As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of the things I have done recently was to set up an eBay store selling information products. The purpose of the listings are not to make money but as a lead generation tool, and also to offer other products.

The first batch of listings I placed ended yesterday. I initially listed 50 products and added another 10 a day for 3 days bringing the total to 80. I have a stack of resell rights products on my hard drive (don’t we all?!) so you would think finding 80 would be a breeze. Quite the opposite actually and it was the process of choosing the products to sell that took the longest. The majority of ebooks I had with resell a license didn’t allow you to sell on auction sites for obvious reasons. There’s no point trying to sell a product for $20 if others are offering it on eBay for a couple of bucks.

The selection process also brought home how messy my hard drive was. The many ebooks I had were all over the place, this cost me alot of time. Lesson learnt, be more organised Mark!

I had sold regularly on eBay in the past back in 2001/3, and didn’t do too bad so the whole eBay process wasn’t new to me. But setting this up involved more than I thought as there are many elements:

• Choosing resell rights products to sell
• Editing the sales pages
• Adding images to the sales pages
• Designing a template for the cdrom’s
• Designing a cover for the cdrom’s
• Design label for cdrom’s and learn how to print onto printable cdr’s
• Set up an eBay store and customise
• Upload the listings
• and much more!

As you can see, there was lots to do. I initially set a target of 2 weeks to complete all this but it took me nearer 4. To be honest, I could have completed the process quicker if I spent less time on the appearance of the listings and the CD-roms themselves. Most people just throw a CD in an envelope and post it but I thought it was worth taking the time to give a more professional look.

So as well as the product bought, what else did I put on the cd-rom?

• some bonus products - 3 ebooks, free membership to a resell rights site and some more ebooks available by submitting their email address. I put an Aweber form into the cdrom
• some upsells - more resell rights products and some video course’s
• an info page about me and my blog with another Aweber form

So one week in, was it worth it and what where the results?

• I sold 20 ebooks but this only consisted of 7 buyers
• One of the seven submitted an email address to receive an ebook
• One took up one of the special offers on the cdrom
• One is emailing me for help in setting up a website so there maybe an opportunity there
• My feedback rating on eBay has gone up (only 2 so far but the rest were only posted this weekend)

So all in all not too bad. I had hoped for more than 7 buyers but you got to start somewhere and I suppose you need to build a presence.

This was one of the methods John Thornhill first used and still does to build his list. I think he has around 40,000 subscribers but it’s probably way more than that by now. He has powerseller status which means he sells over 100 per month on a consistent basis, so the potential is there.

As a side point, I am starting to think about what subject to use for an ebook. I was thinking of writing about resell rights/plr products, but writing this post has reminded me of how much was involved in setting up an eBay store.

Would this be a good subject for an ebook?

What do you think? Is this something you would like to know more about?

I would love to hear your views and would appreciate any feedback. You can take a look at my eBay store with the link below. There are only about 30 or so products up for the next day or two as I am not relisting the 50 just ended until I make some changes to the CD.

Here’s the link: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Red-Hot-Information-Products

Mark

This was something I meant to mention in an earlier post but forgot to. When you register a domain name you get offered a privacy option so your details do not show in whois.

When I registered my first domain name, I did not notice this and was unaware of that option. Well I soon realised my mistake. Within a few hours of registering the domain my inbox was full of all sorts of spam. I still haven’t managed to stop it all.

If you don’t take the privacy option, the whois directory lists all your contact details. If you take the option, your domain providers details are shown as an adminstrative contact instead.

So don’t make the same mistake I did. Some providers offer this option for free, namecheap certainly do with the first name you register. Godaddy charge but if you register 5 domains or more it’s free for all of them. Even if you have to pay, it’s not much and it’s essential.

We learn from our mistakes!

Mark