Welcome to the third post in our feature series, The Perfect eBay Listing, in which we explore the ins and outs of selling on eBay.

Today, we’re going to take a look at the eBay listing upgrades that garner true results, separating the good ones from those that don’t perform so well.

Tip #3: Make More Money by Choosing the Best eBay Upgrades

Sure, but what are the good ones? Frankly, I think this is a pretty cut and dry subject, as there are three that you should consider “staples” of your selling arsenal.

First and foremost, you have the Gallery upgrade. At only $0.35, this is the cheapest and easiest way to capture an audience for your item. While it’s not absolutely necessary for all items you might choose to sell on eBay, using a Gallery allows you to include a thumbnail-size image within the search results. On top of that, you can use the Gallery photo to your advantage by showcasing your item in as favorable a setting as possible.

Take Advantage of the Gallery Listing with a Great Product Photo

For example, let’s say you’re selling ladies’ handbags, and the current bag that you’re listing is brown. If you weren’t schooled in the ways of eBay, you might innocently set the bag on your wooden kitchen table and snap a photo. Then, you’d agonize through your ill-advised seven day auction during which you only receive 4 product views (because you had a brown bag on a brown table - oh, and your kitchen walls are an awful maize color), and after that disappointment, you’d be left asking yourself “why?”

Fortunately, you don’t have to make this silly mistake, because you’ve been properly advised! Instead of putting next to no effort into your product photos, go out of your way to display your product as clearly as possible. I recommend buying a $2.49 piece of white Xacto board from Target, and create a nice, clean backdrop for your product photos.

Also, when taking pictures of your items, try to position your item so that it fills up as much of the photo as possible. As a result, when you choose a Gallery upgrade for your auction listing, your product will appear bigger to viewers as they scroll through items that they’re looking to buy. Once again, this is a simple thing that you can do to play on a buyer’s psychology to your advantage (and believe me, you want to do as much of this as possible). In fact, I’d go so far as to say you should adopt the following mantra for utilizing the Gallery feature:

1. If it’s appropriate, I will add the Gallery image to my listings
2. I will use a clean, high-contrast backdrop for my product pictures so that my item will be presented as clearly as possible
3. I will “fill up” the picture area with my product, making it appear as large as possible
4. I will check my photos to ensure that they are clear and not blurry, as simple miscues like that can wreak havoc on a buyer’s subconscious and cost me a sale!

Although I’ve already beaten the photo issue to death, we’re still going to give that horse one more good kick. For my money, it’s worth using a photo-editing software to crop your photos to sizes that are appropriate for eBay (and although I wouldn’t recommend it, you can even use MS Paint to crop photos into shape).

Based on average monitor resolutions, you should make sure that the vertical dimension of your pictures does not exceed 500 pixels. Personally, I make sure that my vertical dimensions never exceed 400 pixels, because I want to ensure that all viewers using 1024×768 resolution will be able to see the entire photo without scrolling. This is simply a good practice to adopt, and I think you can extend this by always trying to make your photos the same size (I use 400×400). You’ll see more of this in a later post when I explain the advantages of a pre-formatted, HTML-based listing.

I hinted at it earlier, and for the sake of completeness, I feel that it’s necessary to mention that Gallery upgrades are not always an advantageous choice.

If you’re cutting very small margins on items that basically explain themselves, then perhaps it’s a smarter choice for you to keep that $0.35 in your pocket, since quick product pictures provide you with little or no selling leverage in some markets. Specifically, I’m thinking of things like coins or maybe other collector’s items where the item condition goes much further than a small photo in terms of making a sale.

Buyers in categories like this already know exactly what they’re looking for, so spending $0.35 to show them again is simply redundant and unnecessary. On top of that, the buyers are going to be more concerned with the larger pictures that you can provide within the auction listing itself, so that’s where you need to focus your efforts.

The second, and probably most potent, listing upgrade that you can use to your advantage is the Gallery Featured option. This expensive add-on (it costs $19.95) is a shoo-in for driving traffic to your listing because it places your item at the top of the search results in your product category. One thing to consider, however, is the category in which you’re listing your item. Some categories are far more competitive than others, so $19.95 over here may not be as valuable as $19.95 over there.

