That has always been my experience. Remember to list your eBooks multiple times, each with a different title. Use eye catching keywords. Put the most searched for terms in your item title in order to further expose the eBook to buyers. Lastly, list them under different categories in order to maximize the exposure of your item. Make sure, however, to only list your eBooks in categories that are at least somewhat relevant to your item. You don't want to receive untargeted traffic to your listing which won't do you much good.
It does take some time to set up everything in the beginning. But trust me, once everything is set up, you will reap in the profits in your sleep. The good thing about this eBooks business is that you can always earn money, regardless of what you're doing. There's not much manual work to be done. There is no rushing to the post office every day to ship out items to your customers, there is no tracking information to record and deliver to your customers, there is no inventory or stock quantities to be concerned over, there are no product defects to worry about, there are no return merchandise / exchanges to take care of, there is no shipping damages to worry about, there is no eBay / Paypal disputes to handle (disputes can't be opened for digital information products). This business runs completely by itself and makes the money for you. Once you've set up those listings, they will bring in the profits for you again and again, with no extra efforts needed on your end!
One thing to always consider is maintaining a good feedback record. In the eBooks sales business, you won't get many complaints about your products. That has always been my experience, and I've been through many different business fields. From time to time, however, you will receive complaints about your eBook from a disappointed customer. The types of complaints will almost always be either disappointments with the contents of the eBook, or customer can't seem to open the eBook. These cases are very far in between--so please don't worry. Almost all buyers will be happy with their purchase. Once in a blue moon, you will get a disgruntled or computer illiterate buyer who will complain to you the product. I strongly recommend that you do everything you can to make all of these buyers happy. Receiving a negative feedback is something you definitely do not want. It's completely not worth it to trade a negative feedback for a couple of dollars. Negative feedbacks will slow down your sales and drive your customers away. If for any reason any buyer is disappointed with your eBook, I strongly suggest you find a way to accommodate the buyer to make him/her happy, or if that doesn't work, refund the customer in full. Again, it's just totally not worth it to receive a negative feedback for a couple of dollars in profits. Although keep in mind that these types of buyers are very, very rare. Trust me, you won't have to deal with a disgruntled buyer very often at all. But if you ever run into one, make all efforts to make him/her satisfied or provide a full refund and avoid those negative feedbacks.
I strongly recommend that you offer the buyer an exchange before offering a refund. If the buyer is not happy, say that you'll be more than happy to replace the eBook with any other eBook you have in your store as replacement. If the buyer agrees, you've just saved yourself from a refund. If the buyer disagrees, then proceed to the next step. It never hurts to try and ask if you can exchange the product for another one to save yourself from a refund first. In the next step, don't offer the buyer a refund just yet. You want to ask the buyer why is (s)he disappointed, if (s)he thinks that your ad is misleading in anyway, if anything is shown on your ad that is not included in the product, what was the buyer expecting to see in the eBook but was let down by, what does the buyer think is a fair price for the eBook that he/she purchased, and what can be done to make the buyer satisfied with the transaction. The purpose of those first few questions is just to allow the buyer to see that you're a caring seller who values feedback from the buyer (it will also let you see what you can do to revise the listing in the future). Asking these questions will lessen the chance of the buyer leaving you negative feedback. But then again, I assure you that you will not run into many unhappy buyers in the eBook business.
Consider marketing your business with your feedback. For example, you can set up Selling Manager Pro to leave feedbacks such as Great buyer!Come back again anytime for the most amazing eBook selection on eBay. This will allow anyone who views the feedback history of the person you dealt with to see your advertisement message. You can potentially gain many extra customers this way. Be careful, however, of leaving links on a feedback because eBay doesn't allow links to be included in feedbacks.
Cross-sell to your customers. I can't stress enough how important it is to cross sell your items to your buyers, or even potential buyers. Cross-selling is a practice of suggesting to your customer the purchase of an additional product that may not necessarily relate to the original product. What's the best way to do it? Put a link to your store in each and every single one of your listings. Don't just say remember to check out my other items I have for sale in my store. Provide them an easy way to do it. If you look at my listings, I always have an animated store sign that says "click here to visit our store." So even though your buyer may not be interested in the eBook that you're offering, there's a good chance that they'll check out your store to see what other eBooks you offer. The more buyers you have looking at the products you offer, the more sales you'll get. The html code to link a buyer to your store is: <a href="http://stores.ebay.com/******/">Click Here </a> where ****** is the name of your store.
The best way to get buyers to actually visit your store when you cross-sell is to say something that will get them curious. Don't just do the old click here to visit eBay store line. Write something like: please take a moment to check out one of the most amazing collection of eBooks ever seen on earth by clicking here. Or: Truly the most incredible collection of eBooks you've got to see to believe! Click here. Where click/clicking links the buyers to your store. There are many other ways you can form your advertisement. But remember, if you can get the buyer to be curious, they're more likely to click the link and visit your store.
