Selling Knowledge Products
 
Of all the products, this is even better than liquidated goods. This is the ultimate product to sell. A knowledge product can be an e-book; it can be an audio file; it can be a video file; it could even be a CD or a DVD, even a list of links for a Web site. If you develop the product yourself, the cool thing is you limit the amount of competition you'll have on eBay.
Remember the key to eBay is “limit your competition.” It is your best way to succeed. Less competition is more profit. For example, go on eBay and search for the words “best digital video.” There's a guy named John; I think he’s from Arkansas. He sells a DVD training set to show you how to set up lighting for use with your digital camera and your digital camcorder.
Check in the history by “completed items.” He sells two or three of these a day for $50 each including shipping and handling. He’s been doing this for at least a couple of years. His cost is probably $3 apiece, maybe $5 with shipping. He’s clearing easily $120, $150 a day, day after day, fully automated. That’s a wonderful, wonderful thing.
Maybe you have some experience that you can use. Maybe this is a hobby that he taught other people and he’s making a killing doing that. Recently eBay set up a procedure for delivering digital products automatically; it’s a new policy going into effect. People can go on at midnight, buy a product, pay immediately, and automatically be sent to the page to download.
You do nothing. You don’t even have to e-mail them something. It’s automatic delivery. Knowledge products are wonderful. For example, think of it this way. You write an e-book. You call it “How to Teach Your French Poodle to Sing.” You sell it on eBay for $10.
You get this lady who loves French poodles. At nighttime, she’s got insomnia. She buys your e-book. She pays for it immediately. She gets the link. She can download it and read it so she’s very happy. You had to do nothing except you wake up with that money in your PayPal account.
Keep that in mind. If you're going to sell knowledge products, make sure it’s a quality product that people are going to be happy with. Otherwise, you'll have the hassle of returns. Don’t do a product like, “How to Get Rich on the Internet” or things like that. Do something you're familiar with and what other people will be willing to pay money for.
For example, do you have a hobby?
Have you figured out a way of saving a ton of money in that hobby? Or do you know how to turn a hobby into a profitable business? Then, write an e-book on it. It’s that simple.
If you can't write, then simply record your thoughts on audio and have someone else write the book for you. You can hire anybody to do anything at RentACoder. You can go to Elance. They will do any programming, graphics, or writing. They’ll even write a book for you and put your name on it.
ScriptLance is also another website where you can find freelancers can do all sorts of stuff for you. There are many sources of very good, cheap labor that you can use. Some people are actually making money selling $2 e-books on eBay. I don’t know. Maybe now that the process is automated, you can make money doing that.