Digital Items Banned on eBay
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.
Posts
March 25th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
I haven’t really done much in the way of digital items on ebay myself, I have dabbled a few times, but I have mainly concentrated on physical items.
Is it a shock ?…….. Not really, it was always on the cards, not because there is anything wrong with Digital items on Ebay, but simply due to the amount of problems some sellers have created for the rest of Ebay sellers, and Ebay themselves.
What I mean, is some sellers cannot see the wood for the trees and simply go all out to make a sale at any cost by undercutting/discounting other peoples products, to such a degree that they ultimately become worthless, and there are some really great products that have gone down in value due to this.
I know there is a lot of value in selling a digital product on Ebay, cheaply, for the backend sales you can create etc.
I personally think this move will only improve the realtionship with Ebay and the sellers, which will then give the paying customer greater value for their money………. And as John Thornhill stated, this is not something to be upset or angry about, as selling physical items will definately bring you in more profits than you will first realise . . . . . If anything, as a physical item seller myself, I’m going to be a little disapointed that now I will now be having more competition…… Ah well !
March 25th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
This is the first I have heard of this. Thanks for letting us know. Will be reading your blog to see what advice you have in the future.
March 25th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Like most I am racking my brains on the best way around this.
I genuinely think there can be an upside with a little thought though.
I think the timescale is shorter than you have detailed above Tom as it comes into effect 31st March as I read it and not 31st May. Probably just a typo above.
March 25th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Tom,
You’ve actually pulled the plug on your store already.Now I know how serious this is. I’m very new to selling digital books. And still ironing out the bumps.
Remember SQUIDOO BASICS ? That was me, who messed up your delivery the other day. All I can say is lucky we have the blogs and forums otherwise we would all be on our own totally lost.
Miltski,
March 25th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
My heart goes out to all the hard-working eBayers who have been selling digital downloads all this time - what a huge earthquake for their businesses! I almost became heavily involved in using eBay for list promotion and in some ways I’m very glad I never bothered. Then again, you always learn from every new technique you try as an Internet marketer, and skills that people have acquired from marketing ebooks on Ebay will continue to serve them well as they move into using different venues for selling products. Also, as I understand it, you’ll still be able to sell digital downloads on eBay, you’ll just have to do so through their classifieds ads, right? I realize this will still be a huge change for people, but maybe some aspects of those businesses are salvageable after all.
Best wishes to all eBayers!
Internet Marketing Badger (Jennifer)
March 26th, 2008 at 2:52 am
Lee,
I totally agree with your comments. I was rather surprised since eBay have not that long ago introduced the digital delivery system but on the other hand a lot of people do abuse digital product sales so I suppose from eBay’s point of view something had to be done about this. It is going to be rather frustrating for some people but then it does teach the valuable lesson don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Plus, I’m sure the most creative amongst us will be able to figure out a solution.
Neil,
Good spot. It was indeed a typo which I have now ammended. I agree that it definitely will benefit some people. I think those ebook sellers who have a number of ebooks they have self written will benefit if anything. They can just burn their exclusive ebook onto a CD, sell it as an email course and they’ll probably even be able to charge a higher price for it. However, I think it may hit ebook sellers who don’t have their own ebooks a little harder.
Miltski,
Yes I remember you. I suspect this new policy may have something to do with why your digital delivery didn’t work. I’ve had reports of other people’s digital delivery not working because of eBay.
There are two reasons I have pulled my eBay store. First, I do not want to be paying eBay fees for items which are going to be invalid in a few days. Secondly, with the store name The Ebook Cavern I don’t really have much scope for getting around eBay’s new rules. Like I said I don’t know what I am going to do in the long term but for now the store has to be closed.
Jennifer,
Thanks for the kind words and lucky you for not getting too heavily involved lol. I’ve just checked out your blog and it contains lots of great Internet Marketing advice so if anyone’s is thinking what to do next this may be a good source of inspiration. You also make a great point that the skills people have acquired from marketing ebooks should serve them well in their other online ventures.
I think your right about the digital downloads through classified ads. However, at $10 a month people will need to select the products they advertise using classified ads carefully.