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Update on understanding Epn and the new Quality Click model

November 26, 2009

Since my previous article was written, many EPN affiliates still seem to be confused about the EPN quality click  model, and how to best optimize for success. More recent posts on the EPN blog indicate that the affiliates confusion is being recogznied.
In my previous post my conclusion was that the quantity of clicks you send under the new system does not matter. In theory this still holds. However evidence is mounting that the integrity of those clicks does matter a great deal.
If your sites are visited by a robot that generates a spike in non human clicks to eBay, or you EPN bound traffic contains a high percentage of unknown referrers then there is cause for concern.

There are some steps you can take to protect your EPN account:

  • Keep your RAW server logs for at least 3 months so you can prove your case to EPN in case your account get  suspended (check your hosting account  Cpanel to make sure the raw server logs are saved past the end of the month – the setting may be off by default)
  • Notify EPN if you get a sudden spike in traffic that you cannot account for, include your raw server log for the day it happened. 
  • Ideally use an independent secondary source to log your traffic – statcounter.com keeps pretty good logs,   Google Analytics  can verify your traffic sources, if you need to bolster  your case .
  • If you are a wordpress user are you sending out ebay listings in your RSS feed? or are scrapers picking up your rss feed that contains eBay listings?  this can cause unknown referring traffic. If you are concerned about old feeds, then rename or delete any wordpress plugin files they may be pointing to on your server. I recommend and use the phpbay plugin because their most recent code includes some measures to protect your traffic from bots and external referrers ( check the Phpbay site for the latest information on what is supported).
  • If you are buying previouly owned domain names, know their history and traffic sources – was it associated with a banned affiliate  account?
  • Avoid traffic exchange programs or any questionable source of paid or free linking to your sites.
  • If your account gets suspended through no fault of yours, dont panic, be professional and polite  in your emails to the Quality team. Don’t be put off or discouraged by impersonal sounding replys to your emails –  bear in mind that the people who deal with your emails are human, they may have a huge workload, and as in many technical departments in large corporations,  or outsourcing companies, the person dealing with your case may not have english as a first language, so be concise, professional, and to the point, when stating your case,  and give your utmost co-operation in providing logs, and tracking reports, and any information that will help them to clear your case.

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