Stay up one of these nights when you're restless with your own ideas for generating more income, and you'll likely be further inspired by late-night infomercials claiming to hold the secrets behind making riches online.People from all walks of life dream of becoming successful online entrepreneurs. And, there's no shortage of those claiming to have made big money on the Internet. (If they're so good at it, then why do they need to put out additional efforts in marketing their so-called "secrets".)
Late night sales pitches tout much-sought-after proprietary knowledge of an automated "system" that can be set up to operate (like a fine-tuned money-making machine) while you are otherwise enjoying carefree vacations on remote sunny paradise islands.
Although I've never bought in to any infomercial, much of what I've read on the subject has to do with creating multiple income streams, and those supposedly require very little effort or attention on your part. Common methods include affiliate programs, utilizing Google Adsense campaigns, drop-shipping, out-sourcing, and — the subject of eBay’s most recent policy change announcement — selling information products.
It's the selling of information products that will be hindered by eBay's new digital download policy. The policy affects products such as eBooks, MP3 files, PDFs, recipes, etc. -- anything that is "shipped" to a customer via email or a download link. These items can no longer be placed in auction-style or fixed price listings.
Of course, the appeal of becoming a seller of digital products on eBay was that no effort is required to process each sale. For a seller of digital goods, there are no costs involved in securing and maintaining fresh inventory. And, once content is created (or found — as copying is a common problem), with a simple file upload and completion of an auction or fixed price listing form, the work was done. Delivery is automatic. Feedback is easily earned.
That’s why feedback manipulation (artificially padding a member's score) is the issue eBay claims to be behind the reasoning for the new policy — but also most likely why there are so many digital products out there of little or no true value.
EBay's apparent strategy is to eliminate
sellers who sell cheap downloads
-- mostly copied content --
simply to boost their feedback ratings.
According to eBay, a perception is formed that even legitimate sellers of digital goods are manipulating the feedback system. This dynamic -- real or perceived -- undermines the sense of trust across the entire marketplace.
As a result, eBay is restricting sales of digital products to their classified ad format only. Because no feedback is exchanged between buyers and sellers on classified ad listings, concern about feedback manipulation will no longer be an issue.
As the company focuses on improving buyer experiences, this policy is among a number of initiatives designed to improve the integrity of eBay as a whole, and better ensure buyer trust.
While classified ad listings will show up in default search results, they are denoted as a “classified ad.” These ads are not auctions, and no transactions actually happen on eBay. The ads are similar to Craigslist online classifieds, but they are not free. The cost for a classified ad on eBay is $9.95 per month. However, one advantage to this method is that you can combine multiple or similar items in one ad.
As a seller in the classifieds section, your marketing effort is focused on capturing leads in order to sell your product. The actual sale and download process will have to take place through another Web site. Building and maintaining a separate Web presence to facilitate that process will require a bit more effort and creativity on behalf of digital product marketers.
Remember, with any money-making scheme, strategies may appear work-able on the surface, but challenges and variables are great. Don't overlook the obvious fact that you're not the only one buying into these ideas. In my view, there's more likely a better reason why eBay implemented this new policy... Too many low quality download products that just don't deliver.
Read eBay's official statement:
New Policy Update: Digital Downloadable Goods in Classified Ads Format Only
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