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Last Post Feb 7, 2009 4:44 PM by: dvd2sl
Replies: 313
steveh@ebay.com
Posts: 111

August 20 Expirations

Aug 21, 2008 4:50 PM
I wanted to address all of the board posts regarding the expiration emails that were sent last night.

These actions were part of our continued effort to focus on delivering the highest quality buyer traffic to eBay via affiliate marketing. To that end, we’ve been analyzing our program closely over the last few months. I know there have been a number of requests to provide insight into all of the metrics via which we are evaluating affiliate traffic, but unfortunately there’s an active black hat community that is pretty effective at exploiting these insights so we can’t go into details on them. However, what I can say is that in addition to earnings per click metrics (EPC), we look at a variety of metrics to see how users are behaving when they come to eBay.com – how engaged they are with our site, and whether the affiliate link clicks lead to incremental buying activity. As we’ve done this, we have seen a big discrepancy in how interested and active the traffic is that comes to eBay from different sources.

Our responsibility in the affiliate marketing channel is to allocate our resources to best drive incremental demand to our sellers. To that end, we need to focus on partners who have had the most success in engaging users who become some of our best buyers on eBay. I understand that these actions do have a very real impact on some of our affiliates who have been working with us over the years. For that, I sincerely apologize, but these decisions are made in the best interest of eBay's sellers and the overall health of our affiliate program.

We want to be very clear. Affiliates who received these messages of expiration last night are not being asked to stop sending traffic to us due to fraudulent activity or violations of the terms of service. For those of you who received the message, commissions are not being reversed, and you will be paid for all valid traffic you have sent to us to date, and for the next 7 days.

Sincerely,
Steve
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porscheman65
Posts: 1
(210 of 313)

August 20 Expirations

Aug 23, 2008 7:01 AM
The reason eBay is expiring affiliates is simple - they are cutting expenses in order to increase profits. You want to make money at the expense of eBay? Short their stock or buy put options. Their stock has alot of downward pressure, and will go lower.

The bright side is that if eBay returns to greater profitability, they will want to do business with the recently expired affiliates again. Question is, will the affiliates want to do business with ebay again?
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kredax72
Posts: 18
(211 of 313)

August 20 Expirations

Aug 23, 2008 7:11 AM
This is what you see when you login to EPN:
Make Money
by driving traffic
to eBay sites

Join the eBay Partner Network
Drive traffic to one of our partners and get paid for it.

It says TRAFFIC, not buyers.
They should change that to buyers.

Question is, will the affiliates want to do business with ebay again?
100% sure they don't
Why take the risk of getting 'expired' again if eBay sees a drop in income again?
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grafx77
Posts: 7
(212 of 313)

August 20 Expirations

Aug 23, 2008 8:05 AM
CHECK OUT THIS GREAT ARTICLE ON EPN!

The Truth About EPN:
Link
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nearlyfamousdogs
Posts: 31
(213 of 313)

August 20 Expirations

Aug 23, 2008 8:40 AM
I believe I have this figured out.
I got my second letter from eBay at 2:00 am This is exactly what was sent

Dear #FIRST_NAME,

Thank you for your message.

Our goal in affiliate marketing is to allocate our resources to best drive incremental demand to our sellers. We have been analyzing our program closely over the last few months. In addition to looking at earnings per click metrics (EPC), we look at a variety of metrics to see how users are behaving when they come to eBay.com – how engaged they are with our site, and whether the affiliate link clicks lead to incremental buying activity. As we’ve done this, we have seen a big discrepancy in how interested and active the traffic is that comes to eBay from different sources.

As a result, we have asked a small subset of affiliates to stop sending traffic to eBay. We understand that these actions do have a very real impact on some of you who have been working with us over the years. For that, we sincerely apologize, but these decisions are made in the best interest of eBay's sellers and the overall health of our affiliate program. We also want to clarify that you are not being asked to stop sending traffic to us due to fraudulent activity or violations of the terms of service. You will get paid for all the valid traffic sent to date, and for the next 7 days.

We have re-reviewed your account. At this time, we unfortunately cannot reconsider our decision. We will contact you again if we see an opportunity to work together again in the future.

The eBay Partner Network Team

I believe I have this figured out.


There are pages on my website that compete with eBay on search results. I have been able to optimize my pages to rank in 1st thru 9th position most of the time ahead of eBay on organic searches. So, like paid searches eBay does not want to pay us on traffic they believe they can get themselves.
Those that have not been banned are getting their traffic from sources eBay at the moment can not get. Eventually they will adapt to what the non-banned affiliates are doing by hiring staff to implement the business models that are in place.
It is the perfect plan of growth. Set up a system to learn what others are doing to drive traffic then steal the idea and dump the affiliate.
I believe this makes sense.
Someone out there prove me wrong. I am open.
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domainer1000
Posts: 5
(214 of 313)

August 20 Expirations

Aug 23, 2008 10:46 AM
nearlyfamousdogs, that makes sense. I bet you did figure that out.

I did not receive a letter, was a small-time publisher (mainly b/c I was still in the experimental stage), and my traffic does not generally come from search engines. About 90% comes from direct navigation to my generic domains. Folks simply type my domains into their address bars.

