Under ‘Value Based Pricing’ In there own words “publishers will be paid according to the quality of traffic sent to advertisers. You will be given a monthly aggregate “Quality Rating” score. This score is based on our estimated lifetime value of the users each publisher sends to us. Based upon this quality rating, you will receive payment amount per ACRU of $0-$50. The higher the quality of your network traffic, the higher the payout per ACRU. eBay Partner Network remains committed to generous rreimbursement for quality new users.”

This is very important. From what I understand is eBay wants ePN members to drive user to eBAY for more than one sale. The days of promoting ACRU are over. Once a user signs up they need to continue to make purchases in order for the ACRU to be considered “Quality”

As I re-read the user manual under Value Base Pricing I can come to reasonable conclusion that Thin Affiliate sites will not be part of what ePN considers “Quality”. Simply sending a user to eBay through a Thin Affiliate Site will and could already be terms for termination of your ePN account. The ePN forum is full of user that where what is being called “Expired”. Now I/ we don’t know the exact reasoning for these accounts being expired. All eBay is saying to these folks is, that they do not want traffic coming from there sites.

Now eBay has published some guidelines to follow. The following is stated in the user manual.

“How do I improve my ACRU pricing tier?

There are a few tips for you to improve the quality of the ACRUs you drive to eBay:

• First, focus on trying to drive sales on eBay and not just the rregistration of new users. We have found in particular that sites that incentivize registration by offering a cash or reward just for registering on eBay generate paparticularly low performing new active registered users.
• Second, create ways to keep driving your users back to eBay for additional purchases. Some affiliates do this by creating fresh content that users keep coming back to around which they show new interesting eBay items. Others find ways to create a loyal group of users that keep coming back to find the latest deals on eBay.
• Third, use the reports that will be available later this year to track which websites or placements are performing the best for new user registrations (you will be able to track quality score by campaign ID, so create various campaign IDs to see how your ACRUs are performing by campaign). Spend more time optimizing the best sites and drop links to eBay user registration from low quality sites.” end quote:

 Now every month eBay says they will send a report to ePN users so they can evaluate there sites. But and this is a big but. ePN will count all your websites on your account towards your quality rating. This mean you can have 100 high value sites, but if you have even one low quality site in your account it will drag your score down for the entire account.

Some steps to take to protect your quality rating on ePN.

Don’t offer incentives to join eBay.

Move any thin affiliate sites to PepperJam until they are developed.

Don’t go live or add your sites to your ePN account until they are developed.

Make your sites authoritative by adding relevant content as much as possible.

Try to get your new users to buy more than once. (how?)

“No low performing new active registered users”.

“create ways to keep driving your users back to eBay for additional purchases”

“optimize the best sites and drop links to eBay user registration from low quality sites”

IMO the most important thing is that one site on your account will affect them all. Any sites in your ePN account need to be moved, Developed or Removed. eBay has said these changes will not go into effect till the 4TH quarter of the fiscal year, but with all the accounts expired over the month of August we can only assume that the changes have already started. ePN users can archive campaigns but it remains to be seen if archived sites will be counted in the rating system.

The eBay Partner Network is one of the highest paying programs now, but the payout at least for ACRU’s will totally depend on the quality of the users you send to eBay. For now the payout for sales will not change according to ePN. As far as sites on PepperJam I have not heard any news if they will be following suit.

Everyone involved with ePN should go and read the user manual a few times. The life of a affiliate marketer is never boring. You can expect changes like this on a monthly basis. Remember don’t leave all your eggs in one basket. Have back up plans.