KNOWN eBay issue: ebay Program data delayed eBay side

1. 73

   jainismusposted 10 years ago

   My ebay program at hubpages is showing 0 clicks and 0 revenue for last two days. What about you?

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   1. 72

      Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      It appears the report data we are receiving from eBay is inaccurate.
      eBay has acknowledged an issue on their end and we are waiting for them to address it.
      You can find a bit more details here.
      http://www.ebaypartnernetworkblog.com/e … 1069416736
      http://community.ebay.com/t5/eBay-Partn … #U17700029
      
      UPDATE
      See below
      http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/117611#post2483823

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      1. 73

         jainismusposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks for the feedback..

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      2. 61

         mr-vegposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Did this ever got corrected ?

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         1. 72

            Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            eBay has stated that they have identified and addressed the issue, but that it may take them some time to report the accurate information. 
            
            eBay stated
            "Click data for Oct. 1st and 2nd will be updated in the web interface and available to publishers by October 14th. ".
            
            You can read more in the forum thread here.
            http://www.ebaypartnernetworkblog.com/e … 1070302175
            
            UPDATE
            See below
            http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/117611#post2483823

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   2. 72

      Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      There is still an outstanding issue on eBay's end, but I wanted to post an update to let people know we are still waiting for final information.
      We have posted an informational message on the earnings page, which you can see here when you are logged into your account.
      https://hubpages.com/my/earnings/affiliate/

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   3. 72

      Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      We have posted updated information related to this ongoing issue.
      You can find more details in your account here.
      https://hubpages.com/my/earnings/affiliate/

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   4. 72

      Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Just wanted to post the latest (and likely last) update.
      eBay has announced that they have no plans to fix the issue on their end at this time.
      Be aware that the earnings, however, are accurate.

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2. 92

   jansharesposted 10 years ago

   I remember a forum thread posted by Marisa Wright (I think) within the last 2 weeks or so stating that something is changing with eBay on October 1st. I can't recall exactly what it was and can't find the forum. I hope someone else can remember.

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      Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/117407

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      1. 73

         jainismusposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks

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            jansharesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            +1

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   2. 73

      jainismusposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks

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   3. 52

      mcxniftycallsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      It says, eBay is changing cookies to 24 hours and it is just about clicks and sales but why its not showing impressions?

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      1. 73

         jainismusposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks..

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3. 83

   psycheskinnerposted 10 years ago

   There was another thread about how ebay reporting has been messed up for quite a few weeks.

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4. 83

   psycheskinnerposted 10 years ago

   I think they were expecting a fix on the 14th, but that is going by my memory which is unreliable.

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5. 73

   jainismusposted 10 years ago

   Thank you Matthew Meyer for giving this information.

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6. 61

   Froggy213posted 10 years ago

   Here it is the 14th and I show quite a few ebay clicks--no impressions and no revenue--Hmmmm??????

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7. 88

   mistyhorizon2003posted 10 years ago

   With the exception of the 3rd, the 9th and the 10th of October I am showing no ebay impressions for the entire month so far. However, with the exception of the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th I show at least one click or more on each of the days of the month. Something still needs fixing.

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8. 31

   Writer Foxposted 10 years ago

   This is the notice HP posted on the Earnings page:
   "eBay Program earnings for October 1 - October 5 may be incorrect for certain accounts due to processing delays on eBay's end. Our reports will update as soon as the data is available from eBay."

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   1. 74

      Anna Marie Bowmanposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I still don't think it's fixed.  I just checked my ebay earnings, and it makes no sense at all.  400+ impressions one day, and 1 click; zero impressions another day, and 4 clicks.  But no earnings for anything...why did they have to change things?  When will it really be fixed? Because this obviously doesn't make any sense.

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      1. 86

         Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         eBay has changed how they pay.   The good news is that they pay real commissions now, not some obscure pay-per-click system. 
         
         The bad news is that the cookie has been reduced to one day.   That means that if someone clicks on your ad and doesn't either buy or bid that same day, you get nothing. 
         
         I'm expecting this to reduce my income substantially, because most people don't want to bid immediately when they visit an auction: they don't want to show their hand.  Instead, they'll "watch" the product and come back closer to when the auction is due to finish.   You won't get any credit for people who do that.

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         1. STAFF

            pauldeedsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            I've mentioned it in a few places, but it bears repeating I think.  Total Hubber earnings from ePN so far are up fairly substantially (about 30%) in the new program.  Unless you are sending a lot of clicks their way, you may not know for quite a while what the true effect is for *your* Hubs.  Certainly, some Hubbers will gain and some will lose.
            
            Would we all prefer a longer cookie?  Of course.  But the move to a deterministic sales based approached has a lot going for it, in my opinion.  And by setting the payout tiers appropriately, it's certainly within eBay's powers for the new program to be earnings neutral in aggregate (as they've claimed it is).  Only time will tell ...

