One thing that has been missed here.. is that eBay.co.uk do not have an “Everything Else” catagory for classified ads!

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/adformatfees.html#list

TomC

Items delivered digitally will be banned from ebay UK on April 29. There is no classified ad option too.

***Change to downloadable media policy ***

01 April, 2008 | 02:09PM BST

From 29th April, we’ll be banning all goods that can be digitally downloaded or transferred electronically from being listed in any format on eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie. We’re doing this to prevent bad experiences and preserve the integrity of the Feedback system.

While they are a small portion of the marketplace, listings for digital goods often lead to bad experiences for our buyers and contribute to a perception that eBay allows unauthorised or illegitimate items to be sold on the marketplace, such as electronic copies of books.

Unfortunately, these goods also create the potential for Feedback manipulation as they are often reproduced and then bought and sold at little or no cost to the seller and buyer.

This new policy will come into effect on 29th April 2008. We encourage any sellers who think they will be affected to read the Downloadable Media policy and review their listings accordingly.

Regards,

The eBay Team

A bold Statement I know, but true…………… Well as far as Ebay are concerned.

If your interested in discovering how you can produce Multimedia Information Products that make you money……… For FREE…. From someone who has done just that for over 26 years, you need to get this FREE VIDEO COURSE today.

Now it’s a shame that eBay has come to this decision, but like many people have already stated. Look for the positives and not dwell too much on the negatives, as this will surely drag you down into a deep feeling of despair and confusion.

Move on, and look for other more lucrative ways that you can make money online. There are a number of discussions on hundreds if not thousands of blogs and websites looking for ways around this current situation. Some I feel will look towards trying to manipulate and deceive eBay and continue to try and sell their e-book and digital products on their site.

Over the last few days, I have listened to audio discussions as well as reading debates on this subject, by very successful e-book marketers and the one thing that is common amongst all of them is they are running scared. Very very scared of the possibilities of losing their current income and the success they have built up over the years.

Now many of these successful e-book marketers have come to a number of conclusions, and one avenue is to convert their current business activities of digital e-books/software into a physical item, and as a successful producer of physical multimedia information products (I had to laugh when I heard an audio discussion describing Multimedia Information Products as something NEW !, or atleast the term Multimedai Information Products )

I invited many of the Ebay Ebook top Sellers to contribute to the show. But have realised, that a more indepth discussion or help package would be better.

The same is for ebay UK.. i was unable to list items in the everything else category few days ago… i got a message saying thet may not allow listings as well.

I knew it was coming after everything that has happened in the US, but the thing that really annoys me the most is that they really don’t seem to care about how much notice they give you!!

Luckily for me, they are refunding my listing fees!

What a stupid mind behind all of this!!

Below is a paste of Brian Burke (The Smart Guy!) answers to this question of adding links to your Ad:

Posted by shipscript post #696:
Brian,

• Users need to know if there is a links limitation in Classified Ads.

• If the products are for sale on the member’s website, can the Ad include links to ALL the selling pages?

• Can the Classified Ad link to any other websites for additional info on the item?

Thanks,
-ship

Regarding links; members can’t link off eBay to a site that directly offers items for sale.

So, they can’t use the classified ads format as a way to redirect people to their store. It’s not a sign post for their website.

They can use the classified ad to directly offer items, and offer the buyer the ability to contact them directly, or purchase an item. For example, if a seller has 10 templates, the seller could list all 10 with a code (e.g. template 1), offer PayPal and tell the buyer to identify which template they are buying when they pay via PayPal.

Thanks.

Brian

Brian Burke
Director, Marketplace & Feedback Policy

You can read this post from the source below:

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000671814&start=800

Johnnnnnnnnnn, please comment Save Us!

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-links.html

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/listing-links.html

You will see in both that they do not explicitly state that PayPal buttons or opt in buttons cannot be used. However, as both of these types of links clearly take potential buyers outside of the eBay system they are probably covered by the general policy on doing business outside of eBay which is what the links policy is designed to prevent.

