The Ebook Cavern Newsletter

I opened up my emails today and had a very interesting one from John Thornhill with the topic ‘Digital Items Banned on eBay UK’. I thought this was some kind of ploy to get me to read the email so I read on expecting to find a post asking how reliant I am on eBay. Unfortunately, I clicked through and John is telling the truth. You can read his full post on the topic by clicking here. You can also read eBay’s annoncement and the reaction to this on the eBay forums.

John’s post explains the situation well but to summarise pretty much anyone selling products via digital delivery will be in violation of eBay’s policies. Worst of all these policies come in on 31st March 2008 so there is not a large amount of breathing space available. Unfortunately for eBay ebook sellers such as you and me the implications are quite significant.

As regular readers may know I sell a premium ebook at http://www.theebookcavern.co.uk/ which is entitled “How to set up a Successful, Automated Ebook Business on eBay”. These policies have pretty much made that ebook worthless unless it gets a MAJOR overhaul. On top of this these policies as they stand mean all the listings in my eBay store will need to go unless they too get a MAJOR overhaul. Finally, a lot of the articles I have wrote no longer contain valid information because of these new policies. I’m sure many of you are facing problems similar to these.

So what can we do? Well as you may have noticed my eBay ebook success articles have been focussing on building your business outside eBay for some time now. As I said in ‘New Years Resolutions 2008′:

“The Internet is constantly evolving which means your targets are likely to change during the year. If you don’t revise them accordingly you will get left behind? When I started my eBay store I never thought that I would be running a newsletter or blog and I had never heard of article marketing or social bookmarking. I never thought that I would be diversifying from my eBay related business either but that’s exactly what’s happened. To be a long term success on the Internet you will have to keep up to date with these changes and set your targets accordingly.”

If you were relying solely on eBay for your business you were setting yourself up for failure somewhere down the line whether you sell digital products or not. By relying on eBay alone you are putting your business in their hands, whatever you sell. For example, what if you operate a successful video games store on eBay and then eBay decide one day that you can no longer sell video games on their website because of increased piracy in the industry.

What I am saying is if you have been following my advice you should be prepared (to some degree) to carry on without eBay. I’ve written articles on starting your blog, creating your own ebooks and starting a mailing list so if you haven’t started these things already - GET STARTED NOW.

Now I am not thrilled in the slightest by these changes but at the end of the day it’s eBay’s site and eBay’s rules so we’re just going to have to deal with it. Some people have suggested putting your ebooks on a CD and mailing them out physically which is an option whilst others have decided to just abandon eBay completely. As I have mentioned in the past selling ebooks on eBay was getting increasingly difficult BEFORE this announcement and I advised you to move your focus away from eBay.

So what am I going to do regarding the eBay side of my business? Well in the long term I don’t know. My short term solution is to keep this blog and keep the newsletter running. I will continue to write articles on topics related to building your Internet business. However, I am going to have to close The Ebook Cavern eBay Store (at least for the immediate future) and take down a lot of my websites. I’m also going to have to stop the monthly newsletter (again at least for the immediate future) because there isn’t really going to be much news without a store or premium product.

I will make further comments on this topic as I get new information. So how are you going to deal with this eBay bombshell? Are you prepared to make the necessary changes? Did you have a contingency plan outside of eBay? Let me know what you think.

The Ebook Cavern Newsletter for March 2008 is ready to download.

You can view the HTML version by Clicking Here.

You can view the PDF version by Clicking Here.

This month’s newsletter contains an ‘eBay Ebook Success’ article on driving traffic to your blog, the results of the first Ebay Ebook Poll, a free ebook and more.

I hope you enjoy the newsletter. Please leave a comment once you’ve had a chance to read the newsletter. I would really like to hear from you.

In my last few articles I discussed how to create your own blog. Blogs can be a great way to represent yourself and your eBay ebook business online. However, if nobody reads your blog then all the potential benefits are lost. In this article I discuss six creative methods you can use to drive traffic to your blog.

1) FEEDBURNER:- Feedburner is a free service that helps you create Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds for your blog. RSS feeds are basically a summary of your blogs latest posts. People can subscribe to these RSS feeds and read them using a special piece of RSS Reader software. Whilst I haven’t noticed any substantial traffic from Feedburner I do have some subscribers to my RSS feed. Plus, it’s free traffic so there’s nothing to lose by creating a feed and giving it a try.

