I found online auctions by accident in 2001. I was at university, looking for an old computer game. But I noticed that people were selling all sorts of digital guides there too. Before long I was selling a digital guide of my own.
I did it properly. I bought every competing guide, found the gaps in each one and filled them. I knew mine was the most comprehensive guide available, because I'd read all the others.
It barely sold.
I sold one or two copies a week, while the weaker guides with gaps outsold it.
Then I came across a copywriting manual and discovered direct response marketing. I realised my product wasn't the problem. My listing was. So I rewrote it using the rules of direct response, and changed nothing about the product itself.
Sales went from one or two a week to 10 to 12 every day.
I priced the guide at £12 for a reason: £1 went to the payment processor, Billpoint or PayPal, and £1 went in auction fees, which left me £10 a sale. My target was £100 a day.
I fulfilled every order in about an hour a day, while my friends spent long hours working part-time jobs.
The same product can sell a little or a lot depending on how it's positioned and presented. Most businesses keep improving the product or buying more traffic, when the biggest gains are hidden in how they sell.
