What's Included: Introduction 2. New vs. Old 3. Know What Sells 7. The Trick To Finding The Treasure 10. Strategies For Listing 18

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1 2013 What's Included: Introduction 2 New vs. Old 3 Know What Sells 7 The Trick To Finding The Treasure 10 Strategies For Listing 18 Strategies For Cross-Promoting and Shipping 21 Taking it a Step Further 22 In Closing... A Few Quick Thoughts 35 Appendix A 36 Appendix B 42 Offered by: Jenni Hunt 2013 copyright, Jenni Hunt page 1

2 2013 Summer Toy Guide Introduction Do you find yourself trying to figure out how you are going to get through the slow summer months selling online? Most markets have a high and low selling season on ebay and other online venues... but, if you pay attention, there are a select few that seem to perform well throughout the year. Toys are one of these markets... and summer is the perfect time to get started. The purpose of this guide is to provide you with the information you need to sell used toys this summer and help you grow your online business to new heights. Monthly Reports Over the next 3 months, you will receive a monthly report with a list of auctions that are currently selling well... We are also including some Amazon information as well. Consider these reports your shopping list and guide as you search for inventory copyright, Jenni Hunt page 2

3 New vs Old Selling New Selling new toys can be a lot of fun... especially during the holidays. But, it can be a crazy game. Some of the most popular toys don t even reach retail prices on ebay and they can fluctuate quite a bit on Amazon. At the same time, others can bring in three times what you bought the item for. Making it even more crazy is the fact that what sells great this week may not be the best seller next week. The availability of the toy on store shelves is often the best indicator of whether a new toy will skyrocket or be a dud but, store inventory can change from day to day... making it very difficult to predict what is selling best and what to keep an eye out for. It can be done... and many, many people build their entire business around selling new toys. I have found, however, an excellent strategy that includes selling both new and used toys. New toys are much easier to sell during the holidays so I stick to selling them during that time (unless I easily find something I just can't ignore ;-) Pros for selling new Less risk items can be returned to the store if they don t sell Finding inventory you can shop online and call ahead of time to find stores that are carrying the item you are looking for. This can allow for you to purchase more of the same items... making better use of your time listing auctions and saving time is saving money. Cons for selling new Hot selling items can have their ups and downs going through both 2013 copyright, Jenni Hunt page 3

4 within the same week sometimes! Lower profit margin This isn t always the case... but, in general the profit margin isn t quite as good with new toys. Let s look at it this way... when the die-cast cars from the movie Cars were super hot a few years back, you could pick them up for $3-4 each. Some of them were selling for $20-30 each easy. If you take into account the other costs (listing fees, final value fees, paypal fees, etc.) your cost was probably around $5-7 for each NEW car. You would have easily tripled your profits. However, during that same time period, if you found a USED Blue s Clues Handy Dandy Notebook at a yard sale for $.25 you could have turned it around and sold it for $20 on ebay... we can assume with listing fees that costs would have been $3. That is a profit of over 600%! Selling Old/Used In my opinion, selling used toys are quite a bit easier... and, honestly, I prefer them. The profit margins are often higher and the market can be just as good. Although finding used toys that are selling well can be difficult, if you have a general idea of what to look for, you can usually do well. In addition, because used toys don t usually increase in availability, they tend to remain hot sellers for longer periods of time. What was used toy was hot last summer... could very well be hot this summer too! Pros for selling used Higher profit margins As I mentioned earlier... the profit margins can be much higher because you are paying, literally, pennies on the dollar for items. Used toys tend to hold their value longer copyright, Jenni Hunt page 4

5 You can find inventory based on a theme rather than finding a specific item. Room to experiment Since used inventory is so cheap, you can take a risk every once and a while and buy something on a hunch. A $1 investment could turn into a $30+ profit! Even though there is more risk with whether or not an item will sell, if it doesn't, you can trade up your inventory at consignment shops and usually get back what you originally invested (if not more!). Cons for selling used Can be difficult to find inventory because it all depends on what people are selling and wanting to get rid of; however, if you have a general idea of what sells (ie., Blues Clues is hot so look for anything Blues Clues, vintage Fisher Price can sell really well so look for general vintage FP items even if you don't know exactly which are selling best), and know where to look, it isn t so tough. Higher risk it depends on where you buy your inventory... but, usually used items aren t easy to return. Thrift shops will often have an exchange policy but, you take a risk when you buy from a yard sale. Keep in mind, however, that most of your inventory that doesn't sell can be traded into a consignment shop for an upgrade on something that does sell. My recommendation is to diversify your toy sales when you can by offering both used and new. This allows you to take advantage of the pro's and con's of both types of inventory. Now, the absolute best resource for knowing what is selling on ebay... is ebay itself! Spending time browsing through toy listings for a length of time will give 2013 copyright, Jenni Hunt page 5

