Ambitious Sales Drive

[kengillam]

My user names just come up with several references to my web presence but not any for my eBid listings, their are some references to my listings on Tazbar. So I would conclude the listing representation of eBid is poor.

As regards searching, most people would be unlikely to search for peoples user names, for my stuff, terms like art, watercolour, landscape etc are going to be the most likely search terms anmd it is getting 'my results' on the first page under those search terms that is the real objective. So how do we achieve this.

[*artsbanquet*]

When I search for specific items, Ebid listings come up on the first page and sometimes at the very top. But more general terms don't work because of the competition.

Ken, if you try "Autumn Sunlight Watercolor", in Google UK, the Ebid listing comes up right at the very top.

I don't quite know how this could be utilized to good effect though.

[nykmedia]

STEP 3 is just as easy as steps 1 and 2

First, we agree on a specific sample item, and then we compare notes on various methods of searching for that item.

Ken, you sell artwork so say, for example, I was decorating and decided that I would quite like to buy some original art to hang on my wall and I had a particular liking for, say, Lands End... you are welcome to try this, but remember these are taylored examples only to show how easily the search engines can be 'infiltrated' at no cost.

I would search for:

painting of Lands End

or I could be more specific and search

original watercolour, Land's End

[*artsbanquet*]

Don't get it.....could you explain further? Is there a Step 4?

[nykmedia]

STEP 4

Your auction listing titles are your signposts in the (re)search engines. They are probably twice as likely to show up if you have the title included in the description as well, as it increases the relevance. If you are using graphics, name the graphics for what they are and not 'image001' or whatever. I don't see any point in changing existing auction listings but, even as an experiment, it is worth trying with any new listings added from now on, just to see if it makes a difference. I know the search engines can take several weeks to update initially when a new site is added but eBid will be updated at least once a fortnight, I would think. Anyone up for the experiment?

People carry out searches constantly for items and I think that if we compared notes on exactly HOW we each carry out our searches, we could get a better general idea of how to optimise auction listings so they remain high in the search engines.

To do this, you must decide exactly what you are selling and target that market precisely. This is a serious problem for many of us, I know it is for me! Key words need to be included in titles, descriptions and graphics and must be targetted at catching the attentions of specific buyers, rather than just casual online browsers.

[*artsbanquet*]

Hmmm...very interesting. Going to chew on this. Good idea.

[frothy_edal]

Before I 'dish', you all need to 'fish'.

Not until the following has been achieved can you begin to follow the step-by-step plan to achieving more sales.

1) Early, basic research

Google
Lycos
Yahoo
Alta Vista

Use the above 4 as your basic research facilities - all four, not just one. There are plenty more to choose from if you would prefer to name them here so we can compare.

Go to each in turn and type your eBid username into the search boxes. Make yourself familiar with what the world can see about you as an eBid seller.

If you use the same username on several sites, everything should show up in the one place.

Excellent check there! I show up on eBay and ebid on all except Lycos who only show eBay results.

[kengillam]

It only shows at the top if you select to search from UK else it's on page two. This is what I meant about our user ID's more people are going to search for 'Autumn Sunlight Watercolor' than for "kengillam" it is getting ebid mentioned in 'watercolor' searches.

[Rednosty]

STEP 4

Your auction listing titles are your signposts in the (re)search engines. They are probably twice as likely to show up if you have the title included in the description as well, as it increases the relevance. If you are using graphics, name the graphics for what they are and not 'image001' or whatever. I don't see any point in changing existing auction listings but, even as an experiment, it is worth trying with any new listings added from now on, just to see if it makes a difference. I know the search engines can take several weeks to update initially when a new site is added but eBid will be updated at least once a fortnight, I would think. Anyone up for the experiment?

People carry out searches constantly for items and I think that if we compared notes on exactly HOW we each carry out our searches, we could get a better general idea of how to optimise auction listings so they remain high in the search engines.

To do this, you must decide exactly what you are selling and target that market precisely. This is a serious problem for many of us, I know it is for me! Key words need to be included in titles, descriptions and graphics and must be targetted at catching the attentions of specific buyers, rather than just casual online browsers.

An Idea to Chew over re this is to List irrelevent words......Sex always sells! so original Lands end painting is a sexy Lands end painting! (Well perhaps it works better on other things)
Is there anywhere where you can look for the most Used Words that people search for? Then if we can include them in our auctions?? What ya think?

[damian_steele]

An Idea to Chew over re this is to List irrelevent words......Sex always sells! so original Lands end painting is a sexy Lands end painting! (Well perhaps it works better on other things)
Is there anywhere where you can look for the most Used Words that people search for? Then if we can include them in our auctions?? What ya think?

I think you would get hits from people who would never buy your stuff and annoy the genuine people who might have bought your stuff if you hadn't just alienated them.