phpBay Pro Tips

Archive for the ‘News’ Category

I just got an email from EPN. Thankfully it wasn’t a deactivation email (these days my heart pounds every time i get an email from them). Here is the email:

Hello Ross Gordon,

We have identified an issue that may be inflating revenue data in eBay Partner Network reports. Due to an issue with one of our databases, some of the revenue fees for publishers were double-counted in our system. The issue appears to have affected publishers only from Sept 5th-Sept 9th, and only in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada programs. Although the impact varies by publisher, the revenue was overstated by as much as 20% or more for those 5 days.

We have been able to calculate down to the individual publisher level what the correct revenue should be for those days. Our team is in the process of correcting the associated data and tables but may take several more days to complete this task. In the meantime, please keep this information in mind as you run any reports that span the associated time periods.

That may explain why my earnings went down $25 already this month. But right now I’m at $407 for the month. I hope it doesn’t go down any more.

These days it seems like eBay and EPN are screwing up every way possible. They really need to start getting their act together or else they are gonna crash.

Anyone else get that email or notice their earnings go down?

I read an interesting article in the Chicago Tribune today that said EBay will be switching its fee structure to promote fixed prices over bidding. According to another article in the Chicago Tribune, EBay’s number of new users is slightly going down. EBay says the move is to help them compete with Amazon.

So is this change going to help phpBay Pro affiliates?

Well, according to EBay this change will encourage sellers to sell more items, which will mean more products for buyers to choose from and more sales, right?

Not so fast. In my experience “biddable” items get more clicks than buy it now because buyers to your site see the lower price and are intrigued to click. This will help you get more cookies on people’s computers.

On the other hand, how likely are those people to actually buy the item once they realize that wasn’t the selling price, but just the current bid.

I think with EBay’s upcoming changes to the ACRU payout system, the new fee changes will be positive for affiliates. Why? Because if someone sees an item for a fixed price on your site and then signs up to EBay, they are much more likely to buy that item after they sign up since it’s selling for the price “advertised”. And since EBay’s new lead system is based on quality (pay outs are $1-$50 per lead), I think that people’s lead quality should go up.

But will you get as many sales? I’m not sure. Your EPC should go up since more people who click will buy. But your overall sales may not go up since it’s likely less people will be clicking.

All-in-all I think the change will be good for affiliates. What do you guys think?