6 you a sense of what is selling (trends)... this Summer Toy Guide is designed to bring you some of this research so you have more time to list items copyright, Jenni Hunt page 6

7 Know What Sells One of the keys to selling used toys (or anything for that matter ;-) is learning which toys are actually selling. Knowing what people are buying... and having the right item, are really only a piece of a successful auction albeit an important one ;-) There is so much more that goes into a successful listing than simply having the right item. In fact, you ve seen those silly auctions that get all sorts of attention and sell for hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars... having the right item is only part of the big picture. You ll want to be sure you are listing your item most effectively and also marketing your listings for the highest bids. I just wanted to mention that quickly as we dive into how to determine what is selling... We ll dig in deeper with listing strategies a little bit later in this report. As a part of the Summer Toy Guide package, every month you will receive a report that lists out children's items on it that are CURRENTLY selling well... you ll want to use this as a shopping list and guide. (You can also use it to help develop strategies for listing but, we ll cover that a little later in this report as well.) The list The monthly report includes the following... I've broken down why I include each item from each listing to help you know how to use the list better. 1. Item Title: Note details and specifics mentioned in the title 2. Link and Item #: For your reference 3. Ending Price and Starting Price: Excellent indicators of a great selling item 2013 copyright, Jenni Hunt page 7

8 look at the ratio between the two. 4. Number of Bids: This is important in relationship to how much time is left to the auction. It also helps recognize how popular the item is. Of course, you can use this as a shopping list and look for items that are exactly what is included on the list... but, it is also best used as a guide for shopping. See, the thing about used toys is that it isn t always a specific product or item that sells well but, often a theme. For example, I mentioned the original Blues Clues Handy Dandy Notebooks that were selling incredibly well a few years back. You could find these at yard sales for $.25-$1 (still can) and resell them for $20- $30 each. But, what I noticed was that it wasn t just the notebooks that were selling well... there were plenty of USED Blues Clues items that were selling like hot cakes. Almost any Blues Clues notebook was selling for a nice profit (not just the original ones)... as well as little figurines, the foam thinking chair (this is the cheap one not the wood framed chair), stuffed animals... and since the television show had been on for years, used Blues Clues toys were abundant at yard sales, thrift shops and consignment stores. Another example... Fisher Price vintage items tend to resell very well. Now, there are some that don t really do too well but, for the most part, you ll find that vintage Fisher Price can do extremely well. I haven t done my research to determine how many vintage Fisher Price products are out there but, I ll bet there are quite a few... I d bet there are at least 50 different vintage Fisher Price items that sell very well on ebay. Think about that for a minute... if you were selling NEW toys on ebay, you would probably discover that a few Fisher Price items are reselling for more than retail. Walking down the Fisher Price isle in a store you wouldn t know just by 2013 copyright, Jenni Hunt page 8

9 looking which new items are the good sellers. But, just with vintage Fisher Price alone, there are plenty of items that you can keep an eye out for at yard sales, estate sales (a great place for vintage toys!), thrift shops and consignment stores. You know that if the item is a Fisher Price vintage toy there is a good chance it will sell well because so many are. Now, instead of keeping your eye out for 3-5 NEW Fisher Price toys that could be selling... you know to watch for the 50 vintage Fisher Price items that are available and possibly sold at yard sales in your neighborhood. This goes back to my earlier point for why I enjoy selling used toys more than new... I think they are easier to find and easier to make a profit with. The point is when you are going through the weekly list of hot auctions, watch for themes with the used toys. If a toy for a movie or television series is doing real well watch for other toys that are related at yard sales... since you are looking to buy used, you can take a little bit of a risk and buy a bunch of these items, for a couple of bucks. When you get home see how those specific items may be doing... and you can decide to either list it by itself, or use the items to add value and differentiate yourself from the competition by including them with your other listings as a bonus. So, we ve looked at the benefits of selling new vs old... and we have taken a closer look at the monthly report you will be receiving. But, how do you find these items? Where do you look? And, what strategies can you develop to increase your chances of finding what it is you are looking for? 2013 copyright, Jenni Hunt page 9

10 The Trick to Finding The Treasure Some people have a gift... a 6th sense if you will... and just happen to find exactly what they are looking for. My mom is one of those people I m not kidding. You can ask her to keep an eye out for something at yard sales... and she will find it the next weekend for an incredible price. And, it can be random stuff too! Other than going to garage sales regularly, she would say she doesn t have much of a system; however, I ve made some observations and applied them to my own methods and they have proven to work quite well. My mom has two secrets... 1.She knows what she is looking for. Although she does browse quite a bit... looking for a hidden treasure, usually she knows what she is looking for. Remember I mentioned that you can ask her to keep an eye out for something and she will find it that next weekend when she heads out to sales? She has a shopping list. If you have an idea what you are looking for, you ll know what kind of sale to scout out and stop at. 2.Her second secret is that she knows the area... well. This was my biggest obstacle when I started really getting into going to yard sales after moving to Oregon. I was new to the area and didn t really know where to look for the best sales. Knowing the area doesn t necessarily mean knowing how to get from here to there... you need to know the neighborhoods. Since you are looking for used toys there are two basic sales you will likely find the best selection at sales by young families and sales by retired couples. Learn which neighborhoods tend to have young families I like to watch for more affluent neighborhoods that are 2013 copyright, Jenni Hunt page 10

