7 Indispensable Resources You're Unlikely To Stumble Across At eBooks.com

By Tony Sheehy
Posted Friday, October 29, 2004

Is eBooks.com going to put a lot of independent ebook writers and marketers out of business? I think not. Here's why... 7 Indispensable Resources You're Unlikely To Stumble Across At eBooks.com

Just the other day I clicked into eBooks.com for the first time. And my first reaction was, "Oh oh…" I went away, and was still thinking about it. So I checked back again. And I thought, "Oh oh. A lot of infoproduct marketers are not going to be happy when they see this."

Why? Well, first off, let's take a look at what they're selling. On the first page I found:

- The 80/20 Principle

- The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang

- The Multi-Orgasmic Couple

- Cliff's Notes to (guess what?) The Holy Bible.

Big League stuff!

I dug a little deeper and found Schaum's College Physics. This book helps countless thousands of otherwise hopelessly bewildered college students to sail through Physics every year. One time I was one of them. The authors deserve a Nobel Prize for Life-Saving. Big League.

Into the sports section we go and what do we find only "Values Of The Game" by Bill Bradley. That's Bill Bradley as in "basketball" and "Al Gore". Not Bill Bradley down the street.

Click on over to the golf section and what do we find?

- Chasing Tiger - by Curt Sampson

- Putting Out Of Your Mind - by Dr. Bob Rotella

- The Chosen One: Tiger Woods and the Dilema of Greatness - David Owen

Very Big League. And all downloadable to your PC or PDA.

I looked at the publishers' names; Oxford University Press, Simon & Schuster, Doubleday, HarperCollins. "Here we go", I thought, "the big publishing companies have finally muscled into the infoproducts gold-mine."

Then something else caught my eye…

Low prices. Yep, that's right, low prices. You pay just $9.95 to download Richard Koch's book, The 80/20 Principle. Its list price as a paperback is $15.95. Real value. You pay just $14.95 for a 288-page book about Tiger Woods by Curt Sampson, a real author who writes in proper sentences and uses good English. The kind of guy who's already written a couple of other bestsellers. Not the kind of guy to spell "Super Bowl" with an "e" in it.

"They're not going to like this", I thought, "all those Internet marketing guys who charge $39.95 for a 30 page manual of "marketing secrets" in large fonts and a few rehashed "special reports". All those people who charge $97 to tell you all the things you knew already about why you're not making money on the Internet. They're not going to like this at all."

And another thing caught my eye…

Their affiliate commissions. Here's a little test for you: Guess what eBooks.com pay their affiliates?

Answer: 9% through Commission Junction.

Yes, a measly 9%! Now as someone who has never made a red cent out of any program I promoted from CJ (OK, I tell a lie; I've got 10 cents maturing in my account there at the moment) I thought to myself, "Those affiliates are really going to be living the high life when they get their 9% of $9.95 or whatever, especially once they've factored in the cost of hosting, advertising, and connecting to the Internet through a 56K modem to download all those links and banners."

But it made me worry because if some people are struggling to make a living online at the moment selling infoproducts, how in the world are they going to manage when the general public gets used to seeing quality ebooks being sold for less than $10 or $15?

Because whatever you might say about it, one of the main advantages the infoproducts business has going for it at the present time is that if you charge $40 for an ebook people don't bat an eyelid and you get to keep pretty much all the $40. Who'll pay $40 for an ebook anymore?

But things are never as they seem...

But the more I thought about it, the more I realised that things were not as bleak as they seemed. So I went for a browse around the Clickbank marketplace. Not just to look at Internet marketing ebooks but for a good look through all the different categories of ebooks on sale there.

And I came away convinced that no matter how many publishing companies manoeuvre their way into the infoproducts arena, there will never be an end to all the tiny little niches that will never be thought of, never mind be deemed worthy of filling by big-name publishers and that will always remain waiting to be discovered, taken over and exploited by individual authors with the enthusiasm to write about something they love.

So here (and with no endorsement implied or indeed responsibility accepted for how foolishly you want to spend your money!) are 7 indispensable resources for the modern man or woman, future classics all, that you're unlikely to stumble across at eBooks.com, today, tomorrow or the day after. And as you read through the list just ask yourself, "Instead of reading all that marketing mumbo-jumbo, why didn't I think of that?"

