Hi Gerard,
Wow, you have the highest feedback of anyone who bought my coaching or eBook Business.. I sell it in two versions, hence the "or".
Sounds like you think a lot like me..
I have been going more and more towards service and information products as of late also. I have sold about 35,000 products on eBay, but it sounds like you have sold probably almost as many!
First, I was wondering, if you were aware of salvage and returns? You could already know, but just in case you do not, it might help you on your profit for selling bikes..
What I mean is you can often buy returns and overstock of various product from chain stores.. With bikes, though, I am not sure if it is as easy to find, but there are chain stores for Bikes also.. Maybe you already know you can buy them in
salvage?
I buy salvage from chain stores like Sears for about 25% of wholesale.. So, if the item was $400 in the store, I could get it for about $75. There was always the risk of 20% of it being damaged or not sellable, but all you have to do to figure the value is to divide $75 by 0.8 to get your effective price you pay (to cover for damaged items)..
Here is a couple pages I have on the topic:
Again, if you already know this, I guess its just preaching to the choir..
NOW ONTO EBOOKS:
OK, regarding
eBooks, as you might have learned already, its almost ALL in the marketing.. Its not the eBook at all. People make this mistake to think the value is in the eBook, but actually that is not the case..
Literally, you are selling your ad.. You are just trying to convince them your eBook is worth that higher price you set and getting them to click the buy it now..
The idea is even if you have a competitor that sells the very same eBook at 10 cents, you can still charge $5 bucks for yours and often sell more than your competition..
Why? Because the customers will assume yours is more valuable, as you are charging $5 bucks..
So, take the topic of Karate.. I have seen eBooks for Karate or Martial Arts sell for as high as $15 bucks, as can be seen here:
The TRICK is to make sure your ad is different and better than your competitions. So, if you are selling the very same eBook as the numbskull who sells it for $0.10, all you need to do is make sure your ad doesn't give away it is the same eBook.. And that you simply outline the benefits/features better than
him..
The price also is a selling point.. The higher the price, the higher quality it becomes in the mind of your customer..
So, its literally a mind game..
Consider my powerselling course you bought.. Imagine if I put the price at $5 bucks. Wouldn't you assume it was worthless?
And rightly so, as I would have been an amatuer seller to even put it at $5 bucks.. It shows you my mindset.. I am cheap if $5 bucks is enough..
ALSO, since you are really looking for a way to hook into the service, digital products and you already have a good amount of experience, let me give you a tip:
1. Find a niche that few are doing or don't want to do..
2. Find a way to go beyond just eBooks. eBooks are good, but there are other service and digital products
that are higher than eBooks..
For instance, there are those out there that sell websites.. They will sell virtually the same website, but just switch out the graphics and will host it for those who buy..
So, all you do is get hooked up with a company like Ci Host, where you can get a whole server for $100 a month... Then, you can put unlimited websites on this server.. Sell websites like there is no tomorrow, making them all the same template, but just different graphics, themes and you have a business..
They will sell these websites for about $100+... So, you could sell one a day..
OF COURSE, this is just one of MANY ideas..
Check out this guy.. He is PURE information.. He sells ONE CD and used to make about $250+ a day selling it.. Yes, ONE CD:
He obviously understands how to market informational products.. He is a good guy to reverse engineer if you need a model for understanding how to sell informational products..
Right now, it looks like he isn't making as much as he used to.. He only sells about 130 a month.. Back in the old days, he was selling like 500 a month..
Imagine that.. One CD..
Sincerely
Tony
gerard <enlightened.partnership@aaaa.net> wrote:
Hi
Tony,
Just wanted to introduce myself and to thank you for the oportunity to
expand my eBay business. I am currently a Powerseller on eBay with the user
ID of gerardsbike. Selling for 6 years with a 11,000+ feedback.
I have always seen the potential and profitability of selling information on
eBay in either the standard CD format or the Digital Delivery way but have
not had the time to set something up. I am always trying to improve my
business which is currently centered on bicycle products. I was a retailer
for 30 years and close my brick and morter 4 years ago. I have seen a
tremendous surge of competition with a lot of price wars being fought and
ending with little profits. I've expanded my eBay business by being an
Educational Specialist, Trading Assistant and have helped other businesses
to set up their eBay accounts and selling strategies. My current direction
is to consult clients who want to open up a Drop Off store without
spending
a fortune on franchises. One of my goals is to have my eBay business set up
in a way to be more self running and automated. This is why the eBooks
business is attractive to me.
Not sure where to go from here. I obviously have the eBay experience and
have taught myself some HTML and have also constructed some websites (not
bad for an old school guy) but am not experienced in the digital delivery
system.
Pardon my rambing on but wanted to give you an idea of where I'm at.
Thanks
Gerard Bechard
