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One of the biggest problems with eBay, is trying to source products to sell. If you are selling one-offs, like stuff you’ve picked up from yard sales, car boots (for my UK friends), offline auctions, clearance sales etc., you also have the constant hassle of having write a completely new auction description/sales page for every listing.

One of the best things to sell on eBay is information products. The profit margin is potentially very high, and you can just keep selling the same thing over and over to different people.

This obviously sounds very appealing, until you actually look at what info products are being sold on eBay. Everyone and their brother seems to be selling ebooks for Dollar or less.

So is it possible to make any decent money selling info products on eBay?

The simple answer is yes, but 99% of eBay sellers are going about it the completely wrong way.

If you you’ve tried selling ebooks on eBay before without much success, the following information is for you…

There are already a ton of courses on how to use eBay out there, some good, some bad. However, what makes Auction Profit Machine stand out, is that it is dedicated entirely to creating and selling info products.

If you are already an accomplished and successful info product seller on eBay, a lot of the info in here will be familiar to you. However, if you are not you’ll find this course invaluable. It’s definitely the most comprehensive guide on the subject I have read.

If you fill in a quick form, you can download their free report, which is certainly worth a read: "The Real Secret To Quick and Easy eBay® Profits!"

More info hereAuction Profit Machine

Jason Lewis

Looking for products ideas?

Before you even think about creating or developing a new product to sell, you MUST know if there is a demand for that product?

Just as important: ‘can you gain easy access to that market?’

The first one is obvious to most people, but the second point is often overlooked. It’s one thing having a product that people want, but if you can’t get it in front of them very easily, you are going to struggle to sell it.

During the gold rush, it was the guys selling the shovels who made all the real money. Today; there are lots of similar opportunities to sell shovels (metaphorically speaking).

All over the web you will find huge thriving communities, if you know where to look for them. At sites like the ones below, you can browse through the topics and find forums related to most decent size niche markets. This is a great way to find where large communities gather and prosper.

http://www.big-boards.com
http://groups.google.com
http://groups.yahoo.com

When you check out the various forums, look for popular threads, where there are lots of views and comments. Jot down notes of what people are talking about, what problems they are having, and what they ‘want’.

This will help give you a picture of what people may be willing to buy.

Jump On Existing Bandwagons

Instead of trying to re-invent the wheel, look at what’s already being successfully sold to those communities. Those guys are showing you a road map to making money, all you have to do is follow in their footsteps.

I’m not saying you should copy everything they are doing, but there’s nothing stopping you from selling something similar to the same market.

There are a few ways you can do this. One way is to look at what they are doing, and provide something better, maybe in a different format, or to a specific sub niche of the community.

• They might be selling ‘how to’ ebooks to that market - You could maybe provide similar information using video or audio as an alternative.
• They might be selling templates and graphics - You could provide a tutorial resource on how to customize and install those templates etc.

Lets have a look at some different communities to give you a feel for what the possibilities are…

• Open source software -

  Some of the biggest and thriving online communities are around the many different open source software programs. For example:

  Mambo - http://forum.mamboserver.com
  Joomla - http://forum.joomla.org

  Both those sites are for two of the most popular content management systems. Both Joomla and Mambo are free to download, but there’s a whole host of plugins and templates being sold to this market. The demand is huge and just seems to keep on growing.

• Online games - World of Warcraft - http://www.worldofwarcraft.com

  This is a huge role playing game, with people playing online in every part of the globe. Type in ‘world of warcraft’ in Google, and you will find people selling, strategy guides, cheat sheets and gold to help you advance in the game.

• Social networking - Myspace http://www.myspace.com
  Social networking is one of the fastest growing areas on the web right night, with Myspace currently sitting top of the pile.

  Templates, guides, software and all sorts of things are being sold to Myspace users, to make their profile look better, help them get more ‘myspace friends’ etc. Not to mention the latest flood of reports on how to make money with myspace.

