I’ve been working on other projects and shamefully ignoring this blog. I guess because I’ve named it eBay Diaries, I tend to overlook it when there’s so little going on at eBay, at least where my business is involved.

Sales are slow, probably understandable with the economy in the shape it is, although there have been spurts of business. I thought the ebooks about making money online might become more popular, but not so. I just took a quick look at completed listings using the “make money” search term, and there weren’t very many sales.

I confess that I’ve not been paying much attention to my eBay biz. As I mentioned last time, I’ve decided it’s a very good idea to try to develop other sources of income. So, I’m working at building small niche sites, adsense and Clickbank sites, with the hope that they’ll generate regular revenue streams, even though they may be small revenue streams. The key is to have a lot of sites, so I’m working at getting a lot of articles. I’m actually finally being forced to look at and organize the gajillion or so article packs I’ve accumulated, as well as all the private label rights books.

I am so far staying away from the internet marketing niche, so that eliminates a ton of the stuff I’ve accumulated, but I have found some useful information in my collections, especially for the natural healing site, and I’m finding that I have lots and lots of the same packs. I’m rewriting some and tossing a whole lot more.

Since my last post I’ve also had some small success with Kindle listings. I’ve only made a few dollars, but then I only have a few listings. I am rereading my Kindle Profits book; I do think Kindle is a good place to put some priority. Amazon is pushing the newest Kindle, and the owners are buying books. I am paying attention to getting the index done right; I’ve seen a few negative comments about messed up or non-existent indexes or tables of content. It takes a bit more effort, but this is a do-it-once and you’re done kind of deal, so worth it.

I’m going back to my article packs and sorting. It’s tedious but has to be done. As I mentioned above, there’s a lot of junk. But then when I get to a point of thinking all I have is junk, I find a jewel. So it goes.

Be well and just keep plugging away.

My husband and I went to Las Vegas for a few days, and all I brought back was a major cold. I think I’m well enough now that I can make some sense, but if I sound blurred, please understand it’s because I am!

Speaking of Las Vegas, did you know there is now an eBay slot machine? I found it in one of the downtown casinos, so of course I had to play. Guess what? It didn’t do anything but take my money. Surprise!

Maybe they need the marketing push and income, given this:

The AuctionBytes Newsletter of November 21 reported that “eBay Page Views Drop Off Dramatically in October.” According to the article, Nielsen Online data shows a disturbing 30% drop in page views this past October compared to the same time last year. You can view the article here, and see the charts, if you can stand to look at them.

I do know that my sales have been meager, as have the sales of the other sellers I watch. Certainly the dour economy has a lot to do with this, but I can’t help but wonder if it hasn’t been brought on some by the turmoil of all the changes at eBay. Logic tells me that in bad times folks are going to be looking for bargains – with eBay a logical place to begin. And even with gas prices falling, shopping online should still be more attractive than running around to the mall or several stores.

eBay has contacted store owners about promotions they’re implementing – coupon offers and a cash back partnership with Microsoft Live Search, for example. They’re also pushing store owners to use their email marketing tool. What I’d really like to see, though, is the kind of ad campaign they ran a while back that emphasized the fun and ease of using eBay.

With all that, we come back to diversifying our online businesses. I’ve found a couple of reports I thought you might find helpful, both gifts from one of my favorite subscriptions, Pirates Of The Public Domain. (Check out the site and free newsletter for a boggling amount of information about using public domain information to make money!)

Click on the images below to download your free pdf books.

Niche Hunter

Public Domain 6 Step Formula

With that I leave you for my couch and blankie and hot tea. Happy and profitable reading.