While it’s a powerful tool for generating traffic and making a sale, the Gallery Featured option is most effective when used intelligently. Particularly, I enjoy using this when I have a decent sized inventory of items that I want to sell in a Buy It Now format. Using this technique, I was able to roll through 50 items (at $7.99 apiece) in 5 days and 1 hour — 1 hr and 23 minutes short of my chosen 7 days! A friend of mine sold 39 bumper stickers, which he manufactured, for $13.99 apiece in only 7 days!

If you have something that people want, choosing the Gallery Featured option is one of the most effective ways of “blowing out” your product. Although I set my price at a point that I knew would get people jumping on the incredible deal, you don’t necessarily have to set a bargain basement price in order to get this type of listing to work to your advantage.

It’s really all about exposure, and I think you should simply resort to using common sense in order to maximize the effectiveness of the Gallery Featured option.

Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the use of this upgrade solely as a traffic generator within eBay. Let’s say that I’m selling Christmas ornaments that retail for $6.99. If I chose a Gallery Featured option for one of these things, I would almost be guaranteed to lose money on the deal, because my listing alone would cost me $0.25 + $19.95 = $20.20! The odds of a $7 item getting bid up to $20+, although not unheard-of, are simply not very good.

On the other hand, though, I’m a savvy seller, and I know that coughing up some money on this one listing is going to triple my traffic at my 50 other ornament listings. This, in turn, is going to help me sell 75% or more of my other auction items, and I’m going to make way more money than I would have made if I hadn’t Featured that one listing.

It’s advertising, and I’m here to tell you that it works on eBay…So use it!

After reading that, you’re probably thinking, “wow, that’s a no-brainer,” and you’d be right! However, the truth is that many, many categories in eBay are “underserved,” meaning that a majority of the sellers are not savvy enough to take advantage of a wonderful tool like the Gallery Featured listing.

Of course, categories like ipods and Xbox 360s are going to be awash with featured listings, but tell me…why in the world would you want to mess with a category like that?? Your margins are essentially fixed, and the competition is fierce — hardly the kind of thing from which you’d want to try and build a sustainable business. Remember, that’s why we’re here.

Anyway, now that we’ve looked at the two most powerful listing upgrades, it’s time to move on to a third, less-heralded one, the subtitle. At $0.50 a pop, the subtitle is not something that should be used too loosely, but at the same time, intelligent use can lead to many more views for your products. I look at subtitles as an opportunity to gain more search traffic for your listing. By choosing the right words for your subtitle, you can significantly increase the scope of your product’s “web.”

To illustrate, let’s say you’re selling a memory cartridge for a PlayStation 2 game console. Well, thanks to demographics and colloquialisms, a simple memory cartridge can become a “packet,” a “card,” a “pack,” a “stick,” a “chip,” or probably a bunch of other terms I haven’t even heard of yet. Since you only have 55 characters in your default Title tagline, you may not be able to include all of these colloquial terms. Enter the Subtitle upgrade! Once you’ve added the upgrade, include something like this: “memory card, memory stick, memory chip, memory packet, memory pack.” You’ll gain more search traffic, and you’ll probably beat out the guy who lucked into writing “memory chip” in his listing title.

Finally, I’m going to close by touching on some of the other upgrades that I’ve deemed less effective. Namely, I’ve dissed Bold, Border, and Highlight, because they simply don’t provide much market separation in your typical, everyday product categories, and they’re expensive to boot! In order to be thorough, I need to mention that the only time to really use any one of these three upgrades is when you’re listing a product (probably a one-off) in a highly competitive category. If you’re selling a 20 gb ipod that’s a year old but in MINT condition, then you may want to highlight your listing (for 5 freakin’ dollars) in order to really grab the attention of potential buyers. Honestly, I think these three less-effective upgrades can be summarized in the following way: if you need to go out of your way to achieve product separation, then use them. Otherwise, steer clear, and save up for that Gallery Featured listing down the road.

Be a smart lister, and dust your would-be eBay competition with ease!

Today’s post is the second installment in our feature series, The Perfect eBay Listing.

