Selling Affiliate Products through Online Auction Sites
By Sydney Johnson

The question I am most asked by people who have read Make Your Net Auction Sell! is what “What should I sell?” The second most asked one is “Will (whatever) sell well on auction sites?” My answer is almost always the same: I don’t know.

I’m aware that this is a very unsatisfactory answer, but at least it’s honest. Unless you are interested in my chosen categories, (relatively) rare books and some kinds of jewelry, I can’t possibly know.

It’s hard to tell someone what to sell - the best advice is always to find something that is interesting to YOU.

Here is an personal example: I have a really burning interest in finding ways for SANE weight loss. So many so-called solutions range from ridiculous to downright dangerous. If those stupid diets worked, we wouldn’t need a new one every week - or every day.

The question isn’t WHAT to eat. We all know.

The question is how to develop the habits that support a safe and healthy lifestyle. That’s a much different question and the companies making mega millions on overweight problems know it! (Don’t you just love the national magazines with a 98 pound model on page 10 and a triple layer fudge cake on page 12?)

I an constantly experimenting myself, and when I find something genuine it’s very gratifying to be able to help people - and make money, too.

About two weeks ago I put a new item up for auction. It’s an ebook called White Heat Metabolism. It’s about how to speed up your metabolism with something called Power Breathing. After following
its directions for about two months, I can positively affirm that it is working.

I don’t know how much weight I’ve lost, because I don’t own a scale (I used to live by them and my day was good or bad, depending on my weight, which is why I got rid of the darned thing). What I do know is that my clothes are noticeably looser.

At any rate, I made a listing and put it up, wondering what would happen.

It went crazy! I have never had so many questions about an auction item in all my years of doing this. After a few days I realized that I had to get briefer in my answers because I was spending hours every day reading people’s stories and writing long essays for answers.

There are a million different weight loss thing-a-ma-jigs on auction sites. Why so much excitement over this one?

I am sure that I know. I just tell a very simple story of what’s happened to me. My ad is very human and very unimpressive. There aren’t any AMA statistics, lab studies, diagrams of the fat cells, etc., etc. It’s just one person talking about her experience. I mean every word I say, and people know that I mean it.

This is an affiliate book so I can’t sell it directly on auctions. So, I sold the information on how to find it, for the grand total of a penny. Of course, I haven’t collected any pennies. But I have sent a steady stream of people to the affiliate site and they’re buying this book. Lots of them.

There’s nothing fancy, nothing slick or sophisticated. Just a person saying what they absolutely believe. Anyone can do it. The point is, though, that I can be so sincere simply because I care about what I’m selling and saying. If I had to write a listing for a car battery it wouldn’t come across that way at all.