11 close to local parks. These young families tend to sell toys as their children outgrow them. If you can find a neighborhood sale that is mostly young families that s even better! Retired couples, on the other hand, will likely be downsizing and have vintage toys that they are parting with. Close to where I live, there is an entire city that is only for those over the age of 55. They are always having neighborhood sales and if you know what to watch for, you can find all sorts of vintage treasures to resell. Okay, so if you have never done this before... and you don t know your neighborhoods at all... here are a few tips to try that I used when I was new to the area. Days to go: Usually there are sales on Friday and Saturday. Neighborhood sales can be both days and will usually have more homes participating in the sale on Saturday because many are working on Friday. Map It Out: The night before you head out plan! Go to and search garage sales in your area. When I m going through craigslist, I like to have a notepad or word document open and I just highlight the ad I m interested in visiting and copy/paste the details to the notepad/word document. Once I have a list of sales I m interested in hitting, I ll use Google 2013 copyright, Jenni Hunt page 11

12 Maps to map out any addresses I m unfamiliar with and reorganize the list based on location. Finally, I ll prioritize the list based on the type of items that are being sold... taking into consideration the location. The process can take less than 15 minutes and it not only saves gas when hitting the sales the next day, but... loads of time as well! Usually the next morning, I'll look one last time at craigslist to see if there are any sales that weren't posted the night before. I should also mention, that it could benefit to use the search function in craiglist. Once you are in the garage sale section, you can search for specific keywords. Be as vague as possible... and as you enter keywords try to think of how the item 2013 copyright, Jenni Hunt page 12

13 would be listed in a yard sale ad. Some examples of search words could be: Toys/toys Fisher Price Kids Childrens Toddler Baby Another online resource that I use to find garage sales before I head out is our local newspaper site. I live in the Portland Metro area and we have the Oregonian (Oregonlive.com) online available to us. This site allows me to search through the classifieds listing by keyword or just browsing all garage sales based on region of the metro area. I use the same technique to capture the listings that interest me the most. Here is a list of metro newspapers: Finally, don t forget that you can use these resources to find used items that aren t at yard sales. Craigslist has a section that is completely devoted to toys and games. I d browse through both the children s/baby section and the toys/games section for hidden treasures. You can just browse through or search by keyword as well. I m always amazed at how many great deals can be found. Here is a list of a few I found just now... I searched for just a few minutes take a look: 2013 copyright, Jenni Hunt page 13

14 ****Star Wars Extravaganza - Huge Collection for sale - Hundred of items*** Saturday and Sunday - May 11th and 12th. Nice pedal cars for kids up to about 3rd grade - $25 (Hillsboro) LITTLEST PET SHOP -- Selling ENTIRE Collection! - $30 Check out this ad: TONS OF FUN INSIDE TOYS AND GAMES AND OUT SIDE PUSH CAR, DOME CLIMBING BAR ASSEMBLY, TWO FOOT SLIDE, CHOLCK BOARD AND PLASTIC TABLE ALL FOR SALE!!! I RAN A CHILDCARE BUSSINES OUT OF MY OWN HOME, I CLOSED THE BUSSINES AND NOW IM SELLING ALL THE TOYS AND GAMES! "Lamborghini" electric car - $25 HOT TIP: One more resource for finding garage sales in your area is a smart phone app. I use igaragesale and it searches different classifieds and maps them out in th app. I reviewed this and other apps HERE. Although the summer months are prime for yard sales... and you really can t beat the deals there, thrift stores are another place you can pick up some incredible deals. Here are a few tips for getting the most for your money when visiting a second hand shop. Donate for discounts: Some stores will give you a coupon for a percentage off if you make a donation to their store. Know when new items are put on the shelves: I love to visit on these 2013 copyright, Jenni Hunt page 14

