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-- Heidi & Jenn

Many of our eBay moms are doing wonderfully supporting the household finances with their online auction businesses.  A big factor that we sometimes forget is… 

We are stay at home moms who still have a house to run, as well as our business! 

If you are still needing to work your eBay Store during the summer break - How about finding an assistant?  It doesn’t have to be a full-blown paying position.  Just someone to help get you through the busy times so you don’t totally loose your sanity, while still keeping things under control with your kids during the day!

Here are a few ideas to help ease the pressure:

 - Are your kids at an age where they can help you fold inventory or take pictures? 
Most kids love to help, especially if you make it fun for them. 

 - Are your school age kids able to care for their younger siblings?
If you have older children, try putting them ‘in charge’ while you’re busy tending to email and listing items to your store. 

 - Can you reach out to a local church or college for volunteer help? 
Check into finding a student or church member who will put in service project hours as your ‘Mommy Assistant’. 

 - Do you know any High School kids? 
Ask if any of them would be interested in becoming a ‘Summer eBay Intern’ to learn about Internet Marketing and the eBay Business.

 - Know any other Stay At Home Mom’s?
You may know someone who hasn’t the first clue where to begin with eBay, but would like to learn.  You could help set up a consignment store for them, selling your inventory as your Personal Trading Assistant until they get up and running!  Just be sure to lay out clear guidelines so there’s no confusion later on.

Have you tried any of these?  Do you have a great idea you’d like to share with our readers?  Tell us what your suggestions are for keeping a business running with kids home during the summer.

It’s great to see our members rock out another successful month of profitable sales! 

Join us in the forum, to see the rest of our sales from May!

These were some of the sales that Debbie, from Little Baby Of Mine had in the month of May…

Here is one of my favorites - -picked up this at that big $4.99 blow out sale at Gymboree! Cost was about $12.00 total - what a great profit!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=270210718551

This one was bought by a woman from Australia - nice profit since I picked this up at the Corky warehouse sale in April.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=270226420346

This came from that new site Jenn linked us up with. I bought two of these at $49 each and sold them both in good time and at a good profit!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=270216341508

I was surprised my May was very good - I had expected it to get a bit slow. But it didn’t.
I also had listed some of my daughter’s gymmies from Gymboree - winter ones - they flew out the door!!!!

Hope it doesn’t slow down too much in June. I’m still seeing some sales - but time will tell!

Little Baby Of Mine

Tic Toc!  We are VERY close to the re launch of Toy Auction Profits! 

Are you ready for an exciting summer of selling toys? 

Help promote and get the word out to TONS of sellers who love to sell toys on eBay and other auction sites.  Join our Affiliate Program, and earn 50% recurring commissions on every person who signs up through your affiliate link. 

As we’re polishing up our new home page, we are offering a free Toy Alert to those that Opt-In just for their interest on our Sales Page.  This alert will allow you to see just a small sample of the great quality information Toy Auction Profits provides to our members. Use this information right away to make cash selling toys on eBay.

Stay tuned for more information about the re-launch!

Toy Auction Profits: Your Inside Guide to Selling Toys on eBay!

With the new 5 Star DSR (Detailed Seller Rating) upon us, we want to help everyone rise above the negativity & focus on keeping eBay a positive experience for buyers and sellers alike.  Feedback is still a vital part of the eBay shopping experience, so lets make the most of it!  

Heidi put together this logo for our readers, to let customers know you mean business!  So feel free use this 5 Star Customer Service banner in all of your eBay listings, and showcase your dedication to excellence.

In order to add this image to your listings or eBay Store, you can use this code:

<img src=”http://boutiquebargains.com/images/blog_5StarService.jpg“ width=”335″ height=”135″ alt=”FIVE STAR eBay Customer Service”>

Or just right-click on the banner, and hit ‘Save Picture As…’ to save it to your computer. Then you’ll need to upload it to your own photo hosting account to get the html code.

Show Your Five Star Spirit!

With the school year coming to an end, you may be unsure of how to reorganize your work schedule… OR are you planning to take the next few months off while your kids are home for the summer? It’s definitely a struggle at times to work at home and keep one eye on the kids.

Now I don’t feel like I have room to complain… I mean I have one daughter and when I talk to other mom’s with 3, 4, or 5 kids… I feel like I might not have it so bad some days.

But I admit, it’s still a struggle for me at times! If you DO have to work on your auction business during the summer months, here are a couple things that have worked wonders for me, keeping my daughter occupied while I just HAVE to get some business done.

I totally stumbled on this idea by accident!

I have a small party store helium tank party kit left from my daughters birthday party. You should be able to find them at Party City or just about any party supply store. It comes with a small helium tank, a bag of balloons, ribbon, and enough funny face stickers to decorate balloons forever! I let my daughter pick 3 or 4 different color balloons and we blow them up.

Attach the ribbon, and let her go to town decorating with funny face stickers! It really keeps her occupied for a long time and she has so much fun pretending to make different characters out of each balloon.

Limiting the amount of balloons you blow up will help the helium last for those times when you really need some time to get your listings up or sort through some inventory.

Another thing that my daughter really loves to do is ‘help’ me work. She is quite the little Office Assistant.

As much as I love to have her at my side, there are just times when I need to take pictures, edit and get inventory in my store. Each season, I always accumulate a large Rubbermaid container of her past season, outgrown clothes that must get listed.

Of course, there are always some that aren’t worthy of the eBay bin - and get donated to Good Will. I will put those in a separate bag, and ask her to take pictures with me using her camera and the Good Will bag as her bag. She’s so cute mimicking my movements to get the right shot!