Although its importance is often overlooked, the duration of an auction listing is tied to both the business model and the degree of success an auction will achieve. Additionally, if you’re attempting to run a sustainable business on eBay, you need to choose your listing durations in ways that are in harmony with your inventory control systems as well as your desired methods of operation. Bottom line: there’s more to it than you may think, so we’re going to take an in-depth look at things to help you make an educated, informed selection.

Tip #2: Choosing your listing duration

The primary governing factor for choosing a listing duration is the item that you’re selling. Fortunately, there’s a very fundamental economic principle that will help guide your choices. It’s the law of supply and demand, and thanks to eBay’s rapid marketplace environment, you should be able to feel out the demand for your products in no time (with one or two “test” listings). In many cases, you’ll already have a good idea what the demand is, so that will help guide your choice of listing duration as well.

In Tip #1, we mentioned the XBox 360 as a barometer for demand in the online marketplace, and we can continue to use this example to illustrate a very fundamental point about listing durations. Many online shoppers are going to be interested in obtaining an XBox 360 at a price that exceeds the current “market price,” simply because there aren’t enough consoles available to satisfy the massive demand for this year’s hottest holiday item. As a result, you’d want as many people as possible to view your listing, because more exposure will likely get the attention of the most rabid buyers. This will, in turn, drive up the closing price of your item.

Another thing to consider is your product inventory. If you’re selling an XBox 360 on eBay, I think it’s safe to assume that you probably don’t have more than one of these babies. Therefore, your primary concern is the closing price of the item — you want to make as much money as possible in one shot.

The problem with one-off listings, however, is that sustainable businesses cannot realistically be built upon them; the work required to sell each item would most likely outweigh the rewards over time. Let’s shift gears, then, and look at a more realistic business model. In doing so, we’ll help you refine your decision-making process for listing durations. For illustrative purposes, we’re going to play the role of a cellphone accessory store, and our primary auction items are cellphone holders — you know, the ones with John Deere, OCC, Harley Davidson, Disney, and other logos and characters on ‘em.

The first thing to realize here is that these things are available pretty much everywhere, so the online demand is relatively low. We do, however, have a distinct advantage that you MUST realize when selling on eBay. We have items in inventory that aren’t available everywhere, and Joe Blow in Montana, who is just dying to get a John Deere holster, can’t find them within 200 square miles of his log cabin. Thanks to his dial-up internet connection, however, he browses eBay looking for things he just can’t get in the land of the Unabomber. One day, he comes across your auction for a John Deere holster, and BAM — he immediately places a bid. In fact, he’s so intent on getting this thing that he’s going to make sure he’s the winning bidder.

Although it has been somewhat sensationalized, the scenario above is a very real situation that happens every day. In fact, eBay’s new marketing campaign keys on this idea, as they now trumpet the slogan “Whatever IT is, you can get IT here.” Millions of buyers are looking for IT each and every day, and the odds are very good that lots of your items are exactly what buyers are looking for.

Back to the point of this listing tip, though. How should you list these cellphone holsters? Assuming you have 20 different types of holsters, you should probably list these items at auction instead of Buy It Now. Why, you ask? Based on Tip #1, it makes more sense to allow the bidders to drive up the prices because the cellphone holsters have different value to different people. Since Joe Blow cannot buy a John Deere holster in Montana, it’s FAR more valuable to him than it is to Farmboy Freddie in Kentucky, because Freddie can pick them up all day long for $9.99 at his town’s cellular store. The rule of thumb here, then, is that items with impulse/desire potential should, in most cases, be listed at auction instead of Buy It Now.

Okay, so you know you’re going to list the holsters at auction, but how long are you going to list them? There’s no perfect answer to this question, but I’m going to give you insight that is based purely on my experience. In my opinion, the best way to list items like this is through a one day auction. In order to understand this thoroughly, you have to understand both a buyer’s psychology and browsing habits. Items that are not listed as “Gallery Featured” typically receive two viewing spikes throughout the duration of their listings — once when the item is first listed, and the second as the item is about to close. This is due to the fact that eBay has filters that allow buyers to see items that are “newly listed” (the default setting for new accounts) or “ending soonest” (the option that almost ALL savvy buyers use).

Knowing this, then, why not list the items for one day in order to generate quick and potent interest? As an added bonus, the one day listing adds that feeling of urgency — if buyers don’t act, they’re going to be left out. This is just another psychological tool that you can use to capture your market, and if you’re serious about selling, then you should also be serious about using psychology to your advantage.

