The first rule of listing writing is simple to follow.

Write your listing discription as if you have no picture.

The second rule is even better.

Take a picture or pictures, like you have no discription.

If you follow those simple rules you will see that your listings will be well wrote.

Never attack another seller, if there are flaws with a product, then address that issue and support it with FACT.

If your product you sell has advantages over another, then address  that point, back it with facts that can be researched by a buyer, and leave the personal attacks out of it.

If you want to find out about your competitors, go read thier feedbacks. That will tell you more about thier customers than the seller will admit to. You can also block buyers that have been unreasonalbe with the other sellers. Block the problem, before it becomes a problem for you.

There are over 50 million ebay users now, let the other seller cut thier own neck open, let them sell thier product, because if it is bad, they will not get returned sales. And thier feedbacks reflect the truth about how they deal with customers. Some sellers brag on customer support while thier feedbacks reflect a different view.

Remember , you are writing the listing for you and for your customers, what other sellers think does not really matter.

Be specific, remember color, size, condition, age, and state your handling fee clearly in your listings.

Do not be a seller that sells something for 99 cents and charges $40.00 for shipping and handling.

remember your extra costs, like printer ink, tape, packing, cost of boxes, paper. All these are legitimate costs that you can pass on through your handling fees.

Average out the ink costs per sale, that can be the biggest expense for a ebay seller, other than the fees we pay.

Remember also it does not matter if you put disclaimers in about how if someone does not pay for insurance that you are not responsible for the item once you ship it, sellers that claim  that are using the WTSS method of shipping. ( wishfull thinking shipping system).

You are responsible for the item to reach the buyer in the same condition as advertised, and that it WILL reach the buyer.

This is Ebay Policy, there is no disclaimer for it , period.

If you use the Pay Pal ship method you automatically get a delivary confurmation number on the package, and that part is free to you.

You then have proof of delivary to each customer for free.

And remember, follow up with feedback, some buyers will not buy from you again if you do not leave feedback for them.

As a buyer always think about your feedback before you leave it. Look at the shipping dates on the package, if it took 2 weeks to get to you and it was in transite for 2 weeks, that is not the sellers fault. Remember, treat the buyer as you would want to be treated. Sharp words and emails only cause further problems.

If you have 1000 items all the same put up a 10 day listing and put in a item count of 1,000. Your listing will stay up all 10 days, unless you sell out, and, you will make a higher profet per listing.

If you want the best time period to start a listing and to have it end, well that can be very variable.

Personally I like to start my listings on a  mid day friday run them for 10 days and you get 2 full weekends out of them then.

they also will be getting close to the ending time Sunday night and will come up near the top of the search for ending soonest, and you will catch the monday traffic as well.

If you want to get really into it, use Pro Pack and highlight  and border, and use some good pics, then your listing no matter when it is searched for new, ending, or lowest price or highest price , it will allways be at the top of the page of the search.

You can really take advantage of the extra $10.00 or so it costs you and generate top sales for your product during the entire time it is up.

This really only applys to items that you have  large quanitys of.

I laugh to see sellers put up a listing for a product that they obviously have quanitys of, with a single buy it now and quanity of one.

Imagine if you will ,having a product that selles for say 29.99, and you have 100 of these on hand, but you put up a listing that costs you 15.00 to list it, and a quanity of one.

Now put that same item up change the quanity to 100, list it for 10 days, use Pro Pack, and guess what , when you sell one 2 hours after you listed it, the listing stays up. and then you sell another , and another , and another and another  and now for a listing that cost you $36.00 to list or so, you have sold  5 items at a cost of $36.00 for the listing , or you can go back to the method of paying 15$ for one listing and selling one item for 29.99. The choice is clear.

Make sure you meet all requirements for the product you sell.

If you have a perrishable product, make sure it is packed correctly, and shipped by proper method, again YOU are responsible to make sure it arrives in good form, and the same condition as it was sold in your listing.

Make sure that you have any licences required by law to sell your product. I know that in my field of sales, there is NO EXCUSE to ship plants to a customer without having the proper nursery stamps on the boxes, and the proper legal identification stamps that declair excatly what is inside the boxes we ship. There are so many people shipping plants illegally though the USA , that some states now have actual law enforcement agencys just for plants.

Many agencys will give you no leaway in these issues, and you can be charged in Federal Court as well as under State Law.

So know the regualtions for what you sell, in this age of the internet, State and Federal Agencys will not take the claim of ignorance as a excuse.

After the sale follow up witha email, ask the customer if it met thier needs and expectations. I have generated 40% return sales by doing that. Your customer will not forget that extra mile you went to.

These are just a few things you can do. Good Luck and Happy Ebaying