How to Write the Best Item Title on eBay

I'm not going to tell you, but I'll point you to someone who will.

I found a terrific 10-minute video on a Suzanne Wells' Power Seller King blog here. If you sell on eBay, whether full-time or casually, investing a small amount of time watching this video and putting what it teaches into practice will likely pay huge dividends. I have already heard from others how much the knowledge taught in the video has improved their eBay businesses.

If the information helps you, I'd love to know, so I hope you'll come back and leave me a comment here.

Why the Advanced Search is Important to eBay Sellers

Easter's early this year. Have you done your shopping? Have you listed your Easter-related items on eBay?

I've been using eBay's advanced search feature a lot lately and this morning I decided to do one search for items from all categories with "Easter" in the title that are marked down and have Buy It Now available, including store items. I found 399 items that met all of those search options. Very cool search. You can try it here.

So, why am I telling you this? If you're an eBay shopper, remember to use that Advanced Search feature to help narrow down the items you're looking for more quickly. If you're a seller, remember to use words such as "Easter" in your item titles when you believe people will be looking for those items specifically. My search turned up items in 14 main categories from apparel to antiques to cell phones & PDAs. That last category included an Easter Lily charm for a cell phone. I never would have thought to search for that item, but what a great idea for an Easter basket stuffer.

Sellers, think like shoppers as you think about upcoming occasions and events (Mother's Day, graduation, even spring) as eBay shoppers will use those words in their searches. Those same shoppers may turn into buyers when they find your item, even if they did't know they were looking for it.

Why Now is the Best Time to Start Selling Books on eBay

Recently eBay announced pricing changes, including lower listing fees, effective February 20, 2008. Now the news is even better. Another announcement was made this week, this time regarding category-specific listing fee reductions for media categories.

Effective along with the previously announced changes, listing fees for books, music, movies, and video game software categories will be further reduced. Auctions listed at a starting price up to 99 cents will be reduced from 20 to 10 cents each, auction and fixed price listings in these categories with starting prices from $1 to $9.99 will be reduced from 40 to 25 cents, and similar listings with starting prices from $10 to $24.99 will be reduced from 60 to 35 cents.

What does this mean to you? If you're a bookseller (or music or movie or video game seller) this can mean a very nice increase to your bottom line!

Haven't started selling on eBay yet? Why not start with books? With eBay's listing fee reductions, now is the perfect time to get started. Books are a great product for a new seller to start with on eBay; most of us have too many and, if not, books are very easy to find at yard sales, church sales, and library sales. They're easy to handle, pack, and ship, and they're great sellers.

This bookwill teach you all you need to know about selling books on eBay or elsewhere online. The used book business is booming and eBay's fees are coming down, so why not find out how to get started selling books on eBay today!

Why Bettye Had Record Sales Last Month on eBay

My friend, Bettye, from Dragonfly Vintage Clothing, just reported on her fabulous eBay sales from last month. January was her highest sales month ever after opening her eBay store 18 months ago. Here are Bettye's top three reasons, in her words, of why her sales have continued to grow and why she believes she had the big jump in January.

1. I'm buying better - more selectively...which I'm able to do only because I'm shopping MORE - I get to at LEAST one thrift store 6 days a week, and, many days, two. On average, I'm in 10 stores a week. This is on top of my full-time M-F, 8:30-4:30 day job. You have to get to a LOT of stores, and see a LOT of items, to allow yourself the luxury of only buying the BEST items. When I used to try and do all my shopping in one day, I had to lower the bar for what I would buy, as I knew there would be no other buying opportunities that week.

