lesson 2

Dec 14
08:38

2007

Bjorn Brands

Bjorn Brands

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eBay users worldwide trade more than US$1,820 worth of goods on the site every second. Many individuals just like you, cash in daily on eBay big time. So can you. If you don't give eBay a chance, you could be missing out on a lot of extra money. Not knowing what to do may waste you a lot of time and effort. But for insiders, eBay is sure to make you a lot of money with very little effort.

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How to Bring in the Traffic on eBay

There are a 100 MILLION eBay listings at any given time on eBay. 54% of ALL eBay auctions never get a single bid!

In the last article I wrote,lesson 2  Articles we talked about the importance of your Feedback on eBay. Your eBay feedback rating is, in short, your online reputation.

It tells your potential buyers in just a few seconds how trustworthy you are. In fact, many eBay members won't even buy from someone who has no feedback. They certainly won't even TOUCH someone who has any *negative* feedback!

In this article we are going to talk on how to bring traffic to your listings.

If you want to have more buyers on eBay to find your listings, this article will show you how to optimize your listings to get you maximum exposure and traffic.

Where to List!

When you list an item on eBay, you have to pick one of tens of thousands of categories.

It is important that you find the categories that matter the most for the product or service you are selling.

You can do this by looking at where your competitors list. eBay sellers are smart and the existing sellers are already listing in the best categories.

Never list one item in two categories, even though eBay also offers you the chance to. It costs a lot of extra. Only if your listing could really fit in two categories, then use two listings instead of one.

What Listing Duration to Choose!

You can list items for 3, 5, or 7 days. Since you want to maximize the exposure for your listings, we always recommend that you list your items for 7 days, since that costs the same as listing your item for only 3 days.

While it is true that most items sell during the last few hours (that is when they show up at the top of the default search results, sorted by 'ending soon') you should still go with 7 days to maximize your exposure.

List as Auction or Fixed Price?

Consider the category and type of good that you are selling. If you are selling a collectible or a used item for which there is no clear market price, then going with the auction format might be best.

However, if you are selling brand new items where you have lots of supplies (i.e. laptops, hand bags, etc.), consider a fixed price.

When to List!

On eBay, items are listed by the time they end being on sale. The ones that end first will be on top (that is the default search results setting).

So when a buyer searches for an item, they always see the items that are ending right away. The trick is to get your listings to surface when the most buyers are searching on eBay.

This is how:

· Most purchases on eBay happen either around lunch time, in the afternoon, or in the early evening. So, pick those times to list your item on eBay!

· Never list your item early in the morning or late at night because that is when the fewest buyers are searching.

· List several times a day. This will ensure that your listings are surfaced on eBay through out the day vs. just one time, just hours before they expire.

How Often to List!

One of the keys to success on eBay and one way to beat your competition is to play up your presence.

How do you establish a bigger presence on eBay than your competitors? One way is to simply offering and listing far more items than your competitors.

There is a finite demand for any product and I've learned that 16 listings per day is the best option.

More listings than 16 per day won't give you more sales just more listings to pay for.

In other words, boosting listings works great but there comes a point when your additional listings stop selling. Flood the Marketplace!

If you have a major presence on eBay within your niche, potential buyers cannot miss your products. They tend to think of you as a major player.

Which Feature Upgrades Work?

eBay offers a lot of listing upgrades. These can get very expensive, and we learned that the only listing upgrade that matters is the "gallery image." It has by far, the highest adoption of any feature by a huge margin.

Definitely don't try to save pennies on using gallery images, even if you are selling a product for as little as $9.95. a picture really *is* worth a thousand words -- especially on eBay!

In fact, auctions where the listing title includes a photo end up with 16% higher selling prices than auctions without!

The picture shouldn't just be 'pretty,' it needs to be informative. Not only should it show your product to its best advantage, it should clearly feature all of the details of the product that make it special or unique!

However, the key is to have a gallery image that stands out compared to the rest of the listings that also have a gallery image. Highlight your gallery image by adding a bold border around it.

When you add a red border to your gallery image you basically get to highlight your listing for free. It costs $0.35 to get attention this way, compared to alternatives like highlighting your listings ($5.00)

A listing in bold costs an additional $1.00. the best way to figure out what works for you is to do tests over time to see what really works for your product and category.

By building up a major presence using the technique and tips presented above you will soon emerge as one of the leading eBay sellers in your niche.