15 days... there are new items being put out by the minute and you get first pick! Have a senior who will go with you? My favorite thrift shop offers a senior discount of 40% off on Mondays. My mom and I often make a date of heading to the thrift shop on Monday s to buy inventory. Be aware of other sales and coupons: Some stores have periodic sales or promotions like a stamp/punch card (get it stamped for every $5 you spend... when it is full save $10) Know the weekly specials: many thrift stores offer discounts on color coded items. Monday might be 50% off yellow tags... Tuesday, 50% off on Blue tags. Our store also offers a $.99 day when all items that have a certain color tag are only $.99 regardless of what it is! Before we end this section, I wanted to touch on a subject that I think many of us can relate to... especially if you are just getting started. Many times people are getting into selling online because they need the extra cash. With the economy the way it is well, it makes sense. The thing is, you might not have the extra cash to buy any inventory. If you have young children at home (or not so young ;-), you can sell from your own closets... but, if you don t have items that would be good sellers, there is another way to UPGRADE your inventory without spending a dime! You can actually trade your used items (that are in decent condition) for trade credit at many consignment stores... allowing you to trade your old clothes and toys for new (to you) items that you know will bring in a profit copyright, Jenni Hunt page 15

16 Here are some easy to follow steps to trade successfully: Step One: Clean out your closet and your kids closets... and the toy boxes... go through everything! Anything that is too small or something that isn t worn anymore put into a box. You will want to have one box for each of the following: 1) outdoor summer toys 2) other toys 3) Boy Fall/Winter clothing 4) Girl Fall/Winter clothing 5) Boy Spring/Summer clothing 6) Boy Spring/Summer clothing 7) Women s/adult Clothing 8) Maternity (current styles) Step Two: Research for a good consignment shop in your area. I have conducted research in my area and have found that not all consignment shops are the same. I have one shop that I bring my non-name brand items to. They aren t so picky about what it is I give them (as long as it is clean and decent)... but, their payout isn t so good ($1-2 an item). Another shop that I frequent in my neighborhood offers a 45% trade credit. This is a better deal. Considering I buy most of my stuff from yard sales for less than a dollar, I am actually making money on my trade! Here are some things to ask when researching a consignment shop 1) What kinds of items do you take (boys, girls, maternity, toys?) 2) How much is your trade credit? 2013 copyright, Jenni Hunt page 16

17 3) Do you give cash too or just credit? 4) Can I be present when you are inspecting my clothing? 5) How should I prepare my clothing that I am bringing in? (Many ask that you freshly launder and iron your items... and you will get more money for the items if you do!) 6) When do you accept the different seasons? (Many are still taking Spring/Summer clothing but, not for long. Usually around June/July, they start accepting the Fall/Winter items) 7) Does the trade credit expire? (Very important to know ahead of time!) 8) Do I need an appointment to bring in clothing? 9) Is there a limit to how many pieces of clothing you will accept at one time? Step Three: Wash those clothes and set up an appointment! Step Four: SHOP! Shop, shop, shop... and don t spend a penny! 2013 copyright, Jenni Hunt page 17

18 Strategies for Listing Earlier we discussed how to use the weekly list you will be receiving as a shopping list and guide... but, it can also be used to help increase the ending price on your auctions. I have created another report, Duplicating Hot Auction Success, that walks through the listing details we include in the monthly report. There are lots of tidbits to help with your listing efforts. You ll find the report attached in the appendix of this report. Your Title Your auction title is one of the MOST important elements of listing your auction. If you are missing any pertinent information in your title, your auction will not show up when potential bidders run their searches... and your auction becomes what is called a hidden auction. One of the best ways to ensure a title that will bring your item up in the search results for bidders is to think about how you would search on ebay for an item similar to the item you are selling. Go to ebay.com and type in the words to bring up other listings of the same item you are listing. What did you type? Did you type fun, cute, or awesome? Probably not. You would likely include highly descriptive words so that the auctions that came up in your search results match what you are actually looking to find copyright, Jenni Hunt page 18

19 These highly descriptive words are your key words... these key words are what you want to be sure to include in your title. Although you want your title to flow nicely and stand out from the other listings, it is imperative that you include the information necessary to get the most search hits! For example, let's say you have a vintage Fisher Price farm with all the animals included. Run a search for fisher price farm and make sure you select completed items. You want to search only the auctions that have closed so you can get an accurate view of how the auctions ended. See what comes up. You can narrow your search by adding vintage or complete and see what you get. Select, view by highest price - this will order the search results from highest price to lowest price. Look for an item that is similar to yours with a high ending bid (make sure it has a high ending bid and NOT just a high starting bid!!). Click on it and study the auction. If there were multiple bids on the item and it got to a good price see what you can glean and apply to your listing. Pay special attention to the title and the descriptive key words included in the high ending auctions. You ll likely see vintage and complete... maybe animals. Remember to think about how people would be searching for an item like yours. I can t tell you how many times I ve seen a simple title like: Fisher Price Farm but, when you click on the listing, it turns out to be a very nice vintage set that is complete with all the animals, people and accessories (tractor, fencing, etc.)... These sellers are leaving money on the table because their title does not include key search words copyright, Jenni Hunt page 19

