Learning from my mistakes
Firstly apologies for the delay in posting on this blog, I have been busy keeping up with ebook sales on eBay and more importantly re-designing my website www.infoebookstore.co.uk which is the subject of this posting.
Those who have visited my original site will know that it is a simple, graphics based front page with some Google Ads and affilitate links. The links to individual ebook adverts were all jpg image links. If you did avoid clicking on a Google Ad you might have eventually clicked on a specific ebook and found yourself on a long advert page also containing Google Ads and other affiliate links. If you wanted to buy the ebook you were probably put off by the paypal "buy it now" button, thinking you needed a paypal account to pay (this was not and is still not the case).
The point of this ramble is that the original site did not encourage customers to buy, in fact it made it easier for potential customers to click on an advert and leave the site. I can confirm there is more money to be made from individual ebook sales than pay per click advertising revenue.
So I have re-designed the site and individual pages so that they are easier to navigate, less advertising other peoples products and making it easier to buy my products. Cross selling of other items is also possible with the common side bar on every page.
Lesson Learnt No. 1 - ebook sales are more profitable than Google Ads, so do not make it easy for customers to navigate away from your site until they have purchased something.
Second lesson refers to the use of image based webpages. I have learnt through the Google Rank Ebook that I sell and through further investigation that Content is Key and the more text containing your Keywords the better, with just jpg images you have neither content or keywords. My site was being indexed by all search engines, but not ranking well at all because the meta tag keywords were not replicated in the content. This has now been rectified in the new site design.
Lesson Learnt No. 2 - Content is King, make sure you use keywords within site content to improve your Search Engine Ranking.
I intend to get back on track with the ebook business story soon.
Best Wishes
James
www.infoebookstore.co.uk
Friday, December 08, 2006
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Been busy lately - just been awarded Silver Powerseller Status on eBay
It's been a while since my last post on this blog, I have been busy with the day job (just returned from a 3 day conference in London) and very busy with the ebooks too.
I got an email from eBay yesterday congratulating me on my success and advising me that I have now reached the status of Silver Powerseller. This means I am doing a lot right, still maintaining my 100% feedback score, still selling over 500 ebooks per month and still keeping my customers happy.
I mentioned in the last posting about how important it is to select the right ebooks to sell. It is also important to create a great advert which will sell the ebook over and over again.
I decided to create a professional looking header/logo which I use on all of my website pages and on all of my eBay adverts and also my eBay store. It is even used on all of the emails my customers receive from me or eBay. It is important to create a professional look and consistant image with which the customer can associate. Just ask COKE or PEPSI!
In addition to the consistant header I decided to make the eBay adverts and the website ads almost exactly the same. Again using familiarity to maybe create more sales, but also for my ease/speed of creating them.
I use the same formula for each advert. What is the problem/need? How can my product solve it? What does the ebook contain? What do others who have bought it have to say about it? How much does it cost?
The most important part is the Customer Feedback. This takes time to achieve but it is priceless when convincing potential customers to buy. We are a naturally sceptical breed so when there is evidence that the product is for real and that others have been happy with their purchase we are comforted.
I am not suggesting that the format of my ads is perfect, I am constantly tweaking them, but they seem to work OK for me. Feel free to have a look at the items in my eBay store http://stores.ebay.co.uk/infoebookstore and on my website http://www.infoebookstore.co.uk
Next time, I will talk about the automation of ebook delivery.
James
www.infoebookstore.co.uk
www.altrinchamlife.co.uk
www.halelife.co.uk
It's been a while since my last post on this blog, I have been busy with the day job (just returned from a 3 day conference in London) and very busy with the ebooks too.
I got an email from eBay yesterday congratulating me on my success and advising me that I have now reached the status of Silver Powerseller. This means I am doing a lot right, still maintaining my 100% feedback score, still selling over 500 ebooks per month and still keeping my customers happy.
I mentioned in the last posting about how important it is to select the right ebooks to sell. It is also important to create a great advert which will sell the ebook over and over again.
I decided to create a professional looking header/logo which I use on all of my website pages and on all of my eBay adverts and also my eBay store. It is even used on all of the emails my customers receive from me or eBay. It is important to create a professional look and consistant image with which the customer can associate. Just ask COKE or PEPSI!
In addition to the consistant header I decided to make the eBay adverts and the website ads almost exactly the same. Again using familiarity to maybe create more sales, but also for my ease/speed of creating them.
I use the same formula for each advert. What is the problem/need? How can my product solve it? What does the ebook contain? What do others who have bought it have to say about it? How much does it cost?
The most important part is the Customer Feedback. This takes time to achieve but it is priceless when convincing potential customers to buy. We are a naturally sceptical breed so when there is evidence that the product is for real and that others have been happy with their purchase we are comforted.