2. When ebay works right, it's using a system of exponential growth - which I think only REALLY works when you have a niche. I've done both. I've studied both. I know people who do both, and ON AVERAGE, there seems to be MORE GROWTH in stores that specialize in a certain type of product. Niche sellers have more repeat customers, there is probably more word-of-mouth referrals...and over time, a specialty store gets more and more and MORE regular watchers...as you have more people watching, you have more people likely to bid...and all it takes is two or more people who want the same item, and prices get driven up. When every one of your items is totally different - not even in the same style or genre - repeat customers are not as likely, repeat watchers the same. This exponential growth takes TIME. To Really Succeed on Ebay, I think you need to have/offer one of several things (you don't need all, but you need ONE): HIGHLY rare or desirable and well-recognized things (Coach bags, Apple ipods, etc); or EXTREME savings - if you're The Cheapest in any category, you will get the attention and the sales; or TIME. Time listing above average, well-priced items, in an attractive format, with good pictures, clear descriptions, reasonable shipping, in a specialty - and in TIME, you WILL build up a customer base. I think I'm finally hitting My Time :-)

3. To reiterate #2, I have really taken care to have clean, unfussy auction formats; clear, large pictures (I'm a firm believer in the PICTURE tells the story - the text is just an aside); low starting prices and reasonable shipping with no handling fee. I've held firm to my gut feeling that MY clothes are best shown on a live model, even though it would be easier and cheaper to use a mannequin.

Many thanks to Bettye for allowing me to publish her tips and observations. Bettye's goal for 2008 is to double her eBay sales from 2007. Looks like she's off to a fabulous start. (You go, girl!)

Bettye's store
Bettye's other store

Today's Quick eBay Tips

My oldest favorite fr ee eBay newsletter is written by Jim Cockrum of Silent Sales Machine fame. Jim is very generous with fr ee information but, besides that, he’s a heck of a good guy, which is easy to tell when you’ve been following him for as long as I have. If you want to receive his tips or if you want to get to know Jim, sign up for his newsletter here. I also highly recommend his books, which you can find at the same link.

Jim’s latest newsletter includes a link to a page on AuctionBytes.com (if you don’t get their newsletters, be sure to sign up for them) with a comparison chart called “Auction Management Services at a Glance.” A lot of people use auction management services to help with their eBay businesses. I use and recommend two, Auctiva and Turbolister. If I needed another, I’d probably try Inkfrog first since I know successful sellers who use and love it. All three are listed on the comparison chart, which you can find here. It includes a long list of services, many of which I’ve never even heard of. A good resource.

EBay is having another special today and tomorrow (July 18-19, 2007). The Value Pack, which includes a gallery picture, subtitle, and listing designer, is available for just 25 cents. I hope you use a gallery picture in your listings; you should in most cases. That upgrade itself usually costs 35 cents, so you can save 10 cents per auction or fixed price listing today and tomorrow, and those dimes do add up. Be aware, though, that you MUST choose Value Pack to get the discount on the picture, even if you aren’t interested in the other two upgrades. If you choose the gallery picture alone, you’ll still be charged 35 cents. If you don’t want to use the subtitle or designer, that’s fine as you don’t have to, but be sure and choose the value pack option. If you do use the subtitle (and why not – at that point it’s fr ee), remember that those words do not show up in a search unless the search is for title and description. Another thing to keep in mind is that if the item doesn’t sell and you re-list it in the future, you’ll be charged the original 65 cents for the value pack, so you might want to change your options when you re-list.

Those are your tips for today. Have a great one!

Summer Sales Slow on eBay? Consider These Suggestions

We see it every year about this time, on forums and on group posts: “My eBay sales are so slow this summer. I’m really discouraged. What can I do?” Here are a few suggestions.

Remodel. Look at your listings and your store, if you have one, with a fresh eye. Think back to all of the advice you’ve heard but not taken and consider applying it. Try something different for a change. It couldn’t hurt and might just help. I’m talking about advice such as taking better pictures with better backgrounds or using more pictures; using excellent keywords and all 55 characters of every title; not centering the text in your descriptions; using a properly-sized font, not too big and not too little; using a font color that is easy to read; including well-written, non-threatening, professional-sounding shipping, payment, and return policies in your listings; or working on building your brand by standardizing colors and templates so people will recognize your listings in a crowd.