So, there is no way eBay can replace/usurp that.
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nearlyfamousdogs
Posts: 31
(215 of 313)

August 20 Expirations

Aug 23, 2008 10:54 AM
Think about it,
Why is it that eBay does not want you to use PPCs.

It's all about bean counting.
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swordsandcues
Posts: 54
(216 of 313)

August 20 Expirations

Aug 23, 2008 11:46 AM
nearlyfamousdogs - i received the same letter today.. And i think you might be onto something there about the search engines..

as for the letter, how's that for a 'slap in your face - you little business person'.. "dear #FIRST_NAME".. we care about you, just don't remember your last name, or care to have a real person review your account.. they can't even get their autoresponder standard reply letter right.. as a small company, i wouldn't make a mistake like that in a million years.. but my company is about quality and customer service, so that says volumes about ebay, don't you think..
Tony

MustangTraderOnline.com
MedievalClothingStore.com
WeLovePool.com
HighlandRags.com
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biohammer
Posts: 54
(217 of 313)

August 20 Expirations

Aug 23, 2008 12:01 PM
Do not Post your Opinions or you will be punished by Daddy

Just Received This From Steves Team :

Our goal in affiliate marketing is to allocate our resources to best drive incremental demand to our sellers. We have been analyzing our program closely over the last few months. In addition to looking at earnings per click metrics (EPC), we look at a variety of metrics to see how users are behaving when they come to eBay.com – how engaged they are with our site, and whether the affiliate link clicks lead to incremental buying activity. As we’ve done this, we have seen a big discrepancy in how interested and active the traffic is that comes to eBay from different sources, even taking into account conversion rates across different categories.



As a result, we have asked a small subset of affiliates to stop sending traffic to eBay. We also want to clarify that you are not being asked to stop sending traffic to us due to fraudulent activity or violations of the terms of service. You will get paid for all the valid traffic sent to date, and for the 7 days from when we sent the message.



This said, we started re-reviewing your account yesterday when you wrote us with additional information (as we have been doing carefully with affiliates who have written us back with more information and concerns). As we have been doing this, we have also been reading your posts on the eBay Partner Network Board and it feels like it will be a difficult for us to work together going forward. We understand that these actions do have a very real impact on some of you who have been working with us over the years. For that, we sincerely apologize, but we feel these decisions were made in the best interest of eBay's sellers and the overall health of our affiliate program.

Sincerely,

The eBay Partner Network Team This is the letter I received after writing a private note to Steve pointing out that the links created by the custom search tools on EPN actually cookie stuff people and that there metric analysis probably did.not account for this.
If anyone has recently added any custom search links to their site this may have been the reason... EPN links that are bad.
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grandassets
Posts: 1,149
(218 of 313)

August 20 Expirations

Aug 23, 2008 12:32 PM
Wow Link

....the stockholder should be asking for Donohoes and
Norringtons resignation....

Thats what I have been talking about, this is starting to take on a life of its own, I wonder what it will feel like years from now when they wake up one day and say Wow, I was the cause of eBays Failure, before I made some bad moves it was the worlds Largest online trading community, and I drove it into the Dirt.
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kredax72
Posts: 18
(219 of 313)

August 20 Expirations

Aug 23, 2008 12:49 PM
It's all greed.
They don't care about sellers, buyers and affiliates.
They just want to hold everyone upside down to get as much money from them as possible.

Well, that's how i read it (could be wrong, it's getting late, lol).
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nearlyfamousdogs
Posts: 31
(220 of 313)

August 20 Expirations

Aug 23, 2008 1:30 PM
Writing about greed is it not strange we have not been paid yet!
Since April we have been paid on the 13th or earlier for the month.
This is the 23rd. I know we are to be paid by the 25th.
There is something strange happening out there! I'm scared!
Where's my mommy!
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kredax72
Posts: 18
(221 of 313)

August 20 Expirations

Aug 23, 2008 2:24 PM
Uh oh, they took our money left the country.... :^O
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onelung50
Posts: 1,674
(222 of 313)

August 20 Expirations

Aug 23, 2008 2:50 PM
Many sellers are abandoning eBay Stores and creating their own sites. Then they only use eBay as a means of capturing the customer initially. After the first sale, they send them letters in the mail offering them incentives to go directly to their "non-eBay" sites.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they're okay, then it's you.
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hankhopper
Posts: 90
(223 of 313)

August 20 Expirations

Aug 23, 2008 3:00 PM
As we have been doing this, we have also been reading your posts on the eBay Partner Network Board and it feels like it will be a difficult for us to work together going forward.

Wow! So now it is not about traffic quality or the engagement of visitors. You are out because you wrote bad things on a forum.

This, boys and girls, is what happens when you let the monkeys run the zoo!
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dvd2sl
Posts: 1,239
(224 of 313)

August 20 Expirations

Aug 23, 2008 3:07 PM
As we have been doing this, we have also been reading your posts on the eBay Partner Network Board and it feels like it will be a difficult for us to work together going forward.


Honestly, I find it difficult to believe ePN would say this in an email, even if they were thinking it. I would take this claim with some salt.
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