Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Don't Switch Business Models Just To Switch


I posted a few of my thoughts on the new EPN QPC payout structure on BANS forum and was instantly hit up with a few messages from some readers. I think people took my thoughts as hating on the new structure. That could not be further from the truth. The truth is, some of my sites just do not match what the new QPC is looking for based on the traffic that goes through the site. The traffic is buying traffic, but much is of it is repeat buying traffic that EPN figures would go straight to eBay anyway. These sites have been heavily scrutinized by me stats wise and it is not a rash decision. It also will probably make me even more money by sending them to other retailers.

When judging your traffic, make sure you have traffic to judge and make a rational decision on. Anything below 30 uniques a day will be very hard to gauge, especially on a short length of time. Most of all, do not switch just to switch. If you are not converting using EPN, you might have several other problems site wise causing you not to convert. Too broad, wrong traffic sources, the list goes on. There really are no two sites alike. Each niche is different. Different traffic sources can deliver a vast variety of types of traffic as well.

Can all sites be made to fit the EPN QCP? I would guess to say no. How can they? Can most sites? Probably, but it starts at the launch. If you have developed traffic streams, you just do not want to turn it off. Good traffic is hard to get, you just need to match the monetization to it. A vast amount of my sites I can tell you no decision has been made on. They still require MUCH more data, but the majority will likely keep EPN as the PRIMARY focus. The ones I am switching models on however stick out like a sore thumb. Once again, this is based on hours of study.

In closing let me reiterate. Do not switch models, just to switch. Study your stats and give it time if they are slower sites. The sore thumbs will expose themselves and depending on the traffic, may or may not be able to be fixed to better fit the EPN QCP.

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5 comments:

Mark - Niche Store Builder on September 10, 2009 at 3:16 PM said...

Here... here, good words Dave.

Mark

Alice said...

Where in the stats does it tell you that the buyers are repeat buyers? This is a problem I hve in trying to use stats to tell what's going right or wrong with my sites.

soggy on September 10, 2009 at 4:54 PM said...

Alice I go through all of my EPN clicks out. The EPN stats do not tell you repeat buyers, but with heavy research over long periods of time, you can match the buyers eBay usernames to eBay item numbers. I use GA, excel and hours of time research. It is quite labor intensive, but well worth it. I love stats and numbers so it is right up my alley. You want find all of course, but you will find enough to let you know whether you are getting a majority of repeats or not.

Dave

Alice said...

Thanks Dave. I had a feeling you'd say something like that! :-)

One of my problems is that I use both PJN and EPN tools on the same sites, so there's no one place to look at all the data for a particular site. I don't know if other people do this or if I'm in a minority, but I sure wish there was a good way to analyze our sites especially across platforms!

Of course, it will also be a mess when ebay tries to evaluate some of my sites. Some may look crappy on EPN but are doing great on PJN and vice versa. I emailed ebay to ask about this but they haven't answered me. :-(

Don Bistrow on January 8, 2010 at 11:39 PM said...

Soggy, I was searching your site for anything concerning EPN and clicks but no pay.

What I mean is I have been gettng more clicks but I am now getting consecutive days without my transactions showing clicks x EPC = Zero dollars earned.

The EPC is now slowly going down but I don't understand how you can have clicks and not get paid for them.

I've been searching forums to no avail. Have you seen this or heard this from other people?

Thanks Dave

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