Ideas to make the most of your listings (from an idea from BLOXBOOKS)

[moonwitch]

Hi Tony

Try and think like a buyer.....if they were looking for a rod, I suspect they would do a search on "fishing rod"
Key words, play a huge part in the search engines finding your products ...include as many as you can in your auction titles

I'd also include Google Checkout in your payment options

Yvonne x

It might also be a good idea to market your fishing scales also as parcel scales...because that's what I have been using the scales for

[bykimbo]

Hi Bykimbo, yes, I'm a bit of a squirrel, so I've no end of old sheets of glass stored amongst much else. Pity you're not in W Surrey, else I'd offer you a 1p auction for you to collect some glass!

Yes, shiny surfaces, especially black shiny, can be interesting.

Ganoksin.com is a big site of jewellery info, including photography, or just put jewelry photography howto into a search engine (the American spelling works better), lots of interesting sites to explore.

The Photography forum here doesn't get much traffic, you could discuss it there.

Good idea. I've done a bunch of photos and will trot over to the appropriate forum to show my results.

[dinnages]

As I said in the other thread I'm willing to kick this off.

My attempts at eBid do follow the guidelines that most suggest, although had worked on that before looking around to see what other suggestions there were.

General Tips
All the relavent words pertaining to the item is mentioned if not more than once in title, description and outline.

If you're a Seller+ member use gallery
I Always use gallery, I rarely look at other listings without it.

If possible use your own pictures both in the auction listing & for gallery.
Only ever use real photos of my own stock! Will also report others when anything of ours is seen reused, or copies of our photos being sold.

If you use stock photos make sure you use the correct one(s) - Never use any stock photos...

Be honest about what you're selling.
Its better to say something is marked, like any poor edges than not, so even if they are slight, youre covered. Like the saying Mint/Boxed has to be just that.

Give as much information as possible.
I give as much as I think its relevant to.

Put your terms & conditions in every listing
Yup agree with that, about me, listings and any paperwork or links.

Use your About Me Page
Using that to let buyers know how long traded, where your base is, and what else you sell too.

Branding
Always use a theme, like our cream background, colour fonts, with logo and the same trading name wherever we sell. Easy to locate us whatever site youre at.

The way to get most control is to learn HTML
Pretty simple really, unless you want to write pages with javascript/php for other places, so learn a bit of html basics to uplift a boring black text on white backgrounds and be seen to be different, draw them in or at least in theory!

Fancy Fonts only work if the viewer has them on their PC.
Stick to the main core fonts everyone can read without squinting.

If you have trouble reading it so will your viewers -
LARGE FONTS really put many people off and CAPS are much harder to read naturally too.

WYSIWYG editors in the main are easy to use, but Keep it Simple, nothing far to fancy, moving marquee/flashy objects put some visitors off and they move on finding them distracting.
Word & MS frontpage I agree, these wizards actually bloat the html far too much on every new edit too, not needed, keep the page load down, fast, simple, readable and entice your buyer.

The only bit Im still not sure of, when listing using BIN plus start on first bid, some say relist 10 times, but google is finding all my new listings since reuploading them again. eBid took them down after expiry with low prices but barely any bids. I got caught out on that bit with start on first bid still kicks them off eBid eventually.

So thats my pennys worth in response the those sugggestions.

[Gothicina]

The only bit Im still not sure of, when listing using BIN plus start on first bid, some say relist 10 times, but google is finding all my new listings since reuploading them again. eBid took them down after expiry with low prices but barely any bids. I got caught out on that bit with start on first bid still kicks them off eBid eventually.

So thats my pennys worth in response the those suggestions.

IMO you're putting yourself at a disadvantage using On First Bid.

Using normal eBid search with no filters items are shown as

1. Featured
2. Normal Countdown Auctions (by time left to run)
3. Run Til Sold
4. On First Bid (by duration)

As long as they have a BuyNow price, they will all be uploaded to google products, to save yourself some work you can set the auto repost function, (1 to 10 times).

