The Idiot’s Guide to Selling on Ebay: Volume 4

Let’s talk about successful selling!  Tips, Advice, and Tricks-of-the-Trade.  Your goal is to make as much money as possible on Ebay and we’re going to discuss a few things that should help get you started off on the right foot.

So… we’ve talked about feedback, policies, and keeping your inventory organized and accurate and we’ve covered a lot of ground, but everything up until now has been pretty basic.  Now let’s get into the details of great listings with your own html and photographs!

First off, your photographs can make or break your sales.  A buyer is looking for clear, detailed pictures.  Pictures that are laid out on the page nicely, not huge pictures that they have to scroll back and forth to see… and not blurry, dark, or otherwise crummy pictures.  Before someone makes a  purchase, they want to see what they’re buying.

Here are a few examples of Good vs. Poor Quality Pictures

Assuming you were in the market for a Tiffany & Co. bracelet, some designer jeans, dog shampoo, or a used hand held play station… which of these do you think you’d focus on assuming all other details were the same?

I’m sure you can guess with accuracy which of the items sold for more, just based on the quality of the pictures.  The photographs that were clear and detailed also included multiple pictures in their listings, the poor quality pictures did not – this makes a huge difference.

Some tips for photographs:
DO take multiple pictures
DO crop your images down, showing only the item itself (no one wants to see your entire living room)
DO take pictures in good lighting
DO take pictures of your item from different angles
DO include a stock photo along with your originals if you have one

DON’T take pictures of your item from far away, no one can see it
DON’T bother posting blurry pictures or very dark pictures
DON’T use only stock photos – show your buyers exactly what they are bidding on

Also, see my guide on how to make your own Studio in a Box ~ its an excellent idea for people who are looking to take fantastic, professional looking pictures of small items.

Aside from just the pictures, what else can you do to improve your listings overall AND save money on listing fees at the same time?  Create you own HTML!!  Ebay only charges money for each additional picture because they have to pay for their bandwidth and so they charge you when you add additional data to their server.  It is 100% acceptable to create your own HTML and save money by hosting your own pictures.  You also don’t need to pay more for their templates if you can create your own.  But how?

Well, first of all, you need to have a place to host your own pictures.  There are many sources available, my favorite is PhotoBucket.  You set up a free account and upload your pictures into albums and they provide you with the HTML code for each picture.

You can also create your own listings with software such as DreamWeaver or Microsoft FrontPage.  Neither of the programs is cheap, but there is a chance one of them may have come with your computer.  I use FrontPage myself… and I find it very easy to navigate.  I can create a web page to use as a listing with a background, different font styles and colors, as many pictures as I’d like (which are all hosted on Photobucket), tables, and personalized layouts.  For some examples of the types of listings I create, visit my Ebay Store:  Frazzled Fashions

If you do not have DreamWeaver or FrontPage ~ there are other inexpensive and even free resources available on the web.  Just do a Google search for "free HTML creators".  If you’re fearful of learning to create your own HTML, there are other options too!!

When you’re creating your listing on EBay, use their listing tools to change the font and font color, center or make bold your title, make a list of your items features instead of laying it all out in paragraph form, etc.  Whatever you can do to make your listing stand out from the rest will increase your chances of selling your items for top dollar.