Another benefit of one day listings is that you get to test and refine selling practices in a very small amount of time. First listing didn’t go so well? By day two, you can make necessary changes, and by day three, you can make a sale based on the best practice that you just figured out from your first failed attempt. It just makes sense from an efficiency standpoint. Also, I think it’s worth noting that when I switched from 3-day to 1-day listings, I saw an improvement in efficiency (from 67% to 70% of items sold), and there was no associated drop in closing prices. Bottom line: I sold more, held the same margin, and made money faster.

One thing you should be aware of, however, is that one day listings are only available to sellers who have a feedback score of 10 or more. Until you reach the 10 plateau, I recommend using 3 day auctions on items that would otherwise be listed as one day auctions.

Oh, and as a side note, I don’t really have any use for 5 day auctions. If your item has high demand and you want exposure, choose 7 or 10 day listings, and if you want to sell quickly and turn over inventory, choose a 1-day listing. Also, be judicious when choosing 10 day listings, because those things seem to drag on forever! Personally, I reserve 10 day listings for featured Buy It Now items where I have a large inventory. This works well when you want to sell large quantities, but otherwise, they just get annoying because they drag on for so long.

See you on the next tip!

Today’s post marks the first entry in a new series in which we’ll explore the ins and outs of The Perfect eBay Listing. By the time we’re done with this series, we’ll ALL be online auction geniuses.

Hopefully we’ll be rich, too

Tip #1: Choosing your auction type

This one may seem like a no-brainer, but there are actually a few factors that you must consider before choosing an auction type on eBay. Begin by asking yourself the following: “Is my item a one-off, or do I have an inventory?”

If it’s a one-off item, then an auction format is absolutely the way to go. If you’ve got an inventory, then an auction may or may not be your best choice. If your item carries a pretty consistent market value, then perhaps a Buy It Now listing may suit you better. On the other hand, if your item has an appeal that may vary across different demographics, then you might be better off listing the items individually at auction. It requires a bit more work, but your overall sales volume and closing prices will probably end up being higher in the long run. Let’s take a look at an example to illustrate this more clearly.

Let’s say, for instance, that I carry 5 different XBox games, and I’m confident that I can undercut the typical retail price of $44.99 by about $5 (including shipping), bringing my asking price down to something like $35.99 plus $4 for shipping. I have an inventory of 20 games each, which gives me a total of 100 games. In this case, a Buy It Now auction would suit me best, because I can safely assume that:

1. A large number of consumers will want to buy my games at this $5 savings - the market price is $44.99, so this is clearly a good deal.
2. These items will not gain or lose a significant portion of their value over the next week or so, which covers the duration of my listings on eBay, so my asking price is “insured,” at least for the short term.

With these things in mind, then, it is definitely best to list this type of inventory item in Buy It Now rather than auction format. It’s quicker, easier, and the entire setup is more straightforward — you’re selling 20 copies of, let’s say, Madden ‘06. If your customer wants the game and wants to save money, then he’ll buy it from you because you’re offering a deal that undercuts the market value. This is the essence of a Buy It Now listing — reasonable quantity, low price. This is not, however, a catch-all, but it is intended to give you an idea of how to list what you’ve got.

Now, let’s move on to look at an inventory item that would be better suited for an auction format. In this example, I have an inventory of 30 different styles of hats that include NASCAR, baseball, Playboy, and more. In contrast to the video games, there are MILLIONS of different styles of hats available to the general public, so it stands to reason that any particular customer may look at one of these hats and think that they might not be able to get it anywhere else.

Whereas every interested customer will look at the video game and think, “wow, that’s worth $44.99 and I can get it for $39.99,” the same doesn’t hold true for the hats. One person may think that hat is worth $8, and the next person may think it’s worth $20, because they just HAVE to have that awesome pink Playboy hat! On top of that, the hats are relatively inexpensive, so impulse purchases are definitely a possibility. These are all factors that point towards the possibility of successful eBay auctions.

In reality, you can decide which type of listing is best based on just a few easy variables.

First, is there an established market price for your item?