20 Your Pictures Use your title to get potential bidders to look at your listing... but, use your pictures to get them to stay! I can't tell you how many listings I have not even considered because of the poor images - or because they didn't have pictures of the items they were selling at all! picture is worth a thousand words... Your description is important, but, your pictures can be what really sells your item! Some quick tips for taking great pictures: Use a solid background... a nice choice is white poster board for dark items and black poster board for light colored items. Stay consistent with your background so all your images look like they came from the same seller. Take advantage of natural light if you can... indirect sunlight, near a window can get you some great pictures! Take advantage of photo editing software. You can sharpen, lighten, crop make your pictures look more accurate with photo editing software. Take the time to learn a software program it will save you time in the long run and most likely increase your profits. Skip McGrath has some great tips for editing photos on his site copyright, Jenni Hunt page 20

21 Strategies for Cross Promoting Toys and Shipping Cross-selling is one of the easiest ways to increase profits and I am amazed as to how many sellers don't take full advantage of it! It involves promoting your other auctions within your listing. This can be done several ways - but, the best way is to match pieces from your other listings. This is a great technique for improving your sales! The idea is to make it as simple as you can for the customer to find your items. Instead of just saying, I combine shipping - be specific. Try, Click here to see more vintage Fisher Price! Then, make Click here link to your other listings in your description. Combining cross promoting with a shipping special is a strategy that will not only get your visitors looking at your other listings... but it will get them bidding too! NOTE: If you haven t gone through my free ecourse The Magic Window Of Opportunity On ebay... you are missing out. It walks you through step by step how to use shipping specials with cross-selling techniques that has proven effective by many sellers. Not only that using the technique in the ecourse will save you time listing auctions as well as help maximize the exposure your listing gets. You can learn more here: copyright, Jenni Hunt page 21

22 Taking It A Step Further Some sellers have found that they are happy with the results they get from listing their items and letting the process run its course... they know that, as with all businesses, sometimes they will make nice profits and other times they will take a bit of a loss; however, there are some strategies you can implement to help make your selling even more of a success. You can have all the right products to sell... You can have the perfect listings to draw the bidder in to bid... But, you can actually take it a step further. What if you could entice a bidder who came to your listing to look at your other auctions and bid on them too? Or, what if you found a way to take initiative to bring in buyers who weren t even browsing on ebay in the first place? It just takes a little creative thinking and planning. Selling online is a huge benefit to so many people all over the world. There is so much opportunity that it provides and it truly is the sort of business that can provide a nice income; however, I have learned over the years that it is extremely beneficial to consider taking your ebay business a step further... in fact, I ll go so far as to say that it is a wise decision to move beyond ebay and learn how to use ebay to grow a successful business that isn t dependent on ebay bidders or selling through ebay listings copyright, Jenni Hunt page 22

23 Read that again... Consider moving beyond ebay and learning how to USE ebay to grow a successful business that isn t dependent on ebay bidders. Sound appealing? I can't tell you how many s I receive every week... from frustrated sellers. There is a lot to complain about in the ebay world... fees and policies constantly changing. Even though you are independent and own your own business as an ebay seller you are dependent on ebay's rules... UNLESS... Unless you take your ebay business a step further and learn how to turn your ebay selling into a TRUE online business (not just an ebay business). We are going to touch on a few strategies to move your business in this direction; however, I highly recommend if you already have a bit of a handle on these concepts or you want to learn more... that you consider Jim Cockrum s membership site My Silent Team at It is truly one of the most resourceful sites on the web for ebayers looking to grow beyond just selling and listing auctions. Okay first of all, there are many, many ways to bring in outside visitors to your auctions. We are going to discuss three very simple strategies and the best part... they don t cost a penny! All of these strategies require a little thinking that is outside the box. It is imperative that you take a step back and look at your online selling as a business not just selling. This mindset will set the stage for how your business can grow. The first step we have touched on previously... Step 1: Define Your Niche To maximize your profits in any business, it benefits you to determine WHO you 2013 copyright, Jenni Hunt page 23

24 are selling to. Defining your niche isn t about knowing what the product is that you are selling... it is about who you are selling to. Who are your customers? Who is buying your product(s)? It is important to take some time to think about this... and to take it deep. This report is about selling used toys so, it is safe to assume that toys are the product you are selling. But, who is your audience? Is it parents or family members of children? Toy collectors? New parents? You could say toys are your niche but, if you are selling to toy collectors, your niche is toy collectors. Once you have determined WHO you are selling to, you can define your niche. Don t underestimate the power of defining your niche... because you are going to use this information to pull in people who are in this niche and not necessarily on ebay to look at and potentially bid on your listings. Step 2: Go to your niche Once your niche is defined, you will want to go to where your market/niche hangs out and make yourself known. Here is where we get into the nitty gritty of bringing in traffic to your auctions. There are many ways to go to your niche... here are a few... (these are the three strategies I mentioned we would cover regarding how to bring in traffic/bidders from outside of ebay.) Get involved in forums You ve probably heard this suggestion before... but, it is worth bringing up. Forums are online communities where people can discuss a variety of topics. You have to be careful here because getting involved on forums can suck all your time. The key is to find forums that are specific to your niche. Remember your goal to bring in traffic to your auctions. A couple of 2013 copyright, Jenni Hunt page 24

