My First Ebay Classified Ad
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Loading ...With the imminent change to the eBay policy on listing downloadable digital products, as announced in my earlier post, I thought it was time that I got organised and took some action!
So (drum roll please…) I now have my first eBay classified ad running!
You can view it here if you’re interested:
Click Here To View My Ebay Classified Ad
I’ve set it up with an opt in box and it’s advertising a free download of the Big Yellow Ebook of Turbo Marketing Secrets.
I’ve also put a note at the top of the ad directing people to a section further down the page where I talk about the eBay policy change. This gives me a chance to point out that I am still able to offer instant downloads on all of my digital products from my e-book website despite the eBay ban.
I then point them to my About Me page where I can legitamately i.e. within eBay policy, give them my e-book website address.
I’ve also made a point to talk about my excellent eBay feedback to give people confidence to buy from me outside of eBay.
The final thing that I have included in the ad is the fact that I always offer a 30-day ‘no quibble’ money back guarantee on all downloadable digital products. Again this is all designed to reassure my prospects that I’m a reputable person to do business with outside the ’safe’ environment of eBay.
Now, of course, I don’t yet know whether any of this will actually work, but at least I’m going to learn what works and what doesn’t with the classified ad format. It’s a whole new ball game!
My next plan is to try listing a digital product as a physical item by burning it to CD. At the moment I’m not sure whether to try something very low cost (say $5 to $10) and then go for an upsell afterwards or to try listing something more expensive (say $27 - $47). I’ll probably try both and see what happens.
What are you planning? Have you got any experience in running classified ads or selling CDs on eBay? If so, it would be great if you could share your experiences by leaving your comments below.
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Hallo, Dave! I used to sell digital products (OTR, Old Time Radio shows, digital scrapbooks, and software) on ebay to a niche of mine and for everyone interested in ebook creation. I sold my items on CD’s and mailed them by hand at the post office. Prices were from $9.95 to $24.95, and not one person balked at the prices or asked for a refund. I shipped worldwide to Japan, Australia, Germany, and England, mostly. If you have a good product with real value to the buyer it won’t matter if your price is higher or if there is a wait for the item through the mails.
I gave buyers a choice of payment from Money Orders to Paypal and then just stayed with Paypal and saw no difference in sales. My Feedback was always good, no negs. And I had repeat customers. I printed cover art and sent the disk in a sturdy plastic case until I bought software from somebody who used a simple flat cardboard case at far less postage than I was asking for my items.
There is something to be said for great packaging in the sales page, however!
I listed the same item three times, ten days each, and sold six out of ten on average in a Buy It Now type auction. This meant sending out the item when I received payment at first then I began to send out the item immediately after the sale to improve the lag time between the sale and the delivery. Not one customer stiffed me on the payment, possibly because - I ALWAYS WITHHELD FEEDBACK UNTIL I RECEIVED PAYMENT - and this may be why I was never stiffed.
Most people are honest, anyway. Sometimes I include a surprisefreebie in the package I sent, too. This may be why my Feedback was always great. I offered a catalog of my other items(printed)in the package and this upsold my off-ebay items. I did not have a website at this time, and reached the point where I exhausted my niche’s ability to buy from me so I began to get interested in digital delivery and sold a lot of things that way while learning the ropes of selling offline. I have an interest in using the Classifieds on eBay, and so will see what happens when I do my first Classifieds Ad for a product I just finished. Will let you know how it goes!
Regards, David~
Hi there
I was just about to start off my ebook business on Fleabay when it ended the digital download sales channel. So now I will burn to disc and try from there.
Back end sales are a concern but other than that im ok with it. I already run a ‘physical’ item store on the’ bay so am familiar with the ‘hardship’ involving the posting of products.
I found the technology of managing a website was a real struggle to learn and it delayed my start. Im just glad I didnt give up my day job yet, now that is a really bad consequence of this policy change. Its peoples lives and im sure some people have had their livlihood taken from them, i wish them all the best.
A couple of years back I paid £1200 to attend a small seminar about internet marketing, and these guys were making good money. Surprisingly to me they didnt advocate ebay as a sales channel, and now I see why. Ebay is, at heart, a private business and they choose who they let sell from their platform, not so the http://WWW. Its just a skill adjustment we need to make. With this change to ebay I have dug out my textbooks from the event and gone over my notes again as I feel they are suddenly relevant again.
But I see the positive, if I build it, stock it and manage it, then im in control, always. So long as ebay allows us to sell physical discs then thats ok by me. Like I said its the back end sales I will miss, but im sure a solution will present itself.
Oh, and Dave your Classified Ad has been removed, what happened?
Dave,
Great post. I was getting close to launching another great book I have been silently working on for the last 6 months. I was going to hit ebay as well and looks like they put the brakes to that. Well there are many other avenues to selling online…but now one less
I just noticed your ad was removed as well…what happened?
James Rivers
DigitalTVBoxNet
Hi again Dave
I have been musing over things and have even added more items to my store on eBay so I havent really had a chance to start something new yet.
A new direction is needed though as I see that eBay now advocates a returns policy as being mandatory. Personally I find this good for the buyer as anything we sell should be as described, of good quality etc, but what about the unscrupulous population that will want to return a purchase? Ebay are of no help here so I may selll, post then have to take an item back. To my business this costs me listing fee’s, Paypal fee’s, return postage costs and just what do I do with a used item???
Seriously need to get this CD thing going I think as they are cheap in all the right areas to produce, print, pack and post
Anyone got a good CD burning program for the creation of discs? I think Dan Sumner posted one out of his auto responder but its physical and states based, 6 wk delivery maybe? I have asked for another product but in the meantime what to use?
Anymore from you Dave, how’s it going?