Selling e-books - What You Need to Sell e-books on eBay

Starting an e-book is a very enticing offer to many entrepreneurs looking for passive and residual income. If done well, e-books can certainly provide both. The problem is, there are many other e-book sellers out there. Most of them are all selling the same thing. So, how do you make yourself stand out among this heard of electronic information sheep?

Let's find out.

Selling e-books - What You Need

eBay Account: While it is very possible to sell e-books on eBay by just having a seller account, it is not as profitable as having an eBay store. E-books don't hold a high value on eBay unless they are extremely unique. So, trying to post large quantities of low priced e-books can get expensive. The listing fees and end of auction fees would eat most of your profit. If you open an eBay store however, you will be able to list multiple auctions, as well as set an endless number of available copies.

This means you could post an eBay store e-book such as, "How to Start an eBay e-book Store", and say that you have 100 copies of it. If you tried to do this as an auction you would have to wait for a high feedback score, plus, it would cost a fortune. With an eBay store, it would cost less than ten cents!

Paypal Account: Odds are you already have one these if you spend anytime on eBay. Now that you will be using them to sell e-books on eBay, make sure to look into some of their seller features. Take advantage of the free pay-pal emblems and certified seller seals. This will help you look more trustworthy as a seller. There are also ways to create a more automated e-book store with eBay by using their automatic emailer, but that's another article entirely.

Domain Name: Why do you need a domain name to sell e-books on eBay? Well, because you are going to need web hosting and you can't get web hosting without a domain name.

There are plenty of websites out there where you can get free domain names and website hosting. These are fine if you are strapped for cash when you first start out. Domain names only cost $8 - $10 though and are worth every penny. A good domain name can help you seem like a more reputable seller. If a buyer has a choice between buying e-books from someone at, www.something.come/freewebs.mysite or www.ebookgold.com, who do you think they will choose?

E-Books: You obviously can't sell e-books on eBay if you don't have any. The question is, how do you get them? You have two basic options; one is to become and affiliate or re-sell others e-books, the other is to write your own.

As of now, there is no way to sell affiliate products on eBay. The only way to sell someone else's e-books is if you have a copy of the e-book and rights to resell that e-book. Generally you will know if you have the rights to re-sell an e-book when you buy it. That tends to be a big selling point in e-books. They are trying to sell you on the dream of making easy money.

Because so many e-books come re-sell rights, everyone thinks they can make a fortune re-selling them. This in turn, is why you see so many of the same e-books for sale on eBay.

Now, to the answer the question from earlier,

"How do I make myself stand out?"

The simple answer, write your own e-books. The more complex answer is finding what to write about. If you try to write your own version of e-books and topics already on the market, you will just blend into the crowd. The secret here is trying to create original content that buyers are searching for. Again, the answer to this is for another article, but just ask yourself, "What do people want to know about?"

PDF Software: If you are going to step up to the plate and create your own e-books, you're going to need software that can convert your documents into PDF or HTML files. There are a few good, free, PDF converters out there.

As an exercise in e-book research, why don't you search around for them on eBay? This will give you a better idea of how selling e-books on eBay works. You can see what other e-book sellers are doing, how they do it, and how their delivery process works.