25 things to keep in mind as you get involved in forums related to your niche... o First of all, be sure you know the posting rules for any forum you join. You want to be able to have a link to your auctions in your signature line. A quick note about your signature line... here are a couple of examples for a signature line which one would you click on? Click Here To Visit My ebay Auctions OR FREE Shipping On Collectable Toys o Secondly, you must contribute to the forum. You want to be considered an expert in your niche... and the best way to do this is to get involved in discussions that are relevant to your niche. The more you get involved, the more you establish yourself in your niche... and the more you build relationships with potential customers. Article Marketing huh? Yeah, that is a technical term in the internet marketing community but, it is a very basic, yet powerful way to drive traffic to your website... or, in this case, auctions. A great way to establish yourself in your niche is to write articles that are relevant to your market. Now before you tell me that you are not a writer... there are ways to get around that. Forget about the actual articles for a minute and stay with me... There are article directories online that accept articles on a huge variety of topics... and people who are looking for content on their websites, often will visit these directories. They will find an article they are interested in including on their site or in their newsletter... or even in their print magazine. Every article has a resource box at the end of it. The resource 2013 copyright, Jenni Hunt page 25

26 box is a place for the author to mention a bit about themselves and include a LINK to their website (read: auctions!). This is a great way to get yourself out there in your niche. Okay still... before we get into anything about the writing of these articles what you really need to do is think about topics that are related to your niche. Actually, you don t even really need to think about topics just do a bit of research on google... or take a look at print magazines on your topic for ideas. You can also brainstorm about topics by asking yourself this question... If someone is interested in used toys... they might also be interested in what? You can come up with a list of topics this way... and remember to get very specific. Each article only needs to be about 500 words. Let s brainstorm a bit... If someone is interested in used toys... they might also be interested in... o New toys o How to determine values of vintage toys (for collectors) o Other children s items o How to care for vintage toys o How to store vintage toys o Safety concerns... how to determine how a used toy is safe for children o Recall information o Organizing the toy box And more copyright, Jenni Hunt page 26

27 Once you have some topics on paper... THEN it is time to think about writing an article. Whether you are a writer or not, I think this is the easiest step. Seriously. You don t have to write the article yourself. In fact, if it is incredibly painful for you to even think about it... I recommend spending your time elsewhere and hiring a ghost writer to do it for you. There are great services for this one in particular is run by my friend, Scott Foster... For a few bucks a month, you can have access to all sorts of writers and quickly have a bunch of articles written for you to publish as your own in article directories and the like. NOTE: Be sure to check out Appendix A at the end of this report for an article that outlines an excellent strategy for getting the best response from article marketing. You can find article directories online by doing a quick google search. One of my favorites is One of my first articles that I posted in an article directory ended up getting printed in a Tallahassee Woman magazine a few years back! Don t underestimate the power of article marketing you never know where your article (and name, and link to your auctions) will show up! ;-) Blog your way to your niche. This is my favorite and, I think, will get you the best results. In fact, if you already have a website that is outside of ebay... but, related to the items you are selling on ebay (ie., a part of your niche), and you don t have a blog I highly recommend it! It s all about traffic. Without traffic (visitors to your site/auctions/etc.) you can t have customers... so, the premise behind getting involved in forums, article marketing, and blogging is to increase your traffic. One of the best ways I have found to increase traffic to a website (even your listings on ebay) is to have a blog... and here is why. Search engines 2013 copyright, Jenni Hunt page 27

28 absolutely love blogs! They love them because the content is frequently changing and fresh. Every time someone posts on a blog, not only does the main webpage change (ie., demonstrating an updated website), but a new page is added to the website (ie., fresh content) too. What has made blogs so popular, however, is that they are so simple to use! If you can write an , you can post on a blog... it is really that easy! Once the blog is set up (also easy as following directions), you just type in your post title (like an subject) and post content (like an body)... hit the publish button, and you are set! I m not going to get into the how to for blogging (although if you are interested in learning more about how to blog as an ebay seller check out my Start Here Blogging course HERE: and, in fact, I m including a blogging resource as a part of the Summer Toy Guide package. You should be getting that in a few days as an extra bonus. But, I do want to share with you some of my own experience with blogging. I have a website that I built when blogging was just starting took me about 45 minutes to set up. This site is purely a VRE site. It has nothing to do with ebay it is a Virtual Real Estate website... meaning that it is a site that has real, valuable content on it... but, it has ads sprinkled throughout to bring in a revenue. After a few weeks of going live, the site started bringing in a nice little revenue stream from google adsense. I don t know it was like 50 cents a day or so... which isn t much but, remember, I initially spent 45 minutes on the site... and was only spending maybe 15 minutes a month after that to update it. 50 cents a day is $15 a month. That s $15 a month for maybe 15 minutes of work... in reality, 2013 copyright, Jenni Hunt page 28

