eBay Aff Sites For Beginners?

So far we have crystallised a few facts. One is that I may not have been asking the questions the right way. Whatever, I reserve the right to be a f@rt in a bottle. I often need to say things twice to clarify my meaning, and sometimes need to duplicate my statements before people understand, If you get my drift and/or take my inferences.

108flowers has defined the fact that, one way or another, the autoblog style of ePN (eBay Partner Network) site has been kicked in the teeth.

KenW3 has stated that his eBay store product pages are ranking better than most ePN sites, which was not the case a couple of months ago.

I started asking questions before I studied what "was out there". Now I'm becoming aware of what is "out there", and how it got there, I will make some points and wait for the $ht to rain down on me in the replies.

Point 1 - I've never bothered joining the ePN because I was told that it was hard to get in, and that you need a good info based site with no ads on it to apply.
From what I find on the web, it seems that there is some sort of quota system in place, so ePN only adds members at a few set times a year. A good info based site just gets you higher up the list when ePN makes their "quota picks", and some people have been getting in with what can only be described as low effort sites.
Am I right about that?

Point 2 - has Goog/ the Panda stamped on the ePN sites, or just the ones with autoblogs, thin content or duplicate content? I realise this is a hard one to answer - perhaps KenW3 can look at the sites that are still competing with his store listings, and then comment.

Point 3 - how much is a link from eBay worth?
The site I have built was originally for one purpose - to show that I know about one of my products to a greater extent than most of my eBay competitors. That way, people will buy at higher prices, confident that I am not selling "any old rubbish". I'm pretty sure that it will work in that sense, since it shows factual stuff that is not "out there", with photographic evidence.
After building the site it occurred to me that it might be an extremely valuable link (actually two links, because there will be a home page link and a link from a listing most of the time), so I started asking the stupid questions. I have a couple of very thin authority sites on similar subject matter, which would benefit greatly from links from my new site, if it is successful.
It also occurred to me that this site might make a good ePN site because the only advertising eBay could accept on it would be eBay advertising.
So - is my site likely to go up in the ratings because of the eBay links, and is it likely to go down in the ratings if I make it an ePN site?

Point 4 - If linking to a self-generated authority site works as a strategy, could the idea be extended to give anyone selling on eBay (like 108flowers) an advantage with ePN sites built in the "traditional" way?
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Read the full thread here.

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