Making money from Resale Rights

If you're well connected on Linkedin (say, 500+ connections), you can make some money by purchasing the Resale Rights to an ebook written by someone else.

For instance, I wrote an ebook titled "Systematic Wealth Creation" which explains the little-known mechanisms and processes behind business and capitalism, and I'm selling the Resale Rights to Linkedin users.

What does "Resale Rights" mean?

It means the buyer of such rights can RESELL the ebook, in its entirety and without modification, to anyone else at ANY price, and pocket 100% of the profits.

For example, suppose you have 500 connections and you sell them an ebook written by someone else, but you have the Resale Rights. So you sell the ebook at $20 to 200 of them, and make $4,000.

You pocket all of this $4,000 and do not owe the author of the ebook any royalties. (He/she was paid already when you purchased the Resale Rights).

This sounds like a sweet deal where you get the legal right to resell someone else's intellectual property (the ebook).

Yet, the question is, how much would you have to pay to get the Resale Right? This totally depends on the price set by the author of the ebook.

So let's get into the psychology of this author.

But I must warn you that the "economics" here are not what you're used to. In other words, the ebook is NOT like a house which is physical and which, once you sell it, you no longer own the house.

Indeed, the author is NOT selling you something physical, but something intangible: the legal right to resell his ebook and pocket 100% of the profits.

This means that after the author sells you such Resale Rights, he can sell the same Resale Rights to hundreds of other people.

Theoretically speaking, there is no limit to the amount of people he (the author) can sell the Resale Rights to.

Here, you might think that the Resale Rights buyer has little power. Yet, this is not necessarily so.

Let's look at a realistic scenario.

The author wants to charge you $3,000 to get the perpetual Resale Rights (that is, you get such Resale Rights for life!).

You might tell him, "Whoa, $3,000 is a lot of money!"

The author might argue, "Yes, but you can make thousands of dollars per year from reselling my ebook. And you can sell it forever, and in any territory on this planet."

You might say, "True, but there are risks associated with marketing your ebook, and costs related to email marketing services I have to buy, like ConstantContact, etc."

So after such back-and-forth, you agree with the author that a fair price would be $1,000.

And so, for $1,000, you've bought a business asset (the Resale Rights to the ebook) which allows you to make money from it by offering it to Linkedin users.

This is just one way for you to make money on Linkedin.

I will talk about other ways shortly.

I launched a pretty interesting debate about job searches and finder's fee here:
http://www.linkedin.com/answers/career-education/job-search/CAR_JOB/815416-2896748

The question basically is, "Would you pay 10% of your first-year salary to get a job?"

Below, I comment on some of the answers thoughtfully provided.

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One person mentions that agents work in all kinds of areas (sports, show business, etc.) and that this is the real world.

I agree. With online social connectivity rising (600 million Facebook users and 100 million Linkedin users), more and more ordinary people WILL become agents (the money is just too good!).

I know this from personal experience, having made nearly $10,000 by simply connecting buyers to sellers for sales of nearly $200,000.

And I am NOT even an agent! I'm just a poor businessman! :)

Another person says that he's been using the finder's fee strategy successfully, and I checked his blog and he seems to know what he's doing.

He totally gets it that we do better when we help one another, and reward one another for facilitating business development.

A third person likens the finder's fee system to real estate, but adds that the agent does more work than just giving a seller a name.

Yes, I agree that the real estate agent does a lot of work and he certainly makes a lot more money that the average finders.

However, I want to clarify that GOOD finders don't just "pass along a name." They often recommend a person, and THAT goes a long way to securing the deal.

Furthermore, the finder's recommendation is only as good as the TRUST he had built with the prospects or buyers. Building that relationship could have taken months or years! That relationship building IS the real work.

This is why, when a friend recommends a restaurant, it works -- there is trust already between the two friends.

So the finder's program is about lending one's trust in order to facilitate a business transaction.

Think, for example, of Sean Parker (founder of Napster) and how he introduced Mark Zuckerberg to venture capitalists. Parker had the contacts and some trust. He was rewarded quite well by becoming a partner in Facebook. See the movie The Social Network for more details.

Another answer was that the suitability of a finder's fee system depends on "whether you can get the information yourself."

True, but I would add that there IS a cost (in time and money) to finding good information you can act on.

I will write more later on about how the CIA conducts intelligence gathering. You will be fascinated by their process.

The idea behind the finder's fee system is that you get the information SOONER, because your finders are your eyes and ears in the market.

All of a person's Linkedin connections CAN become his eyes and ears, BUT that requires that he first states WHAT information he is looking for, and HOW MUCH he is willing to pay for such information.

Indeed, it is naive to think that your Linkedin connections will work for you for free. After all, they are connection, not friends.

This doesn't mean that one's connections are bad or overly focused on money. They are simply people, and people are most motivated to do what will give them a reward.

The bottom line is that you can get a LOT of actionable information to advance your career or business, by tapping into your Linkedin network (which, hopefully, is more than 200 people). But you have to be ready to reward them in some way.