I am not suggesting that the format of my ads is perfect, I am constantly tweaking them, but they seem to work OK for me. Feel free to have a look at the items in my eBay store http://stores.ebay.co.uk/infoebookstore and on my website http://www.infoebookstore.co.uk
Next time, I will talk about the automation of ebook delivery.
James
www.infoebookstore.co.uk
www.altrinchamlife.co.uk
www.halelife.co.uk
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Which ebooks to sell.....
or should it be which ebooks WILL sell?
The ebook I bought from Tina at infotech, link below, contains over 40 ebooks which can be sold on as they contain re-sell rights. This means the writer has given permission to sell the item (no copyright issues).
Why do ebook writers let them be re-sold or given away? Most ebooks contain hyperlinks to websites, pay per click advertising or affiliate links which all have the potential to earn the writer money.
Selecting which ebooks to sell on eBay is critical to success. There is a listing fee for eBay sales which means you need to offer ebooks which people want to buy and at the right price. It really is worth spending a few hours researching what sells and for how much. What is the competition like and can you afford to sell for the same price or less?
You can use eBay advanced search to browse live ebook listing and also check completed listings to find out which are actually selling and for how much. You can get a feel for popular titles.
In addition to offering the ebooks that came free with Tina's ebook, I purchased a few specialist titles including "How to claim free UK land and property" and "10 steps to a Google Friendly Page". These are both of interest to me personally and once I had read them I decided that they would be of interest to others. This turned out to be very true as Claim Land ebook is by far the most popular title.
I also purchased 15000 ebooks on a DVD for a small sum, many of which turned out to be duplicates and not much use, but I have a lot more to get through!!
It is very important you read the ebooks yourself before you sell them. IF you sell rubbish you WILL get no or bad feedback and grief, it really isn't worth it.
I am currently considering which titles to add to my inventory but due to the effort and listing fees required, I am selecting which ones will give me the greatest return.
In the next installment I will talk a bit about the importance of creating a good eBay advert and eBay / website identity.
James
www.infoebookstore.co.uk
www.halelife.co.uk
www.altrinchamlife.co.uk
or should it be which ebooks WILL sell?
The ebook I bought from Tina at infotech, link below, contains over 40 ebooks which can be sold on as they contain re-sell rights. This means the writer has given permission to sell the item (no copyright issues).
Why do ebook writers let them be re-sold or given away? Most ebooks contain hyperlinks to websites, pay per click advertising or affiliate links which all have the potential to earn the writer money.
Selecting which ebooks to sell on eBay is critical to success. There is a listing fee for eBay sales which means you need to offer ebooks which people want to buy and at the right price. It really is worth spending a few hours researching what sells and for how much. What is the competition like and can you afford to sell for the same price or less?
You can use eBay advanced search to browse live ebook listing and also check completed listings to find out which are actually selling and for how much. You can get a feel for popular titles.
In addition to offering the ebooks that came free with Tina's ebook, I purchased a few specialist titles including "How to claim free UK land and property" and "10 steps to a Google Friendly Page". These are both of interest to me personally and once I had read them I decided that they would be of interest to others. This turned out to be very true as Claim Land ebook is by far the most popular title.
I also purchased 15000 ebooks on a DVD for a small sum, many of which turned out to be duplicates and not much use, but I have a lot more to get through!!
It is very important you read the ebooks yourself before you sell them. IF you sell rubbish you WILL get no or bad feedback and grief, it really isn't worth it.
I am currently considering which titles to add to my inventory but due to the effort and listing fees required, I am selecting which ones will give me the greatest return.
In the next installment I will talk a bit about the importance of creating a good eBay advert and eBay / website identity.
James
www.infoebookstore.co.uk
www.halelife.co.uk
www.altrinchamlife.co.uk
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Website and domain name required - apply within!
It was clear from the ebook I bought that if I was going to make a serious effort at selling ebooks I needed a website. Not only to sell ebooks from but also to store ebooks on, which could then be downloaded by buyers from ebay. I had no idea about affiliate marketing or Pay Per Click advertising at this point so that was not a consideration.
I had previously purchased a hosting package from 1and1.co.uk which came with 3 free .co.uk domains. I had used two, www.halelife.co.uk and www.altrinchamlife.co.uk , which are live but currently not being updated. I had lost interest once I had done some research into my competition.
