Tracey Edwards Blog

Hope you are all making a killing with your eBay classified ads and that all is well.

I wanted to have a quick chat about your ad title.

As you know I’m not a huge fan of just having the title of the product you are promoting in your title – why?

Because very rarely does anyone actually search for the product name unless it’s a very well know product.

People search for the BENEFITS of what the product will do.

So say you’ve decided on promoting a product that will help get your baby to sleep and the product name is Sleeping Soundly .. (or some such thing).

Unless that product has been on Oprah it’s unlikely that people will be searching for it by name. 

However, loads of people want to know how to get the baby to sleep and you want to earn money promoting the product so what would be a better title?

Hmm .. How about something like ‘How To get your Baby To Sleep in under 15 Minutes’.  Think that title would get clicks?  I certainly do.

So instead of placing the product name in the title, try using a product benefit and watch it increase your click through rate!

It’s time to let you know a little bit more about who I am.  I live in Australia, I’m a mum to a little boy, and I’m also a writer (I have two books in bookshops here in Australia on finance).

The reason I’m telling you this is because I only spend a maximum of two hours a day, five days a week doing internet marketing (when my son goes down for a nap), and I still make money.  Why?

I believe it’s because I’m organised.  I do a different task everyday and while many of them are different, they all help build my internet presence, and also build my income.

Monday - I work on my websites, I have four niche websites that are not related.

Tuesday - My own products.  This is when I spend time to either create or promote the products that I have made.  Currently I’m promoting Auction Classified Cash and will do so for the next few weeks before I start on my next product.

Wednesday - eBay day!  Today I’m either writing Classified As for eBay, or promoting my BANS sites (since they are eBay related).

Thursday - Blogs.  I update most of my blogs - I have over 10 different blogs on various niches.

Friday - Squidoo!  While I’ve still yet to make much money from squidoo lenses, I still spend a day either updating or creating new ones. 

Weekends - relaxing!

It doesn’t matter who you are, as long as you are prepared to spend time working your business everyday it will grow and you’ll start making money in no time!

To your success.
Tracey

Now this should be a no brainer for most of you, but I thought I’d give you a little quiz to get the creative juices flowing.  Which classified ad would get you the most clicks?

Google Cash Review
Or
Google Cash – How to Make Money - my Honest Review

Ok, ok that was a little too easy.

Then what about this title
10 Free ‘Google Cash’ Tips – Sneak Peak Review
Ohhh, I bet you know the answer now!

You see the trick for getting more clicks on your classified ad is to give your potential customers something they want: a sneak peak, a review, tips (or all three as in the last title example).

Want more great classified ad ideas?
Then check out my ebook at http://www.auctionclassifiedcash.com

To your success!
Tracey

I’ve had so many success story emails from fellow classified adders! Here is one of my faves .. 

“Tracey, you wouldn’t believe it, I made $200 from just one ad this month – thank you so much” – Warren

 Awww – that makes my day – I love helping people make money. Anyway I wanted to let you in on some tricks I use in my ads for more cash in my pocket: 

1. Use bullet points in your description!  People love lists and would much rather read a list than a paragraph.  And the more likely your ad is read, the more sales that you are probably going to make. 
   
2. Make sure you tell the customer WHAT TO DO NEXT – whether that is to send an email for more information, click a link – whatever – just TELL THEM what to do.  A big ol’ click here is not enough – tell them WHY they are clicking there – click here for more information, click here to learn the secrets to weight loss, click here to send a man to the moon … you get the idea 
   
3. Think about what people WANT before you choose a product to promote.  No good choosing products just because they sound cool, people must actually want the product. 

   Tracey what do you mean?  Well I’ll give you some hints – people WANT to lose weight, the WANT to fall in love, they WANT to make money.  They probably don’t care much for an ebook on how to cook toast .. ya get my drift  

Cool!

http://www.auctionclassifiedcash.com

I’ve just had my product approved by Clickbank so now it’s up and running and ready for people to purchase if they wish - it includes strategies for dealing with eBay’s current policies regarding Classified Ads as well as which ads are the most profitable.

Check out it!

Or if you are feeling like making some cash by promoting it, head over to my affiliate page and grab some tools to get you going.

After my recent experiment with eBay’s Classified Ads, I had many people asking me which Clickbank products I was promoting to get such a good response.  Personally I don’t think my results were anything spectacular, but it for the outlay, my return was pretty decent.

The truth of the matter is that it wasn’t the product I was promoting that was the key, it was how I was promoting them.

You see many Internet Marketers make the mistake of trying to sell a product through an ad with these key mistakes:

1. They use ONLY the product name in eBay’s title - very rarely to do people search for specific products.  Instead of the product name: eg. Influential Cash Quarterly (made up name), use the benefits in the title instead e.g. Make MONEY ! New Influence System Made Me Thousands!

2. Think about DESIRE - Why do people want that product?  To Lose Weight?, Find Love?, Make Money?,  Use those desires to promote your product but keep it real and don’t over-hype.

3. Don’t try and sell in your ad.  The sales page will do that - Your job is to create enough interest for people to CLICK THROUGH to the VENDOR! 

