=========================================
Auction Strategists Newsletter

Brought to you by Jenni Hunt
www.jennihunt.com

In this newsletter:
=========================================
1. 3 Ways To USE eBay right now for business growth
2. Changes To Your eBay About Me Page
=========================================
=====================================

Hi ~

Today we are looking at how to continue to use eBay’s About Me page to build a mailing list – even though they have removed the policy allowing you to include links to outside websites.

This strategy is extremely important if you are going to move beyond just selling on eBay to USING eBay to grow your online business.

Just as many people use Google to grow their online business, you can use eBay… it is one of the TOP visited sites so you might as well take advantage of that traffic, right?

Be sure to check out the article (lesson) below… but, before you do – here are 3 ways you can USE eBay RIGHT NOW to grow your eBay busines.

1. Getting The Most Out Of Your Listing Title
Every word in the title for your listing should be there for a reason. Many people have an idea of what they are looking for on eBay and will skip browsing through the categories… and just go straight to that search box to enter in what they want.

If you want your listing to show up when they do that search for items like you are selling – YOU MUST HAVE KEYWORDS IN YOUR TITLE!

This means that your title has to have words that people use to search for your item in your title. Sometimes this takes a little bit of thought and creativity…

but, I’ll let you in on a secret…

using a title like this: @@@@ SUPER CUTE LADYBUG COSTUME!!! @@@@

just doesn’t cut it.

You just won’t get the visitors you are looking for! When people are looking for a costume – they might have an idea of what they want (ie., ladybug)… but, they DO know the size. And, what if they search for ‘lady bug’ instead of ‘ladybug’?? Your title would only show up for those who searched for ladybug as one word.

A better title would be: Plush Ladybug costume lady bug tights 3 3T 4 4T

or something similar.

The second title above would catch anyone searching for any of these combinations of words…

ladybug costume
plush ladybug costume
lady bug costume
lady bug tights
lady bug costume 3 4
… and so many more combinations!

The point is to think about how you would search for an item you are listing and then include as many of those ‘keywords’ in your title so your listing shows up on as many search results pages as possible.

2. Stay In A Niche

Sure – you can sell all sorts of items from all different niches… video games, maternity clothes, candles, car accessories… but, you will get more traffic if you stay within a single niche. Not only can you cross-promote (allowing you to sell more), but, you are can become more educated about your audience – and this has all sorts of benefits.

For example… if you are selling video games and video game accessories, you know that your visitors and customers all have something in common – they are interested in video games.

If you sell coffee cups, boat accessories and baby clothes – it is much harder to know who your audience is.

Knowing your audience is extremely valuable information because you can sell to them over and over again much easier!

3. Use your About Me page effectively

This is covered in the next article – but, the idea is that you want to use your listings and your About Me page to build a mailing list… this is the number one way to USE eBay folks!

… and it is the MOST EFFECTIVE way to QUICKLY grow your online business beyond eBay fees. Everything you do in your listings… and on your About Me page should be about getting people interested in joining your mailing list. Of course, you have to stay within eBay’s policies – but that just takes a bit of creativity.

I’ve included a lesson below about one way to do just this…
Enjoy!
Jenni

PS. Oh – don’t forget… the PRESALE for the 2010 Holiday Toy Guide ENDS on the 24th! If you take advantage and pre order, you not only save $30 – but, you also get first dibs on the Holiday Toy Guide info for this year.

As a GOLD Holiday Toy Guide member, this is what your $67 gets you:

Downloadable report: 2010 Holiday Toy Selling Guide
– Access to the exclusive GOLD membership site
– 8 weekly emails reporting how the ‘expected to be popular’ toys are performing on eBay
– 4 months access to MyToyGuide for used toys
– Deal alerts for new toys
– Black Friday news
– and MORE!

http://www.holidaytoyguide.com/PRESALE

=====================================
1. Changes To Your eBay About Me Page
=====================================

Twice a year, eBay announces changes in fees and policies… and as usual, there are quite a few changes. But, I’m going to focus on one today because it has a huge impact if you have been following the strategies that many (myself included) have been teaching about building a mailing list.

It use to be that you could include links on your About Me page to your website… this was a GREAT opportunity for those using eBay to build a mailing list because you could point your visitors to your About Me page right from your listings – and then, your About Me page would do the work of sending them to subscribe to your mailing list or visit your web page.