Then, I will download her pictures onto a slide show and put it to music so we can watch it a couple times. I’ll download my pictures and start to edit, while she starts her next photo session. She’s happy & I’m making progress ;-).

I’d love to hear how YOU keep your kids occupied during the summer months, while they are home from school!

I came across this video and was very touched. We send email alerts out on Crocs all the time!  I know how popular they are, and I know this is something we can ALL make a difference with.  It’s something that is worth taking the time to help someone in need. 

Please take a few minutes and watch the short video.  Then make sure to visit Soles United to find a donation location in your area.

The goal is to donate more than 2 million pairs of recycled Crocs shoes Worldwide to those in need, during the year 2008. Thanks for your support!

This is the YouTube video:

Boutique Bargains Proudly Supports Soles United

I recently came across an eBay article that intrigued me.  It is titled eBay - Part Time or Full? How to Decide.  This is a very good question!  How DO you decide??

It’s hard to imagine that my eBay hobby has flourished into a career that pays my bills.  Looking back at 8 years of trial and error, it’s been a road well worth the journey. 

It started out purely as a hobby… 

Selling things from around the house, cleaning out the closet, getting my husband to clean out the vintage car parts from the garage.  Anything to make some extra fun money.  

How big is your flame to drive forward and dig into all of the in’s and out’s?

A big a factor in deciding whether or not to make a Full Time or Part Time income from eBay is how bad you want it.  You can totally control your destiny - it’s one of the beauties of eBay. 

How much time are you willing to invest to learn about what you want to sell, and find out what is a good fit for you?

One of the biggest and hardest secrets to get past is finding your groove - what sells well for you.  You can’t jump in and make an income over night in most cases.  Patience is a virtue!

A lot of our Boutique Bargains Exclusive Members are either Full Time or Part Time selling on eBay and they do a pretty darn good job of bringing in the extra cash!  Everyone’s situation is different, but no matter what it is, you can be sure we are here every step of the way, dedicated to your success.

So which is it?

You decide.  Are you going to make a PART TIME or FULL TIME income selling on eBay?

Well, it’s just about time for summer break and family vacations!  This is the time you can expect a little decrease in clothing sales if you are focused on selling only Boutique Children’s Clothing.

What Will You Do For Summer Break?? 

Are you going to take any trips, or just chill with the kids?  Whatever the plan, there are always alternatives to earning extra cash if you rely on eBay for income. 

This month we are gearing up for a re launch of our newly re-named Toy Auction Profits site (formerly BB Toy Insider).  If you are interested in sneaking a peak & getting a taste of what kinds of toys to sell on eBay, you should check it out on the home page for a FREE toy alert.  Toys are an awesome alternative and compliment the children’s retail industry well.  

TONS of sellers who rely on eBay for income all year will be boosting their Toy Sales during the summer.

This helps to compensate for the slow clothing-selling months, before Back To School Sales pick up.  Make sure you get ahead, so you don’t miss out!

There is also an affiliate program if you are interested in earning some extra CA$H…  ;0)

So what are you waiting for?!

Toy Auction Profits: Your Inside Guide to Selling Toys on eBay!

 

A fellow work at home mom posted to her blog the other day about a new plugin she installed & it reminded me that I recently installed the same thing on OUR blog.  It’s called Comment Luv and it allows you to automatically place a link to your last post under your comment! It’s really fun to post on blogs with this feature, since you know you’ll get something in return - instantly.

Want to try it out? 

Just type in a comment under this post (or any others you like), make sure the little box is checked that says: “Enable Comment Luv… “ & click the submit button. That’s all there is to it! You’ll have a link right back to your last blog post. How cool is that?

Oh, and that reminds me of something else…  A few hours ago I enabled comments by unregistered users. This means you no longer have to register on our blog to leave a comment.  ;0)  Of course, we still have to approve messages before they are officially posted, but you don’t have to set up a user name & password or anything.

Okay, back to Comment Luv… If you want to download this plugin for your OWN blog, you can either click on the “Comment Luv” link above which will take you directly to the WordPress site. OR you can get it from HERE which is a site in the UK.

Let Our Blog Show You Some LUV!

There has been a lot of chatter about the new Updated Links Policy that eBay will be implementing in July.  The policy states (as of right now):

“Starting in July, an updated Links Policy will take the place of links guidelines that were previously covered in several policy areas. Under the updated policy, only specific types of links are allowed in a seller’s listings or other content on eBay, including eBay Store pages, About Me pages, eBay Blogs, Reviews and Guides, and forums. Allowed under the new policy are links to:

• Any page on eBay or an eBay property including PayPal, Half.com and StubHub.
• Photos of the item for sale, as long as the page displaying the photos does not offer, or link to, a site that offers a product or service for sale off eBay.
• Embedded videos within a listing, as long as the content and format comply with all eBay policies for videos.
• Third-party solutions and services directly related to the particular listing”

Instead of getting in an uproar about yet another eBay change, do what I always do…

Roll with it and improve on it.  It doesn’t say anywhere that you can’t put a link or banner that is NOT active.  There are plenty of email newsletters that I receive that state - if you can not click on the link - simply copy/paste the link into your browser.  

If you are familiar with http://www.tinyurl.com/ this is an excellent source to minimize and mask any affiliate links and keep it clean.  Just make sure the links are not active. For now, there is no policy against this, however, we’ll see what the future holds!

We are working on a new Audio Course that will help you utilize classified ads.  Also make sure you check out our advanced SEO (Search Engine Optimization) audio, for sources outside of eBay that will bring traffic to your eBay store.

We’ll make sure to keep you posted on any further developments or changes!