Apologies, Penny Ebooks, and Feedback
I’ve been away for the holidays - well, away from posting here except the short one a few days ago. And then I didn’t look at the comments. I don’t get that many, so I forget to pay attention. When I finally looked, there was a comment from Derrek (thanks!) that the sign-up wasn’t working correctly. I’ve fixed it now (after dinking around with it for way too long). Still don’t know what happened, but after copying code a few times, it finally took. If you’ve tried to sign up and have been unable to, my sincere apologies! It is working now, and hopefully will continue to do so!
Now onto penny ebooks and feedback.
I was reminded of this topic in my monthly newsletter from John Thornhill at Planetsms Mentorship Monthly. (I’ve talked about this membership site before; it really is worth checking out.) One of John’s members wrote to say that he’d had his eBay account taken away because he bought and sold some penny ebooks. He has his account back now, but he lost all his feedback. so he has to start all over with that.
I’ve been seeing warnings about penny ebooks for some time now, but I still see recommendations in eBay how-to guides to look for penny books so you can build your feedback score - and that’s exactly what eBay doesn’t want you to do. Don’t do it!
It is important that you, as a seller, build your positive feedback. You may even be able to get some of that with penny books (there certainly are still a lot of them for sale!). I just don’t know how many of these transactions it takes before eBay starts paying attention and penalizes you for it.
I looked through the eBay help section on feedback and the feedback tutorial, but I couldn’t find anything definitive. The policy statement is:
“Feedback left or received where the feedback’s primary value is to artificially enhance a member’s reputation rather than provide commentary on genuine transactional experience is not permitted.”
Apparently, eBay views the buying and selling of penny books as an attempt to manipulate feedback. It still leaves us without any information on how many penny transactions you can do without penalty. Although I have purchased some penny ebooks, I already had some sales. Perhaps a flag is being brand new and only having penny transactions. I just don’t know, but at this point I’m not going to take any more chances.
This brings me to another suggestion for you. Look around your house at what you might be able to sell on eBay. Just about all of us have stuff that might seem a little too good to throw away, or something we know probably has value to someone else but that we don’t use. You’ll need to do a bit of research, but there’s tons of information on eBay to help you. Look at what listings are currently running and look at completed transactions (advanced search option, then tick completed listings). You can see how other folks are doing their listings, what kind of activity/demand there is, ballpark shipping, etc.
Selling physical goods is a great way to get the full experience of eBay. I’ve learned a lot (like it’s better to take a trip to the post office to be sure your shipping costs are correct before you list your item - and they’re very helpful in suggesting the best/easiest/most cost effective way to ship your stuff). I’ve learned there are some really great buyers and some not so great. And I’ve learned how much fun it is to have $$ in your paypal account!
Even better, it is also a perfectly legitimate way to build your feedback. You find someone who wants your, umm, treasures, you make a little bit of money, and you gain some experience. You do want to be absolutely certain you’re doing all you can to make that feedback positive, though. For instance, before I list anything I have it ready to mail. I have packaging from the post office (free), I know exactly what the shipping cost is, and I promise the item will be shipped within 24 hours of receiving payment. Since I only accept paypal payment, the money for shipping is already in my account. I use the eBay/paypal feature to print my label, and then I’m off to the post office or nearest drop box.
That’s it for today. I wish you a great New Year. My goal will be to learn more about building my business and sharing with you what I find. Leave a comment about your goals for 2008. Perhaps we can work together to achieve it all.