No more.

But, don’t lose heart!

Part of the beauty of having an online business is that the rules of the internet are always changing… this is GOOD and allows for great growth opportunities!!

But, it also requires CREATIVITY.

To be able to take advantage of the changes on eBay, Google, or other internet tools – it is imperative that we think OUTSIDE the box instead of getting discouraged by the ever increasing/changing rules and regulations.

With this in mind, I was going through the rules for listing and for your eBay About Me page on eBay this week… taking note of what you CAN do as a seller – instead of what you can’t.

I want to focus on ONE little strategy that you need to be using if you are building a mailing list or are trying to drive eBay visitors to your website… this little technique is going to be more important now that you can’t use your About Me page like you use to be able to.

Ready?
Here it is…

Get a solid domain name (website address) and use it for your email address.

So, instead of having your email address be: jenni@yahoo.com – you would have jenni@holidaytoyguide.com people will visit your website simply out of curiosity when they see your email address. But there is more to this…

Here is eBay’s policy on using email addresses and online forms on your listings (as of today, September 15, 2010):

“You can include a link that opens an email client or an online form so bidders and buyers can ask questions about your listing, as long as you don’t include links from the online form.”

So – here is how this works…

*** Step 1: Register a domain name – I use www.godaddy.com

A domain name is simply your website address (registering a domain name DOES NOT give you a website! It is important to know that they are two different things!)

NOTE – You don’t need a website to use this strategy; HOWEVER, I highly recommend having a blog or something up for your visitors to see. If you are interested in learning how to build a blog as your website for traffic – check out www.starthereprogram.com/blogging

Even Without a website, you can still direct your new website address to a sign up form on your autoresponder service (such as aweber)… which will manage your mailing list.

NOTE – If you do this, you don’t need a website – but, this is beyond the scope of this article. To learn more about building a mailing list with an autoresponder service, check out www.starthereprogram.com/yourlist

*** Step 2: Set up an email address with your new domain name (info@yourwebsiteaddress.com, support@yourwebsiteaddress.com, or yourname@yourwebsiteaddress.com – it’s up to you!) Learn how to do this from your registrar’s help pages… or from your webhost if you have a website.

*** Step 3: Point your new email address to whatever you use to manage your email. If you use Gmail – you can add email addresses under settings… so that all of your email from the new email address will come right into where you already manage your current email.

NOTE – Here is an AWEBER TIP – If you are using aweber to manage your mailing list, You can point your email address to forward directly to your aweber email for any specific mailing list (go through the aweber help pages for more details). This means that when people send an email to your new email address, they are actually being added to your mailing list! You can set up an email to be sent out automatically inside aweber that tells them you got their email and will respond within the next 24 hours. This way – even if your potential customer emails you at 2am, they hear back from you right away (making them happy)! Then, you can respond the next day with a personal email answering their question.

*** Step 4: TEST your email address to make sure it is working correctly.

*** Step 5: Add your new email address to your listing. Put it all over the place… “If you have any questions, email me at info@yourwebsiteaddress.com and I’ll get back to you within 24 hours”

*** Step 6: Follow up with your potential customer. Be sure to answer any questions they have about your listing.

NOTE – Another AWEBER tip… If you are using an autoresponder like Aweber to manage your mailing list – remember that THIS particular list you are building is NOT for a newsletter or regular emails. It is simply for support emails. HOWEVER, you do want to follow up with these customers and invite them to join your regular mailing list. Be creative about this. Stay away from simply asking them to join your mailing list… instead, give them a reason to do so. Offer them a discount on your listings/shipping… or a free report that they might be interested – then, let them know how to sign up.

*** Step 7: Add your email address to your About Me page… and remove any links to outside webpages there. The policy for your About Me page is the same for your listings now.

That’s it!
Now you can enjoy eBay’s traffic without violating any of eBay’s policies.

Do you have another creative way to USE eBay instead of RELYING on them for your business growth? Questions about how to use this strategy? Leave a comment on the blog here: www.jennihunt.com/blog

========================

=============================

=====================

Copyright 2009 Jenni Hunt, www.jennihunt.com

You MAY reprint any of the articles in this newsletter for any
purpose as long as no portion of the article is modified without
permission.