There are literally thousands and thousands of eBay tips and help manuals available online that claim to get you that killer auction, but in all honesty, do you really need them? Some simple tips that I find always helpful and work wonders are:
1. NEVER EVER USE ALL CAPS!! – this is the internet equivalent of yelling and is considered very rude. Also try reading a long series of words in all caps format, it turns out to be quite a strain on the eyes and is guaranteed to turn people away.
2. Learn to spell and spell correctly, missing the odd comma or semicolon is usually not a cause for concern, but there’s nothing safer to yell at an amateur and make your potential bidder wary than a misspelled and misspelled list .
3. Be title specific – by this I mean this is your sales copy and the first opportunity to whet the bidder’s appetite and entice them to read your entire listing. Be specific rather than general, remember the devil is in the details…people want a specific article and by generalizing you are not attracting the right market and while you may get additional views it doesn’t necessarily mean you will get more . deals How many times have you seen “MP3 Player – No iPod, Creative Zen or Microsoft Zune”? I bet you really sell your MP3 player to the iPod and Zune buyer!
4. Always describe your items well, it’s just amazing that so many sellers just put the name of the item they’re selling in the standard text and then are surprised when they don’t sell it. The key is simple, the more you describe the item you are selling, the more confident the bidder will be that you are not trying to hide anything. This could mean the difference between getting 99p and £10 for your auction, it really is vital…
5. The service sells, which is why many auctions say “No returns” or “We don’t have time to answer questions, please read description.” This is unbelievable, the market is crowded and you have competition and you already sound like you expect product issues and you don’t care about your customers. Think about what the big players on the internet do and learn from them, you may be a small fish in a big pond, but you want to become a big fish, don’t you?
6. Always, always include at least one image, and when possible, include multiple images. If you have more than one reference point in your description please use one image to detail it correctly, when doing this please do not use Ebay’s image service as this will cost you money. There are many free image hosting services that can be used instead and they even give you the code to include it in their listings (how easy is that). My eBay forum has a lot of information on these types of services.
Now these may seem like basic tips and there are lots and lots of ‘other’ tips people can give you, but focusing on the basics of any listing will give you the foundation on which to build your auction trading career. These tips are aimed at building buyer trust in your listings and this will also be compounded by the feedback you will receive from all of your buyers as they will be getting exactly what they have bid on. After all, the backbone of the eBay process is the feedback system and there’s nothing more welcoming to a buyer than a shining star next to your 100% feedback rating…