Run Til Sold will run indefinitely.

On First Bid have got a lifetime of something like 160 days before you manually repost.

[dinnages]

IMO you're putting yourself at a disadvantage using On First Bid.
Using normal eBid search with no filters items are shown as

1. Featured
2. Normal Countdown Auctions (by time left to run)
3. Run Til Sold
4. On First Bid (by duration)

I will try again, I left a follow up message to this but its gone, or maybe never got to the forum! Anyway, have now changed all but two listings manually (as it wont let me bulk edit) from first bid to immediate with 10 relists.

Shall wait and see if this makes any difference to my few listings.
I can have very little elsewhere yet gets hit by the enthusiasts there, few find me though a google search for auctions, they are already watching buyers like I am on certain topics. Google searches normally pick up my sales at my online store.

Out of my few so far on eBid, just try looking for Southdown. Theres very few in my field, four or five dealers, and most of us are selling different themes on transport so really no competition here. Ive enough material here to last a lifetime, but its finding the time... A few years yet before I can retire and sit at auctions daily.

[Gothicina]

As we have a number of new sellers, & many of them are using Ninja Lister to import their feebay items, a little reminder.

Please read the eBid Listing Rules before you start adding listings,
http://uk.ebid.net/help_selling.php#29
the rules ARE NOT the same as on feebay, & it will save you having the hassle of having listings removed.

Ones that seem to be catching people out at the moment are :-

Selling Off Site/The posting of Contact Details.

• Attempts to sell off-site will mean the removal of all auctions of the seller in question. If a Q&A is received offering to buy the only response is to ask them to make a bid.
• All Q&A responses must be made within a reasonable length of time from the time of the original question. Unanswered questions will deem the seller and thus the auction to be inactive.
• We do not allow the posting of contact details in the auction. By this we mean telephone numbers, email addresses or links/details pertaining to a third party ecommerce site.

This includes those links to feebay you've forgotten are in your listing (or template) ie check sellers other items, add me to your favorites, check out my shop/store. All those links are fine if they point to eBid, & your items here, but not back to any other auction site.

If you put your email address in your listings, it, & probably a whole chunk of info around it will be removed, automatically.

No phone numbers in listings.

&

Multiple listings, please use Multi-item Auctions

• It is not fair on other members to show row after row of the same identical item.
• This has an adverse effect on the entire community.
• If you want to list multiple identical items please list as a Multi-item Auction.
• We currently allow one auction, be it a normal or multi-item auction, to be placed in a single category. Do not place the same item in many different categories.

For Buyers seeing rows of identical items is a turn off, for other Sellers, a category being swamped by one person listing duplicate items, is an annoyance.

If you used identical titles, your items may well be removed automatically.
If items are similar, you need to make sure that the item title makes it clear.

Using different titles for identical listings, as a way around the system, may well lead to all your items being removed, if/when they are reported.

[Gothicina]

Just a little

[astral276]

A few years yet before I can retire and sit at auctions daily.

Don't bank on having more time to do stuff when you retire. Life doesn't seem to work like that.

[Gothicina]

Do you ever really look at your stores & your listings?

Not as a Seller, but more critically as you would if you were a buyer.

Would you buy from you?

Do the store colours clash, are the text links legible?

Do your listings contain all the information you would expect to see if you were buying the item?

Ideally a buyer should not NEED to ask any questions.

Are they in the right eBid category?

Are they in the right Store Category?

If you view your store do you see a page of seemingly identical items ie same photo time after time?
Obviously if you list clothes, & you have a range of sizes of the same thing,it can easily happen.

As a Seller it's easier to list, pink jumper size 10, list similar & edit to pink jumper size 12 etc etc.
but that means you end up with blocks of listings all more or less the same.
Next time you do this, when you edit the size in the title & description, maybe try editing the running times as well.