29 that is $60 an hour. Not too bad. A few months later, my revenue from google adsense had grown to $40 a month... but, I knew it could be better. I decided to add a blog and see how that affected my traffic. I added a blog (I ll be conservative and say it took an hour to set up the blog)... and started posting to it a couple times a week spending no more than 15 minutes a month on it. The next month my traffic doubled... AND, my google adsense doubled. Now, I was making $100 a month in adsense... and spending no more than 20 minutes a month on the site. I was spending minutes (more like 15) a MONTH on the site... and my income was around $100. That s $ an hour! The thing is... each time I updated the blog, my traffic grew... and grew. And that traffic translated into more revenue from the ads I had on the site. Within 2-3 months, I was making around $130 a month with google adsense for the same amount of work. That s $260-$520 an hour... It gets better. After I had a good amount of traffic going to this site and ranked well on Google, I could bring in guest bloggers who were looking to get established and drive traffic to their own related sites. Guest bloggers could come in and post on the blog for me... creating fresh, new content for me every time they do. I was never really spending that much time on the site in the first place... but, now, with other people posting on the blog for me, I spend even less time while my revenue just goes up. Now, I have had the site and blog for a few years and I hardly post at all to the blog... but, every month, my revenue goes up. I'm easily making $200/month in Google adsense alone and I am not putting anytime into the 2013 copyright, Jenni Hunt page 29

30 site! THIS is an automated revenue stream... it generates revenue for me automatically because of the content that I have previously put on the site. Okay, I understand that this example isn t directly related to selling on ebay but, the principle applies. You can create a blog that addresses different topics in your niche... and use it to drive traffic to your product listings. You can advertise to your hearts content on your own blog... if you have a shipping special for your auctions write about it. Blog about a particular toy you are selling or if you are selling toys related to a movie, do a review on the movie and link to your auctions at the end of it. You will likely be asking yourself why you didn t do this sooner! Lesson don t underestimate the power of a blog. Okay... one more thought about using a blog to drive traffic to your auctions. What if you don t want a blog? For whatever reason, you decide that it just isn t for you... you can still use blogging to drive traffic to your auctions. Start visiting OTHER blogs that are related to your niche and get involved by leaving comments. Be sure the comments are adding value to the original post ask a question, mention your own experience about the topic... whatever you decide to include in your comment on a blog post, it is imperative that you make it valuable so that it gets published as a comment. Now, every time you leave a comment on a blog, you are asked to include your URL. When you leave a comment on a blog that is in a niche related to the niche your listings market to... use the link to your ebay auctions as the link you leave with the comment! Remember when I said that search engines love fresh content? Well, they 2013 copyright, Jenni Hunt page 30

31 also love links on other sites that are pointing to yours! So, the more links to your auctions that are out in the world wide web... the higher search engine ranking you will get. This means that when people (think potential bidders) are searching for something in your niche, your link to your auctions will be one of the top links in the results for the search. Cool, huh? Okay, let s go back to that sentence I had you re-read a few pages back... Consider moving beyond ebay and learning how to use ebay to grow a successful business that isn t dependent on ebay bidders. A blog is a great idea but, how does that help you USE ebay and become less dependent on it while growing your ebay business? (sounds like an oxymoron doesn t it?)... The key is to create multiple revenue streams... Streams of income that aren t all from your listings. This is an advanced topic... and although I recommend reading through it to grasp the concept, I also recommend that you get everything else in place first. 1. Know your niche 2. Make sure your listings are all they can be 3. Get a blog started and learn the ropes of posting to it regularly (with links back to your auctions, of course). 4. Grow your blog into a new revenue stream Number 4 above is how you are going to start to grow your business beyond ebay... but, please keep in mind, there are so many ways you can grow beyond ebay. Blogging is one of the easiest and quickest ways and is what I have chosen 2013 copyright, Jenni Hunt page 31

