Learn to buy and sell antiques and collectibles

Profiting From eBay Images

Shortly after I started selling on eBay I began archiving all the pictures I used in my auctions. I kept the pictures in case there were problems with the buyers.

I rarely had problems with buyers, but when I did the pictures came in handy. In one case I was able to show the item returned wasn't the item shipped. Another time when I had a buyer claiming I'd neglected to mention damage I was able to show an item wasn't damaged when I listed it on eBay.

I don't want you to think all buyers with complaints are scammers, so I'll mention there have been cases where the buyer was right and the pictures helped him.

Looking back about 50% of the time the buyer was wrong, and 50% of the time I was wrong.

Another reason I kept the images is I wanted to use them to build a website about toy trains. I sell mostly used toy trains and over the past 10 years I've sold most of the pieces Lionel made in the 1950s, and lots of other interesting items.

I had built a website with pictures of my collection, but there was no way to make money from it, so it just sat for years with no changes or updates. As I moved it from one web host to another parts got lost and many of the links became broken.

In 2004, I was going to rebuild the site and put a small link on each page to eBay so readers could see what the specific train would bring on eBay. I'd use an affiliate link to get paid if the reader bought something on eBay.

I never even started this rebuild. It would have required rebuilding every page, and seemed like too much work.

A year ago I found a new way to do this. Rather than rebuilding the site, I stuck a WordPress blog on the site and just started adding new articles using the pictures I took for my auctions.

I liked the idea of using a blog for a few reasons:

WordPress is free and easy to set up. There are also lots of plugins available - many free - to customize the site.
WordPress allows me to write a new page in minutes without having to do any coding or file transfers. Wordpress also updates the navigation when I add new pages.
WordPress allows the site to be searchable. This means people can search for articles about specific trains. It also means when I go to add something I can do a quick search to find out if I already did an article, and find related articles.
WordPress allows me to quickly edit and update pages I've already written. This means if I sell a different version of something I already wrote about, I can quickly add the pictures to the existing article. I can also go back and cross link related articles to give readers a better experience, and improve my search results.
The search engines like blogs. Many of my simple pages come up quite high in the rankings for the maker's name and the model number.

I won't any time explaining the first four reasons I decided on WordPress listed above, but I will explain the fifth.

I use long tail keyword strings in my blog posts. So for example if I am writing about a Lionel 402E locomotive, I'd use the words "Lionel 402E" in the title, in the image description and once or twice in the article.

I'd also use the words locomotive, engine and what ever else I think people might use to find information about a Lionel 402E.

Here's a link to Google for the search Lionel 402E.
(Link opens in new window)

My site is the fourth result. (Might be different depending on the database Google uses - my site is train99.com) Read through the first four results and think about which one you'd be most likely to click on.

You'd click on mine because the other results are auction sites or stores. Mine looks like an article with information about the train.

As a side note the Lionel 402 page shows a piece from my collection. I added the page so I could share pictures of the train with some of my collecting friends around the country. It only took a few minutes more to do the article once I had the pictures I was going to attach to an email.

Check out that page. The article is just a brief history of the item with the dates of manufacture and a few simple pictures. A page like that takes about 5 minutes to write and will bring in small dribbles of readers from search engines for years or decades.

With enough pages I'll get lots of traffic from the search engines. Once I get caught up on all the old images, I can quickly add new articles using my eBay images in a few hours once a week.

If you scroll down to the bottom of the 402 article, you'll it has links to eBay auctions. There are even pictures of the items for sale on eBay. The auctions are constantly updated.

I mentioned earlier there are lots of plugins to customize WordPress. The auction pictures and links are managed by a plugin. All I did was add a search word "Lionel 402" to the article at the bottom and the plug in does the rest.

Even better, I get paid whenever someone uses those auction links to go to eBay and buys something within a week.

If you regularly sell any type of collectible on eBay building a simple wordpress blog like Train99 using your pictures is an easy way to get some additional revenue from your pictures.

The plugin I use isn't free, but it's cheap. In fact, I've had single commissions from train99 larger than the cost of the plugin.

The plugin is called BAYRSS and I wrote a review about it a while back.

Almost all web hosting plans come with WordPress installers. To install WordPress, go into Fantastico or Installatron and click on install WordPress. If your website doesn't include the installers, there is a step by step guide to installing WordPress in the IWC forum.

If you bought the Auction Revolution after Feb. 2008, you're already a forum member. Otherwise you can become a member by purchasing the Auction Revolution. You'll not only get access to the private forum, but you'll also get lots of helpful advice on improving your eBay auctions.

Here's a link to the Auction Revolution site.

Terry

IWantCollectibles Private eBay Forum
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Terry Gibbs has taught over 7,000 people how to make a good living on eBay. Terry's most recent eBay instruction manual is The Auction Revolution . The Auction Revolution is your guide to eBay and beyond. Here on Iwantcollectibles.com, you will learn about buying and selling antiques and collectibles, and about eBay.