Jul
11
Book Title: A Mini Guide to Using eBay & CafePress to Sell Your Photography
Author: Martin Hurley
Publisher: Hurley Pix Inc.
Publishing Date: 2008
Pages: 26
Website: http://www.howtosellphotosonline.com
Since I have an avid interest in eBay and my wife has an equally avid, yet much more expensive, interest in photography, I thought that purchasing Martin Hurley’s eBook, A Mini Guide to Using eBay & CafePress to Sell Your Photography might be a good investment.
Unfortunately, even with the low purchase price of $7.00, I was disappointed.
I was intrigued by the author’s concept. Sell framed prints of your original photography at auction on eBay and have CafePress print, frame and ship the order for you. This is a unique spin on the drop shipping business model which is especially effective for sellers who live outside of the U.S. to sell to the American market. (The book’s author resides in Thailand.)
The book claims to be 26 pages. However, there’s only 19 pages of content - the majority of which are taken up by screen shots of the CafePress account creation and product design process and creating a listing on Auctiva.
I’m used to eBooks taking the reader through the very basics of the process, such as creating an account, listing a product, etc. However, after laying the foundation required for a common understanding among all the readers, most eBooks attempt to add to that knowledge by discussing more advanced topics. Unfortunately, this eBook never gets past the basics.
The target audience here is obviously the photographer looking for a venue to sell and not the the eBay seller looking for an item to sell. If you are interested in learning how to set up a CafePress account (and for some reason feel that CafePress’ instructions are inadequate) and would like to see some screen shots for creating an Auctiva eBay template, then your $7.00 is a good value.
I was hoping the author would present some ideas on what sort of images would sell well on eBay and get a feel for the market. Again, I was dissapointed. The eBook only suggested what I already knew - search completed auctions in eBay’s advanced search function.
One of the things I like about eBooks is the ability to learn a proven technique from an expert author while the concept is still “cutting edge.” A quick check of this author’s feedback (his eBay user ID is visible in one of the 15 screenshots) shows that of his 21 positive feedbacks, only 3 are from selling. Although I realize that many sellers have multiple user ID’s, this is not the way to establish your credentials as an expert on the topic.
While appreciate the concept the author is forwarding - selling photography on eBay and using CafePress as a distribution method, I was hoping to learn more by purchasing the eBook than I could gleen from the sales page.
It’s still worth a try though. Hopefully, my wife’s photography hobby will start to pay for itself — just like my eBay hobby!
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Thanks for the great review. I was about to buy the book, but had a feeling it might be a bit basic. Your review is much appreciated.