I keep hearing that Ebay Affiliate marketing is a waste of time because all the big price items are for lack of a better term, overcrowded. Does this hold true? Is this just in the USA and not in other places?
That doesn't make sense. Via Commission Junction a cookie with tracking is placed on the computer when your ad is clicked by a reader or searcher online. Most of my big sales come from cookies left on a computer.... for example, someone buys a book through my site and 10 days later goes on to buy 10K in power tools or a new car. That's how the big commissions are made in my opinion - you get your cookie out as much as possible and the rest is magic. So find a niche and don't worry about the big items at first. On one of my new sites i've had 10 clicks on an ebay ad and just got paid a $14 ebay auction commission for a single item. Good luck to you.
I don't promote ebay alot (yet), but would think there is still a lot of opportunity there. An example of an overcrowded niche would be satellite tv. A couple of products (repackaged), with zillions of affiliates trying to promote them...
It's still good, and it's the same everywhere. Forget the big ticket items and work the smaller niches. Check out Ebay's Hot Items guide to find the good ones.