1and1.co.uk offer a wide range of hosting solutions and I had gone for the business solution which at the time was 8.99/month (probably cheaper now!) This gave me a very good sized hosting package and decent bandwidth. Along with the free domain names, 1and1.co.uk offer a big selection of free add ons including live feeds (e.g. localised weather, specific news etc), a huge photo library, free forms (how I created the "submit your email address" form on my site) and they also provide an excellent statistics tool which gives you a much information as you could ever need about your site visitors, how they found you, what pages they viewed, most popular pages etc. This isn't meant to be an advert for 1and1.co.uk it just turned out that way!
It was clear from the ebook I bought that if I was going to make a serious effort at selling ebooks I needed a website. Not only to sell ebooks from but also to store ebooks on, which could then be downloaded by buyers from ebay. I had no idea about affiliate marketing or Pay Per Click advertising at this point so that was not a consideration.
I had previously purchased a hosting package from 1and1.co.uk which came with 3 free .co.uk domains. I had used two, www.halelife.co.uk and www.altrinchamlife.co.uk , which are live but currently not being updated. I had lost interest once I had done some research into my competition.
1and1.co.uk offer a wide range of hosting solutions and I had gone for the business solution which at the time was 8.99/month (probably cheaper now!) This gave me a very good sized hosting package and decent bandwidth. Along with the free domain names, 1and1.co.uk offer a big selection of free add ons including live feeds (e.g. localised weather, specific news etc), a huge photo library, free forms (how I created the "submit your email address" form on my site) and they also provide an excellent statistics tool which gives you a much information as you could ever need about your site visitors, how they found you, what pages they viewed, most popular pages etc. This isn't meant to be an advert for 1and1.co.uk it just turned out that way!
This is an advert!
1and1.co.uk have a great affiliate program too. :-)
So I already had the hosting and one spare free .co.uk domain name. Next dilema is what to call my new ebook business! 1and1.co.uk have a handy tool for checking whether the domain name you want is available and if it isn't they offer other options, firstly the same domain with a different end, i.e. .com, .net, .info etc and if they don't meet your requirements they also offer similar alternatives based on keywords.
The choice of infoebookstore took a short while to materialise, ebooks, ebookstore and ebookshop were all obviously taken, I also did a few searches on Google to get a feel for the competition. I plumped for www.infoebookstore.co.uk in the end as I felt it summed up very well what I was selling, ebooks being predominately information based rather than Fiction.
Luckily the name infoebookstore was also available on eBay. I have had an eBay account since 2000, but used it very little in 6 years. I changed my username to infoebookstore, retaining my existing feedback and history.
Next - which ebooks should I sell? where do I get them from? what are resell rights?
Thanks for reading
James
Monday, October 30, 2006
1p ebooks - what is the point?
During my voyage of discovery through the World of eBay ebook sales I came across many 1p ebooks for sale. Most of them selling an ebook about how to sell ebooks for 1p.
This did sound pointless to me, with my little knowledge of eBay selling even I knew that eBay charged at least 15p to advertise anything, so what is the point in selling 1p ebooks?
- POSITIVE FEEDBACK = TRUST + FUNCTIONALITY
- INCREASED SALES = POWERSELLER
- MORE WEBSITE TRAFFIC = SELL MORE (incl. PPC ADS)
- MORE CUSTOMERS = BIGGER DATABASE TO RESELL TO
eBay is based around the trust of those buying and selling that the other party is a responsible member and they will go through with the transaction. The higher the feedback score the more confidence a purchaser has in the seller and visa versa.
You may think that selling 1p ebooks as a way of increasing feedback score is dishonest, and I fully understand that view point.
There is another reason for improving your feedback score. You may not be aware, that eBay restricts certain functionability to those with certain levels of feedback. i.e. to sell an item "buy it now" you need at least a score of 10.
I still sell 1p ebooks after two months of business, I don't need the feedback so much, but sales (of any kind) are great for improving you standing with eBay, in particular the Power Seller scheme. I also use 1p ebooks to cross promote my other items for sale and because purchasers are directed to my site to download these books there is an opportunity to resell on the site (direct sales and pay per click advertising).
I won't go into detail here about how the mechanics of selling 1p ebooks works (by the way is costs less than a penny per sale over all, the more you sell the less it costs) but I have made it available for free on my website, follow this link for your free download.
Thats all for now folks!
Check back soon for more updates and advice based on my experience.
Next - first eBay sales, what, when and how to sell.
James
www.infoebookstore.co.uk
Friday, October 27, 2006
First Steps -
I had never heard of an ebook, you may be surprised how many people haven't heard of ebooks!
I was sent an invitation to receive a free ebook on the subject of Customer Relationship Management by Roy Gough, a fellow member of the www.bmw7resource.co.uk/index.php a BMW 7 series forum. Roy is an expert in the field of CRM and can be found at www.roygough.co.uk.
