Why Write an Ebay Guide?

Many Ebay sellers are starting to learn the value of writing an Ebay Guide.  It couldn't be easier, and it will have a noticeable impact on your business, if done right.  A good place to start is right on your ME page, particularly if you've already taken the time to list the types of things you sell, are an expert on, or techniques you use as a seller.  I'm pretty sure you know enough about your own business, products or techniques to write a page's worth of information.  And its so worth it!!

Educate Buyers and Promote your Ebay Listings

There is genuine community value in putting guides up on the site.  The well-written ones add a community database of knowledge that is hard to match- everyone has something to contribute.  Even the experts can gain some knowledge by reading the guides written by other people in their category.

Give some thought to the 5 guide keywords they ask you to pick. Most people don't know this, but those keywords control which of your Ebay listings appear on the upper right of the guide. They also control the items that appear from other sellers. With a little creativity and a few tries through editing, you can control which items of yours appear and which of your competitors' items appear.  You can even structure it so that the other sellers' items who appear are not your direct competitors.

Paragraph Structure of Your Guide

The first paragraph should grab the reader, and relate your guide to them and convince them to read further. After the intro, I like a 3 or 4 paragraph guide, with each major paragraph having an exciting or provocative heading.

In the final paragraph, the conclusion, wrap things up and leave the reader feeling happy about your guide. Try to stay away from blatant sales pitches in your guides, that turns people away.

Technical Details

• Throughout your guide, add links both to your store, and specific items or store searches, using the Guide Editor to add links.. This is a valuable traffic driver, that you can check and verify on a regular basis using Ebay store reports. Not too many links, though, it turns the reader off.
• Write your guide originally using Notepad, then copy and paste into the guide editor- Ebay guides have a problem if you use normal word processors like Word, and give you all kinds of errors regarding HTML if you don't use Notepad, or type directly in the Guide editor. Do your formatting using the guide editor and you won't have any problems.
• Here is the link for getting started writing a guide:
  http://cgi3.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?CreateProductGuide

Here's to your future success writing Guides on Ebay- its a lot of fun! 

Please vote YES below if you think this guide was helpful- I appreciate it!

This article remains copyright 2006 BrickSale.  The author does not represent and has no affiliation with the LEGO Group.  The author, in the spirit of fair play, chooses to respect the LEGO(R) trademark and fair use guidelines.