Got some EPN (QPC) dirt to dish

turbolapp

turbolapp

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Aug 10, 2007
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Ok so I'm in the phpbay forum tonight looking for a way to fix a issue with one of my sites when I stumbled into a thread where they were talking about the new Quality Pricing Program. (duh why wouldn't they be, right?) So it turns out one of the members there was a beta tester and he was spilling some of the bean and talking strategy. Here's the thread: phpBay Pro Support Forums

I know if you don't have phpbay you probably don't have access to that forum (although I saw some of you in there, uh-huh, Jack, so nice of you to share the wealth :P) so I'll post some of the highlights here:

OneLung (the beta tester) :

As many of you learned yesterday, my ePN account was placed on the new QPC (Quality Click Pricing) system back on May 1st of this year. If you haven't got the word about QCP yet, you can read Steve Hartman's Blog post here: http://www.ebaypartnernetworkblog.co...click-pricing/

I will be happy to answer any questions the best I can based on my experience over the past few months. Just please keep in mind that it is a relatively short period and during that time, ePN was constantly tweaking the system and I was constantly tweaking my sites, so some of the things I experienced may not be valid anymore.

I currently get dashboard reporting data for both the new PPC and the current PPA/ACRU system so I can compare the two. Overall, I like the new PPC (Pay Per Click) system much better. It appears to be much more stable and predictable. The way I see it, it's kind of like Google AdSense on steroids, with many significant differences.
....
Your EPC will show both an overall account EPC and the EPC for each individual campaign. The new scoring is from 1-10 with 10 being the highest. Unlike the current ACRU reports, this scoring appears to actually work. There are no payment tiers. It's all factored into your overall EPC.

[After a question about his earning difference] I can show you one day recently where I would have made only $9.83 under the current system, but was actually paid $84.32 in clicks.
Click to expand...
Shelby:
OK. So I just spent about an hour on the telephone in a one-on-one conversation with the Ebay Pink that managed the beta program.

Here is the most important piece of information I can give you... that Ebay has not seemed to discovered how to communicate.

The new program DOES NOT PAY BASED ON CLICKS!

That's right. It's a vocabulary crossover again, dumbed down for public consumption.

What Ebay has done is created a proprietary algorithm that looks at all of the traffic you send to their site. It then looks at the short term and long term sales associated with that traffic. The algrorithm places more importance on time-to-action (between arrival and purchase) and repeat activity. It looks at the sales generated and determines how much it is going to pay the publisher.

Notice I have not said the word click yet. On a daily basis, that information is reported to the publisher via the dashboard. To make it easy for the public to comprehend, the reporting metrics of clicks and EPC are then added on the backend.

If you were trying to it manually, you would take the EPN Earnings divide by the clicks for that day to report/equal a EPC for that day (or other period of time/campaign/etc.).

What you can not, should not, would not do is take the clicks for a day and multiply it by a EPC for that day to get to the EPN earnings. The algorithm does not calculate the EPC on a daily basis, weekly basis, campaign basis or monthly basis. It does not calculate it ever. The EPC is an independent reporting metric achieved through simple division.




BTW, he did say that Ebay had been planning to do this for more than a year (read this is the reason the elimination of CJ) and that they have 100,000+ EPN publishers. So, why shouldn't we feel comfortable with a sample size of 25 publishers when they determined in advance what the results would show. Kudos to him for calling and taking my heated questions.
Click to expand...


Question to Shelby: Are you saying they're going to give us metrics that are meaningless just to satisfy the masses?
Under the current structure, there are 5 levels of quality associated with monthly ACRUs ($1, $10, $28, $40 and $50). It has been discussed that the new model will have 10 levels. We will not see 10 set EPC rates. There are infinite EPC rates. Why? Because EPC is at the backend of the math, not the frontend.

The algorithm will calculate which level to use and apply to the traffic/sales generated. The system will know how much to give the EPN publisher BEFORE the dashboard/reports take the revenue divide it by the clicks to display a EPC.

What most people think is the way that Google runs PPC for Adwords/Adsense. The advertiser bids on keywords at a fixed rate PPC. For each click, they are charged at the predetermined rate. On the backend, the publisher gets paid a % of the predetermined PPC rate. A true PPC program.

Ebay borrowed the vocabulary, but it's nothing like a PPC program. There is no predetermined PPC which is multiplied to determine the publisher's earnings.

I'm not sure if I can do a better job explaining it then that.... but I'll try if anyone still has questions.
Click to expand...
OneLung:

Actually Shelby, the long detailed explanation you just repeated sounds identical to the information packet they sent me back in April before I got involved in all this, proprietary algorithms and all. That's why I said that some of my campaigns with a high conventional epc have a lower Quality Score than other campaigns with a lower conventional epc. It will no longer be the quantity of clicks that determine your epc, but the quality of the clicks instead. I apologize. I thought that was clear.
Click to expand...
They actually discuss strategy too with the main focus on EPC. Some ideas discussed: not opening links in a new window, cutting down on the # of auction listings per page, turning off pagination all together, Only offering BIN pricing, Switching auctions from "newest" to ending soonest ...etc.

EDIT: Sorry about the font it got fucked up along the way.
 


I was doing 6 figures w/ them monthly years ago. I now maybe break $1k. There's a reason. Dealing with a fleet of special needs monkeys trying to collectively re-write google's algorithm would be less drain on the brain.
 
I think it's weird how they still haven't figured out a solution to the SE bots. wtf?
 
I'll say it again...

If you stick with EPN past 5 mins ago, you're just asking for more work, less money, and a MUCH wider asshole.
 
The thing that has always bothered me about EPN (and I don't promote them at all) is the fact you're at the mercy of ONE company. At least with SEO/PPC you're at the mercy of the big 3, and if one doesn't like you, that doesn't mean they all dislike you.
 
The explanations make my head hurt. Why is the new system so difficult to understand for some people?
Nevermind, don't answer. I already have the lolcats link.
 
The QPC preview report is available. I'm going to need time to go through it to see what's what.
 
I just checked august. I have a couple hundred in revenue.

Quality Click Preview says I would be paid $50 for it.

Seriously. A 75% haircut.

Unfucking believable.
 
Double Check:

Make sure you aren't comparing the FULL month of August under the OLD system to the FULL month of August under the NEW system. This "preview" is only calculating your month from August 18th to present, so 75% of your month would be discluded from the report which - if you're pushing legit traffic - could be the cause of the drop.
 
I got a 73% cut, but the traffic I am sending is pretty much shit.

Edit: This is comparing traffic from the 18th to now, not to the full month.
 
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