Reassess. If your products aren’t selling right now, why might that be? Are they just one item in a gazillion with nothing that makes them stand out or rise above the crowded marketplace? Find a high-volume seller who sells similar items. Examine those listings and try to identify what makes their items sell when yours don’t. Search for items similar to yours on completed listings and take a look at the ones that sold. What’s so special about them? Could listing/closing time have anything to do with it? Did they have a Buy It Now option whereas your items do not? What does that seller do that you don’t do? Does he or she offer a newsletter? Do you? Don’t ever copy another seller’s listings, but take notes about what appeals to you as a buyer and incorporate some of those ideas into your own listing and marketing practices. Determine what you can do to make your store and your items irresistible to your shoppers.

Restock. Sell something else. If your listings are perfect and need no improvement at all but the items are still not selling, consider the fact that not everything listed on eBay sells. If it hasn’t sold within a reasonable period of time, consider donating it or having a yard sale. Perhaps your products are out of season right now and should be put on the shelf for awhile and re-listed later. Think a month or two ahead to the next holiday or, during the summer, to back-to-school time and find items that should sell well then and get those listings ready. Or, think in a totally opposite season; have a Christmas in July sale or list items with a gift-giving theme.

If you’re not busy this summer shipping out sold items, you probably have some time on your hands. Use the time wisely by studying both the market and marketing principles. Start with our remodel, reassess, and restock tips, apply them, and perhaps you’ll see your summer sales begin to take off again.


Do you have some great advice for avoiding the summer sales slump? Leave us a comment!

The Complete eBay Marketing System will teach you the professional techniques you need to become an eBay power seller.

Sell What's Hot!

Still haven’t decided what to sell on eBay? Think hot! Not sure what’s hot? Here are a couple of places you can check to find out.

First, check the pulse. The eBay pulse, that is. That’s where you will find up-to-the-minute popular search terms by category on eBay. These are the search terms that eBay shoppers use the most. It’s a great way to see what people are looking for today. Just go to pulse.ebay.com and you’ll see the top 10 popular searches in all categories. Click the drop-down menu to narrow the category. For instance, if I click on “Clothing, Shoes & Accessories,” now I can see the top 10 search terms for that general group of categories. When I use the drop-down menu again and narrow the category to “Women’s Shoes,” I find Gucci and Nike, among others. If I had Gucci shoes to sell, I would know that people are looking for them and it’s a good time to get them listed. Next, scroll down the page a bit and you’ll see the “Most Watched Items” in that category, which gives you even more of an idea what people are interested in today. On the top right of the page there's a section listing the largest ebay stores selling items in the shoe category. If you want to see how somebody else sells shoes, or what shoes are actually selling, explore those stores and look for things they do that you might do to improve your own shoe listings. So, check the Pulse for items that you think you might like to sell and remember to use those hot search words in the listing titles.

Next suggestion, google it to find out what’s hot. Google has a project called “trends.” Want to know the top 100 search trends on google, the terms that have suddenly gained in popularity? You should want to know because if it’s hot on google, then it probably really is hot and the trend may well spill over to eBay. An example of this would be when Steve Irwin, the crocodile hunter, died. You can be sure that thousands of people googled “Steve Irwin” and “crocodile hunter” and other similar terms when they heard the news. You can also be positive that eBay was suddenly flooded with Steve Irwin items. Talk about hot, now that was a very hot topic for a few days, then it cooled gradually and went back to normal over time. One-day auctions for Steve Irwin items were the norm that week on eBay; who knew if seven days later people would still be looking for the crocodile man’s items. (While it may seem inappropriate to take advantage of a tragedy such as Steve Irwin’s sudden death, you can be sure that a lot of people made money as a result of that event.) So, to find search terms that have gained rapidly in popularity and may be getting really hot, or to see what trends your favorite searches or keywords show, visit trends.google.com. Read the “About Google Trends” page for a full explanation of how it works.

These are just a couple of ways to decide on what might be hot items to sell on eBay. You may have others and I would love to hear about them. So, how about it. No need to reveal your top-secret sources, but I’d love to read your comments and suggestions!

The Used Blue Jeans Family

Always the critic, I love to find stores on ebay that I think stand out as a super example for the rest of the ebay community and, particularly, as examples for new ebay sellers to emulate. Yesterday, I found a winner.