If so, then you’re virtually locked into a Buy It Now listing, and depending on availability, you might be locked in on a lower price as well.

Second, is your item widely available?

If not, then you probably ought to list it in auction format. This is simple supply and demand, and one look at the XBox 360 ought to illustrate this.

Third, is your item unique AND without an established market price?

If so, you have a couple of options. If you have a unique item in quantity, you might consider a Buy It Now listing because you can guarantee yourself a particular margin. The key variable here, however, is making sure that there’s actually a market for your product! If you’re unsure, it’s always a good idea to test the waters - it will only cost a few dollars, and if you’re successful, you’ve found something worth exploiting. If you have a unique item but don’t have a high quantity, then an auction may be better because you will likely squeeze out a higher bidding price (assuming there’s a market for your item).

Every single day, hundreds of thousands of listings close without bids or buyers because they’ve been listed improperly. While there are many factors that contribute to this, it’s not altogether unreasonable to claim that poor choices on auction types play a huge role in these failures. Well, you don’t have to take my word for it — just go look at the men’s hats category and check out all the listings that have Buy It Now AND auction formats…hardly a bid or sale in the bunch!

Despite this, I manage to successfully sell approximately 70% of my listings in this same category. Coincidence? Hmm.

Welcome to The eBay Sales Blog, the first, biggest, baddest, and best-looking resource for making jack on eBay! Our goal here is to explore the ins and outs of running a sustainable business on eBay with a focus on sales efficiency, profit margin, repeatability, and ease of product handling.

From selling to shipping, we’ve got you covered. The content is gonna be coming fast and furious, so get your RSS readers ready, and grab The eBay Sales Blog feed!

RSS is not quite a household word, but technical astute individuals are adopting the use of RSS feeds at an alarming rate. If you are interested in jumping on the bandwagon, but not quite sure of where to start, consider following these simple RSS feed tips to maximize feed compatibility and make your feed stand out from the crowd.

RSS Do’s and Don’ts

MATT’S RESPONSE

Cold calling is definetly necessary, but I would not call it an evil. This is a process that you have total control over. Look at it as taking a hunk of clay and sculpting it into the business and account that you want it to be in the future. Please do not think that you are going to make your quota over the phone; that in some magical way you will make a paycheck by downloading your information off of Reference USA and making those calls. That meerly starts the sales process. As Tom mentioned in the article, have fun with it. The fact is, you are choosing people or companies out of millions and taking action. You have the ability to influence how that person is eventually going to buy from you. Play around. Make it a game and challenge to yourself. Do this and you will look forward to adding those pawns to your sales funnel.

MICHAEL’S RESPONSE

Complete waste of time. We live in a world where people are bombarded with marketing. So much so, that we now have do-not-call lists, every time there a joke made about telemarketers from comedians, a huge round of applause erupts, and there’s always some sarcastic way coming out to deter cold callers from calling again.

My grandfather, who owned his own business, used a line that worked like a charm. He’d always say, “Sure, I’d love to do business with you. I could use the credit, though, as we are going through major refinancing right now and are getting behind in our bills.” Worked every time.

Sales people assume that people are idiots, that they don’t know the value of our product, and that by a simple cold call, we will instantly enlighten them, tell them the error of their ways, and they will FLOCK to our product.

Since the advent of the internet, many research their potential products on line, then call a sales rep to get more information, or pick their brain. Once in awhile, they will ask you for your opinion, but realizing that you’re there to sell them something and not an objective third party.

Besides, this is ME in a nutshell. I don’t want sales people calling me. If I need something, I will call them. Send me mail, or I’ll see it in the paper, or TV or radio. But, don’t bother calling me up, because you’re wasting my time.

I am certified facilator of the assessment tools developed and produced by the Consulting Resource Group. At times I struggle a bit communicating how critical it is to understand our own unique sales and personality style when dealing with other people. Ken Keis president of CRG put it well in his last e-zine article so I cut and paste a good portion of it into this blog entry as a follow-up to yesterday’s sales podcast on selling to the different styles:

How can you ever be intentional with your decisions and actions in
life, if you are not completely clear about your own personal style and its
related strengths, preferences, and challenges.