The idea of electronic books in PDF or exe format had not crossed my mind, but my natural curiosity took over and I started to search for ebooks. WOW it's a phenomenon, I can't believe I have not read, let alone written an ebook! Everyone has been at it for ages!
Upon further investigation I found eBay listings were appearing high in search results. People are selling ebooks, people are writing ebooks and selling them, people are telling other people about ebooks and getting commissions (affiliates).
PEOPLE ARE SELLING EBOOKS ABOUT HOW TO SELL EBOOKS!! Sounds dodgy doesn't it. I am naturally sceptical, so when I bought the ebook about how to sell ebooks I was shocked! Something seemed to make sense, the investment was low and there was a money back guarantee, therefore the risk was low.
I bought the ebook, PowerSeller Ebook eBay Biz from Tina at infotech. She had great feedback and was offering the full guide including the top selling ebooks to get me started, see below....
Tina also offers an unrivalled aftersales support via her forum, again giving me confidence that this wasn't a fly by night cowboy selling a rubbish "get rich quick" scheme.
I will explain how I used this ebook to start an eBay business selling ebooks which has seen ME become a PowerSeller in just 48 days and sell over 1000 ebooks. AND MAKE A DECENT PROFIT AT THE SAME TIME......
until the next time
James
www.infoebookstore.co.uk
I had never heard of an ebook, you may be surprised how many people haven't heard of ebooks!
I was sent an invitation to receive a free ebook on the subject of Customer Relationship Management by Roy Gough, a fellow member of the www.bmw7resource.co.uk/index.php a BMW 7 series forum. Roy is an expert in the field of CRM and can be found at www.roygough.co.uk.
The idea of electronic books in PDF or exe format had not crossed my mind, but my natural curiosity took over and I started to search for ebooks. WOW it's a phenomenon, I can't believe I have not read, let alone written an ebook! Everyone has been at it for ages!
Upon further investigation I found eBay listings were appearing high in search results. People are selling ebooks, people are writing ebooks and selling them, people are telling other people about ebooks and getting commissions (affiliates).
PEOPLE ARE SELLING EBOOKS ABOUT HOW TO SELL EBOOKS!! Sounds dodgy doesn't it. I am naturally sceptical, so when I bought the ebook about how to sell ebooks I was shocked! Something seemed to make sense, the investment was low and there was a money back guarantee, therefore the risk was low.
I bought the ebook, PowerSeller Ebook eBay Biz from Tina at infotech. She had great feedback and was offering the full guide including the top selling ebooks to get me started, see below....
Tina also offers an unrivalled aftersales support via her forum, again giving me confidence that this wasn't a fly by night cowboy selling a rubbish "get rich quick" scheme.
I will explain how I used this ebook to start an eBay business selling ebooks which has seen ME become a PowerSeller in just 48 days and sell over 1000 ebooks. AND MAKE A DECENT PROFIT AT THE SAME TIME......
until the next time
James
www.infoebookstore.co.uk
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Introduction
Saturday 12th August 2006 was the day I took the plunge and bought a new "ebook" on eBay about how to sell ebooks on eBay! Sounds like a pyramid doesn't it, but not at all. The book I bought was entitled "Powerseller eBay eBook Biz" written by tina from infotech.
This was the start of a new ebook sales business for me which has seen me becoming an eBay Powerseller in just 48 days and selling over 1000 ebooks via eBay and my website www.infoebookstore.co.uk.
I will share with you some of the highs and lows of this high volume, low margin business which for me has given me a profit within a month and a nice bonus cash injection just before Christmas.
I also intend to share the insight I have gained into many other ways of making an additional income on the internet, from Google Adsense to Tradedoubler to Affiliate Marketing (Clickbank, Commission Junction etc) to Article Marketing Strategies.
Thats all for now folks, bookmark this blog and check back for updates.
All the best.
James
www.infoebookstore.co.uk
Saturday 12th August 2006 was the day I took the plunge and bought a new "ebook" on eBay about how to sell ebooks on eBay! Sounds like a pyramid doesn't it, but not at all. The book I bought was entitled "Powerseller eBay eBook Biz" written by tina from infotech.
This was the start of a new ebook sales business for me which has seen me becoming an eBay Powerseller in just 48 days and selling over 1000 ebooks via eBay and my website www.infoebookstore.co.uk.
I will share with you some of the highs and lows of this high volume, low margin business which for me has given me a profit within a month and a nice bonus cash injection just before Christmas.
I also intend to share the insight I have gained into many other ways of making an additional income on the internet, from Google Adsense to Tradedoubler to Affiliate Marketing (Clickbank, Commission Junction etc) to Article Marketing Strategies.
Thats all for now folks, bookmark this blog and check back for updates.
All the best.
James
www.infoebookstore.co.uk
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