months I've been able to turn keywords I would normally pay $.36-.45 per click for, into $.06 per click opportunities. Apparently my optimization in regards to getting cookie credit was not the problem...it was the cost of getting those visitors to my site.
In the grand scheme of Pay Per Click advertising I'm still a little fish, but what I've learned these past few months is opening up more doors than ever. Furthermore, it's knowledge that is freely available IF you teach yourself how to apply it. Thankfully I have some capital built up in my business, so trial and error while costly, did not break me. Perhaps that is the key, not going upside down in the quest for lower paying keywords.
Could I tell you exactly how to do this for your site and niche? No. I'm not being elitist when I say this? No, because there are so many factors, that no one could possibly write out a step by step scenario to answer your woes. No one is feeding you bull when they tell you to study your niche, focus on lower competition keywords, and start optimizing your site. It works, but it takes time and dedication to be done right and consistently. The payoffs for when you do find the right combination however is enormous and nothing hardly a thing feels better than watching that affiliate revenue rack up throughout the month.
Let this be my motivational post for the month. Good luck.
No Commissions With New eBay Partner Network
I never was a big earner with CJ, being an eBay affiliate, but it was a nice way to supplement my Adsense earnings on a lot of my blogs. Starting April 1st eBay decided to move their affiliate network in house and it looks like there are a number of marketers experiencing tracking issues or no commissions at all. Personally, I think there is a little problem with both, considering the relationship eBay had with CJ and constantly needing to recoup lost sales, incorrect reporting, etc.
According to individuals in forums, whom are using 3rd scripts to market eBay products, some revenue has dropped as much as 90%, even though clicks and impressions remain the same. Because of this it's important to make sure you are using the latest versions of BANs (Build A Niche Store) and phpBay, to work with the new EPN (eBay Partner Network). Making sure you are using the correct campaign ID helps too. 
But is there a problem with the new EPN affiliate reporting? My seeing no sales on my end, where before I was earning a few dollars per day. A quick search will reveal that there a number of angry individuals sending unaccounted for visitors to ebay auctions. Check out the eBay's official affiliate forum to see the 250+ responses to their reporting methods. There are a few official responses throughout the 7 page thread, but none that make me feel any better about my lost advertising costs.
I'm willing to give the new EPN tracking issues (if there are any) another month to settle in and possibly set right. In the past it was not unusual for eBay to have issues with their affiliate program while using CJ, but now that it's in house there are going to be a lot of directly unhappy individuals if something isn't addressed quickly.
Anyone else having issues or do you feel like the reporting is accurate with the new ebay partner network.
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phpBay Review
Let me start by giving a brief over view of the Wordpress plugin phpBay. It's a tool used to help integrate you're eBay affiliate marketing with any Wordpress powered blog. By entering a few variables and filters you can easily add a list of eBay items into your post with each link automatically containing your referral link. It's not a free plugin and requires a one time fee for unlimited domains for $39.
Who could benefit from such a plugin?
Almost any blog could benefit from this plugin. Chances are even personal blogs go into details about certain products from time to time and this is just another tool in your shed of marketing. However, just because you could benefit from the plugin doesn't mean it's for everyone. eBay affiliate commissions can be minimal and require substantial traffic to convert to anything worth getting a check for.
Can it be used with other advertising programs?
Typically when people ask this they mean, 'Can I use phpbay with Adsense and not get banned?' Yes, you can use this side by side with Google Adsense, because it is not a form of contextual advertising.
List me the Pros of phpBay.
- plain and simple installation, exactly like every other WP plugin.
- decent selection of options to make sure you display the right eBay items.
- fairly inexpensive for what you get.
- good customer support.
- does not require a mysql database, therefore ideal for light weight hosting.
List me the Cons.
- only one instance of phpBay ads can be displayed at one time, therefore you must place phpBay ads after the <more function. (See below for more of my frustration in this.)
- not enough options. Although decent I'd like to see the ability to integrate it into sidebars, not just in posts and better category selections.
- costs money. Yes I did list that as a Pro, but as many free WP plugins that are available, this should be one too.
Summary
It was a decent purchase and defintely not a waste of money like so many other programs and scripts available out there. I would consider this plugin juvenile in it's existence and would hope for some more development in the very near future. The inability to display more than one instance of itself on a page is very frustrating and should at least be remedied with a short cut fix.
Adsense Deluxe is a perfect example of a plugin that was designed to work with no more than X instances of itself on a page. This should be easily integrated into phpBay so that if it detects more than one instance of itself on a page it doesn't load the others. As it stands now, it will screw up your RSS feed without placing the code after the <more tag.
Currently there is nothing else really to compare it to in the marketplace of Wordpress plugins. However, when compared to other eBay affiliate tools like BuildANicheStore, it has a long way to go. Check back soon for my review on BANs.
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