Thanks for posting. There are several ways to handle this. It’s really dependent on your situation. If you have access to the server (assuming it’s Apache), you can use .htaccess to block bad bots. To identify these bots, you need to have access to logs and cross-reference you click spike at EPN.

Here is an example.. you would just continue to add new SetEnvIfNoCase lines for every User-Agent that is causing you problems. Make sure you know what you’re doing and know who you want to block.. because if it’s not obvious, you could be blocking legitimate traffic


SetEnvIfNoCase User-Agent "WWWOFFLE" bad_bot
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from env=bad_bot


Also, if you mask your links and direct users to another directory prior to sending them to eBay, it’ll be much easier to create a .htaccess in that folder.

Another option is to use PHP in a similar way

< ?php
$badArray = array()
$badArray[] = 'bad user agaent';
$badArray[] = 'click bot';

if(in_array($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'],$badArray)){
exit();
}
unset($badArray);
?>

These are just a couple of examples. Some bots will change their user-agent to something common, so it’s not fool proof, but this could help

Hope this helps
hanji

Thanks for your tips on preventing banned EPN.
I was kind lucky as i intend to get BANS before it’s hit the news that they are been ‘washed out’ by EPN.

Before i really start going into it, i would really appreciate you can explain further how to prevent ourself getting ban from EPN?

1. Should i creates tons of traffics from different areas. i don’t intend to spend on PPC, i intend to go other ways like bookmarking, videos, blog, etc.

2. Does it raise any flag if i get few hundred links within a week? will it get alarm as well? However getting these links are not from just one source. The links is include what i mention above.

3. You mean that if my websites has alot of visitors coming in but didn’t click / purchase anything from eBay, this will raise flag from EPN? If that’s case, i will have to appeal it if it’s hit me since we need time to research on keywords or other stuffs. Am i right to say that?

Would really appreciate you can help me out on this? Thanks

Regards,
Spark

Regarding question #1, I would generate as many traffic sources as possible, but try to find quality traffic. Don’t do ’shady’ traffic stuff. Blogs, PPC, etc are fine.

Questions #2 and #3 are related to my EPC stuff. Basically, you want to have good EPC. They’ve changed everything now, so I don’t know what their EPC means now, but what you want is traffic that converts. If you send over a thousand clicks to eBay, but only one actually bids on something.. that is bad traffic and will generate low EPC. At the time of this original post people were thinking that dreadful EPC was the cause of getting banned. Bots are good example of sending tons of clicks to EPN.. yet not purchasing anything. Hope that makes sense.

Focus on sending lots of ‘buyers’ to eBay, and you’ll do awesome!

Good luck!
hanji