Following eBay’s announcement that they are banning digital goods I have received loads of emails about this and many people having a panic attack but as I said before I think this could be a positive move

If you have traded on eBay any length time you will know that eBay’s word is law and eventually they will ban you if you carry on breaching policies by offering to refunded shipping if the opt for a download version or sending letters with download links,

If you’re serious about using eBay to build your business my advice would be to stick to the eBay rules and plough your creativity and energy into transforming your products into amazing-looking multi-media CDs/DVDs wich will get a higher value.

As I said earlier I am excited - I think this could be a fabulous opportunity. Products can be sold for a 3 to 4 times more without silly people undercutting everyone by doing it at 49c to build feedback etc

I was planning to do some research on the matter and possibly offer a service to burn and create CDs but now I am not sure (it is still an option if anyone is interested) .

Why?

Well, Dave Nicholson of Planet Divinity has come up with the perfect package. Many of you will know Dave and his amazing graphics work and I’m sure a good number of you will have had your own designs and graphics done by Dave’s talented team. I personally wouldn’t go anywhere else for my graphics and that’s why I’m really excited about his new package.

I really can concentrate on the content of my product now rather than all the `other’ stuff, because I know, when I’m ready for all that, Dave’s Digital Media Solution will walk me through all the rest.

• How to arrange everything on my CD or DVD for optimum effect
• How to make a simple but effective menu system to guide my customers through quickly and professionally
• How to Integrate my autoresponder, so I can still add my customers to my `digital mailing list
• Templates and more templates so i can create product after product quickly and professionally
• And loads more

Dave’s offering a special introductory price at the moment, for all those that want to get in on this on the ground floor. Once the ebay powersellers and all the slower ebay sellers realize and start searching around I am sure the price will go upto $97 or even greater

Here’s the link again so you can check it out and see what you think - it might be just the solution you’re looking for Digital Media Solution

BUT WAIT before you purchase from the above link I want to tell you about my bonus which is I will provide you with a FREE hosting account witch will enable you to host a couple of pages and provide you with an email account that you can use with aweber – simply forward me the receipt with your domain name to be hosted after purchase

Speak soon

Derek

No it’s not April and this is not an April fools day joke

As you know I sell copies of the E W portal which offers secure protection for Digital for digital downloads both from your website and ebay.

I was told this morning that ebay will be banning digital downloads from 31st March 2008, details can be read at

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200803.shtml#2008-03-24125416

There is also a ton of activity on eBay’s discussion boards.

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000671814&start=80

So as of 31st March 2008 anyone selling digital items will be in violation of eBay’s policies.

. This affects anyone selling items delivered digitally.

This can include:

• eBooks
• Audio/mp3
• Digital Videos
• Websites
• Domain Names
• Graphic Design Services
• Photo Services
• And any other service delivered electronically.

Although this will now limit the sale of E W Portal as people will only be able to use the software with their websites and not ebay there are still positives as every cloud has a silver lining

Some of the more experienced marketers may remember the days of info products that came on floppy disks then cd’s which is in fact how I started and used too make some extra pin money. Then came along digital downloads and prices dropped as people sold the items cheaper purely because they could automate their business

Have you guessed where I am going yet?

As I see it the only negative is that anyone selling digital downloads can no longer automate there business. You will need to make your items physical. And the best way to do this is to burn your eBooks or other digital items to CD Rom and send it via regular mail. This is not as hard as it sounds once you set up a system to burn and ship CD’s. This task can even be outsourced if you wish.

By selling physical items you are no longer restricted by eBay’s digital item policy.

For starters you are no longer restricted to the ‘buy now’ option. This means you can list auctions.

You also may be able to list in other categories other than Everything Else > Information Products (I am waiting for a reply from eBay and will confirm this soon)

The up-sell opportunities are truly massive. Remember, you are mailing a physical item to your customers so you have a lot more chance of your further ‘offers’ being viewed.

UK users can list on ebay.co.uk again, no more having to list on ebay.com to avoid the digital item policy.

The chance of selling multiple items will increase dramatically as you can offer extra items and no extra shipping as you simply burn it to the same CD or DVD

Because your customers are now getting a physical item you can put your prices up. All you have to do is make the CD case look nice along with the CD and the price goes up. Don’t take my word for look at the price of any home study course delivered via regular mail. In fact I know one internet marketer who brought a course on ebay for £9.99 and basically turned it into a cd and sold it for £39

Remember! People who want to succeed will not look at the negatives, they will look for the positives and at the moment I feel the positives far outweigh the negatives.

This is a massive policy change for you and I but we can make this work in our favor.

I hope to bring you more news on this soon but I still see my sites such as www.UKNetIdeas.com and www.1stChoiceSoftware.com having a future

In the meantime please feel free to post your comments and feedback

Derek

[tag]ebay, ban, digital items[/tag]

Keep your original CDs and software disks well organized.

Your computer probably came with some CDs with all the
original software that is installed on the computer. You
might also have some more CDs for other programs that you’ve
bought.

Once they’re installed, it’s easy to lose track of these
disks, but if you ever need to reload a program or your
entire computer, you’ll need them.

Make sure you keep all the original CD cases and manuals
too. A lot of programs have a special serial number or
registration code that you need to enter when you install
the program. If you lose this number, you won’t be able to
reload your program even if you have the original disk.

Personally, I have a large DVD case similar to those the DJ’s use to store all
my original CDs. I also enter all the serial numbers into a
list that I can print out and store in the same binder. That
way, if I ever need to find a CD I know exactly where to
look and the registration numbers are all right there.