Biz Tips Blog: Internet Marketing Tips

eBay: The Real Truth of Making a Fortune Online

If you followed my brief foray into the world eBay, you may be interested in a teleclass my mentor Tom Antion is hosting next week.  You can bet I'll be on this call!  Here's Tom's announcement that went out today:

eBay: The Real Truth of Making a Fortune Online

Special Note:
If you think ebay is a bunch of cheapskates and bargain hunters, think again. Smart marketers are using Ebay for massive lead generation, investing in real estate, buying and selling cars and selling all their products and services.

TeleClass with Tom Antion, and Adam Ginsberg

Watch Your Business Revenues Grow Like Never Before

8:00 PM Eastern time Tuesday, March 21st

Can’t make it?  Don’t worry. The first 100 people to sign up get the CDs as part of the deal.

Adam is a "Titanium Power Seller" on ebay. This is the highest level seller Ebay has. Adam has sold more than $20,000,000.00 on eBay in the last three years.

eBay Marketing Update

Last night I conducted my interview with Phil Dunn, an expert on eBay marketing as part of my continuing experiment with selling products on eBay.

In Conversation #39, our expert Phil Dunn talked with us about how to start and market an eBay business.

The first staggering statistic he shared was that an average of 111,000 people sign up to be sellers on eBay everyday!

Our conversation ranged from why to sell products on eBay to how to set yourself apart from the competition. The main thing I took away is that marketing products on eBay is much like marketing on any website or via email or direct mail...good copy and design is what counts to attract customers. The important thing to understand is that eBay should be considered one of your sales channels and treated as such.

Phil Dunn writes about eBay on 2 blogs:
The eBay Edge
eBay Seller Central

Resources Phil recommends:
Sellathon
LogoYes
LogoWorks
SmartCollector

Books about selling on eBay that Phil recommends:
The 7 Essential Steps to Successful eBay Marketing (Phil's book)
eBay for Dummies
eBay Powerseller Secrets
What to Sell on eBay and Where to Get It (published in January 2006)
Type & Layout: Are You Communicating or Just Making Pretty Shapes (highly recommended)

If you're interested in marketing your products and services on eBay, you can grab a copy of the audio program at Conversations with Experts.

Phil Dunn: How to Build An eBay Business

Conversations with Experts presents...

How to Build an eBay Business that Generates Repeat Sales and Loyal Customers
Wednesday, February 8, 2006,8:30 p.m. ET - FREE
Guest Expert: Phil Dunn, author of “The 7 Essential Steps to Successful eBay Marketing”

In recent years, eBay competition has become fierce. Tens of thousands of new sellers have entered the eBay marketplace, including large-scale retailers with the edge of professional marketing expertise and power-house corporate experience. The eBay market has also been flooded with small-time sellers, who sell at low margins for little profit and make it difficult for other sellers to compete with their prices. To succeed, you need pay attention to how you “market” your products.

In this discussion you’ll learn how to:

• Understand buyers and position your products for faster, higher margin sales
• Present products more persuasively (in visual and in written form)
• Create urgency and sweeten the deal
• Differentiate your business from competitors
• Cultivate loyal customers and build positive feedback

Discover what makes buyers choose one item over an identical one, and learn why customers come back to trusted sellers time an again.

Phil Dunn is co-author of “The 7 Essential Steps to Successful eBay Marketing.” He’s also a marketing writer and strategic consultant for Fortune 500 companies (Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Pitney Bowes, Toshiba Medical, IKON) and eBay businesses. With persuasive writing and time-honored marketing approaches, he has sold everything from $22 haircuts to $50,000 cars to $1 million software licensing agreements.

Register:  www.ConversationsWithExperts.com

If you cannot attend the Conversation, you can pre-order the audio program for $4.95.  After the Conversation the price will be $9.95.  Save 50% and use this link to order now:  http://snipurl.com/Dunn_Preorder

Conversations with Experts: How to Build Your Business On and Off-line
Hosted by Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff.