Tom Meester and his wife sell used Levi jeans on ebay. That’s all they sell and they have sold over 20,000 pairs of jeans in the last seven or eight years. Tom’s a power seller with a feedback score of well over 15,000, receiving only 14 negatives in all those years (you can’t please everyone, I guess). Let me point out for you a few things that I like about Tom’s ebay store and his listings, things that both new and experienced ebay sellers can learn from.

1. He has a niche product, even a sub-niche product, that he researched, found suppliers for, refined, and has stuck with because it works. You won’t find blue jean pens or mugs here, and you certainly won’t find Pez containers, beanie babies, or other totally unrelated items. And the name of the store can’t be stated any more clearly: Used-Blue-Jeans.

2. He has created a look for his store and his listings that once you see it, you’ll recognize his listings forever. That’s called branding and it’s what store owners should strive for. Tom uses a simple denim blue with red highlights look that complements the product perfectly. Pictures of his jeans are always identifiable, with the jeans “posed” in the same position, all pictures with a bright red background.

3. His item listing template is clean with a great picture, perfectly sized, followed by a description that is short and sweet but complete. Included is a thank-you, which is always nice, links to add his store to your favorites list and another to search for similar items, both simple but important marketing tools, followed by his store policies. The policies are presented simply in positive terms, answering any questions that a potential buyer might have. No “Don’t bid if you’re not going to pay!” threats, just professionally-stated shipping, payment, and return terms. Complete contact information is at the bottom. A perfect layout in my opinion.

4. Tom’s store format is perfectly understated with the pleasant denim blue with red highlights color scheme and a logo that looks like it belongs, not too big, not too small. There’s nothing extra to get in the way of the whole point of the store, the product.

5. Tom’s family is pictured on their ‘me’ page with a story of the history of their family and their ebay business, the perfect approach to building confidence in the seller. Coupled with the impressive feedback, who wouldn’t buy their Levi jeans from this family?

The simple niche market approach with a clean layout is very appealing to me as an ebay shopper and an easy example for ebay sellers to emulate as they look to improve their own listings and store designs. I give The Used Blue Jeans Family two thumbs up and a hearty “Well done!”

Selling Teacher Editions? Not on ebay!

Books are easy to list on ebay. Provide a description of the condition and an ISBN number and ebay helps by providing the rest of the details. But don't try it with the teacher's edition of a textbook!

People often turn to ebay to look for used textbooks, and a large number of those shoppers these days are homeschooling families. Indeed, it doesn't take much time shopping for teaching materials to discover that new textbook sets are very expensive. For homeschoolers, families need more than just the student books, they need the teacher editions as well.

Ebay used to be the place to shop to find bargains on all the books that homeschoolers need. Families were anxious to sell their used textbook sets to other homeschooling families in order to make money to buy their own sets of books for the following year or grade level. About this time last year, though, ebay began a policy of disallowing all teacher editions of textbooks to be listed and sold. While this makes sense when you think of college textbooks, it seems ebay totally missed the point when they expanded the no-teacher-editions policy to include books needed by homeschoolers - as if those first and second graders were going to buy up the books with the answers so they could cheat on their weekly spelling tests!

So, what's a homeschool teacher to do? Enter This Little Piggy Stays Home, the online auction site created specifically for homeschooling families. This Little Piggy Stays Home is a new site, developed as a result of ebay's policy change, offering a comprehensive selection of ABeka, Bob Jones, Christian Liberty, Apologia, Saxon, Sonlight, and so much more! There are no listing fees on TLPSH, photos are free, and the final value fees are reasonable.

So if you're a homeschooler looking to buy or sell textbooks or other educational materials - including teacher editions - take a look at This Little Piggy Stays Home. I recommend it.

Calculating the Costs

I've seen so many items selling on ebay at such a low price that I figure the seller can't be making any money at all. In fact, I've been guilty of under-pricing items as well. Have you?