2) SQUIDOO:- Squidoo is an interactive platform similar to a blog but not exactly the same. With squidoo you create a free page called a lens which consists of various modules. Each module contains a different element such as text, YouTube videos, eBay products etc. One of these modules is an RSS module. You can simply copy and paste your blogs RSS feed (created using Feedburner) into this module and hey presto, your latest blog posts will appear as part of your squidoo lens. If you want to see this in action check out The Ebook Cavern Newsletter section of The Ebook Cavern Squidoo Lens. Again, it’s free traffic so you have nothing to lose by creating your own squidoo lens.

3) TECHNORATI:- Technorati is a huge blog tracking service with over 100 million blogs registered as part of their network. You can register your blog with Technorati for free and once registered all your blog updates will appear on their network. If fellow Technorati users like your blog they can favourite it. Alternatively, if they like your post they can tag it. The more tags you get, the more authority your blog gets on the Technorati website.

4) BLOG CATALOG:- BlogCatalog is a huge social blog directory. To begin you register your blog in the relevant category and create a profile for yourself. Then you can browse through the blogs and add them to your favourites. Plus, you can add blog owners to your friends list write on their walls, send them messages etc. I’ve not had a chance to fully explore all the options provided by BlogCatalog but it has the potential to be an amazing promotional tool and a great way to network with owners of similar blogs.

5) SOCIAL MARKER:- Social Marker provides you with a simple method to submit your blog to many of the social bookmarking websites out there. Social bookmarking websites are basically websites that display articles, videos, blog posts etc submitted by users. If visitors to the site like the content that is submitted then it will receive a positive vote. If not it will receive a negative vote. The idea behind this is that the good content will receive prime positioning whilst poor content will be removed from the websites.

6) YOUTUBE:- Although I haven’t tried submitting a video to YouTube to promote The Ebook Cavern Newsletter, I have had some success using YouTube videos to promote one of my other blogs. If you can’t create your own video then consider paying someone to create a video for you. If you shop around you can get quite a good deal.

As you probably know blogs are a lot more flexible than traditional websites. As a result there are many more creative methods available to you when promoting your blog. Traditional promotional strategies such as article marketing are still effective but implementing these six creative methods can boost your blog traffic to new levels.

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About the Author:
Tom Parker is an eBay Ebook PowerSeller who has been selling ebooks and software on eBay for a number of years. He trades under the eBay ID: EbookCavern and runs The Ebook Cavern Ebay Store. If you want to learn Tom’s top eBay ebook tips subscribe to The Ebook Cavern Newsletter.

(You may reprint this article on your blog, ezine, newsletter or website providing the article remains unchanged and the ‘About the Author’ box is included and unchanged.)

Hello everyone. I’ve just completed my latest ebook, Ebay Ebook Success: Volume 2. I am going to be selling this ebook in my eBay store for $2.99 but I am giving it away to all subscribers to The Ebook Cavern Newsletter absolutely free of charge. Ebay Ebook Success: Volume 2 contains 10 excellent eBay ebook articles written by me which I hope will help eBay ebook sellers succeed online. Plus, it comes with master resell rights, an excellent sales page and high quality graphics. I hope you find the ebook useful and I would love to hear your comments. If you have any feedback regarding Ebay Ebook Success: Volume 2 please leave a comment on this post.

Click here to download Ebay Ebook Success: Volume 2!!

“How to set up a Successful, Automated, Ebook Business on eBay” is the ebook where I explain how I run, automate and promote The Ebook Cavern eBay Store. Since this is a special offer, exclusively for subscribers to this newsletter I am offering it to you with three special bonuses. To view the full details of this offer and buy your very own copy use the button below.

Hello there everyone. I’m just making a quick post to let you know that I have created The Ebook Cavern Squidoo Lens. If you have not yet heard of Squidoo, it is something I will be talking about a lot more in the future. Squidoo lenses are similar to blogs and allow you to add a variety of content through modules. You can add text, images, videos, polls, top lists and more.

The Ebook Cavern Squidoo Lens contains featured products from The Ebook Cavern eBay Store, information on my ebook “How to set up a Succesful, Automated, Ebook Business on eBay”, a feed from this very blog, additional articles, videos from YouTube, links to useful products and much, much more. Please check it out by clicking the link below and if you get a chance leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

Click Here to visit The Ebook Cavern Squidoo Lens!!

The Ebook Cavern Newsletter for February 2008 is now available for download.

You can view the HTML version by Clicking Here.

You can view the PDF version by Clicking Here.

This month’s newsletter contains an ‘eBay Ebook Success’ article on finding content for your blog, a free ebook and more.

I hope you enjoy the newsletter. Please leave your comments once you’ve had a chance to read it. They will be much appreciated.