Conversations with Experts is sponsored by Build a Better Blog System.

eBay Starting Bids Revisited

Just read a good post over on The Home Based Business Blog about 99 cent starting bids on eBay.  Frank's experience with starting bids at 99 cents seems to mirror mine -- frequently that's what the product sells for if there is not a great demand for it.  He asserts that it may be better to start bids closer to the actual price of the product if you want to recoup any of your costs. 

This may be my next experiment.

This is something I'll be asking Phil Dunn of the eBay Edge, about on next week's Conversations with Experts.

eBay Experiment Update #5

Yes, the eBay experiment continues but with lackluster results.  Customers are getting great deals on our 4 CD set with interviews by expert bloggers, with bids starting at $1 and sometimes only one bidder.

So, I've done two things to take this experiment to another level. 

1. I purchased Phil Dunn's (a Fortune 500 marketing consultant) book The 7 Essential Steps to Successful eBay Marketing
2. I invited Phil Dunn to be a guest on our Conversations with Experts TeleSeries, to talk with us about How to Build an eBay Business that Generates Repeat Sales and Loyal Customers.  Phil will be our guest on February 15.

I figure I've got to keep on going to the masters if I'm going to get anywhere with this.  I picked up Phil's book because I'm particularly interested in the effective copywriting techniques:  how to write great descriptions, titles, subheads, etc.

I also have to dedicate some uninterrupted time to working on this project and right now I'm fragmented with a lot of other projects.

Stay tuned...

links for 2006-01-23

• EBay Still 'Best Business Model' In Internet Sector - Forbes.com
  (tags: eBay ecommerce internet)

links for 2006-01-22

• Demystifying the eBay Selling Experience - New York Times
  (tags: eBay ecommerce)

Still Going...eBay Experiment Continues

As January progresses, I continue to work on my eBay project.  We have two programs listed now:

A one hour program on CD about blogging: What the Heck is a Blog: Why Every Professional Should Start Blogging Now! and our 4 CD set of interviews with 4 Expert Bloggers.

My next task is to work on getting our digital products available on eBay so I have to figure out how to deliver them to the winner automatically rather than via manual email.  I know there is a software program to do that and it's a bit pricey so I'm looking at alternatives.

1/12/06 - UPDATE: 5 Single Audio Programs added to eBay

• Bob Bly: Using Direct Marketing Techniques to Sell Thousands of Copies of Your Book
• T.L. Pakii-Pierce: Blogs As Social Marketing Tools
• B.L. Ochman: Is Blogging a Fad that will Pass or a Sea Change in Corporate Communications?
• Paul Chaney: The Evolution of Blogs as Business and Marketing Tools
• Wayne Hurlbert: Using Blogs to Help Your Search Engine Rankings

eBay Experiment Continues

Now that the holidays are over, I'm starting my eBay experiment again and have relisted our set of 4 interviews with Blogging Experts on 4 CDs.* As was pointed out in a comment to a previous post, my lack of success may have been due to starting this experiment on eBay right around the holidays when people are NOT looking for professional development content.

Over the weekend when I have more time, I am planning on adding a couple of more blogging products to our eBay lineup.  Stay tuned.

*Bloggers featured on the CD...(click the link)

eBay Update #2

More follow up on my eBay experiment.

I relisted my CDs, both the 4 CD set and the singles.  The auction for the set was due to expire today and this morning there was one bid for $1.  Since they cost me considerably more than that to produce, I decided to go for it and crafted an email to send to all our prospects who have requested free blog related reports from us, nearly 2000 people at this point.

I pointed out that they had an opportunity to get these blogging interviews for an amazingly low price with the eBay auction and gave them the link to the auction.

It worked.  The winning bidder got the set for $8.51 which is a lot better than $1 in my book.  I've also made "second chance" offers to 2 other bidders so I have the potential to sell 2 more sets.

One of the buyers from the first round I did, is reviewing our Build a Better Blog ebook and may have some clients to refer to us.  So as a lead generator this could definitely work.