A Desperate Need -- and a Solution that Pays

Today marks a turning point in my marketing focus. Until today, I really didn’t have a methodology for getting my profitable (more than 99 cents US) items listed and presented in a way that would motivate buyers to buy. Sure, those items are worth the price I charge (In My Not So Humble Opinion), but only a select few were eligible for top dollar. Those items have one thing in common: they fill a need, not a want.
    Ironically, my “bestseller” is a recipe book for Fruit Smoothies. That’s not exactly a burning need, and promoting it would have distracted me from focussing on selling the items that can help pay the bills for listing, store fees, etc. Fortunately, I found a resource that explained, explicitly, what gets people to spend.
    Desperation creates a desire for action. It also creates an emotional reaction that is reliable, predictable and dependable. That emotional reaction is a sense of urgency: either to move closer to something good or away from something bad. You MUST get to a dentist to have that tooth pulled. You MUST find out if you can learn to attract that one, special person you’ve been pining over. You MUST find a way to get rid of the smelly foot odor problem you have. You MUST increase your income SOON.
    I had been wondering what to create in the way of how-to information that would be profitable. Looks like that question is answered: target desperate buyers. Now I must produce genuine value, not just sucker people into buying by playing on that sense of urgency.

A customer service tale.

It's nice when you get more than you paid for. It's even better if you find an "aha" moment, and connect with someone. I was poking around eBay in the eBook category, and found a listing for 9 recipes for 1 cent. I duly made my purchase, only to find that the "eBook" was actually a list of links to the seller's Guides for recipes. I was a bit taken aback, then intrigued. This seller had just monetized his Guides. See my post below, "2007 - I'm ready".

After a bit of messaging back and forth, the seller gave me a 99 cent refund! That's 98 more penny eBooks I can buy! I also contacted eBay about the listing, wondering if it's okay to auction off your own Guide. The thought never occurred to me. I hope he PUTS THOSE GUIDES BACK UP, PRONTO! The Guides weren't any kind of violation.

It turns out the seller is a young guy in the Netherlands, who is addicted to eBay, generally buys and has a Chinese eBay store. I don't think he's Chinese - offering an eBay store in Chinese is free for a year! Plus, he's a bit NUTS! I like him a lot. Anybody who has an animated .GIF of Einstein can't be all bad!

If it turns out that auctioning off your own Guides is legitimate, I may have found a self-funding income stream. I just won't call them eBooks. That's neither here nor there, really.

The real value of this whole experience is the connection. The world really is flat.