The Wholesale Forums

[esm]

Hi guys, i've been thinking about starting some kind of online business for a while and figured why not start with something which has very little costs (ebooks).

I know hundreds of people sell these things on ebay and it amazes me that people continue to buy them, I just need some advice as to how to go about it.

First things first, i've tried selling a few on ebay before but it's ended in misery, either they didn't sell or ebay removed them for copyright . That is another thing I am confused about, I was selling exactly the same as this item:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/5-Martial-Arts...QQcmdZViewItem
It was removed by ebay for copyright reasons, although quite a few people are selling the same and their lists haven't been taken down. I guess it's because this is a real book rather than a guide with resell rights.

The first question I want to ask is should I start through selling on ebay, or setup a website of my own and sell that way? I have what I consider a reasonably good domain name (www.ebook-s.co.uk) which i've had for a while but never made use of, and plenty of webhosting.

Before you ask, that template is not one I am using I was just testing something!

Second question, if i decided to start my own site how do I get it noticed? This is something i've never really understood and seems pretty important because obviously if people don't know your site exsists no one will visit it !

I have a collection of a few hundred ebooks, most which I consider useless but people always seem to buy on ebay

Any input is appreciated as right now I don't know where to start!

[BillyA]

Ebay is not the best way to sell an ebook. Clickbank is. CB gives you access to over 100K affiliates that can help promote your books for a percentage of the profits.

[esm]

I see there's a $49 joining fee for clickbank, is it really worth it?

[PT]

I think the $49.99 is well worth it... think what you get:

- They have over 100,000 affiliates to drive traffic to your site.
- They will handle all payments offering a lot more services than you would get via Paypal.
- Provide customer service for your product.
- They will pay all of your affiliates of a monthly basis.

eBay is a waste of time if you want to make a good amount of money from selling eBooks, because all of those sellers with 99p eBooks can't be making much after all of the fees. However, amongst those sellers there are people who are selling those items to promote there more expensive package through giving snippets of information in this 99p eBook.

An example of a eBay seller I'm sure your familiar with 'planetsms'. The products he sells on eBay are not to make £100's per week, because he doesn't; through eBay. They are to promote the fact that he runs a successful business via eBay (like everyone else wants to), and everyone should buy his £34.99 membership to see exactly how he does it.

You should try to write your own material to sell on ClickBank. Some people seem to think it has to be about making money online, betting systems etc. it doesn't! there are many categories on ClickBank and it would be better to write about something you enjoy doing rather than trying to tell people how to make money. Try to get something a little more unique.

[esm]

Well ideally i'd like to make a website and use a dropshipper, I use to use dropship-it.com to sell mobile phones on ebay, making about £10/£15 a time. However, after ebay + paypal fees i wasn't making anything, if I my own site it may have been worth it. Since then I haven't found any other similar dropshippers although there sure is some about I don't know where to start. I guess my main problem would be getting my website well known and actually selling getting the products sold.