One of the most common threads in the Wordpress Goldmine Forum relates to how to get accepted by EPN.

The first thing to say is that don’t take it personally, I’ve been turned down by loads of companies when i applied to be an affiliate usually a quick email get your application reviewed and accepted. The ones that don’t accept you usually come begging once you start to make $$$$. Strangely as soon as I had a $10,000 month On CJ.com some of the the very same companies that turned me down 3 months previously emailed me and asked me if i would be an affiliate…It gave me so much pleasure telling them where to stick their affiliate program.

Right back to EPN

Even if you follow the steps below you will probably initially get rejected by EPN however a few emails asking why your application got rejected and asking them politely to review your site and tell you why it’s not acceptable usually gets you accepted.

Step 1. Find a good niche and create a nice looking blog.

Step 2. Add several pages of good quality UNIQUE and relevant content

step 3. Add your contact details, a privacy policy and a TOS

Step 4. Do NOT Monetize your blog in any way shape or form!!!!!!

Step 5  Do not use privacy on the domain..eBay like to see your contact details if they do a whois check

Now ask yourself..If I was one of the biggest online companies would I like a site like this to represent me??

Now submit your application and expect to get rejected. If you do get rejected send a polite reply asking why. You will probably now get a cut and paste answer…cool we are almost there!!

Now email back and politely point out that you site does not fall into any of the categories mentioned. They will have now run out of cut and paste replies so someone will need to physically look at your site and if you’ve followed the guide above you will get accepted.

Just consider EPNs automated responses as a bit of gentle hazing, which would you rather have affiliates who take initiative and try to get accepted or ones that give up at the first hurdle.

Believe me that it is Worth trying that extra bit harder to be accepted by EPN it is probably one of the best affiliate programs available to you. Especially with tools like Phpbay, Bayrss and excellent and highly recommended Reviewazon (yes you can add ebay items to the posts & also overstock items)

One of the most common questions I get asked I what affiliate martketing program is the best.  The first thing to keep in mind is that there are thousands of affiliate programs and hundreds of affiliate networks. They all have their pro’s and cons.

For the purposes of this post I will focus on the big 3 programs , Clickbank, eBay and Amazon. Between those 3 there is nothing you can’t sell and personally i much prefer to have my comissions spread among a number of large programs than several small ones .  In the past I have lost commissions because I promoted a program and didn’t make the $100 minimum for payment.

First up Clickbank.

Over the past year clickbank have been making lots of changes that have made them a much more viable proposition for internet marketers. Weekly payments, Direct deposits and multi language products mean that affiliate in most countries can enjoy regular payments.

Income from clickbank tends to be steady unless you start a sucessful campaign the sales will stay similar month after month.

There are a few things that go against Clickbank, they only sell digital products and they are very quick to issue refunds. They actually issued a refund to someone who claimed that their credit card was stoled despite the fact that i provided them with a full list of IP addresses and email conversations that proved they were lying.

eBay, I have to declare now that I love eBays affiliate program. Yes there are occasional tracking problems and they can make stupud decisions like expiring loads of accounts for no aparrant reason but if you can accept these as just teething problems with a new network the results are excellent.  I recently switched a site from adsense which was making about $50 per month , It immediatly started earning me around $300 a month with EPN (ebay partner network).

In the past month i’ve had simple sites with just an article or two and a few eBay listings earning me over $150 a day.. Unlike Clickbank eBay can be seasonal, I know that in November or December I’ll earn 5 times as much than I will in April, but I quite like that as it comes at an expensive time of the year.  Last years Christmas eBbay earnings bought me a Jeep Grand Cherokee, This years should pay my Housing costs for a year.

I am currently working on a new system to help me produce good quality profitable ebay affiliate sites and I fully intend to build an extra 20 or 30 eBay sites and make it my major income stream in the coming year.

Finally Amazon, I have a love hate relationship with amazon. I love that a customer usually goes from my sites to amazon and not only buys the product that I was promoting but 3 or 4 others that are unrelated and I still get commission for them.  I also love the wide range of products available.

 I hate that the commission is so low 4% – 7% usually depending on how many products you sell each month, (mine is usually 6.5%) but the extra sales tends to make up for that. I hate that they won’t do direct deposits into my bank account as i don’t live in the US. I have to get a cheque/check sent to me and then paid in to my bank and wait 4 weeks for it to be credited to my account .

Lastly I hate that I have to wait so long for payment, I’ve just received septembers finalised details a few days ago.  Compare that to Clickbank and ebay who will both have paid me what I earned in November before Christmas. With Amazon i’ll be lucky to have a credit in my bank before April. If I lived within the US it would be much better I could also concentrate on Amazon UK which I do for some sites and many of the payment issues would disapear.

So thats a brief round up of the big 3 affiliate programs , I am sure you can tell that eBay is by far my favorite at the moment. Throught out next year I’ll be keeping you up to date with how my new ebay sites are going and if I make my targets.

Right I am now off to move house….