posted on April 4, 2001 05:47:44 PM
I have been writing a booklet on how to sell on Ebay...I have about 45-50 pages of what I feel is solid useful information. I can maybe add another 5 pages of good stuff.
I was thinking of selling this booklet for at least 9.99 (hoping). But I would like more pages......but the rest would be filler or fluff and am not sure how I feel about that.
I would like some opinions from others if 50 or so pages of useful info is worth 9.99 or should I add filler or fluff.......or.......
should I make a smaller booklet/pages, double space etc to add more pages? Right now it is 8 1/2 x 11-12 point type. As it is, some of the pages aren't full....I want something I am proud of and filler just doesn't sit well with me...is it me....what do you guys think?
posted on April 4, 2001 06:23:31 PM
I sell informational products on ebaY too, and you'll be hard-pressed to find items that are more profitable to create (or purchase) and sell. It all boils down to what YOU think the information is worth. Create a quality product and offer it at what you consider to be a fair price. The first few bidders will let you know how they feel about the product and the price.
This method has worked VERY well for me. Good luck. And don't listen to the naysayers. There's gold in them thar booklets.
Edited to add:
DON'T add fluff or filler. I can tell you from experience that people who buy this type of informational product want it complete but concise. If they see a lot of filler they won't buy from you again.
posted on April 4, 2001 07:34:30 PM
Hi Marie. I have found that it makes little difference if other similar books are sold on Amazon or elsewhere. 5 or 6 other sellers and I all sell variations of one particular "how-to guide" on ebaY. BDalton has 3 or 4 shelves of books on the same subject. My sales of this guide are VERY good and so are those of my competitors. IMO ebaY shoppers don't always shop around. They like to do their shopping on ebaY. I don't know why this is, I just enjoy it.
The crazy thing is a lot of bidders buy one of these guides from ALL of us, and they all consist of pretty much the same info.
posted on April 4, 2001 07:52:59 PM
I made a lot of money selling such items, and here's the two important criteria: a)add a lot of pages. Try to get closer to 90, but 60 will get you by. Fluff is alright. 90% of content in most books is fluff. Do what major authors do and that is repeat the same things several times, and tell a few stories. b)make it look professional. Have a professional typesetter prepare it, have someone at kinkos make copies, and make a nice cover. It's like a used car-as long as it looks real good it hardly matters how it runs.
posted on April 4, 2001 11:56:03 PM
Hi, I am also writing a book at the moment. it is not my first book but it is my first 'How To....' book. I agree with some of the opinions above, such as dubya.... do not add fluff & filler, at least in any quantity. It can be nice to have a LINE OR TWO OR THREE, but not whole pages. Think of the little annecdotes that Reader's Digest has at the bottom of the last page of each story,, if they "s-s-t-r-r-e-e-t-c-c-h-e-d those two or three lines to a page most would lose their little sparkle.
I am aiming for 64 pages of 8 1/2 X 11", most about half filled because I require a lot of illustrations for my "How To...." book. I am going with a do-it-yourself printer, the more complete your stuff is when it reaches them the cheaper it is.
Make sure the cover really grabs you! The cover sells the book! If you have no other illustrations it is all the more important to have one on the cover.
Proof-read-proof-read-proof-read. Nothing chips away at your creditability like incorrect spelling. Also hard on a savvy reader is info given out of order, or too much requiring them to fill in the "blanks"... such as throwing terms around assuming they are up to your speed. Maybe a glossary would help? My own personal opinion is sentence structure should be fairly relaxed and natural, just as you speak. A 'too correct' stiffness of syntax and artificial verbage will only alienate some of us regular folks.
Maybe running the draft by a panel of friends and neighbors to critique would be valuable?
My house is clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy. Mom
posted on April 5, 2001 01:37:56 AM
Immykidsmom, THANK YOU for suggesting the proofreading!!! I can't tell you how many times I see misspellings, poor grammar, and incorrect punctuation in auctions. Anyone who is writing a booklet should have it proofread by a professional. See if there is a proofreader from your local newspaper who wants to pick up a little extra cash or check with an English professor for a recommendation.
Don't count on having a friend or relative do this task unless they are experts. I did quite a bit of proofreading the last place I worked--our weekly newsletter went to about a dozen people for checking prior to publication, and I routinely found about twice as many errors as anyone else (each page was a sea of red ink by the time I was done!). My co-workers weren't stupid by any means, but correct proofreading requires a lot of concentration and a thorough knowledge of grammar and punctuation rules.
Good luck!
BTW why can't sellers type their auction descriptions in a word processing program that has spell check?!? Sorry, I guess you can tell this is a pet peeve of mine!
Without eBay, I might have a real life...
Long, long ago (yes, I'm old) I used to do proofreading for a mortgage forms company. The trick that they taught me was to read backwards with a ruler, starting at the bottom right of the page and working to the left and up, reading each word. This stops your eye from 'flowing' over the errors as is natural when reading left to right, top to bottom.
It will seem strange at first to your eyes, but it should save you a bundle on a proofreader; as long as you have moderate grammatical and spelling skills, you'll do just fine.
Don't trust spell-checker software to catch all the errors, either.
posted on April 5, 2001 06:22:33 AM
I am NOT being sarcastic, but what person in their right mind would actually believe a successful seller would tell the world how to do what they do? Isn't that paramount to Bill Gates giving Microsoft secrets away! I’m just amazed that people actually buy such items. Of course I am always amazed that people buy most of the “get rich quick” schemes offered on TV – suppose it is the greed factor.
You're right that the best secrets will be held back, but for a beginner to learn the basic secrets, i.e. good title using key search words, a low start bid to attract bidding etc are good advice for new sellers.
The biggest problem of giving advice, as any consultant will tell you, is getting the client to accept it and put it to use. People generally want to be told what they already know. The most receptive people are the one's who have zero experience. So try creating a "How to..." to that group with zero experience and you'll save yourself a lot of grief.
I had one Antique seller tell me he's not into that "fancy HTML stuff." I felt like telling him his ads look pretty amateurish and the image will not help his sales.
\"They say the grass is greener on the other side. But have you flipped it over and looked?
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