digital downloads

05
May
2008

The POD Report

In the wake of the recent eBay slap at ebook sellers, it’s become apparent that us internet business owners now need to either use the eBay suggested classified ad format, or sell our ebooks on CDs and DVDs.

It would also appear from some reports that you need to make sure you don’t mention ebooks when selling your CDs and DVDs, or the eBay darlings will give you a more personal slap. It seems that “ebook” is a bit of a taboo word on eBay at the moment until the staff get more understanding of what the new rule actually means.

More on that in another post.

Going with the idea of creating “multimedia” CDs and DVDs I think appeals to most people (from what I’ve seen), only time will tell if this format is the one that is most popular.

So I’ve created a short report called “The POD Report” which you can find below as a PDF.

It’s a freebie, so please feel free to share the report with any other internet business owners you think might benefit from it.

Inside the report, you’ll find mention that SmartDD has Kunaki support built in. This is true of V3 which you can get a free version of from http://www.SmartDD.com/. If you’re a V2 full version owner, you can upgrade to V3 for just $27 in the members area.

Back to The POD Report.

Either left click to view it in your browser, or right click and choose “Save as…” or “Save link as…” to download it to your hard drive.

The POD Report

Enjoy.

-Frank Haywood

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business
02
May
2008

Unblocking The Flow

What do comedy improvisation and a successful internet business have in common?

Well…  As unlikely as it may seem, quite a bit.

This is more of what you might think is “semi-religious self-improvement psycho babble” (let’s call it SSPB) – it definitely isn’t junk.

One of the things I was taught early on is that it’s important not to “block the flow” in order to be successful.

What the heck does that mean?

It all boils down to not being negative, and accepting whatever comes your way and using it to further your business or your career or whatever it is you’re pursuing.

I like to think of it as “every cloud has a silver lining”.

Example.  The recent eBay slap.  To read what some people were saying you’d think the sky was falling – what a load of old fuss about nothing.

I read the new rule, chuckled and thought “yee-haa!”

See, I knew it would get rid of all the junk on eBay and also get rid of a lot of people who were selling ebooks etc. without understanding what they were doing.  Those people were just making it difficult for the real marketers.  You couldn’t see the wood for the trees.

I sincerely hope you weren’t one of those people who didn’t know what they were doing…

eBay knows that people like to market on their site (and not just sell), and it seems that for now they’re okay about it, which is a refreshingly enlightened attitude for a corporation their size to take.

They’re not blocking the flow.

So eBay have now disallowed the selling of digital products as digital downloads.  And what they’ve done is suggested that marketers use the classified ad format instead.  That’s really cool of them and it opens up a whole wealth of opportunities.

But if you listen to the doomsayers, the golden age is over.

What nonsense.  Things are just different.  And better.  Less competition for starters.

Let’s get back to the original thread.  What about comedy improvisation?

If you’ve ever seen a group of comedians improvise, it can be something magical to watch.

You know how they keep it all going?  They don’t block the flow.

They accept whatever premise the other comedians give them and they just add to it and pass it back.  And forth.  And so on…

The kiss of death to their act is to say no, or refuse to accept the current idea.  They all know that if that happens, they will falter and stop.  So all of them accept what they’re given and use it to their advantage.

It’s a simple rule to follow, and works just as well in business, in relationships, or whatever else you care to think of.

Accept what you’re given.  Make it better.  Put it out there.  And keep the flow moving.

-Frank Haywood

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business
07
Apr
2008

The eBay Slap – Step 2

A couple of weeks ago, I told you I had a plan to help you after eBay slapped all digital goods sellers from the 1st April.

Since then, there’s been a lot going on.

If you bought Dave Lovelace’s special offer, you’ll now know how to create your own CDs and DVDs to sell on eBay. You’ll also know where you can get an international dropshipper that will do Print On Demand (POD) for your CDs and DVDs and then send them directly to your customers.

That still leaves the problem of automating the delivery process.

Well, I now have that solved for you.

My SmartDD developer (Paul) has been working on the solution that will allow you to automatically let that international dropshipper know when you’ve made a sale via SmartDD.

The dropshipper will then send your customer their goods, completely hands off from you.

It’s just like selling digital goods again.

Only this time, you can actually earn more money.

Think about it, the perception of most people is that a physical product has much more value than a digital product.

