Put on your best "confused" blank stare and read this...

First, I say:

"I know an item that you can sell on eBay for (almost) 100% profit. It costs you NOTHING TO DELIVER, DOESN'T HAVE ANY COMPETITION, IS AVAILABLE IN UNLIMITED SUPPLY, and SELLS LIKE HOTCAKES."

This is your line:

"Oh yeah right Jim - you are nuts!"

I'm used to that reaction. It's okay. Let me prove it please. Even EBay corporate is helping me make my point! So many of us are making so much money selling "digital or downloadable products" on eBay.com that eBay.com is finally making it easier for us!

First, for the newbie, "What are digital or downloadable products?"

Quite simply they are the MOST PROFITABLE ITEM YOU CAN EVER SELL ANYWHERE PERIOD. As defined by eBay, a digital item is "a computer file or special information that you can access online or have delivered electronically."

Examples of digital items are a word processor file, an image taken with a digital camera, an MP3 file of an original song, software, an original dessert recipe etc.

Some Benefits of selling digital goods -

No shipping cost for buyer or seller
Virtually NO competition
Swarms of customers if done right
Extremely high profit margins (in the 95% plus range)
No restocking expense for seller if refund is sought
No boxes to pack EVER
Immediate confirmed delivery to customers
Sellers grow a mailing list with every sale
Easy two step marketing tool (i.e. sell a $1 report on eBay for leads)

I could go on and on...

Up until recently there was quite a bit of confusion for some people when it came to selling digital items on eBay. Due at least partly to pressure from many eBay sellers eBay is now embracing the concept of selling digital goods.

Can you tell I'm excited?

Let's talk about the new rules of the game that eBay has set up... Here's a link to the BRAND NEW page eBay has set up explaining it all:

http://pages.ebay.com/choosingformats/digitalitems/faqs/?ssPageName=CMDV:AB#1

As I read the new rules and features that they have added it all sounds like a HUGE step in the right direction from my vantage point. There are a few items of concern but I'm 95% happy. In summary eBay.com is helping remove many of the barriers that kept the masses from selling digital goods.

For example, eBay now lets you establish a download page where customers are automatically sent after paying for a digital item through PayPal. This was a pretty difficult task before, but now it's automatic. It won't be long until eBay provides an easy "upload" area and hosts these files for us...you heard it here first.

Some of the other highlights from the new eBay "digital goods" policies:

-If you have a Web address where you host your digital files for sale, eBay can provide your buyers (after they pay) with direct access to the files they purchase. It's easy to do - while setting up your digital goods auction simply select "Provide Web address for download" from the pull-down menu.

-As a seller of digital goods you have to have a VERIFIED paypal.com account to take full advantage of the new features. EBay would like us as digital goods sellers to offer PayPal's 'Immediate Payment' option so that delivery information can be exposed at the point of sale.

In other words they (eBay) want you to be able to take payment and deliver the good immediately (even at 2AM). You can deliver manually by email when you first get started though. That's what I did.

-It appears to be implied that digital goods will be allowed in MANY categories now instead of being restricted to the one "hidden" category that they used to be forced into. This isn't spelled out clearly in the new policy, but the new policy makes reference to "multiple categories" being used for digital goods. Stay tuned for clarification on that one.

All that is really good news folks.

When I started selling downloadable products (eBooks) on eBay several years ago I ran into all kinds of hurdles. Customers were confused and skeptical, eBay was confusing and inconsistent with policies and there were only a handful of us doing it (still - we were making great pr0fits mind you).

Now the doors of opportunity have been opened wide by eBay.

P.S. When people hear me say that they can sell an item on eBay for nearly 100% profit that costs them NOTHING TO DELIVER, DOESN'T HAVE ANY COMPETITION, IS AVAILABLE IN UNLIMITED SUPPLY, and SELLS LIKE HOTCAKES I hope I'll get far fewer blank stares from now on...