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            1. 86

               Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               I am glad that eBay has gone back to "real" sales again, because Quality Click Pricing was a joke.   I'm sure some people will see an improvement compared to QCP.  However, that's coming from a low base in most cases. 
               
               The point I'm making is that now that Amazon and eBay both have one-day cookies, the only real difference is that eBay has auctions - and most people won't bid early in an auction.  Therefore Amazon, IMO, is more likely to make a sale than eBay - unless HP can implement the ability to show "Buy it Now" items only.

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               1. STAFF

                  pauldeedsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  Yes, despite the 30% increase eBay is still about 20% below Amazon on a per click basis in October from our data.  But if people rationally chose to use eBay prior to the change on 10/1 (because eBay had a product that Amazon didn't or whatever), and it's doing 30% better in aggregate now, then it probably doesn't make sense to change it.
                  
                  For many, the assumption that the decision was initially rational is certainly a stretch.  Choosing products,  capsule types, and placements is non-trivial to do well and many Hubs simply don't have the traffic to make a data based approach even possible.
                  
                  If you do care about this sort of thing, my recommendation is to leave non-essential product capsules off of all but your highest traffic Hubs.  On the high traffic ones conduct some experiments and study the results closely.  You may learn a lot!

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9. 89

   flash167posted 10 years ago

   The majority of my earnings come from eBay so this is getting to be somewhat discouraging since we have not yet had the problem resolved.
   
   I am considering changing my ads to Amazon however I mainly use eBay for supplemental images that are relevant to the subjects in the hubs and it's more difficult to do and keep updated when using Amazon.
   
   I would sure like to see this problem updated so I can make a decision as to whether I want to continue to use eBay or not.

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10. STAFF

    pauldeedsposted 10 years ago

    We've gotten confirmation from eBay about a bug that can cause impressions to erroneously appear as 0 for certain days for certain authors.  They are working on fixing that, but we have no ETA.  However, the earnings reported for all the days in October are now correct.
    
    Under the new EPN system, they only pay for actual sales.  Under the old system they basically averaged the sales over a longer period and paid a relatively consistent amount per click.  What that means is that on a given day a small number of Hubbers now earn a large amount when their clicks actually results in a sale while most people earn nothing, whereas before many Hubbers earned a small amount steadily.  I've seen single click earn $96 under the new system!  I believe that explains what a lot of you are seeing in regard to earnings.
    
    What I recommend is that you check the eBay sales report:
    
    https://hubpages.com/my/earnings/ebay
    
    If you aren't selling anything, that explains a lack of earnings.   Typically something like 1 or 2 clicks in a 100 results in a sale.  If you look at how many clicks you've sent eBay in the last 90 days, you should be able to get an idea of your personal conversion rate by using the sales report.  Be warned, the sales report includes sales that happen in the HubPages share of impressions as well as yours, so if you do have a sale it's a good sign but it doesn't *necessarily* mean that you will have earnings.  But if you have no sales, you definitely won't have earnings in the new system.
    
    In aggregate total ePN earnings accrued to Hubbers is up 30% on a per day basis, comparing October so far with September.  So big picture, this change has actually been positive.

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    1. 74

       Anna Marie Bowmanposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       It seems as if the change is only positive for ebay and HubPages, and not for the authors.  If you get a sale, you might not get earnings for the sale?  I think I will switch all my ebay capsules to Amazon instead.  I don't understand how this is beneficial to us...

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       1. STAFF

          pauldeedsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

          The total earnings actually credited to authors on HubPages is up 30% October versus September (the HubPages share is up almost exactly the same amount).  So, I'm not sure how you came to the conclusion that it was good for eBay and HubPages, but bad for authors.  Perhaps you are basing that just on your personal earnings?
          
          Amazon has always worked pretty much the same way that eBay does now, you get paid for actual sales.  It certainly *may* work better for you and I encourage you to experiment with it, but with both programs it's really about getting people to buy things.
          
          If after giving them sufficient time the capsules on a particular Hub aren't doing that, then you are probably best off just removing them all together.  The rub there is that the rate at which visitors to a Hub click on product capsules, and then the rate at which those clicks turn into sales are typically both fairly low.  On a Hub with a really high conversion rate you might make a single sale every 1,500 or 2,000 visitors, on a medicore one it could be 1 every 10,000 or 20,000 visitors.  On some it might be next to never.   So, to come to a firm conclusion on a particular Hub, you either need to have a lot of traffic or give it a long time.  However, if you study the sales from many Hubs for a while you can eventually develop an intuitive feel for it.

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    2. 92

       jansharesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       So for hubbers who have specific products, germane to their hub, for which they have been receiving regular sales, they will see an increase which is positive for them. But for other hubbers who place a product related to their hub but not necessarily making regular sales, it's a crap shoot. Right?

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       1. 89

          flash167posted 10 years agoin reply to this

          That's what it sounds like to me also.  It doesn't look good to me as far as Google goes.  It looks like this is going to promote more spam type content rather than good content with relevant ads attached to them.
          