Your 7 essential resources are…

Starting our countdown and at Number 7 we have the triumph of real-world simplicity over Internet marketing hype. Yes, it's;

The World's Best Chocolate Cake - Now hands up everyone who thinks you must have your own domain name, a fancy website, 500 MB web space, cgi-bin, php, unlimited email aliases, unlimited subdomains, a slick sales letter, an eye-catching ebook cover, a ton of freebies, an iron-clad, risk-reversal guarantee, a merchant account, a set of 7 follow-up autoresponder messages, plus search engine submission, web page optimisation and link management software to sell something on the Internet. Think again! This cheesy, childish one-page free site with its big green, red and blue fonts is all Geoff Bostock needs to sell a $5 recipe for his top-secret World's No. 1 Best Chocolate Cake. Talk about a simple, bullet-proof, no-brainer cash-dispensing machine! Unbelievable. Why aren't we all doing this? The message? Give the people what they want.

Speaking of giving people what they want, the Number 6 spot was a close call between several contenders, one of which promises "15 dates a month easy", and another that will give you a helpful free covert hypnosis booklet to hypnotise your lady-friend. However, after much deliberation the vote goes to;

Outrageous Success With Beautiful Women Can Be Yours If You Follow These Proven Methods - A great title, followed by the knockout punch, "42 year old Ohio man reveals confidential methods that demolish every barrier standing in your way of being an irresistible ladies man!" Magic! How could you go wrong? And what guy could possibly read the first line of the sales letter, "You are only 2 clicks away from more fun and thrills than you ever dreamed possible with dozens of gorgeous, sexy women who are chomping at the bit to be with you", and not be hooked by the phrase, "chomping at the bit"?

Continuing in the same vein let's give honourable mention to another superb headline, "The Ugly Man's Guide To Picking Up Beautiful Women", before awarding the coveted Number 5 spot to;

Seduction Program.com - Apparently 97% of us gentlemen have no idea what women want or how to be attractive to women and as a result we are "working seduction and attraction from the completely wrong angle". So there you go! The sales letter contains the classic benefit (complete with misprint), "I have found techniques and strategies for seducing women that are nearly full-proof"…and another timeless classic; "$37 is really a painless drop in the bucket compared to the money you're going to waste on buying women drinks". Who says men can't be romantic? Pure poetry! Wonderful stuff!

Building up a head of steam now and at Number 4 we find one for the ladies;

How To Drive Your Man Wild - Girls, how about this for a headline…"Now You Can Make Men Want You…Make Men Love You…Make Men Enslaved By Desire For You!" Holy Smoke!! We need ice in here quick! And what about this one, "Now…for less than the cost of a pair of movie tickets…you can get more love, more romance, and more passion for the rest of your life…guaranteed!" Phew! Talk about big benefits! All for $12.97. Eat your heart out, James Bond!

Making good our escape, and not a moment too soon, we find ourselves at Number 3, where for sheer originality the vote has to go to;

Skunk Odor Removal - Easily the tackiest sales page you'll ever see advertising a product. Perhaps there was a skunk by the computer. Anyway, the point is, when one needs to remove skunk odor one is not so fussy about design!

Driving on now towards the finish, and for pure dirt-behind-the-fingernails fascination the Number 2 slot must go to;

The Motor Oil Bible (A Controversial eBook)- You thought oil was oil, didn't you? Let me tell you, you were wrong. The author pulls no punches here. He goes straight in there and kicks butt. "I'm going to turn the lubricants industry upside-down with this ebook", he says. "It's got 158 pages of extensive information about automotive lubrication and filtration and completely debunks the popular myth that 3,000 mile oil changes are a necessity. Were you aware that many oil filters are only efficient at removing particles larger than 40 microns, but one that efficiently filters particles just 10 microns smaller will reduce engine wear by 50%? (I wasn't.) I could easily talk till I'm blue in the face about why you need The Motor Oil Bible." (He does.) A customer writes; "After reading the Motor Oil Bible I consider myself an expert on the subject and I am quite often the center of conversation on the subject." Another says, "This ebook was the basis for my decision to pursue extended-drain motor oil use and premium filtration products." A third writes, "I couldn't "put it down" until I had finished even though it was well past my ideal bedtime." Sounds like this product is HOT!

And finally we come to the coveted Number 1 spot. No controversy about this one. No second-guessing. You got it. It's the classic, the unsurpassable, the un-put-down-able;

Turn Unwanted Cemetery Space Into $ - What's this about? Timeshare? No, it's - wait for it - a directory that lets you list graves, mausoleum crypts, or cremation niches that you want to sell. And guess what, it contains a whopping 7 graves and 1 cremation niche for the entire United States. Bet you're dying to read this!

I'm telling you, with material like this, who needs eBooks.com?

About the Author

Tony Sheehy runs (http://www.infoproducts.org), an information site dedicated to helping people from all walks of life achieve their ambition of a better future by selling information products on the Web. Visit (http://www.infoproducts.org/articles.htm) for more original content like this. You have permission to use this article in your ezine or on your website as long as the content, including all links, remains unaltered and this footer is included.