In my previous articles I discussed things you need to consider before you begin blogging. Once you have considered these factors you should be ready to start your blog. However, there is one more critical factor - content. Where are you going to get your blog content from? What type of content are you going to provide? In this article I try to answer these questions by discussing seven sources of content for your blog.

1) SELF WRITTEN CONTENT:- When starting your blog you should definitely be consider writing your own content. Why? Because it is free and it also provides your blog with a dose of your own personality. You do not have to write every single post yourself because this can take a lot of time. However, there is no reason you cannot write an occasional article or product review for your blog.

2) EBAY LISTINGS:- Since your blog is a supplement for your eBay business it makes sense to highlight eBay listings on your blog. Do not fill it with all your eBay listings or your readers will quickly start to see your blog as one big advert. However, the occasional post about one of your eBay listings that you feel requires additional attention is fine. For example, maybe you have a new ebook out? Perhaps you have just listed an ebook in your eBay store which contains some really insightful information? Your readers are interested in ebooks too (that is why they are reading an eBay ebook blog), so they will want to read about some of your eBay ebooks. If done correctly, blogging about your eBay listings can improve the appearance of your blog and generate interest from your readers. Just make sure you do not overdo it.

3) ARTICLES FROM THE DIRECTORIES:- I have discussed in my previous articles how article directories can be a great sources of traffic. Well they can be a great source of free content too. Have a search through the article directories for articles on the topics you are looking to publish and then republish them. The only thing you have to make sure of is that you include the author’s resource box so that they receive the credit for writing the article.

4) PRIVATE LABEL RIGHTS (PLR) ARTICLES:- PLR articles are sold to a limited group of customers (let’s say 50). These 50 customers then have exclusive rights to use these articles for web content, email content, part of an ebook or whatever else they wish. PLR articles can be a great way to get content for your blog quickly. Although they usually cost a little money, they have an advantage over articles from the directories because of their limited distribution. Instead of publishing a directory article that has potentially been used by thousands of people, you can publish a relatively unique PLR article. Plus, you can make changes to the PLR article, giving it a unique spin for your blog.

5) OUTSOURCED ARTICLES:- If you are not happy with other people having the same PLR articles as you and you do not have the time to write your own unique articles, outsourced articles are an option. Simply, find a good writer (ask for a sample of their work before agreeing to purchase any articles) and then agree a fee per article. They will then write unique, relevant articles which you can post on your blog. The disadvantage with outsourced articles is that they will cost more than PLR articles.

6) EBOOKS:- As an eBay ebook seller you should have plenty of ebooks with resell rights and giveaway rights stashed away on your computer. Why not give some away on your blog? Your readers will really appreciate getting free ebooks that they can then go on to resell in their eBay stores.

7) YOUTUBE VIDEOS:- Interactive websites are becoming increasingly popular and YouTube is no exception. On YouTube you can find videos on almost every topic including selling ebooks on eBay. All the videos on YouTube contain code to embed the video, so all you have to do is copy and paste this code into a blog post and voila - you have video on your blog.

I hope these seven sources of content prove useful to you and your blog. Even if you are not running a blog related to eBay and ebooks, many of the ideas above can still be applied. Now that you have the sources you just need to take action. Start posting today and watch your blog grow.

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About the Author:
Tom Parker is an eBay Ebook PowerSeller who has been selling ebooks and software on eBay for a number of years. He trades under the eBay ID: EbookCavern and runs The Ebook Cavern Ebay Store. If you want to learn Tom’s top eBay ebook tips subscribe to The Ebook Cavern Newsletter.

(You may reprint this article on your blog, ezine, newsletter or website providing the article remains unchanged and the ‘About the Author’ box is included and unchanged.

Hello everyone. The free ebook for February 2008 is The Secret to Earning $150 A Day with Bum Marketing. It describes a number of bum marketing techniques you can implement to earn up to $150 a day. Hope you enjoy it. The February 2008 newsletter should be out tomorrow.

Click here to download The Secret to Earning $150 A Day with Bum Marketing!!

The Ebook Cavern Newsletter for January 2008 is finally available for download.

You can view the HTML version by Clicking Here.

You can view the PDF version by Clicking Here.

This month’s newsletter is on my targets for 2008. You can download your free ebook for this month a couple of posts down from this one. The ebook is an interview with Lee McIntyre. It’s a really great read and also comes with full resell rights.

I hope you enjoy the newsletter. Please leave your comments once you’ve had a chance to read it. They will be much appreciated.