Selling Ebooks on eBay - One Author's Experience

If somebody were to ask, I could definitely say "yes," I've been an eBay PowerSeller.

And my path to PowerSeller-hood was paved with ebooks. In other words, I sold at least $2K worth of ebooks - for three months in a row - to qualify for eBay PowerSeller status.

Here's how I did it...




I sold higher priced ebooks.


On average my titles cost $47 on eBay. This price tends to be on the higher end of the scale for ebooks sold on eBay.

However in my auction listing I mention that outside of eBay they'd pay $77-$97 for the exact same titles. So bidders felt like they were getting quite a deal by paying half-price.

And that's one of the main points about selling on eBay. Most buyers are there with the psychological mindset that they want a deal.

Your job is to show them that they're getting a deal. By significantly lowering your price for the eBay audience - by one quarter to one half - and then telling them how high it is on your website, you're feeding that mindset.


I experimented with different categories.


Ebooks can be seen in a variety of categories on eBay. And even when you think you've chosen the best one for your ebook, you should still test other infoproduct related categories.

For ebooks that have no obviously appropriate category, I like the non-fiction books category. In my experience, higher priced ebooks tend to do well here anyway.


I almost always opted for a featured auction.


Yes, featured auctions do cost more than a regular listing. A lot more. But being first in a category has its own advantages.

Whenever I do featured auctions, I list 10 copies of an ebook within that auction. That's called a featured Dutch auction. And if you're going to pay extra for the featured auction, you may as well try to sell more than one copy of your ebook.

If I have several related ebooks, I'll only feature one auction. Then I'll list the other titles under regular auctions. The featured auction acts as a traffic funnel for the regular auctions.


I coincided eBay sales with off eBay marketing promotions.


If I were actively marketing an ebook off of eBay, I'd make sure to list an auction on eBay at the exact same time.

In fact this is one of the easiest ways to generate sales fast. While some people may be reluctant to order your ebook at a higher price, your auction on eBay may be just the encouragement they need to do business with you.

Best of all, you haven't lost any money since these are people who probably wouldn't have seen your website and purchased from you.


The most important thing to remember about selling on eBay is that it's just like selling in real-life or from your own website. Establish a strategy... test your strategy... and do more of what works.

Alexis Dawes talks about what it's like to sell ebooks online through her blog. If you'd like to get an inside glimpse at the problems, pitfalls and power moves ebook authors experience, click on over to (http://www.AlexisDawes.com).