Many people have a hard time getting accepted into the ePN affiliate program. Some think they can just throw up any old site, slap a few articles from directories on that site, then apply and get accepted.
It doesn’t work like that.
ePN wants top quality sites to represent them. And, who can blame them? They’re certainly important and big enough to call their own shots. YOU are the one who needs them – they have an abundance of applicants to choose from. So, to be sure your site meets their needs it’s best to follow their guidelines. Here’s what I’ve discovered:
1. The website must be a functioning, established website. We don’t really know how old the site should be; some have gotten new sites approved; others have had new and aged sites rejected. It is safe to say that older is better, but an older site that is poorly built will not work. It will be a good idea to make sure the registration is for 2 years or longer for the site you are submitting.
2. The site should have some backlinks.
3. The site should have original, informative, unique content – especially the homepage. The site should not be just a ‘placeholder’ waiting to add the Mage tools. Build the site as if you’d never heard of WPMage and are very much in love with ebay — meaning, you can see ebay products on the site but of course you don’t mention ebay anywhere in the content. If YOU can see ebay on the site, then they will see the potential as well.
4. You should have content on the site related to items sold on Ebay. For example, financial sites and Internet marketing sites are not really ebay-friendly sites and should not be submitted. However, sites about collectibles, art, antiques, etc., will be great. As for how much content – I believe more is better. Write 10 original content articles and backdate all of these. Then, schedule several articles so that it will look like you are actively updating your site. If you do not have a source for articles I can give you a name.
5. No off-site commercial links – i.e., no monetization, not even Google. A link to an authority site may be helpful – but don’t overdo the off-site links.
6. Deep link into your site – meaning, place a keyword link within an article that leads to another article, then link from that article to another article … until you have linked to all of the articles in your site.
7. Have a ‘Contact Us’ page on your site with accurate contact information, not just a form.
8. Have an “About” page that talks about a real person behind a real site.
9. Have a Privacy and TOS page.
10. Make sure you do not have “privacy” enabled on your domain name registration.
11. When you complete the application, tell them (in comments) any positive info about why you think your site will be a good fit for eBay.
For more tips – see What to Do if eBay Says No
This is a very good video from eBay:
How to Get Approved by ePN Video
Linda
Hello Linda:
Just coming on board with “The Mage” and am working through the forums, lots to read! One quick question on the EPN…..in #10 as I understand it the domain should be a public one (and not have the private registration on it) when it is submitted to Ebay for approval?
If one has to buy a new domain, and register if for 2years as per your comments, the only concern would be to get a domain that is related to a category from ebay, eg: rockjewelry.com,
thanks for your help,
cheers,
Lynne
Nice post. Very helpful. I’m a new Mage subscriber and a little confused at the EPN approval process. I am trying to fully understand the EPN approval process so that I can get approved on the first attempt.
I would really appreciate it if you would look over my site, and give me some feedback once I’ve got it ready for submission. Do you charge for the review of a website?
Thanks,
Tom
Hi Linda,
I just wanted to post a quick comment and suggestion for people who find this post. I wanted to let people know that one other “sneaky” way of getting approved by EPN and how I was approved years ago by them was to attend an AdTech conference. Now, I know that won’t be convenient for most people, but look them up and see if there is one coming soon to a town near you. Off the top of my head I believe they are in San Francisco (in April), New York and London. San Francisco is the one that I always go to every year. Its free (if you get tickets far enough in advance). But as far as EPN, all I did was go up to their booth, speak to someone there and I got approved on the spot! I can’t say that will work for everyone, plus I did do this a few years ago (maybe things have changed since then). But its worth a shot and AdTech is a great conference to go to anyway. I know though that EPN had the reputation of being hard to get into back then too.
This will work really for any Affiliate Network that you may be trying to get approved with as well. My understanding is that the fact that you are there at the conference, shows you are serious about this business, so they “fast track” your approval. There are a bunch of other advantages to going…but I won’t get into that here. Point is, as far as EPN and getting approved, it’s another way, and I know no one is talking about this method anywhere that I have seen online.
Hope that helps…
Chris