4. Really the best tip I can give you is to become really good at working out what people want and giving THAT to them.

How did I get so smart?  I learnt many of my Internet Marketing skills from Wealthy Affiliate.  I’ve been a member for over six months now and before I joined I couldn’t sell squat - They gave me the lightbulb to realise how to be a successful internet marketer.

I do realise that the monthly cost of Wealthy Affiliate is a little high, in the beginning I was just going to join for one month and learn everything I could and then quit - but I’m still a member because the skills I have learnt have more than made back the cost of membership.

Anyway I hope that this answers all your questions.  Good luck with your Classified Ads!

After one month, here are the results of the eBay Classified experiments:

Classified Ad 1 - Lead Generation

Over the 30 Day period that my ad was up and running, I had 60 opt-ins from my ad.  That’s an average of 2 per day over the course of the ad, however most of them came in the first week and the last week that the ad appeared.

Classified Ad 2 - Affiliate Marketing

For an outlay of $19.90 (2 ads) I made $195.57 in affiliate commisions for the 30 days (which is a profit of $175.67!)

 Needless to say, I’ve just added a whole lot more ads on eBay !!

Classified Ad 3 - eBook Selling

I had no-one purchase the eBook at $3.97.  Not a single sale!  Obviously selling eBooks this way is not very successful.

Summary:

eBay Classified Ads are fantastic for earning affiliate commissions and building your list (and they suck for selling eBooks!), so if you have been thinking about trying it out, I say go for it!

Yes its true, over the past few weeks I’ve been building websites with Build A Niche Store (BANS) and I have to say I’m very impressed.

As you know I’m a major cheapskate when it comes to buying yet another ‘make money online’ ebook/software/scam and rarely fork out my cash unless I feel something is truly worthy - and I have to say that I fully endorse BANS.  It’s a great EASY way to make affiliate money from eBay.

So how does it work?

After buying the Build A Niche Store software ($97) you then upload it to your server and create a niche store that will direct customers to eBay through your ’store’.  If they buy something you get a commission.

How do you get paid?

You need to sign up to be an eBay affiliate through their new eBay Partner Network affiliate program.  eBay pays you your commissions through PayPal.

How many stores can I create using BANS?

As many as you like!  Once you buy the software you can create as many different stores as you want to.

How much could I make?

Well this depends on your niche, how much work you want to put in etc, but I’ve seen people who make thousands per week.  But let’s be realistic for a sec, most of us average folk usually make around $200 per month per store.  Therefore if you created 100 stores - you have the potential to earn around $20,000 per month! 

Not bad I think you’ll agree!

How long does it take to start earning money?

Like any new website, you have to give it time to get indexed in the search engines and have the traffic start visiting your store.  I think most stores start to reach their full potential at around the six month mark.  However most people start to see a trickle of commissions coming their way as soon as 1 or 2 weeks after their first store is created.

Is it easy to use?

Yes, extremely easy!  The software comes with full instructions on installation and creating your store.  The only hard part is trying to narrow down what you want your store to sell!

I fully recommend Build A Niche Store as a way of earning eBay commissions.  Check it out for yourself!

Many of you have been very interested in how my experiments have been going - so here is the latest results of my Classified Ad experiments.

Classified Ad 1 - Lead Generation

In the last 7 days I’ve had another 18 opt-in’s from my eBay Classified Ad for lead generation.  That’s a total of 52 so far from the one ad and I still have one more week to go.

This shows the power of Classified’s as a lead generation tool.  If you can get around 50 or more per month just from one ad, then you could definately build your business in no time at all.

Classified Ad 2 - Affiliate Marketing

I haven’t had any more sales from my original affiliate ad (still just the one sale from last week) but since that profit was 3 times the price of the ad anyway I still consider it a success.

I also decided to add another affiliate product in an entirely different niche to see how that performs.  It’s only been up 2 days so far but already I’ve had quite a few click-throughs and even one persons asking how they buy the product (customers are still slightly confused that there is no ‘buy now’ button for classified ads).  That means I’m going to have to make the ‘click here for more info’ button a little more obvious for those that haven’t quite got the concept of classified ads yet.

Classified Ad 3 - eBook Selling

Still no sales for any ebooks.  Even though I still have two more weeks - I’m coming to the realisation that classified ads are not the best method for selling ebooks. 

But considering the main reason that many people sold ebooks previously anyway was for lead generation and affiliate sales, now because you can now do those things directly means that ebooks might, quite possibly, be obsolete!

My Classified Ad experiment’s are going great!

Classified Ad 1 - Lead Generation

In the past week I’ve had 20 opt-in’s directly from eBay’s Classified Ads.  My aim was to get just 10, and I have already doubled that goal.  That works out at a cost of .50 cents per lead ($9.95 cost of ad / 20 = 0.50 cents).

And I still have over two weeks to go.

Classified Ad 2 - Affiliate Marketing

Admittedly I have chosen a product with alot of competition, so I guess my results have reflected that, but so far I have made nearly $40 from my classified ad.  That’s a $30 profit.  It’s not going to make me rich - but it does show the potential of how well affiliate sales work through classified ads.

Classified Ad 3 - eBook Selling

I have only had the ad selling ebooks up for 3 days.  No sales yet.

Overall - I’m very pleased with how the affiliate marketing side of things are going and will definately explore this further in the future.