So instead of charging a dollar or two for a download and building your list in that way, now you can charge $15-$25 for a CD, and still build your mailing lists at the same time.

Plus you get all the benefits of having emails automatically sent out to your customers, including the follow up 24 hours later, and you can even supply them the goods as a download too if you want to.

And the beautiful thing is, you remain within eBay’s new rules.

We’ll be releasing it later this week as SmartDD v2.1 – we’re just doing some final tests to make sure the process works perfectly, and then I’ll make the announcement.

I told you I had a plan.

The good news is, this Step 2 is just the first part… 😉

-Frank Haywood

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business
26
Mar
2008

The eBay Restriction – Here’s The Good News

Okay, lots of speculation, lots of answers (some GOOD answers), and a few good guesses on my last post.

Don’t despair.

This is just a blip on the screen.  All you need to do is arm yourself with the right information and the right tools.

Here’s the TWO steps you need to take.

Step 1

Go here and get Dave Lovelaces special offer.  It’s just $10.  You can afford $10, but you can’t afford to be without this information.

Dave normally does this for $27 and he’s just emailed me after my last post to let me know he’s running the special.  Just go and get it now, don’t even think about it, just get it.

Step 2

While you’re getting to grips with Step 1, wait for my announcement in the next week, and you’ll realise that what eBay have done is the BEST thing they could have done for you as a marketer.

Trust me.  I know what I’m talking about, and I have a plan.

When you combine Step 1 and Step 2 together, it’s dynamite.

The people that get in on this first will make a killing, heck you’ll make a killing anyway if you already market on eBay, but if you’re sharpish using this method you’ll get first movers advantage.

-Frank Haywood

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business
25
Mar
2008

eBay Gives The Green Light To SMART Marketers

As eBays arcane rules and regulations make things ever more complicated for buyers and sellers alike, isn’t it funny to hear when they do something that actually hurts them, not the sellers?

This is the announcement in case you’ve missed it:-

“Digital goods are often reproduced at little to no cost to the seller. On eBay, this creates the potential for Feedback Manipulation (both real and perceived). To preserve the integrity of the Feedback system, effective March 31 all goods that can be digitally downloaded or transferred electronically must be listed using the Classified Ads format.”

I think that’s fantastic news for digital goods sellers certainly.

Now all you have to do is run one carefully worded classified ad to get any amount of traffic and email subscribers.

It also means that eBay will lose a small fortune on listing fees.

I think that maybe what they’ve done is add 2 and 2 together and got to 4 without understanding the motivation of many sharp minded ebook sellers.

According to that announcement, eBay are saying they believe that they need to do something about the feedback system being manipulated.  Well this move won’t achieve that.

It’s just as easy for anyone to open a hundred dummy eBay accounts and “sell” non-existent physical goods for a dollar to any of the other accounts without going through PayPal.

I’ve seen scammers do this.  Hundreds of feedback from clearly made up accounts all owned by the same person.

No.  That’s not the reason.

eBay are trying to clean up again.

They did it a couple of years ago with the diet pills et al, stopping certain goods from being listed as a home page item.

They believe that all the ebooks are giving eBay a bad name, and so they’re cleaning up shop without having thought it through.

Because of the high price of listing fees for classified items, they believe that ebook sellers will steer clear of listing in that way.

I predict that the sharper ebook sellers will use classifieds and save money.

And are you ready for a flood of ads for ClickBank products?

How about this?

A classified listing for a quit smoking report for free.  Just enter your name and email address to get your special report.  Don’t forget to confirm.

Once you’ve subscribed, you get your report which has affiliate links inside it, and then each day for the next week you get information on various ClickBank promoted products in the form of a review.

After the first week, you get another product each week related to quitting smoking, again in the form of a review.  They’re all set up as autoresponder messages.

If one classified listing generates 100 leads, you’re going to get at least one sale for something sooner or later, and your listing fee is paid for.

Even if it only generates 10 leads, you’re still going to get a sale eventually.

As soon as all those ebooks disappear, the smart eBay marketer is in the money.

Here’s the eBay announcement if you want a laugh.

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200803.shtml#2008-03-24125416

Watch this blog for an announcement coming soon that will make you VERY happy indeed if you’re a digital download seller.

😉

-Frank Haywood

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business