Read a great article in a magazine today about how some folks are really coining it selling all kinds of stuff on eBay, even part timers are doing really well in some niches. Several of these people commented on how it was important to have a good niche (ok thats obvious) but many commented that it was really important to get your listings right so I thought I’d list some of the important aspects:
- Do the research. You need to study how others have listed their items to work out what it is that catches your eye and makes you stop on some. Is it the keywords? How are products similar to yours described? What information is given? What questions are asked? What are the common factors on the listings with the highest bids? Find out what the market wants then give it!
- Write a good title by giving as much relevant info as possible here. What keywords are your customers likely to use? Are they searching by brand, model, size etc? If so make sure you use the likely keywords to make a good descriptive title for your listing.
- Give as much useful information as you can about your item in your description. Try to imagine the things a buyer might ask then give them the info upfront, it make you look like you know what you’re doing. Give the dimensions – if its clothing you’re selling give the actual measurements not a size number (they vary from brand to brand anyway). You’ll still get some folks asking questions sometimes even about stuff you have in your listing. Be polite and quick to respond and you’ll encourage those folk to do business.
- Use decent photos. Try to take photos of the whole item against a plain background and get some close-ups where its appropriate. Remember the point about researching other listings above? I’ll bet its the photos that catch your eye in a lot of cases!
- Be clear about your terms and conditions. Make sure you state your return policy accepted payment methods, whether pick up is possible etc to avoid a flood of emails asking these sort of questions
- Don’t try to load your shipping costs to make a profit. As tempting as it is to load shipping fees the fact is it puts many potential buyers off making bids in the first place and can lead to negative feedback. Make sure that shipping costs are clearly stated so the winner does not get a nasty surprise at payment time.
Those are the basics to writing good listings after you have them mastered you won’t really think about them anymore. Other than good listings you need to market yourself for success a topic we’ll look at in another post. Good Luck.
Check out my Squidoo Lens on this for more on making money on eBay
Posted under Home Business Ideas, Marketing, eBay
This post was written by admin on April 27, 2008