Cross-sell to your customers when responding to emails. If your email has an autoresponder, set one up that says something along the lines of thanks for your inquiry. We will get back to you as soon as we can to answer all of your concerns. In the meantime, please take a moment to check out this absolute best collection of eBooks ever seen on earth at: ********* (where ********* is a link to your eBay store). This will allow you to get every person who sends you an email a direct exposure to your store. When you answer emails, again include the link to your store in your signatures. This will once again expose that buyer to your store. If the buyer wasn't curious enough to click on it the first time, he/she will probably do so after being exposed to it the second time. The first time you heard of eBay did you care? Probably not right? But when you keep hearing of eBay time and time again, you begin to care. The same concept applies here. Never send out an email without a message at the bottom advertising your store, regardless of how many times in the past the person you're emailing to has seen that message.
Consider cross-selling certain items with each others. For example, if you’re selling 2 eBooks: one called Fun Craft Project Ideas and another one called your Arts&Craft Hobbies into Cash, in your listing of the Fun Craft Project Ideas eBook, put a short advertisement in there which says something like also check out this other incredible eBook on how to turn your arts&craft hobbies into MAJOR $CASH$ by >clicking here< -- where "clicking here" links the buyer to the Turn your Arts&Craft Hobbies into Cash eBook in your store. Do the same thing with your Turning Arts&Craft Hobbies into Cash listing and link the buyer to the Fun Craft Project Ideas eBook. Since both eBooks cover topics on craft projects, a buyer who is interested in purchasing one item is more likely to purchase the other one. Cross-sell products which are similar with each other as much as you can. This is just one example. There are many more eBooks with the similar topics in which you can mutually cross-sell.
For any sellers who sell other items besides eBooks, you can even cross sell eBooks with your other items. For example, if you're selling an antique vase, it would surely help if you cross-sell the How to buy&sell antiques eBook in your antique vase ad. Of course this can take a bit more time and manual effort on your end, but it's a possibility out there available for sellers who want to put in extra effort to generate more sales.
Always add a link to your listing ads that allows the buyer to save you as one of their favorite sellers. The link to save a seller as a favorite seller is: http://my.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?AcceptSavedSeller&mode=0&preference= 0&sellerid=******
Where ****** is the seller's ID. For example, to save me (Walutech) as your favorite seller, the link would be: http://my.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?AcceptSavedSeller&mode=0&preference= 0&sellerid=Walutech
Provide an easy way for the buyer to do it, such as Click Here to add me as your favorite seller! -- Where Click Here links to your add as favorite seller url. Buyers may not be interested in your products today, but when a buyer saves you as a favorite seller, the chances of them coming back and buying something from you another day is significantly high. Each month, eBay sends an email to everybody who has added you as a favorite seller showcasing your items. This is another great incentive to add an add to favorite seller link in your listings.
I also recommend that you also add a link that allows the buyer to watch your store items. Sure, eBay does have a Watch this Item link on each listing, however people are much more likely to watch your item if you provide an easier and more noticeable way for them to do so. The link for a user to watch your item is:
http://cgi1.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?MakeTrack&item=**********
Where ********** is the item number. For example, if your item number is 0123456789, the link would be:http://cgi1.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?MakeTrack&item=0123456789
Provide an easy way for the buyer to do it, such as Click Here to watch this item! -- Where Click Here links to the watch your item link
Furthermore, it's also important to note that I recommend you do this only to your store listings, because store listings item numbers will always remain the same. Doing this to your regular listings would just take too much time since item numbers will change as soon as you relist a sold or unsold item. It's certainly something you can do to increase sales for your regular listings, but it's time consuming. However, putting this link to your store listings is a definite plus.
Volume is a huge key in this business. You need to list a lot of items to get a lot of sales. Don't be afraid of the eBay listing fees, that's one mistake that a new seller usually makes. You pay anywhere between $.02 to $.35 in listing fee to list an eBook for 7 days. If it doesn't sell, relist it. If it sells after relist, the fees you spent on listing it the first time is refunded to you. Each eBook that I sell, I get about $1.65 profit after all the fees. If you calculate the math along with the relist refund rule, this means that you can list an eBook for months before it sells and still be able to earn a profit! If you list more, you will sell more. Don't worry about paying more listing fees because you will, in return, get more sales. I recommend you list all of your items multiple times as buy-it-now (or auction with buy-it-now - this may be more effective) as well as list them in your store. Remember to use different titles are that eye-catching and list them in multiple categories that are relevant to the item. Also remember this, the more items you list, the more people you will get looking at your items. The more people looking at your items, the more of them will check out your store to see what other eBooks you have. So even though one listing didn't sell, it's more than worth it if that listing allowed you to receive other sales through cross-selling. The more items you have running, the more chances you have of cross-selling your items from people checking out your eBay store. The more relevant categories you list under, the more exposure you will get.
As you sell more eBooks and gain experience, you will receive a boost in the number of buyers since you've become a more reputable seller that buyers can trust. Your sell-through rate will increase and your business will thrive.
From my estimates, the first month will be spent on setting everything up and getting used to this business in general. In the first month, make it a priority to get yourself committed to this business. The following next 3 months will serve as the path to achieve the Powerseller star and pulling in profits.