Fear is something most people don’t really like to talk about. You want to feel as though you are doing everything you can to succeed. But for most people there’s some aspect of their home business that is harder for them to work on than others, or something they would like to do but haven’t worked up the nerve for yet.

In my own case, I can cite two examples. The first is releasing my first ebook for sale. I’ve done a free one before, but the thought that people might pay for what I write is quite an idea. Releasing it has been a challenge, even though I know the information is good.

Then again, I get similarly nervous anytime I see someone reading my work, even though it is almost always praised.

But there’s a bigger step I hope to take: either podcasting or video blogging. I know I’ll work myself up to face those fears sometime; it’s just a matter of when and how.

How do I do that?

The first step for me is to simply work up to it. Getting things ready for release is one of the easiest times to procrastinate, of course, as I try to make everything just perfect. Perfect shouldn’t matter, however. Good enough should be, well, good enough.

The big step comes in deciding to take action. You have to figure out what it will take to make yourself do so. For me, that means not having an audience. Makes me more self conscious and therefore more reluctant to do what I ought to be getting done It may be different for you.

That decision to take action is a huge step, especially if you really do follow through on it. There are no benefits to failing to take action. Taking action means you might fail or you might succeed. It’s a risk.

Fortunately, it’s a risk that often feels good after. No matter how nervous trying something new for my business makes me, even if it’s a flop, it feels good to have just tried.

Sometimes fear is a good thing. If you’re fearful about overspending on your home business, you probably need to be looking at what it is you are doing. You could be right about that. If you’re considering something that might make a mess of your business reputation, that’s another good reason to think again.

Overall, I like it when something makes me a little nervous in business. It means I’m challenging the limitations I’ve placed on myself. While getting past my fears hasn’t always lead to success, it has helped me to move forward many times.

And for those who are wondering, no, things aren’t quite ready with the ebook yet, but it’s really, really on the list to get submitted for approval today so I can quit this whole procrastination thing. It took me a while to really acknowledge to myself that fear was the problem, and I have myself just about past that part now.

Edited to add:

Yes, I submitted the product for approval with Clickbank. Just waiting for that last bit now!

This is creating quite a bit of commentary. As of March 31, eBay will no longer allow people to sell downloadable products through the auction system. They will only be allowed in the classifieds section, which costs $9.95/month. Obviously, the people who have been making a good living from this are going pretty nuts.

It’s an understandable decision to me, however. One of their stated concerns has to do with feedback manipulation - it’s very easy to build a good reputation with instant downloads, I understand. But I also think it has to do with copyright issues. I know a lot of ebook sellers who have had troubles with people reselling their products on eBay without permission.

It’s also a nice challenge to marketers. Some are debating whether mailing the product on a CD would get around the restriction.

I had, at one point, considered selling my ebook on eBay. But in the end, it’s a place people go to find bargains. I’d rather get people shopping at my site and build a list of affiliates to sell future products, than sell at too cheap a price.

Scott over at Self Made Minds has another good point: Could this also mean no more selling domains on eBay? They’re transferred electronically too. A little something to watch for, I guess.

This is one of those reminders, of course, that one should never rely 100% on a single source of income for your business. You never know when things will change, especially if you don’t have control.

eBay is making a big change… they’re leaving Commission Junction and bringing their affiliate program inhouse. And to encourage people to make the transition quickly, they’re offering a 5% bonus for all traffic sent through their new network in the month of April 2008.

It opens April 1, 2008.

If you’re using BANS, don’t worry. They will get it updated so that Build a Niche Store will continue to work within the new system. Has to be a bit frustrating for them, since they just finished updating to version 3, but that’s the affiliate life for you. BANS has already sent an email to users who subscribe to their newsletter about this.
Migration needs to be complete by May 1, 2008. I guess I know where my focus will be at the start of April! But I can certainly appreciate that they’re giving us a couple weeks’ notice of the change, and a month in which to complete it. Much better than some programs do when they make a big change like this.

One of the things that is most important to me in deciding to sell ebooks is to do well with my affiliate program. I would like to sell more than one, and I’d like to make it easy for my affiliates to know about my products.

Now, being with Clickbank, it may seem as though I’m limited in that way, and you could say that I am. After all, anyone can sell a product through Clickbank as an affiliate if they know how to make the links. But I’m hoping affiliates will want to keep in contact so that if future products of mine are of interest to them, they can sell them as well.

Enter EasyClickMate.

Going through this software will have advantages both for me and any affiliates selling my products through the links it generates. It makes it less clear what the affiliate links are, as they don’t look like standard Clickbank links, even if they aren’t cloaked.

It also allows you to run multiple products on Clickbank through a single account, rather than having to register multiple ones. There’s a decision to make here… just have one account with multiple products, knowing that only one of your pages will be listed in the Marketplace, or register for multiple accounts, paying the fee each time. The first account is $49, but you can request secondary accounts for $29.95, by noting the request when you go for product approval.

EasyClickMate also allows you to subscribe your affiliates who sign up through the software to a newsletter hosted through a service such as AWeber or GetResponse. Communication with affiliates has always been one of the weak points of Clickbank. This allows you to limit that problem.

EasyClickMate is also compatible with DLGuard. Since I now have plans for a few other ebooks, I do think this will be worth the investment. The two products  should work together nicely to help me grow my ebook business well.

Probably the hardest part right now, in all honesty, is spending the money. With my husband laid off, it’s quite a chunk to be spending on my business. I do see it as an investment, however, and worth the expense. A bit painful, and if things don’t sell well a definite impact on the funds we have available right now, but I think I can deal with that.

Never get a sinus infection following catching the flu when you’re trying to release an ebook. It makes your original schedule go completely to pieces.

For a couple weeks there I was sick enough or just in enough sinus pain that there was no way I could work for more than a short time at the computer. It was miserably frustrating. But now I’m far enough along the road to recovery that I can and will get things moving again!

And talk about motivation!

Beyond merely needing the money (who doesn’t?), I learned that Build a Niche Store version 3 came out today. I love BANS; it’s done well for me. And my next project planned has long been to chronicle releasing a BANS site using version 3 just as soon as it came out.  Now it’s out and I’m not quite ready!

But I’ve made more progress on my sales page. Writing a sales page is in many ways harder than writing the ebook itself. Once that’s ready I also want to prepare a solid Affiliate page to encourage affiliates to offer my book… and to encourage them to sign up so that I can notify them of future ebooks I will write.

There’s still a goodly amount of work I want to get done, hopefully within the next day or two. I really, really want to get this thing launched and earning.