Does ebay realize that their affiliate payouts actually encourage

affiliates to list items in lower-priced categories?

[HughMungus]

If you consider that it's easier to get a registration or a bid on a low ticket item than a higher one?

[freeflight2]

I was thinking exactly the same thing... you could basically have people 'bidding' on e.g. $5 bills or so and let them make a profit for sure and sack in the $10-$20 registration fees

[jcoronella]

I'm not convinced they care. They want users to think of ebay when they go to buy something onlin, and get them in the door and signed up. I doubt the long term value of a customer differs much by the value of their first purchase and if it does you could make an argument that it may be the users who buy a pack of pencils as more valuable in the long term because they are bargain hunters.

[Labyrinth]

Of course they don't care (about the low ticket items, not someone selling $5 bills).

It's called a "loss leader" -- they're willing to lose money on the first purchase because they do a good job of keeping the customer and ensuring that that first purchase if just that -- the FIRST purchase in a long line of purchases to come.

[Lord Majestic]

Their shares are likely to be valued by number of "registrations" or "bids" in a quarter. Profits are healthy (at the moment), so these loss leaders are not that obvious (if they play any role at all).

[howiejs]

Good thread. I just started testing the ebay affiliate program. OK results so far - nothing great . . .

The key is getting new registrations vs. bids - as the payout is in the new members!

You can sort the display for the user by lowest price - I have been testing this.

any other thoughts on the ebay affiliate program?