32 to focus on for the purpose of this report. I mentioned to use your blog to advertise your own auction listings... you have to be strategic about this. You want people to be reading your blog posts so, if you just have a bunch of blatant advertisements for your auctions, you probably aren t going to get anywhere with your blog helping to produce an income. You need to use the blog to provide rich content to your readers (and whether or not you actually have people reading this content is irrelevant write like you do, because... if you build it, they will come ;-) If you are providing a content rich blog, it will be easier to produce a nice revenue stream. There are a variety of ways to bring in revenue from a blog I m really going to just touch on a few here... but, it will be enough to get you started. Blog Revenue Stream Ideas 1. Google Adsense This is by far one of the easiest ways to produce an income from a blog, in my opinion. Basically, a google adsense ad is an ad placed on your site by google that is relevant to the content you have on the site. (This is why you want to have rich content the better the content, the more relevant the ads). When someone clicks on the ad you make a few cents. There are so many reports, books and articles out about strategies for using google adsense... Here are a couple of tips I recommend: 1. Test your ad placement. Basically, when you sign up for a google adsense account, you are given a piece of code that you literally just copy and paste into your blog. You can place it at the end/beginning/middle of any post... or if you really know what you are doing, you can put it in your blog template. Try placing the code in different places on your blog let it go for 2013 copyright, Jenni Hunt page 32

33 a few weeks and compare the results you are getting. 2. Blend your ads. Web browsers have become numb to banners and ads so your best chance of getting a hit/click on a google adsense ad is to blend it in with the rest of your site. Make it look like part of your content not a banner. You can do this by removing the border on the ad... matching the color of the text, etc. But, again test it out. What works for one site might work differently for another site. You can learn more about Google Adsense here: Google has an extensive help section with a Quick Start guide for newbies. 2. Affiliate Products Another way to bring in a revenue stream is to offer products that you get a commission off of when you sell. Remember to stick within your niche here... but, there are plenty of ways to do this. 1. Remember the different article topics we discussed earlier? I would recommend heading over to Clickbank ( and looking for downloadable products (ebooks, etc.) that are related to your niche and promoting them on your blog. You can buy them (or contact the author and request a free review copy never hurts to ask!) and review the product before posting about it on your blog... then, after your review on the product, include you affiliate link for the product. For every product you sell, you receive a commission and many times the commission if 50% or MORE! 2. Another way to make an affiliate income is to look at stores that offer an affiliate program. You won t make as high of a commission but, every little bit adds up. Walmart, KBToys, Amazon, etc... all have affiliate programs 2013 copyright, Jenni Hunt page 33

34 that you can join for free. Just follow their instructions for getting your specific link for the particular product you are looking to promote. Your affiliate link is what tracks the commissions for you. If all of this sounds like a foreign language to you... don t be afraid to just get your feet wet. Visit clickbank and different stores that offer an affiliate program (usually there is a link at the bottom of the page that says affiliates ) and look for tutorials. Every program is a little different and most offer great instructions for how to best benefit from that particular program. 3. Advertising Once you get some traffic coming in, you can offer advertising opportunities for other businesses and products. The best advice I can give for this is to look at how other sites run their advertising program... take what you like and use it as a template for your own advertising program. Before I close this section... I wanted to mention one more time that I am building a coaching program that walks online sellers through these more advanced topics step-by-step. It will basically be a blue print for moving beyond ebay and learning more strategies for using your current ebay business to bring in new revenue streams. I start with blogging and we have recently released the next module that addresses building a mailing list. Here are the links for more info: See all the programs here: copyright, Jenni Hunt page 34

35 In Closing... A Few Quick Things... Over the next three months you will be hearing from me quite a bit. Monthly, you will receive a report that lists children's items (mostly used) auctions that are currently selling well. Use this information! It won t do you any good if you don t use it. I recommend going through the Appendix B Duplicating Hot Auction Success to help you understand why I have organized the report the way I have. You will also gain tips for how to use the report for your own success when you list your auctions. Finally, be sure to visit Toy Reference Guide. This is an online directory of websites that have been compiled to help identify and value used toys. This information can prove to be very valuable as you are listing used toys. There is also a link to online inventory resources. This page will provide you with a list of sites to find toy inventory... although, it s summer! I highly recommend yard sales, estate sales and thrift shops! You really can t beat the prices... You can get into the Toy Reference Guide HERE: ID: htg2012 Password: htg2012 Best of luck to you... and please, let me know if you have any questions. You can leave a comment on any post in the members area... or feel free to send me an at jenni@huntedtreasure.com Enjoy! Jenni Hunt 2013 copyright, Jenni Hunt page 35

36 Appendix A "How To Use Ezine Articles To Promote Any Product, Service, or Affiliate Program You Choose in 5 Easy Steps" I bet you can't tell me the best way to use ezine articles to promote your offer or product. Go ahead. Give it your best shot. Out loud. Say it. Whatever comes to mind, just blurt it out. I'm listening. You see, most people don't really understand how to BEST use ezine articles to promote a product or service (ebay or otherwise), or their favorite affiliate program. They know they are supposed to write an article, include some kind of clever offer in the text or in their resource box, and convince editors to publish their article. But, there is a *very* clever way to use your article to promote like you've never seen before. And I'm going to share it with you right now. There are only five steps. And they are all super simple copyright, Jenni Hunt page 36