Before You Do Anything Else…
Before I invest any money in a domain name or website, I head to http://www.ebay.com
Why? As you read the following chapter keep in mind that when I first got the idea to sell my first manual, I became primarily convinced to pursue writing it because it dawned on me that eBay® was the only place I could start selling without any Internet knowledge and while risking very, very little capital – mainly a quarter or two.
Another deciding factor that pushed me to begin writing was that eBay® had visitors to their site. Think about it – can you imagine how many unique visitors eBay® gets on a daily basis? It’s got to be in the bazillions! Seriously, though, I figured that people who weren’t even looking for my product might accidentally find it because I was selling it on a website frequented by tons of people every single day. Now, what do you think happened? People not only found my first manual - they bought it! Not by the ton, but it did sell.
At that time I was printing each one I sold and then mailing it. I do remember mailing out 53 copies all in one week. Man, that’s exciting – I don’t care what type of information product you are selling or where you’re selling it – that’s flat exciting! All because of eBay®.
So, if you have just finished your first e-book or you’re wondering what to do when you get it complete – head over to eBay®, become a member and list it there right away. Just do it!
In every case, it is the route I have taken to start selling each of my e-books.
Now, there are a lot of tips I want to give you here so you can avoid some pitfalls as you begin selling your electronic book.
First – do some research to see what category you should list your product under. If you aren’t sure, look at similar books and see where they are listed.
On eBay® you’ll want to find the appropriate category to sell your e-book in because that is where your best potential customers will be looking. The most obvious are the BOOKS category and EVERYTHING ELSE category. I have listed mine in those categories before, but have found better results when I list them in the appropriate category – like Fishing, OtherProducts.
Most of the time a particular category will have sub-categories and one will more than likely be - OTHER. You may be able to list your e-book there because you are in an area where others are looking for related products in the category.
For example, if selling an e-book on How To Build Your Own Shed – head to the BUSINESS & INDUSTRIAL category or the HOME & GARDEN category. Then search for the word “shed” and see what results you get. You also might want to try “how to shed” on eBay’s home page just to see what happens. In addition, try “DIY” (short for do it yourself) in a separate search.
When you search for these terms on eBay’s home page you will find every listing that has those words in the title of the auction. You’ll discover which category and set of sub categories is best for you. Also I recommend that you place these items you find that others are selling in your WATCH ITEMS. You’ll then be able to see what is successfully selling AND for what price.
So, why are you doing this? What you are looking for here is to see what category and subcategories others have listed their products or services in and where bids are taking place. This is pertinent information for anyone selling a similar item—in this case, your e-book.
Here’s my example. After testing and trying different categories I determined that SPORTING GOODS, FISHING, FRESHWATER, OTHER FRESHWATER ITEMS was a better category and set of sub categories for my product than SPORTING GOODS, FRESHWATER, VIDEO BOOKS. Even though the sub-category appears to be a more obvious area to list my e-book, I found that more anglers visit the OTHER FRESHAWTER ITEMS sub-category, which in turn gives me more views, which hopefully leads to more sales.
Occasionally I may list my products in the VIDEO, BOOKS sub category but for the most part, I don’t.
It takes some work, but this research will assist you in becoming more successful at selling your product sooner. And the extra work will be worth it.
Since we are on the topic of price…..well, not really, but it’s a great time for me to bring this tip up. I started my first e-book – How To Get Sponsored For Tournaments on eBay® at $1.99. I now sell it for $19.95.
Why such a low price? Because I didn’t have a track record. But there was a method to my madness – I wanted to build my feedback up and slowly raise the price. When someone has a feedback score of “3” as I did when I first began, other eBayers may not completely trust you yet and possibly not bid because of your low feedback score. So I determined that if I started with a low price, obtained some feedback, it wouldn’t be long before I could raise my prices and earn some trust with positive feedback. If you can afford to do that, too, I highly recommend it. Besides, when you’re marketing an e-book, your overhead is pretty low anyway.
Here’s the key to doing it with a lower starting bid:
If you sell your item as an auction where people can bid, as opposed to Buy It Now (you won’t be able to sell your e-book with BUY IT NOW price if you have less than 10 positive feedbacks) auction, you can make second chance offers to others that have bid on the item as well and didn’t win. That’s a beautiful thing. But more importantly when you prepare your auction and you write your description, state in the description that you are starting the price out low as a test and as feedback starts to come in the price will be raised. When the feedback comes in – raise the price a dollar. Then include in the description the price last week was $1.99 and it’s now $2.99 and next week it’ll be $3.99. Everybody loves a bargain and will want to buy it now, not wait until next week when the price is higher.
Doubly important is the list of feedbacks you receive for your e-book in the description. Yes, take the feedbacks you receive and place them in your description the next time you list your e-book. You can do that—and you should! It’s a built-in testimonial that people can read as they are viewing your item without having to wander off to read your feedbacks.
On a website, I’d recommend starting it at $9.97 at least. Most people may not think that it contains anything of value for that price and $19.95 may be better. You’ll have to test it out.
I know I sold my first How To Get Sponsored For Tournaments book for $9.95 for the longest time. My brother in law convinced me, after pushing me, to double the price. I thought for sure it would be the demise of my sales. Sure enough I started selling them at the higher price and sales continued just as they had previously. Ultimately, it’s your product and the price you set is up to you.
Some helpful thoughts to consider:
If you do a 3-Day listing you may get more views than a 7-Day listing because visitors to eBay usually look at NEWLY LISTED and ENDING SOONEST when looking at auctions. If you are conducting a 3-Day listing, your product will show up more often if someone changes the search bar to either choice.
End and start your auction on Sunday night. Trust me on this. It’s always worked pretty well for me. On Sunday nights, people are usually home, not busy with the weekend’s activities, and are preparing for the upcoming workweek.