          I don't think the new system will hurt me at all because my hubs have generated plenty of sales for eBay.  I'm just more worried about how it's going to affect HubPages in general in the long run.
          
          I hate to see Hubbers writing content just to promote specific products.

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       2. 86

          Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

          Not necessarily.  The problem with eBay now is that, even if the products are highly relevant and people click on them, you may not get paid.  You will earn commission ONLY if the person buys there and then.  If they think about it for a day or two, even if they buy ultimately, you'll get nothing.  Whereas under the old system, you got credit even if they didn't buy for a week.

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          1. 92

             jansharesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

             Thanks, Marisa. Got it now. Will adjust to no eBay income.

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                Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                Not necessarily, a lot depends on how good you are at "selling" the product, and whether the products you recommend are on auction or Buy it Now (which you can't control, unfortunately).    However I'd recommend considering a switch to Amazon - since both programs are pretty similar now, it makes more sense to have all your money going into one affiliate so you reach payout faster.

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                   jansharesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                   Thanks for your advice, will do.

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          2. 74

             Anna Marie Bowmanposted 10 years agoin reply to this

             This is where I think I will have better luck with Amazon.  With ebay, you often have people who will wait until the last day of an ebay auction before they buy something.  If an item on your ebay capsule still have several days left, unless they choose the 'Buy it Now' option, even if they bid on it that day, they don't actually buy it until the auction is over.  I think I will have better luck with Amazon.

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                flash167posted 10 years agoin reply to this

                That is one of my biggest concerns.  I have been having great success with my self hosted blogs.  I will probably spend more of my time working on them due to the flexibility and not having to share earnings.  Traffic has been about the same on most of my long term blogs as it is on Hubpages.   I really enjoy Hubpages and I have referred man people however I heed to focus my time where it seems to be the most productive and profitable.

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11. 95

    Thomas Swanposted 10 years ago

    I've had zero revenue from ebay for a month. Is there still a problem, or should I get rid of all my ebay capsules now? It might help my traffic and, ultimately, my adsense revenue if I do.

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    1. 94

       wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       I'm wondering the same thing.  I know eBay siphons some of my Amazon traffic away, but have always put up with it because eBay has earned a few dollars per month. 
       
       If it is now going to be zero, though, those capsules will be deleted in short order.

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    2. 92

       jansharesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       Same for me Thomas and wilderness, ZERO eBay earnings for October. I think I'm done with the crap shoot now.

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          wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

          Well, if eBay is still having trouble with reporting that's one thing.  If income actually fell to zero, that's quite another - wish admin would pop in and let us know.

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             Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

             Earnings for eBay are correct.
             We have posted an informational message on the earnings page, which you can see here when you are logged into your account.
             https://hubpages.com/my/earnings/affiliate/
             
             If your earnings are $0 then it's likely because of eBay's pricing model change.
             You can see Paul Deeds' post for more information above.
             http://hubpages.com/forum/post/2483823
             The reporting issue only relates to impressions (not revenue) for a subset of authors, and we are still waiting for eBay to fix their reporting issues, but we do not have an ETA from eBay for the fix.
             
             It may make sense to maybe remove eBay capsules on high traffic hubs and see what affect it has on ad program revenue. It might also help to switch to relevant and directly related Amazon product capsules on your high traffic Hubs.

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                skearposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                Thanks for shedding a bit more light on this topic.  I'm still confused why I see an asterisk next to all of my eBay earnings for the month.  Seeing the asterisk led me to believe the earnings were not complete.

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             2. 95

                Thomas Swanposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                Thank you for confirming this. I have spent the past couple of hours removing around 90% of my ebay ads. I've left a few particularly relevant or useful ones. For some, I've replaced them with amazon.
                
                However, I'm under the impression that fewer ads may be better. If google ranks me a little higher because I've used fewer ads, then the end result may be the Ad Program performing better (due to more traffic). I hope that is the case!
                
                I've also done some mass editing to the text in my sports hubs. Primarily, I'm making sure I haven't stuffed too many keywords in. I'm hearing the latest google update (Hummingbird?) has slapped those types of articles down.

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                wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                Thanks, Matthew.  That's a pretty clear answer, and a pretty clear reason to delete all eBay capsules in my hubs.  They just aren't working for me.

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12. 88

    mistyhorizon2003posted 10 years ago

    I am also getting zero for ebay now. Bit by bit I will be removing ebay capsules from my remaining Hubs as it seems pointless to leave them there when I am making money on Amazon still.

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       flash167posted 10 years agoin reply to this

       I have been removing the eBay ads also a little at a time.  Unfortunately it looks like the bulk of the earnings are now going to come from AdSense and my blogs are doing better than Hubpages are in that area so it looks like I'll be concentrating my efforts on my own blogs for a while until things get better at HubPages.

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          mistyhorizon2003posted 10 years agoin reply to this

          I think you are doing the right thing

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