Once again the stupidity at ePN has come up with a new diversion for themselves to keep their schizoid personalities entertained. In the manner of true sadists that seem to take pleasure in dishing out pain to others, ePN has come up with a new method of nipple twisting.

A number of affiliates have been sent requests for 2 weeks worth of Raw Server Logs. This request comes only AFTER the account has been suspended (not terminated, just suspended). Your termination (er, "expiration") comes later.

For some, this may not present a problem. There are actually people who knew enough to set up their server accounts to maintain server logs. The vast majority however, don't. Why would they. Most are simple users from home that don't need the information server logs provide. They create a website, set up links to eBay, and do SEO to drive traffic.

The need to save raw server logs isn't even mentioned in the ePN TOS, other than a vague (isn't it always) paragraph about ePN having the right to review and audit your activities. You would think that they might add exactly what they will require in the future to perform those reviews and audits. Even the IRS has the courtesy of telling you ahead of time what will be required from you when tax time rolls around.

Many host servers (most, actually) do not save raw server logs - especially 2 weeks worth of them. You would be lucky to get 1 days worth. So, after you get the dreaded ePN letter you go to your server and nothing - all erased. Is there any other way to satisfy the expiration hungry peons at ePN.

No. You are screwed, as demonstrated by this posting found on the ePN forum boards, made by an affiliate who ran afoul of ePN's newest demand:

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Tip: Make sure you keep at least 2 weeks worth of raw server logs for every site you run traffic to eBay Partner Network.

I am writing this post in hopes that it may save another affiliate from what I've gone through over the past weeks.

Ebay Partner Network has served as a significant source of income for me for the last 8 months or so. I went from mere double digit monthly earnings in January of 2009 to doing thousands of clicks every day by building numerous content niche websites and putting hundreds of hours into SEO'ing them. My websites were whitehat and powered by phpBay Pro.

In the past few months, I've done quite well as my sites started to age and take top rankings in search engines. I started to see ways that I could scale up and was planning to launch a brand new network of websites as well as some international search marketing campaigns.

After a particularly good series of days earnings-wise (my earnings were about 25% higher than usual), I got an email from Ebay Quality notifying me that my account was suspended and asking me for a week's worth of server logs as well as information on how I drove traffic.

I complied fully with EPN's request for information, except for one issue. As all of my sites are hosted on a dedicated server I rent, my server had been set to process logs (through AWStats) and delete old logs once processed to save disk space. I realized that would mean it'd be impossible for me to provide the logs, as they had already been deleted. I sent an email explaining the situation and asked if the AWStats reports would suffice.

Days passed, and I got another generic letter from eBay Quality notifying me that I needed to send in raw server logs in the next 72 hours. At that time, I immediately set my server to keep all server logs, and emailed eBay back that I would send them the most recent logs I was keeping. After a few days had passed, I sent eBay the raw server logs my server had collected.

eBay then sent me a reply stating "we don't need to see logs for your current traffic because right now your account is suspended" and that they needed to see logs for traffic earlier in the month.

I was faced with an insolvable dilemma. There was no way I could retrieve the logs in question, as they had been deleted during processing (earlier in the month).

The only logs that I could provide were the logs kept since I had set my server to retain logs. I once again emailed eBay explaining my logs situation, and asking if there was any other way I could prove that my account was clean.

This time, eBay took much longer to respond (11 days). eBay Quality notified me that my account would be expired. "As you have failed to comply with our request for server logs, we do not have sufficient evidence to clear your case." The only way for me to appeal this termination would be to "send us one week's worth of raw web server logs as previously requested".

I don't know what I can do. There is no way I can provide the logs from earlier in the month (as they've been deleted), all I can do is provide the logs for my traffic since I've been suspended (because my server was not set to retain logs before that time period).

So now, my account's expired, and I have no idea if I will ever see my pending EPN commissions (over $17,000).

To any pinks that may be reading this: To the best of my knowledge, I've driven clean organic traffic to eBay via SEO. I enjoyed being an eBay affiliate, and if there's any way I can restore my account, please let me know. If I committed a violation, it was not intentional, and I would be completely willing to take any action to remedy any problems. I have put in thousands of hours of work promoting eBay, and I hope that I can continue to do so in the future.

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Is ePN just intent on committing suicide? As more affiliates see what is happening to others they are migrating away from ePN, and from what I'm reading around the Net it is happening at ever increasing levels of exodus. Even those affiliates who have been expired aren't just throwing in the towel. They have experience and the ability to simply drive their traffic to other companies by changing links on their sites.

Amazon has just reached record levels of sales. Those records were made even in this bad economy. While Amazon sales have increased, eBay's continues to decline. Either ePN refuses to believe that this is due to their own stupidity (by forcing out affiliates), or they are dumb enough to believe that it is only a temporary downturn that will be corrected once their "new and improved" affiliate program has the bugs worked out.

What the idiots in charge of ePN can't seem to comprehend is that every good, honest affiliate they expire is just more traffic to their competitors.

Ebay is losing blood like a hemophiliac working in a razor factory. They are losing sellers who are sick of paying higher fees and they are losing affiliates sick of being screwed with.

ePN needs to get back to basics. eBay needs to get back to the business of being a partner with their affiliates, rather than a Hitler run organization that calls for summary executions of the troops for no other purpose than to promote fear.

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