Let Them Eat Cookies - But Only Cookies They Buy

I have received several emails and private messages asking my thoughts about the new Quality Click Pricing payment structure that EPN (eBay Partner Network) announced yesterday. While the details will really not be fully absorbed until we actually see the stats to compare, I will share my initial speculation of reading between the lines.

EPN is wanting a more "call to action" type surfer. If they visit your site and travel through to eBay, they want them to buy either the item they clicked, or something comparable and in the shortest time frame possible. It is no longer from an EPC (earnings per click) standpoint to merely hand out a cookie and lodge it their computer. You want them to buy the cookie. If you have sites that are earning money, but the surfers are mostly buying items non related to what you are trying to sell to them or they are merely carrying the cookie for longer than a few days, your quality of surfer will be considered lower.

If you have not read the tips for improving the quality of your traffic, it is a good start. Also the new BANS guide is a must if you have not yet invested in it. In the guide you will see how to build a site that will indeed match the model EPN is looking for. Does not matter if you are using the BANS platform, Wordpress with PHPBay or Joomla. The model of the site is what you are looking at.

It is just not good enough to list Spider man comics now, you want the surfer to be able to shop by year and even the issue number if applicable. It has never been a secret that you want to put the surfer in front of the exact product they are wanting to purchase, it is Marketing 101. If they arrive at your site through the front door, you want to provide an easy navigation to get them to the page that shows exactly what they are looking for in the fewest amount of clicks. Although you can not control whether or not they buy, you can increase your chances greatly by drilling deeper and better organizing the selection by make, model number, year, etc.

I would highly advise letting the surfer know where they are going as well. Hiding the fact that you are sending them to eBay may cause confusion and a click not worth a damn. Be transparent with your surfer. Also I personally feel items listed on the front page is a no-no now unless it is hugely targeted. I want them clicking on something they want, not something they just want to look at.

As far as the time factor, if you look at the Click Timestamp in row L of your Transaction Download, you can compare it to row A called the Event Date. Hopefully your Click Timestamp is close to the Event Date, even same day. Also you need to pay close attention to the eBay Item ID in row M. You can research the item number and make sure it was a purchase close related to what you were trying to sell. If you are getting a high percentage of irrelevant items being purchased, you may want to rethink the niche and structure of the website.

EPN pinks have said that the Buy It Now STORE feeds will likely be available soon, this will allow for listings that require an instant "call to action". It should be looked at strongly when available. Also listing products on your sites that end sooner than later, may be a good initial strategy as well.

Remember that there is still more that we do not know than we do know about the new Quality Click Pricing, take this post as more of my initial thoughts and speculation until we see it first hand. The numbers and reports should reveal everything we need to know, to make more money and build better sites in the process.

EDITED TO ADD: I wanted everyone to know I approached this more on the Short term value, instead of the Long term value. Several have asked about the Long term value and I am still wrapping my thoughts around it. The better focused traffic and quality of the traffic is paramount in short. Let that be your main goal first. Just because you sell an item on the seventh day of the cookie, is not totally bad, keep quality and targeted traffic at the forefront and the rest should take care of itself.

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