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EIGHTEEN eBay
Profit-busting Listing Tips
How you describe
your goods is vitally important to your chances of making a little
or a lot of money from every listing.
Your listing
comprises not only words used in the title and body text; it
includes layouts and colours, too, as well as fonts, size of text,
even the length of sentences and paragraphs. These tips will
help you list more products, create better listings and eventually
make more money:
*
Inside your listing, give viewers a reason to call
back later if they are in a hurry now or
not quite ready to bid. Ask them to visit your ‘About Me’ page
for a free eBook or newsletter and be sure they give their email
addresses for you to contact them later. You can also begin a
mailing list for later sales outside of eBay. Remind them, too, to
add you to their Favourite Sellers list.
* Choose
keywords to describe your items and use them in the heading and body
of your listings. People can choose to search according to
heading (title) or by checking body text too, but few remember to
check the box to include this second option. Most people will
find your product by either going directly to category listings and
clicking through to their appropriate sub-category or, most likely,
by simply keying words to describe the item into eBay’s search tool.
This means if your title does not include those keywords your
listing will be missed. Check what keywords are most common
when people search for items like those you are listing by going to
http://pulse.ebay.co.uk (or .com or other) and continue through the
sub-categories until your product type appears. Now check the
most commonly keyed search terms at the left of the screen.
Alternatively, go to ‘Advanced Search’, top right of screen and on
the next page use keywords to describe your item and tick the
‘Completed Auctions’ box. From the results choose ‘Price:
Highest First’ to locate similar items, check the keywords used in
the heading on which to model your own. Be careful not to
breach eBay’s stringent rules on ‘Keyword Spamming’.
*
Avoid using too many bells and
whistles in your listings. One that
is guaranteed to make me move away really fast is the wizard that
flits about the screen thanking me for visiting and generally
getting in the way of everything I am trying to see. Music,
flashing lights, moving conveyor belt pictures of other products
from which to choose a selection – if you’re quick enough - have
roughly the same effect, as do many other totally useless and
generally hugely frustrating devices.
*
Use colour,
sparingly, in your listings, as well as
experimenting with different fonts and font sizes. It all adds
interest for the visitor while also creating a professional image
for your business.
*
Never write titles in full upper case
– CAPITALS. IT LOOKS AWFUL, UNPROFESSIONAL, AND FAR FROM
ATTRACTING ATTENTION IT MAKES YOUR TITLE MUCH HARDER TO READ.
IT IS OKAY TO USE UPPER CASE ON ONE OR TWO WORDS IN YOUR TITLE.
* Try
using html to create a more professional appearance especially
in highly competitive product fields. For old postcards and
other rare, sometimes one-off collectibles, basic text is fine.
Where similar or identical items are available from numerous
sellers, such as CDs, modern jewellery, make up, improving the
appearance of your listing will help distinguish your business from
others with hastily created listings packed with spelling mistakes,
poor descriptions, and so on.
*
Basic html is very easy to use
and stunning auction templates can be created in Microsoft Word
or FrontPage. Alternatively, choose from thousands of
free and low-cost auction templates available online.
*
Use templates where possible,
it saves listing time later, and can create a more professional
appearance. They can look especially good with subtle use of
colours, different fonts, background designs; subtle meaning
delicate, not garish or gaudy. In future issues we will
include news of free to download templates for our subscribers only.
*
Use light coloured backgrounds,
not vivid red or dark blue with black text (Yes, I saw one like this
only yesterday where the text was completely unreadable). If
you must use patterns, use simple pastel patterns, not bold tartans
or flashing backgrounds or dazzling stripes.
*
Use fonts that make reading
easy. Never make it too hard for
visitors to read your listing or they will do the most intelligent
thing. Click out and look somewhere else to buy!
Most popular fonts are Times, Times Roman, Arial, New York, Verdana.
* When you
find a font you like, stick with it, don’t change fonts between
templates. It isn’t worth it and time wasted would be better
spent on listing new items. Avoid using too much italic or
other embellishing device such as embossing or shadowing in your
listings.
* Do not
use large fonts in your listings, except for headings and
sub-headings, and even those do not need to be more than two or
three sizes bigger than body text. Size 12 or 14 is adequate
for body text, 18 for main headings, 16 for sub-headings.
*
Very large text is a big
put-off and is also difficult to read,
while also absorbing more memory and taking longer to upload and
download.
*
Use a maximum two or three different colour fonts
(including basic black or navy or other appropriate choice) and
never use different colours within the same word. I know major
companies like eBay do it but they are well-known, their logos are
professionally created, anything less would look trashy and cheap.
Not to mention hugely unprofessional.
*
Keep text aligned to the left,
sometimes to the right where the graphic is placed extreme left.
Don’t center or justify a column of text without good reason.
And there are few if any goods reasons for doing so. Centre
text is difficult to read and creates odd lengths that create a
totally amateurish appearance. Justified text is even worse
with lengthy gaps between words which themselves are longer than
average.
* Keep
listings fairly narrow especially when using html. Wide
listings are okay on wide screen computers, but on narrow screen
computers the entire right side will be missing and few people will
scroll left and right every few seconds to get the gist of your
listing. eBay’s own listing boxes, that is where you type
directly into eBay, and those created in Turbo Lister, are
just the right size, never too long, never too short. When
using html or creating your own designer template, practice using
eBay’s systems first to get the desired length.
*
Keep paragraphs short and
always with a gap between them. And
actually USE PARAGRAPHS where text extends beyond two or three
lines. Notice how some listings containing hundreds, sometimes
thousands of words, are created in one L – O - N - G chunk which no
one in their right mind would read. Others with long, long
descriptions actually use paragraphs though the effect is hardly
noticeable.
*
Try
to stagger listings even if you list just once a week.
This helps people who are bidding on several of your items and might
want to check last minute bidding against them on those items.
Too many of their chosen items ending within seconds of each other
is confusing and frustrating for them, and means you lose out on
last minute impulse bids. Using Turbo Lister you can
choose how many already listed items to upload at any time, say in
units of 20, and you can also alter the order of items to hopefully
prevent ‘same item’ products selling within seconds of each other.
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