I am a marketing expert and have worked all angles of business to try to get product to market, in the hands of sales people, customer, consumer...

For the past few years I have been writing and publishing but have not really captured a buying market. I thought for a long while and realize how book stores in malls make money...

1. They are in a mall and walk by traffic can look in windows and see what they have to offer, most of them didn't come to the mall to buy a book
2. They offer free things (book marks, signed copies...)
3. They have contests

Now I had something, but opening up a store in the mall is unrealistic to sell a handful of books. Instead, I needed to find a virtual mall...

Since 2001 I have been an active EBay seller. I been fairly successful and a year ago my wife and I opened our own Ebay store. I have been struggling with the economy and getting buyers to come to my Ebay store. I found that I had the same problem on two fronts, how could I get them to work together to get traffic?

Last week I came up with the idea:

1. Ebay is a Mall of sorts, buyers are wandering around looking for things (I sell things)
2. If I could create a loss leader to put in my store window, people may come in and take a look
3. If I could give away a freebie, more people might see an opportunity and take advantage
4. If I held a contest, it would encourage people to make a purchase.

I came up with the idea to serialize one of my novels, I would post one chapter once or twice a week in one of my listings. At first I am telling the shoppers where to find them, after it catches on, I won't tell them, they will need to search through my store items to find the next chapter of the novel.

I had to put the novel in store items that wouldn't likely sell out to get maximum visibility. I created links to my sights and other books for those who are enjoying the book and want to learn more.

In the title I include the word FREE.

I created a special offer to buyers, buy my product and you will get named in the acknowledgment of my final published work.

I created a contest, I will randomly choose 10 buyers and will rename my characters for those 10 buyers. Who doesn't want to see their name in a published novel.

Here is the fun part, whether they are acknowledged or named in the book, they will very likely want to purchase a copy. If I give them a special reader discount, they would be encouraged to make a purchase immediately. Perhaps they could even pre-order the book.

I added another auction item with Chapter 2: 300305603225

Go to EBay and search by the item number. I would love to hear your ideas. Feel free to watch. I will be updating my site  to let you know how it works out.