Well, my friend Joe has a tool that we can all use to help us determine the net profit or loss of the items that we sell. Joe's Curiosity Shoppe has many tools, in fact, and you'll want to check them all out. The one I'm referring to here is his eBay Fee Calculator. Joe has taken into consideration the item's cost to you, the starting and ending prices, as well as such things as item upgrades (bold, gallery, etc.), PayPal fees, and the cost of your packing supplies. Joe's calculator tool is a simple, one-page form that you can just tab through and fill in the blanks, click "calculate" at the bottom, then see how much money you're making or (gasp!) if you're losing money.

You can use this tool before you even purchase items to sell, projecting sales prices and calculating costs in order to determine a limit of how much you should spend on items for inventory.

Give Joe's tools a try; I think you'll really like them. Oh, did I mention that they're F*R*E*E? Yep, Joe's very clever and he's a generous guy as well. (Thanks, Joe!)

Selling With the Seasons?

It’s January. Have you listed those swimsuits? Okay, maybe it’s a little premature to be selling swimsuits. Or, is it? Do you sell worldwide? Remember that on the bottom half of the world they’re having summer weather while here in the good ol’ USA we are suffering with snowstorms. If you have some highly desirable swimsuits or sandals or other summer items, there may be someone in a warmer climate who would pay a premium for them now, in January, while the listings are slim.

So what items are hot in the USA right now? An easy way to find out what clothing or accessories you want to be sure to be listing now is to take a walk through the mall, or even your local discount store. I was surprised a day or so into the new year to see new tote bags and purses in spring colors for sale at Wal-Mart. A day or two later I noticed some cute little children’s outfits with short sleeves, and it’s definitely still long-sleeve weather where I live. Obviously some people shop ahead or grab those new items while they’re available.

Wal-Mart didn’t get to be the world’s largest retailer by displaying Christmas items in January. In fact, by the day after Christmas those seasonal mark-downs were moving out and the Valentine’s Day gifts and candy were moved right in. The lesson? Keep an eye on the calendar. Next month’s calendar.

Last year I sold numerous pairs of sandals to buyers in Canada – especially in February and March! I was certainly surprised, but it occurred to me that March is Spring Break month. Perhaps those lovely customers of mine were planning a vacation, you think?

While we can never second guess our shoppers, we can at least be prepared for them by keeping seasonal as well as off-season items in our ebay stores. Learn to think like your customers and anticipate what they might be shopping for. You just never know when someone may be planning their next skip trip in July!

Today's Tip: Payday Shoppers

It is my observation that ebay sales, and specifically payments for sales, revolve around paydays. In the USA, people are generally paid either on the 1st and 15th of the month (or 15th and 30th), every Friday, or every other Friday. There are exceptions to those days, of course, but you can pretty much count on any Friday that happens to fall on the 1st of the month seeing long lines at the grocery store. Then, after the groceries are put away, those same people sit down to relax and shop on ebay!

So, my quick tip for today is make sure you have auctions listed to close very close to the first Friday of each month and then again around the 15th and the 30th of the month. Make sure that those tired payday grocery shoppers are able to find your items when they're ready to do their online shopping.

Free Shipping!

Everyone loves a bargain and when it comes to shopping online, free shipping is a big selling point, even on ebay.

This weekend I decided to try offering several items with shipping included and, by golly, I've had some success already. Okay, I'll admit that I set the prices of the items to help cover my cost to mail them, but the total was still quite fair and a good buy for the customer. Would they have purchased the items anyway? Maybe, it's hard to know for sure, but I can't help but think that with quick turnover on a couple of items I've offered for sale before the free shipping probably had something to do with helping to close the sale.

Give it a try. Offer your customer a bargain with shipping included and see what happens. I'd love to hear how it works for you.

Make Your Listing Stand Out!

"Ebay has millions of listings at any given moment. How do I make my listing stand out?"

Good question! Here are a couple of quick tips for sellers old and new to consider when creating a new listing on ebay.