Having said that, these policies were designed for the situation prior to the digital products ban and so surely need to be updated to reflect the new policy.

Classified ads are regarded as a lead generation mechanism by eBay and from 31st March they will be the only way to sell downloadable digital products on eBay so, if you can’t include any external links on the advert, I can’t see the point of using them at all! Perhaps that is eBays intention.

Hopefully things will become clearer in the next few days. I think eBay themselves are playing catch up with this and it demonstrates to me that they really didn’t think this thing all the way through.

I’m currently running a classified ad with an opt in form on it. All the other links go to pages within eBay such as my About Me page. So far, so good! You can get the link to view the ad from my blog (address is in the header of this post).

Good luck to everyone with this. In the meantime I’m off to burn some CDs!

Best regards,
Dave Ovenden

I just went to eBay to check out how folks are using Classifieds and let me tell you - it is WILD! Some Ads sell directly to the reader with a Paypal Button. Some link to “more information” which is their off-eBay website sales page (mini-site) where there is a Paypal Button or Clickbank link. Some link to their own eBay store. Some others have html-ed their entire STORE into the ad so that on the left side of the page you have all of their store links. Some link to opt-in pages. Prices vary from one cent to thousands of dollars for ebooks and physical products in these ads.

There are a ton of income systems, and more than a few ebooks. I tried to find some of the item titles with an eBay search and found them all coming up in the results.

Go check them out.

I have emailed Paypal to ask if their Buttons are allowed in eBay Classifieds. No word, yet.

Best, David~

Thanks to Paul, Richboy and Richard for their thoughts re my post. Remember, we are all in a state of flux here and it may be that the link policies read by Paul do not now apply to digital items sold in Classifieds? We can only hope!

However, a lot of information is being flung about - a lot of ideas that won’t hold up under scrutiny and I was offering what I heard elsewhere on this subject and tossing out some IDEAS not necessarily FACTS!

It did not occur to me that I might be throwing anybody under a passing bus when I gave an example of what was being done by a Classifieds seller at this very moment. I just figured this seller knew what the rules were and I was sharing an example of what can be done to automate sales for everyone. No good deed goes unpunished as they say!

The current links policy says exactly what both Paul and Richard point out. However, perhaps Richboy’s talk with Platinum Powerseller Support trumps what the pages currently say about links? If you look at the info still on eBay’s pages concerning how to sell digital products - you still see how to use eBay’s automated delivery system!

Ebay has a lot of pages to update, too!

If the Paypal Button completes the transaction but doesn’t leave eBay’s control to do it since they own Paypal perhaps it will be okay to use them. I HOPE! If Paypal is owned by eBay but is considered a seperate business then we are out of luck entirely unless this link rule has been changed as per Richboy’s conversation with PPSupport. Time will tell, I guess.

If you cannot direct people to outside pages where other items are for sale from your Classified Ad that is understandable. If you can only use a form or email client link so that buyer’s can ask questions about your items “ensuring the buyer is not encouraged to complete the transaction outside of eBay which circumvents eBay fees” - I understand this point of view, as well, if this was an Auction.

But if the transaction can be completed via a Paypal Button (which earns EBay a fee) and if there are no listing and FVF’s (Final Value Fee’s) involved - how is eBay being circumvented from fees it is NOT CHARGING?

The method of payment is supposedly left to the Seller and the Buyer to agree on, correct?

By offering a Paypal Button in the Ad it seems to me that you are communicating your preference right there. After all, it is not an Auction. And digital downloads are supposedly allowed in Classifieds. I think it is a perfect solution and eBay should have no problem allowing Paypal Buttons in Classifieds since they make money from whenever they are used!

It is sad that we can’t list different items in a Classified Ad as Richard points out. There is another great idea floating down the River of NO Returns!

Regards to all, David~