When you prepare your listing, cram your title with as many words as possible that may help others find your e-book—even accidentally. Here’s what I mean. If you’re going to sell an e-book on the different sizes and particular uses for each nail known to man, don’t use only 2 words – NAIL E-BOOK in your title. Use something to the effect of, DIY E-book Home Framing Finishing Nails. (Visitors on eBay® search for items they want in a number of different ways and the more words you can squeeze into your title the better your chances are of coming up in the results they are looking for even if they are not actually searching for your product).That may not be the best title; however, I think you get the point.
Once you sell your e-book on eBay®, pay attention to the feedback that’s NOT being left for you. Many times people get busy and forget to leave feedback for the item they purchased. Don’t hesitate to contact them and ask for feedback.
If you list your e-book in the AUCTION FORMAT where people can bid on it and not buy it now, don’t forget to send SECONDCHANCE OFFERS to those who didn’t win. You don’t have to pay another insertion fee, only a final value fee – if it sells to the other bidders you have extended the SECOND CHANCE OFFER to.
In case you sell other things on eBay®, you can create a free ABOUT ME page that visitors to your auctions can click through to. In there you can place a link to your web site that sells your e-book.
Be as descriptive as possible in your description page.
Invest in The Silent Sales Machine Hiding on eBay by Jim Cockrum. It’s a great e-book that shows you how to potentially make money even if your auction doesn’t sell. Marketing and selling your e-book on eBay® is a great avenue because of the monster amount of traffic it receives. It’s like having a web site without the expense!! By selling your e-book on eBay® in the beginning, it will prepare you for the next step.
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Web Site - Quick and Simple Steps
Believe me when I tell ya - having my own web site was very intimidating to me.
Finally—hesitantly—and per my brother-in-law’s recommendation and direction, I headed to http://www.godaddy.com Boy, was I thrilled when I discovered how simple creating a website could be! The best part is, you don’t need to know anything about HTML (whatever that is) to begin! If you can type on your keyboard, you are halfway there.
Prior to owning my own website, I sold my How To Get Sponsored For Fishing Tournaments manual on eBay for one year before. Trust me, eBay is good but having your own website is better.
My very first site http://www.fishforfree.com I created by myself and I can promise you this – it didn’t look nearly as good as it does now. It was a one-page site with my picture on it directing visitors to my eBay auction. (I think it also had an “L” for LOSER on it). In addition, I wasn’t even selling my ebook on my own site. I was instructing people to go to eBay and search for it. I laugh now, but that’s the way it was on my first site.
The one good thing I did possess was the domain name – fishforfree.com. It was—and still is—short, sweet, catchy, and very easy to remember! Think about that when you’re searching for your own domain name.
And now I highly recommend http://www.Godaddy.com to you. In my opinion there is no other website with similar services that is as comprehensive and customer service oriented as they are. The list goes on and on of the Internet services they provide. Really.
The first thing you’ll need is a domain name. Now, forgive me for telling you something that may seem so obvious, but when I started I didn’t know the difference between a domain name and a website.
For those of you who are interested in knowing the difference, read on. Everyone else skip to the next paragraph. A domain name is simply that – it’s the name of the website. Ebay.com is a domain name. FishForfree.com is a domain name. Yahoo.com is a domain name. Even though each of those domain names has a website attached to it, they are still just names.
Godaddy offers a domain search space on their home page. All you have to do is type your idea for your site’s name in the search box and Godaddy will let you know if that domain name you are searching for is available. Even if it has already been taken, you may find that it’s for sale by the owner. If your heart is set on that particular domain name, you may want to purchase it. However, if you’re starting out on a shoestring budget, you may want to simply pick another name.
More than likely an entire book could be written—and there probably has been—on how to select your domain name, but in an effort to save you time on finding those tips in an ebook, I’m going to offer some quick suggestions.
· Short as possible
· Easy to remember
· Make sense (in other words it ties into what you are selling)
· If possible obtain a “.com” name as opposed to a “.net” or “.biz.”
· Avoid hyphenated names. For example, choose marketingyourebook.com as opposed to marketing-your-ebook.com (It’s easier to say and remember)
· Don’t be afraid of putting the words “the,” or “my,” in front if the domain name you really want is already taken.
· When you find one that’s available, write it down somewhere and then keep looking for other domain names to see if you can create others you might like better. (GoDaddy has a built in doman name search engine - you type in the name you want and within seconds thay let you know if it is avialable to be purchased).
Once you have settled on a domain name that works for you, you can begin to build your website. Your website is where you will sell your ebook. As of this writing, when you purchase a domain name from Godaddy for $8.95 you also receive a free one-page site. All you have to do is add your description (for now you can copy your description from your ebay listing into the body), add your Paypal button, click publish website and BAM you’re in business! You’ve created your very own website. It’s that easy.
Essentially that’s all there is to it and if you get in a pickle, just call Godaddy.com anytime of the day or night and one of their friendly customer service representatives will help you. It’s great when a company can offer great prices and great service - and they do both!
I recommend getting at least the free one page site to start with because you’ll have a platform to sell from for the upcoming suggestions I’ll be making. As time goes on and you feel more comfortable with working on your site, you can add more pages and information.
If you do not want to take the time and energy to build your website, you may prefer to have someone who is experienced and proficient in web design and hosting. Feel free to contact Laurie Cork of Creative Marketing Concepts. http://www.marketingcreativeconcepts.com Laurie is a good friend of mine and does a superb job. As a matter of fact, if you look closely in the bottom right hand corner of www.fishforfree.com you’ll see a link to Laurie’s web site. Follow these quick and simple tips and you will have your web site up and running in no time.
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