First, write a great title for your listing. Use every one of the 55 spaces that ebay provides by being complete, accurate, and descriptive. Think like a buyer! What words would you search for if you were looking for an item like yours to buy? Those are the words to include. Remember to follow ebay's rules - no keyword spamming, no misleading titles. If you're selling a pair of shoes, what color are they? What style? What size? Are they leather? What brand? Be honest and complete. Be creative! Dressy, formal, casual? Let those potential buyers know! Selling boots? Are they work boots, cowboy boots, fashion boots, suede boots, leather boots, brown boots, black boots, new brown leather cowboy boots? I think you get the idea. Now, choose a couple of the best words in the title and CAPITALIZE them. Please don't use all caps - that really does make the title hard to read. However, by capitalizing a couple of the key words you accomplish two things. One, those words stand out; two, your title will be pushed onto a second line which makes the space for your listing just a little bit bigger, helping it to be more easily noticed on the search page.

Second tip, list your item with a gallery photo. Gallery photos are the pictures that show up on the search results page. Make it a great photo! Use lots of light to make the picture bright and clear. People looking for your shoes don't want to see the spots on your carpet and they don't want to see your kitchen cabinets, so be sure to place the item on a clean surface of a contrasting color and aim the camera down at the item, not across the item to include the rest of the room in the background. Use a photo editor to crop the picture close to the item so the item fills the space. Try to create a nice vertical format for the picture. This, like using the capital letters, will make your listing take up more space on the search results page and make it stand out and be noticed.

Always follow ebay's rules when you create your item listings and consider the above tips to give yourself the edge and make your listings rise above the crowd. Happy listing and happy selling!

(The above article is reprinted from my ebay Guide of the same name. To read all of my ebay Guides, click here.)

My Number One Rule

As an ebay seller, my number one rule is, “Think like a buyer.”

When I’m creating a listing, I do my best to look at the item objectively and answer the following question: If I were shopping for this, what would I want to know about it? Some things are obvious – color and size if I’m listing an item of clothing, for instance. Be as descriptive as you can be when talking about the color. “Robin’s egg blue” may be more specific than “light blue” and certainly better than just “blue.” If size is a factor, certainly all sizes are not created equal, so don’t forget to include measurements in your listing. Measure a garment lying flat and include chest width, waist, length from the waist, sleeve length, inseam length, whichever measurements would help you, if you were the potential buyer, decide if the item is likely to fit. How about fabric type. Is it silk or cotton? Is it washable or dry clean only? Just what are the care instructions? If they are included with the garment, include those in your listing.

Remember to be very specific when describing the condition of an item. “Good condition” may mean something different to you than it does to me. If it’s a book, is there any writing in the book? A name written inside? Is the book new? If you have read the book, it is NOT new, regardless of how carefully you turned the pages and how clean you kept the cover. “Read once but gently cared for, this book looks, feels, and smells as good as new and includes no writing, dog-eared pages, or stray marks” would be enough information to make me, the potential buyer, feel good about the book I’m about to bid on. Speaking of smelling good, do state if the item, book or otherwise, is from a smoke-free or pet-free home. Sorry, smokers, but the non-smokers out there will be able to tell and we won’t be happy when we receive your otherwise beautiful book that makes our eyes water and our noses run. You’d might as well be honest about that up front if you want to keep your buyer happy.

If you’re thinking like a buyer, you will certainly want to include a picture when you list your item. Invest a little bit of time into taking a clear, bright photo of the item, then take one more step and crop the photo so that only the item is included in the final picture. I’ve seen more kitchen counters, couches, and carpets in pictures on ebay when none of those were the item being sold! This buyer doesn’t want to see your room décor, I want to see details of the shoes I’m thinking seriously about buying from you. If you don’t have a good photo editor, one that is very easy to use and reaps excellent results is called Picasa, a great, free product from Google. You can find it at http://picasa.google.com/. I love this program!

There are many things that buyers think about when they’re shopping on ebay and these are just a few examples. You’ll think of more. When you’re writing your listings, simply always remember to make them as complete as possible. For some additional ideas to consider when creating your auction listing, read my ebay guide called “Make Your Listing Stand Out!” Click on the title to go to the guide. Now, put on your buyer’s hat and go sell something!

P.S. A great resource for ebay sellers is The Cyber-Moms’ Guide to Creating Home Income with Internet Auctions. You don’t have to be a stay-at-home mom to benefit from the excellent advice included in this 300-page book. Highly recommended!