John Thornhill, perhaps more commonly referred to as eBay seller 'planetsms', kindly agreed to answer a few questions for me to share with my members. We discussed the viral nature of eBay and used John's book "The 90 Day Power seller Challenge" as a case study.
Let's begin...
What do you think are the main reasons as for why the 90 Day Power Seller Challenge went so viral?

I think the main reason was the title. The title of your e-Book is crucial and I feel ‘The 90 Day Power Seller Challenge’ is something you want to check out. And as it’s all about selling e-Books on eBay any e-Book seller would want to read it. And as you know eBay has 1000s of e-Book sellers.
Also, another reason was the fact I proved my methods and you could check out my eBay account to see me using the methods I described in the e-Book. This is very powerful indeed.

Then there is the fact you can earn an affiliate income by distributing the e-Book. All links inside the e-Book point to my membership package and these links can be branded and earn you 51% commission per sale. So the more you distribute the e-Book the more you can earn. Multiply this by 100s of sellers and you can see how it went so viral.

What did you do in the initial stages to distribute your product using eBay?

I actually just sold the e-Book on eBay myself and added the e-Book to my websites. Then it just seemed to go viral all on its own.

Is there anything you would have done differently if you had the chance again?

Yes, the 1st version of the e-Book could not be branded. It was about a year old before I made it brand able. Although it done very well anyway I know if I had made it brand able from the start it would have been even more of a success.

How can you motivate your buyers to distribute the e-Book for you?

The fact anyone can brand the e-Book and earn an affiliate income gives them an incentive to distribute it as much as possible. I also include all the tools needed including a sales page and e-Book covers. It is very important if you want an e-Book to go viral that you include everything needed to sell your e-Book.
How else, other than eBay, did you distribute the 90 Day Power Seller Challenge?

I have not done a lot myself actually; the e-Book just seems to have gone viral all on its own. One thing I did do that was very powerful was include the e-Book as a ‘bonus item’ with other e-Books and e-Book packages that I sell. This helps with distribution.

I also have the e-Book in my member’s area. As you know James we all work together and help each other by distributing each other’s e-Books. We are a very powerful alliance when it comes to e-Book distribution.
If I could give one piece of simple advice here it would be to make some links in your e-Book brand able. Give others an incentive to distribute your e-Book. If they can earn money after the initial sale believe me they will put more effort into distribution. And if the links that can be branded link to your own products you are onto a guaranteed winner.