eBay as Lead Generator?

[marciayudkin]

I was listening to an audio with Michael Senoff where he said that one of his big traffic generators was eBay, where he would list his audios for 35 cents for 10 days and then sell each one for $1. The point wasn't to get the sales but rather to 1)take advantage of eBay's great SEO and get found by people looking for topical information and 2)the audios themselves would get listeners to his web site.

However, when I went to look at eBay, there's nothing by Senoff there now. I assume that's because eBay no longer allows digital sales.

Seems to me that he could post CD versions of his material and get the same results. Maybe he just doesn't want to send them out. However, it seems to me that this could be a really smart lead generator for someone who has a lot of topical content to sell - sell CDs and booklets for just $1 plus shipping and include a catalog or sales material for related stuff.

Are any of you currently using eBay primarily as a lead generator? Any tips for doing this in the smartest possible way? Anyone who has how-to material on this? (I've used eBay only a few times in all the years I've been online.)

Thank you for any tips... or for explaining why this would not be worth my time.

Marcia Yudkin

[Loren Woirhaye]

You can't sell ebooks or digital download products on there
anymore... so by default you are obliged to include shipping
and that pushes the price up and turns that $1 ebook into
a $5 CD in the mail.

What you CAN do is run classified ads on Ebay for anything
you want and they'll show up in Ebay's internal search. I
don't know if the ads get indexed by Google and other SE's
as do the auctions.

[marciayudkin]

You can't sell ebooks or digital download products on there
anymore... so by default you are obliged to include shipping
and that pushes the price up and turns that $1 ebook into
a $5 CD in the mail.

Fine. Since my main products cost $397, $497, $697 and so on, my question is, is that strategy worthwhile as a lead generator?

Marcia Yudkin

[Loren Woirhaye]

Dunno. You're making the big bucks on the backend so
test it. Isn't that what you would tell your clients?

I sold some CD ebooks on lead generation a while back
on Ebay. I didn't pursue it too much but, actually, come
to think of it the results were promising because out
of 3 or 4 I sold I did get one guy calling me about a $1500
offer from it. He never returned my follow-up call
but he sure was hurting when he called me the first
time.

Copywriting counts on Ebay. I'm not selling info-products
on there but I still sell other stuff like antiques, music gear
and tools that no longer interest me and I've definitely
been getting top-dollar due to my copy skills. I use
videos in my auctions too. I never use BuyItNow. I
almost always start auctions at $1.00 and let the marketplace
determine the selling price.

[Robyn8243]

Some people have used that strategy effectively...the only way you will know if it
works for your offer is to try it.

I have considered using eBay myself for lead generation, but I have not gotten around to
learning how to use one of the CD creation services.

Interestingly enough, while digital downloads are no longer allowed on Ebay, I still
see quite a few people selling digital products using the regular auction format, so
I wonder how they are able to do this.

Robyn

[marciayudkin]

You're making the big bucks on the backend so
test it. Isn't that what you would tell your clients?

Yes, of course. But before testing I always try to learn from others.

If there's someone using this strategy effectively, I can first observe what they are doing and/or read what they've said about what is working for them.

Marcia Yudkin

[pur113810]

You have a bit high margin on the product cost there. You are the only one who knows better about your sales rate. From my point of view it is a good deal. Are my thoughts about it vague somehow?

[Loren Woirhaye]

Yes. Dan Kennedy's affiliates do it selling reprints of
his older products and using email to work the generated
list of buyers.