Should I write a guide?  What should I write about?  How can I make sure it looks great?  Many questions come to mind when you set out to write an eBay guide.  We have provided some basic pointers to get you started.

Write What You Know

Sell products in a certain category?  Have a favorite hobby?  Write about it.

Trying to write a guide about a subject you are unfamiliar with is time consuming and has few benefits.  A guide, written by a seller, should first and foremost provide traffic to your product.  However, be sure to do this in a subtle way.  You do not want to hit your potential customer over the head with your advertising.  Remember that to the reader you are writing a guide first and an ad second.

It is easy to pepper your guide with links to your product, but do this where it makes the most sense.  While you cannot add a link directly to a specific item, you can do specific searches from both an eBay Store or the Items for Sale page.  For an example, please see the links below:

A Link to an Item from a Store Search.

A Link to an Item from Items for Sale.

Hobbies, while they may not relate to your core product, cast a wider net to catch traffic for your items.  In other words, guides, no matter the subject, bring in potential customers.  Hopefully, the greater traffic ultimately results in greater sales!  However, as mentioned above, make sure you know what you are writing about.  Guides written by people that know little of the subject can be spotted easily and run the chance of alienating the reader.

Be Factual

“I like Acme’s lip balm because I know it’s the best!”

Anyone can type the statement above, but what facts have been provided to back the statement?  You run the risk of losing trust from your reader if your guide is full of only personal beliefs, especially if you are selling the item that is the subject of the guide.  Likewise, personal endorsements can come back to haunt you, as a seller, if you are not careful.  Individual tastes vary, and negative feedback can occur.

You can properly endorse a product by adding facts to your guide.

“Acme lip balm has the highest percentage of almond oil of any lip balm out there!  The fresh, tantalizing mint flavor comes from real peppermint oil!”

Keep It Simple

Just like item descriptions, it is important to keep your guide short and simple.  Have a lot to say?  Then you should divide your guide up into “parts” or “sections”.  You can then join the separate guides with links.  The additional bonus to this procedure is an increase exposure, both on eBay and search engines such as Google.

If It Looks Like a Duck…

If you want to come across as a professional seller, make sure your guide looks professional.  Your guide should be free of spelling and grammatical errors.  Contractions and slang should be avoided.  Acronyms should be spelled out when they are first introduced to the reader. For example, “The United States Postal Service (USPS) does not offer insurance on Global Priority Mail (GPM).”  By listing the acronym in parentheses after the initial use, you can then use it freely in the remainder of the guide.

Likewise, you should use all the formatting tools available in a thoughtful way.  Sections should be divided by using the different heading levels.  Bullets and numbering can help make lists easier to read and understand.  You should use indentations to offset large blocks of quotations you may have in your guide.

Saying What Has Been Said Before

Lastly, please do not plagiarize.  If you copy other works, you should reference them.  A great guide will let your style shine through, not prove you know how to copy and paste like a pro!

Thank you for visiting this guide and have fun writing your own!

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