Since the big change in affiliate payout structure, my EPC has gone down the toilet. It is now hovering around $0.02 which is horrible. I miss the days when we had surprising $100-$200 commissions per sale here and there.
I know that many of the publishers are having problem with bot-clicks, but I don’t think it’s the cause of my poor EPC. My suspicion is that my EPN affiliate websites are built around high ticket items. For example, I have a website that sells used buses. Since the beginning, it sold only a few buses. With EPN’s quality click pricing structure, I think my sites will perform poorly.
What this tells me is that all my new sites will have to focus on the items that sells well in volume. I say anything around $20 – $100 products. Now, because I was away for so long, I might be totally wrong. I’m not sure which way is the best way to monetize EPN’s new payout structure. One thing for sure, my sites are not performing well with the current plan.
I’m going to test a few different niche website models for EPN and determine if I would stay with EPN or not.
EPN : Ebay Partner Network
EPC : Earning-Per-Click (In EPN’s case, EPC refers to earnings per 100 Clicks)
Hi, I'm Bo Bang and I'm the guy behind MarketingSyndrome.com. This blog is all about niche marketing and making money with it. I build niche sites for living from my tiny home office. I built this blog to network with like-minded entrepreneurs who are into 
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I find that when a high ticket item is purchased my EPC goes sky high. I also have found that as long as you send consistent GMB and Revenue to eBay, you will be rewarded. BOT’s are a pain and we as affiliates shouldn’t have to worry about them. But, due to the incompetence of EPN we are left high and dry to figure these things out. Good Luck!
So you don’t think it wouldn’t do any better if I sell cheaper items instead of high-ticket items? Since the EPC is calculated every day instead of every month, it’s got to have some effects on overall earnings.
I still think it would be better if I sell low to mid priced stuff consistently to keep up with daily EPC rather than sky-high EPC here and there. What do you think?
If I told you I knew how the algo worked…. I’d be lying. I was just letting you know what I have experienced. The higher the revenue, GMB that you send to eBay, the better your EPC score. Also, I think a lot has to do with time from click to bid to win ratio. If you have people who are ping ponging back and forth between your site and eBay, your EPC is going to suck. If you ship someone to eBay and they find what they want right away and bid, win, your EPC is reflected. Basically, the algo is a blur, you ultimately have to test, test and keep testing until you find something that works. I have had as high as .51 per click to as low as .03.
hey first of all Thanks for this post, I was looking for information like this.The eBay Partner Network (ePN) has been heavily promoting their new Quality Click Pricing (QCP) payout method since it started back in October 2009. In less than six months they have won two awards from other affiliate related organizations and they like to use their blog to profile specific affiliates doing well…
cheers
Hey all, I was making about 14 cents per click until recently when I bought a site from someone else. My epc immediately dropped to .03. I’m wondering if I can open different epn accounts to target different epc levels (i.e. keep all my well paying sites together, lower together, etc). Any thoughts on that? Any other solutions?