Recover From Your ePN Termination In Minutes!
ByDid you get "expired" from the eBay Partner Network (ePN) and you have several eBay niche sites that still bring in lots of search engine traffic every day?
I'm going to show you how to make a small alteration to your phpBay Pro affiliate script that will allow you to keep using all your eBay niche sites just as you were before ePN terminated you. Except now you will use phpBay Pro to promote your AdSense listings instead of eBay! This technique won't work with other RSS parsing affiliate software, so if you've been using BANS, or some other eBay affiliate script, you need to buy a copy of phpBay Pro right now! It won't cost you near as much as letting all those niche sites go to waste! This trick will work with either the WordPress or API version of phpBay Pro , but not with phpBay Lite.
But before we get into salvaging your sites from ePN's foolishness, let's take a moment to calm down and watch this YouTube video which clearly shows you are not the only one having trouble with ePN.
When you're done laughing, create a page on your site with 2 or 3 (no more then 3) Google AdSense ads. Give the page a name like "noepn.html" and save it to your server. Now, open your phpBay Pro "auction.php" file in a HTML or text editor and scroll all the way down to the bottom. At the bottom of the file you will see php code that looks like the example below:
***Begin Example***
switch ($i["aff"]) {
case "afepn":
$url = "http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/" . $rover["rid"] . "/1?campid=" . $i["pid"] . "&customid=" . $i["cid"] . "&toolid=10005&mpre=http%3A%2F%2F" . $rover["url"] . "%2F" . $i["title"] . "_W0QQitemZ" . $i["item"] . "QQcmdZViewItemQQssPageNameZRSS%3AB%3ASRCH%3A" . $rover["abbr"] . "%3A101";
break;
***End Example***
Replace this group of code with the example below:
***Begin Example***
switch ($i["aff"]) {
case "afepn":
$url = "noepn.html";
break;
***End Example***
There will be four (4) more instances of code starting with $url = under the one you just altered. Make the same change to all of those instances too. This way, if your site visitor changes countries, the redirect will still work. Of course, you can use a file name other then "noepn.html" if you want. Also, make sure you back up your original auction.php file and only make changes to a copy.
Now, open your config.php file and make sure you have SEO URLs turned ON. Then change your ePN campaign ID to any fake 10 digit number. 1234567890 will do just fine. Upload both files to the correct folders on your site.
Go view your site with all those SEO enriching eBay listings still bringing you in several shoppers every day. Move your mouse over a link and see where it shows something like "...mysite/item-ebay-listing-title.html" in the browser status bar. But now, when you click on one of those eBay listings, you will go to the "noepn.html" page on your site instead of going to eBay and all you will will see is maybe a short message that says something like, "Please excuse the inconvenience. We cannot take you to eBay at this time," along with your AdSense ads and maybe even a Google AdSense search box.
What do you think your site visitor is going to do at this point?? About 70% of them will either click a Google ad or start using the AdSense search box you so thoughtfully provided them. Be careful not to violate the Google AdSense Terms of Service here. You can't use any text of graphic that tells or asks anyone to click a Google Ad. But don't worry, most of them will figure it out on their own.
Tip: If you are using a Google Adsense search box, make sure you design it to show the Google results on YOUR site and also place a search box on the top of all your pages for those people who wouldn't click a eBay listing in the first place. It will reduce your bounce rate. I'm not saying this will raise your AdSense commissions enough to make up for losing the eBay commissions, but it will definitely cause your AdSense earnings to go up enough to justify keeping the sites going.
I hope this article helps you and I invite you to read the rest of this site to learn how you can use your phpBay Pro to promote independent affiliate programs who will treat you with a lot more respect than eBay did.
Sincerely,
The Militant Affiliate.
Thanks militant,
I got booted for no good reason back in late September. Being a phpbay user, I followed your instructions for all my sites and I made more from adsense in October then I would have made from ebay anyway. This article truely helps people who have been screwed and cheated by epn.
dude, this is awesome. it works so well, that i have been making new sites doing just as you describe. i entice the buyers and switch them. i get very good ctr’s with adsense with this. thanks a million for this idea!!
do you have a donate button?
Thanks Militant!
I used your suggestions and code above and redirected to a new page that I made with just adsense and a little message. This is really slick and works like a charm. You even went out of your way to send me a revised auction.php file that you remade just for me as I was having trouble getting it to work right. That’s what I call great service. Thanks again for all of your help.
Tom
Hi Militant,
Is it still possible to do this with the revised auction.php file that PHPbay now uses following the change Ebay made to the structure of their affiliate links? I’ve noticed that my links no longer forward to my noepn.html and in the new auction.php provided by the makers of PHPbay the text we used to replace in your above example is no longer there!
M
Hi Mike,
The new auction.php file put out last month was to compensate for the changes ePN made to their affiliate linking structure in the UK program. If you aren’t sending the clicks to eBay anyway, you don’t need the new auction.php file. Just re-upload the old one (modified) and you’ll be good to go.
M.
Hi Militant,
Is it still possible to do this with the revised auction.php file that PHPbay now uses following the change Ebay made to the structure of their affiliate links? I’ve noticed that my links no longer forward to my noepn.html and in the new auction.php provided by the makers of PHPbay the text we used to replace in your above example is no longer there!
M
@Ian — Sure, it’s even easier now. In the newest version of phpBay’s auction.php file, there is only one instance of the code that needs changed near the very bottom of the file.
The phpBay update addressed linking issues with the ePN UK program. If you’re not sending the clicks to eBay anyway, your old auction.php file will still work just fine.
M.
Hi Militant
Don’t have access to the old script. Sorry to sound a bit dumb but could you please point out which bit of the new script needs changing since the 301 redirect amendment.
regards
RG
At the very bottom of the auction.php file, find the code that looks like this:
————————————————————-
$url = “http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/” . $rover["rid"] . “/1?icep_ff3=2&campid=” . $ktv["pid"] . “&customid=” . $ktv["cid"] . “&toolid=10005&icep_item=” . $ktv["item"] . “&ipn=psmain&icep_vectorid=” . $rover["vid"] . “&kwid=902099&mtid=824&kw=rss”;
————————————————————–
Change it to look like this:
$url = “http://www.mysite.com”;
Hi Militant
I tried what you said with no effect. I have sent you a copy of the code. Would you please be kind enough to have a quick look as i think it may have changed again.
sorry to be a pain
regards
rg
Hi,
The code you sent me is altered properly. On the website in question, go to your phpBay control panel, then turn the SEO URLs feature ON. The redirect caused by auction.php only works with SEO URLs turned on. Make sure to also copy/paste the .htaccess code phpBay generates for you in the control panel.
M.
wouldnt let me add code you can find here
http://www.google.co.uk/support/forum/p/AdSense/thread?tid=1eab9b59d652767a&hl=en
AdSense code doesn’t go in your phpBay file. I goes in your WP post where-ever you want it to display. You may want to search the WP plugin page for the “WhyDoWork Adsense” plugin.