The communities I’ve just mentioned are just the tip of the iceberg. People are flooding to communities in hundreds of niches all over the Internet. They are just waiting there for you to tap into them, and provide them with additional tools, products and services.

Remember, competition is a good thing, because it means that people are already buying those products. Look at ways to improve on what they are selling, if you want to compete directly with them. OR, see if you can provide a complimentary product or service to what’s already being sold in the market.

This will open up potential joint venture opportunities with the existing product sellers, who already have access to the niche.

Find a hungry market - discover where they gather - study their habits to learn what they want - help them get what they want!

If you identify a demand for a particular product or service, don’t worry if you don’t have the skills or knowledge to create it yourself. Sites like http://www.guru.com, http://www.elance.com and http://www.scriptlance.com are another type of thriving comminity, where you will find plenty of people willing to create your products for you ;-)

Jason Lewis

Last week I shared a fun site with you, that could somehow read your mind. I explained how I thought they’d done a great job in creating something that would be very ‘viral’, and draw lots of traffic to their site. However, I also pointed out that they are doing a very bad job of converting that traffic into paying customers.

Well this time I want to show you a very cool, buzzworthy, and controversial website, that is not just set up to bring in a ton of viral traffic. The whole marketing process is very cleverly put together, with one thing in mind…to sell the end product: a Philips Norelco BG2020 Men’s Bodygroom Shaver.

• They get your attention immediately when the guy starts walking onto the screen in his bathrobe.
• They keep your attention very well and demonstrate the benefits of the product in a fun way.
• They have used flash technology to make the page interactive, by placing certain hot spots for you to click on. This helps make the site sticky, and keeps the visitor on the site for longer. I’d love to see the stats on which circle gets clicked on first/the most. ;-)
• They don’t rely on you being able to find your way around the site yourself. When the guy stops talking, they guide your eye to click on the main menu link and learn more about the product.
• There’s an effective ‘tell a friend’ option at the bottom of the screen. This makes it easy for people to spread the word and tell their friends.
• Then there’s that all important ‘buy now’ link, which provides with a choice of 3 online retailers to make your purchase with.

What They Could Improve On…

If I have one criticism it’s that the call to buy action is a little weak. The whole site does do a great job of pre-selling the shaver, and they have a ‘buy now’ link for you to go on and purchase.

However, I think they should make the buy now link a bit more prominent. I’m sure there must be people who leave the site to go and see where they can buy the shaver, because they didn’t spot the ‘buy now’ button on the site. That might not seem like a big deal, but many of them will get distracted by something else along the way, or not be able to find the shaver for sale…leading to lost potential sales.

I would run a test with it in a slightly more visible color, to see if it gets more clicks. I suspect they’ve left it like that because they want the rest of the site to finish the job of pre-selling, and don’t want the order button to jump out and be a distraction too early on.

If that is the case, they could use some sort of timeline to change the color of the buy now button, once the main presentation has been viewed. That would suit both purposes.

When you click on the product features from the main menu, you scroll through the features in a popup window. They should incorporate a buy now link in that features window. I think if someone has gone as far as viewing that, it’s time to give them an option to buy, and they miss that opportunity.

Controversial, funny, attention grabbing, and some good marketing…

See it for yourself here: http://www.shaveeverywhere.com

I’ve got a broadband connection so the page loaded instantly for me. If you are on a slower dial up connection, you may need to wait a little while for the page to load, but it’ll be worth the wait to see it.

Post your comments and tell me what you think.

Jason Lewis

P.S. Check out all the links in the main menu - the third testimonial made me laugh out loud :-)

Do you use private label articles and ebooks?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve got tons of articles and ebooks on my hard drive.

It is getting harder to keep on top of, and know exactly what I’ve got and can use.

That’s why I was pleased to test out a new free software tool for managing PLR content.

It helps you keep track of all the PLR content you have on your PC, plus all your membership login details and even how much you are spending on everything each month.

I partcularly liked the feature where you can type in a keyword and it’ll scan all your PLR content, then it lists all the articles which contain that keyword.