It’s a biological fact that we are born with a natural predisposition to a
distinct personal style. It’s not something we can choose to avoid. We take our
personal style with us, everywhere we go

After conducting over 2000 programs and writing on the subject for more than 16
years, I am absolutely convinced that without a full understanding of your
personal style—and the personal style of everyone with whom you interact on a
personal or professional level—you are missing critical knowledge that can
contribute to fulfillment for all the individuals involved.

It’s like flying a plane in a dense fogbank. Without training in aircraft
instrumentation, you are living by a hope and a prayer that you can make it to a
safe landing site. That is the way most people live their lives—but that need
not be true for you!

CRG is unique in that we teach a holistic development model wherein your
personal style and your personality are two separate concepts.

Your personality—the totality of who you are—is composed primarily of six
Personal Development Factors™ that contribute to your personhood. 

1. Your Personal Style

   You were born with it and it stays consistent throughout your lifetime.

    

2. Biophysical Factors

   They include your gender and any illnesses (and wellness levels),
   addictions, or injuries that affect your engagement of life.

    

3. Self-Worth Levels

   They affect how and when you engage your life and the various challenges
   that life brings to you.

    

4. Environmental Systems

   Your country, your local area, geography, and your culture all highly
   influence your perspective on life.

    

5. Social Teachers

   These include people who have shaped your viewpoint during your life—
   parents, teachers, mentors, friends, family, etc.

    

6. Emotional Anchors

   They include events in your life—both positive and negative—that leave an
   emotional imprint.

The CRG model acknowledges that who we are is based on
both nature and
nurture.

Research confirms that we each have unique and specific style preferences at
birth. From that moment, our personal style starts to play a powerful role in
our lives. Here are some of the things that are influenced by personal style.

• Choosing supportive child-care environments
• Parenting style
• Learning and instructional styles that meet your specific needs
• Selecting the right job and understanding job-style fit
• Accepting the differences in yourself and others
• Getting along better with your life partner
• Coaching others
• Customer service, sales, and leadership
• Designing a life that plays to your strengths
• Having the confidence to reject feelings of guilt and the pressures to
  change from those who are different than you are. That includes peer
  pressure, parents, and teachers.
• Building teams that complement your business needs
• Starting a business
• Hiring and promoting
• Resolving conflict

And much more!

If you really want to succeed in life, knowledge of personal style is
non-negotiable. 

Recently, I facilitated a team development process for a billion-dollar
organization. Even though some team members had been through our

Personal Style Indicator in the past, they identified the

PSI as the single-most-important element to take participants to the next
level. 

There are a number of “wishes” that I have for Google’s future. While I would like number one ranking for all of my important keywords and phrases, but I would be willing to settle for Google acknowledging at least a few of my wishes that will benefit the search community as a whole.

My Google Wish List

This weeks sales podcast is part 2 of a 3 part series on presentation skills in the boardroom. This entry is focused on adressing the various buyer and learner styles we will encounter when doing sales presentations. You can download the file by clicking here or you can subscribe via itunes or directly to the feed by clicking one of the options on the right naviagtion bar.

This sales podcast is presented by Shane Gibson.

Shane Gibson is the author of Closing Bigger the Field Guide to Closing Bigger Deals and President of Knowledge Brokers International Systems Ltd. a leading sales performance and leadership development organization. Shane divides his time between his entrepreneurial projects, speaking at major conferences and mentoring salespeople and entrepreneurs.

A couple of days ago on my discussion forum, a salesperson posted that he tried one - only one - of my ideas three months ago. He wrote some articles pertinent to his industry and uploaded them to free article directories.

Three months later, his articles have been picked up and published by hundreds of websites, and he is now, suddenly, considered a top expert in his field. His competition has been completely blown out of the water, price objections have disappeared, and he’s become a Top Sales Pro.

This was all the result of implementing just one of my free ideas, and spending a few hours doing it. I love hearing these stories, because for every one of those, there are a hundred people who read my books and do nothing all all with them, or who say, “Aw, what’s the use, it won’t work for me anyway” and then toss it aside.

What a mistake. This gentleman is living proof that failing to implement is a huge mistake.

I’ve made the same mistake as a marketer. I’ve held off on implementing new ideas because I was afraid they might not work. They always did, once I tried them … this post reminded me of it:

The two things that kill marketing creativity