Don’t Let The ePN Screen Door Hit You In The Ass, Steve Hartman

eBay Affiliates Party – Steve Hartman Leaving eBay Affiliate Program!
Perhaps the bad times with ePN as an eBay affiliate are finally over. Steve Hartman, the idiot behind the failure of the ePN affiliate program is jumping ship before he got fired. As he puts it…

First, I’d like to start by thanking the eBay Partner Network affiliates for a great 2009. It’s been an exciting year and we’ve seen a lot of great integrations with the Daily Deal contest and adoption of tools like custom banner, along with a lot of folks taking advantage of the opportunities with Quality Click Pricing and optimizing their affiliate businesses. And I know that there’s a lot more innovation to come next year and beyond.

To that point, I’m actually saying farewell to eBay Partner Network and am moving on to a new opportunity on the East Coast starting in the New Year. I’m extremely proud to have been part of the eBay Partner Network team, and moving forward, I know that eBay Partner Network will continue to be in great hands with Will Martin-Gill (of will1111@ebay.com fame) taking over my role, and the rest of the team continuing the great work they’ve been doing.

Let’s get real, Steve Hartman. If you had been successful with your new ideas and eBay had benefited, you would not be leaving.  More likely, you saw the axe coming down from the loss of income eBay suffered after the mass exodus of affiliates that removed eBay links and directed entire websites toward other programs that were more trustworthy, dependable and profitable. So disgusted are these affiliates, many of them experienced programmers, that they are starting their own auction sites, such as Yabexe.com offering more benefits at less cost than eBay.

You underestimated the power of affiliates. Individually, most aren’t a blip on the radar, but combined, the many thousands who removed eBay links that directed visitors to that auction house set eBay on a course for one of the largest losses of income it had seen since it’s inception.

Those of us who have been in the business of affiliate marketing for years saw the writing on the wall when eBay first took their affiliate program in-house and away from Commission Junction, which once handled their account. Obviously it was an attempt to create a better bottom line by cutting costs. Normally, there would be no problem with such a move, but it was done in haste and numerous problems in proper reporting of earnings to affiliates were apparent from day one. It took months before it even approached acceptability and still has problems to this day.

Then, Mr. Hartman changed the awards structure for new eBay members that affiliates sent to to eBay. Once earning an affiliate $35 if they had a new member join eBay, that was changed to some type of system that allowed eBay to determined what a new sign up was worth. After the change, often an affiliate was awarded only one dollar for sending them a new member. Though the bonus system as it was originally created was flawed, as many unscrupulous affiliates took advantage of it, a better system could have been devised – such as the affiliate being awarded the $35 bonus after the new member generated $35 worth of earnings for eBay. This would have stopped the bogus sign ups in their tracks and kept the legitimate affiliates happy. Steve Hartman again, drove many good affiliates from the eBay ranks by screwing everyone for the shame of a few.

Next came the indiscriminate terminations of affiliates who had been with the eBay affiliate program (now ePN) for years. Initially it was done without warning. Thousands of letters sent out notifying affiliates that they were “expired”, which is a term ePN still uses when terminating people. The first round of notifications was retracted (most believe due to a possible class action lawsuit that may have been possible) only to be followed shortly thereafter by the terminations that continued in full force after proper notification of “reviews” to be conducted.

Finally, a new payout structure for commissions was devised. New member sign ups now earn $0. Commissions on eBay sales are paid on a “per click” basis using a formula that even ePN doesn’t understand. It seems to change daily and payouts are determined the day following sales. So secret is this method of calculation that you are more likely to get nuclear launch codes. Those affiliates who earned hundreds of dollars in commissions each month suddenly started earning only pennies on the dollar because their multitude of clicks from visitors diluted the sales that were made.

Did all this “Steve Hartman Genius” make the affiliates happy, or even feel as though it was fair?

Of course not. Even those of us who were not expired changed to other companies in order to keep our standard income at the same levels we once enjoyed with eBay. We diversified. We sent visitors to other companies, such as Amazon (which is now making record sales since ePN started their evil ways) and others from whom we know exactly what we will earn for a sale.

Where eBay was once our main source of income, it has now become a little add-on link. A “by the way” type of addition to our websites that says to people, “We don’t really want you going there, but in case you do, here is our cookie so we might earn ten cents should you buy something.” Complete websites once solely devoted to eBay have been revised to promote the products sold by other companies.

Which brings me back to Steve Hartman.

Obviously, his move from ePN to U-Store-it is an indication that his entire program has been a disaster for ePN and eBay. No doubt he thought that affiliates were an unneeded commodity for eBay. Why pay affiliates for people who would have bought from eBay anyway? Not that this is true, but it had to have been his thought process. He mistakenly believed affiliates weren’t needed. If he had believed differently, he would have treated them better.

If his new programs had been successful he would not be jumping the ePN ship and ePN would certainly not be allowing him to leave. They would have offered him money, stock options, anything to keep his sorry ass where it was.

For those of us who spent time in the corporate world, this is an allowed escape with no explanations for cause. ePN was probably glad to see him go without a fuss and no doubt gave him rave reviews to any prospective employer foolish enough to take him off their hands. Steve Hartman saw the writing on the wall. His policies sucked and he was getting full credit for it. His time was limited. ePN hardly wanted to admit that they have taken a beating because of Steve Hartman, nor did they want to explain to stockholders that it is the affiliate that has been driving their success and it is the affiliate they pissed off, which resulted in their lackluster performance over the last year or more.

Now, Steve Hartman has joined U-Store-It. In the usual positive spin from a company, they must have quoted his resume:

“In his most recent role at eBay, Hartman was responsible for successfully leading one of the world’s largest global online affiliate marketing programs through a challenging transformation of its strategy, organization, pricing, and technology, dramatically improving its ROI and strategic alignment with eBay’s marketing objectives. During his nine years with the company he held numerous impactful marketing and technology leadership roles in online advertising, reporting and analytics, and data-driven applications. Prior to eBay, Hartman served as a technology consultant with Accenture, consulting with Fortune 500 clients across the insurance and automotive industries. Hartman earned a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA through the University of California-Berkeley and Columbia University.”

If so successful, why is he leaving? Look at eBay’s bottom line since Mr. Hartman took control and you will see his antics were textbook stupidity. This is what an MBA from California-Berkeley produces? What a waste of money!
Good Riddance, Steve Hartman.  You can only hope U-Store-It never realizes what a moron you truly are. Perhaps you should start in the mail room and find out what it means to work for a living.