It’s a very simple tool, but it does the job.

The more PLR content you have on your hard drive, the more you will appreciate this free tool. It’s a great time saver ;-)

Note: You will need to fill out an opt-in form to get to the download page, and the link is emailed to you when you confirm.

Download it here:

http://www.BusinessBrainwaves.com/PLR_Dashboard

Jason Lewis

If you’re in the UK, I hope you’ve been watching the Dragons’ Den series (BBC2 8.00pm Wednesdays). It’s a very interesting and entertaining series, especially for entrepreneurs.

If you haven’t seen it or you’re outside the UK, you can actually watch the series online. More about that in a moment.

The program shows entrepreneurs and inventors pitching their business ideas to 5 venture capitalists, who are referred to as Dragons.

The Dragons are all highly successful multi millionaire business people, and sit there asking questions and ripping holes in the presentations. The idea being that by the end of the show they’ve found at least one combination of a good product/service, and just as importantly the right person with the knowledge, drive and business acumen to invest in.

Last weeks episode (6), was a little unusual, where we saw four dragons trying to out bid and maneuver each other, to try and secure an investment in ‘The Nuts Poker League’. This competition amongst the dragons led to the investment offer being pushed up to £60K from the original asking price of £50K. That was the first time anyone on the Dragons’ Den had got more money than they had pitched for.

Now, you may or may not be opposed to gambling. That doesn’t matter, because what’s interesting is why the dragons would want to invest £60k in an idea that had only made £11,000 so far.

Someone With Real Drive, Enthusiasm and In Depth Knowledge Of His Market

The Dragons don’t usually just invest in a product, they investment in the person or people behind it. The guy pitching the nuts Poker League had clearly done his homework, and knew his market initimately. He was pretty good when put under pressure, and negotiated well at the end. Plus he was likeable; which is also one of the unspoken rules they appear to have when deciding to invest in someone.

A Scalable Business With Big Potenial…

I joined in on a Warrior forum thread about this episode, and a few people on there didn’t see this as a great investment opportunity. A few friends of mine also shared the same viewpoint.

The Dragons may have other ideas, but here’s why I think this is a very attractive investment opportunity for them.

1. Poker is a big growth market, and The Nuts Poker League is tapping into the market in a way that no one else is currently doing.
2. Pub quizzes, darts, pool and other games are already very popular in pubs and clubs up and down the UK. So a poker league with cash prize money up for grabs, can easily be targeted to this market of people.
3. So far, The Nuts Poker League just operates in North Wales, but it is very scalable and could be expanded across the whole of the UK.
4. It’s a new concept that is already proving very popular with poker players in north Wales, so I think it’s very ‘newsworthy’. I would expect the league to get increasing coverage in gambling related publications, mainstream press and certain cable TV channels. The bigger the league gets, the more poker players are going to want to know about it.

   This factor is huge because all the free publicity will just keep driving the brand and keep it in front of the target market.

5. It was mentioned that a bigger corporation could come in a do something similar. But The Nuts Poker League has ‘first mover advantage’, and the opportunity to position ‘The Nuts’ as ‘THE’ poker league to play in. If they move fast to expand and ride all the free publicity they can get, it will be much harder for another league to come in and be as popular.

   Another league coming in later just won’t be as newsworthy.

6. Opportunity to build an unrivalled community of UK poker players. At the moment, the league website isn’t doing anything to capture email/physical addresses, or building a community/membership base.

   With the right strategy they can build a huge database of UK poker players, providing a weekly newsletter and league forum. This would be a very lucrative asset with on-going opportunities for advertising and sponsorship deals.

7. As the league and national tounaments grow in size, TV coverage will almost be guaranteed, and with it even more sponsorship opportunities.

I’ve only touched on some of the potential with this, but I hope you can see why the dragons were almost falling over themselves to invest.

I don’t play poker myself, but I could quickly see the potential in the concept. It will be interesting to see how the league moves forward, and whether the Dragon’s input and investment can help get the most out of the potential that is there.