eBay – Common EPN Affliate Questions

Now that we’re all migrated over to the new eBay Partner Network in-house affiliate program, we all seem to have some of the same basic questions. I’ve compiled a list of ePN questions while doing my reading and figured I’d post all the answers here in one place.

I spent the day updating my BANS niche stores so I’ve got a serious case of ‘eBay-on-the-brain”. Thankfully, updating my eBay store sites was remarkably easy. The guys over at BANS are Johnny-on-the-spot and had this EPN update ready since April 1st. When I started migrating my eBay links from CJ to EPN, I chose to start with my affiliate links on ‘only’ my Squidoo lenses to start. I have this thing about new programs and I wanted to see everything work properly before updating EVERYTHING I have out there. I have a few Build A Niche Store sites, and I am very happy with them. While the BANS software is not really for total beginners, it isn’t hard to use. Naturally, each time you use it, it gets easier and easier.

Ok, on to the eBay affiliate questions.

 

Common eBay Partner Network Questions and Answers

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Q. When Does eBay Pay?

A. eBay Partner Network pays out on the 25th of the month following. ie, what you earned in April will be paid on May 25th.

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Q. How Does eBay Pay Their Affiliates?

A. EPN pays affiliates via PayPal or direct deposit.

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Q. What Is a CRU? What Is an ACRU?

A. A CRU is a Confirmed Registered User. If someone new to eBay clicks thru to eBay via one of your affiliate links and then registers for eBay and confirms their registration, that is a CRU. You do NOT get paid for a CRU

An ACRU is an Active Confirmed Registered User. If someone new to eBay clicks thru your link to the eBay site, registers for an eBay account, confirms that account, and then places a bid, you have generated an ACRU. eBay currently pays $25 bonus to their EPN affiliates for an ACRU. You can earn more for ACRU’s based on your volume.

ACRUs	Compensation
1 – 49	$25.00
50 – 1,999	$28.00
2,000 – 29,999	$31.00
30,000 +	$35.00

While making commissions off of auctions won is good, ACRU’s are the real ‘meat’ of the eBay affiliate program.

Also, regarding ACRU’s. A customer may click thru your link, sign up, and confirm, but NOT bid on anything right away. EPN allows for a 30 day window for these CRU’s to convert to an ACRU. This means that if someone signs up thru your link and then comes back to eBay within 30 days and bids on an auction, your CRU will convert to an ACRU…. and you get $25.

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Q. If someone clicks thru my eBay link, do they have to bid right away (and win) for me to make a commission?

A. No. eBay allows for a 7 day window. This means that if someone who is already a member of eBay clicks thru your link and makes a bid within 7 days (AND wins the auction), you will get paid a commission.

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Q. When Will Stats (Click-thrus, Sales, ACRU’s, etc) Show on MY EPN Dashboard?

A. eBay reports click-thrus and impressions within 4 hours of their occurance. ACRU’s will be posted by midnight of the following day. eBay is on PDT time (California), so keep that in mind.

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Q. Is It Possible To Have More Clicks of My eBay Affiliate Links Than I Have Impressions?

A. This is a weird one, I know. If my eBay links only show (impressions) 10 times, how did I have 50 clicks? Here’s the thing – RSS feeds do not generate impressions. In my case, MOST of my eBay affiliate links are RSS feeds, therefor, I have way fewer impressions than I do clicks.

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Q. Why Does It Seem I Am Seeing A LOT More Clicks Thrus Than When I Was With CJ.com?

A. Because you ARE getting more click-thrus. Thing is, search engine bots are causing these clicks. When search engines are crawling pages that your EPN links are on, they ‘click’ them. This is causing many to report much higher click-thrus than what they saw while with CJ.com. Why this happens with EPN, I’m not sure enough to try and explain. It just is… lol.

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Q. How Can I Find Out What I Sold as an EPN Affiliate to Earn My Commissions?

A. I did a whole post on eBay stats tracking/deciphering yesterday. I also edited and added to that post tonight. I found two sites online that now offer tools to do this for you.