When something went bump at 5am
publication date: Jul 5, 2007
***
- When something went bump at 5am
- 5 Easy Ways To Get Banned By eBay
- eBay's Most Misunderstood And Under-used Area
- eBay Auction Headlines - How Keywords Sell Your
Item
- Magic eBay Auction Title Words Increase Sales For
Free
- Summer Sales Slow on eBay? Consider These
Suggestions
***
Hi,
Firstly, apologies that you didn't receive this yesterday... a
bit of a technical hitch. Better late than never!
Anyway... There was an ALERT in my eBay account
yesterday, it came from eBay and it warned me against
trading with another named eBay member with a view to
buying products from this other person outside the eBay
system.
Naturally eBay wants their share of the profits on all sales
made on their sites. I really mean that, I am not being
sarcastic.
I think eBay is doing a great job, I can't think of any way in
the world to make a lot of money at such little cost as is
possible on eBay.
So when people moan about eBay fees and suggest ways
to rob eBay of their rightful profits, it gets up my nose and
immediately I take a dislike to the person making the
suggestion. I don't mind using eBay as a sort of focus
point on which to grow a mailing list or to attract first time
buyers with a view to back end selling to those customers
outside of eBay. That's all legal and good business
practice.
But what I hate more than other people suggesting ways to
rob eBay is being accused myself of trying to deplete eBay
of their rightful earnings.
I would never do that, honestly I wouldn't, so the ALERT
waiting for me yesterday morning really got me worried. It
was 5 o'clock in the morning, I'd only got out of bed
because one of the dogs had to do 'something' in the
garden. My Boxer dog Gregory can stand forever on just
three legs and in that pose I often have time to log onto the
Internet, read my emails, check my eBay account and
quite a few other things besides. And there it was, the
ALERT waiting for me. AND SEVERAL HOURS TO GO
before eBay's PowerSeller Support Team comes online to
answer my email or telephone enquiry.
I worried and worried and bang on 9 o'clock I phoned my
PowerSeller Support person. When I told him my problem
he laughed, uncontrollably, and then told me the alert was
not a warning to me, not personally, he explained that
every time someone tries to trade outside the eBay system
- as someone had actually approached me to do that week
- the system is set up to warn other eBayers of anything
potentially damaging to their business. In this case the
person who tried to sell me goods outside of eBay had
actually been thrown off the site for whatever reason I
could not be told. I was told however, that trading with this
person could have been highly detrimental to my eBay
business. Maybe he or she was selling fakes, or
something equally 'iffy'! I really don't know.
But I do know I over-reacted, it seems the alert system
isn't a threat as such or a warning of pending action being
taken against the recipient for any reason. It was merely a
warning that certain things are not tolerated on eBay.
The alert system is purely to notify eBayers that a
message is waiting for them which should receive their
urgent attention, it does not mean the recipient has done
something wrong, although I have had alerts before for
listing goods eBay considered unsuitable. You know the
sort of thing: the a swastika on a 19th century greetings
card that had nothing to do with Nazi Germany (the reason
the swastika is considered a symbol of hate) and was
actually printed and posted several decades before World
War II; the odd word 'bitch' - a dirty word on eBay - to
indicate a female dog on one of my doggy prints, that sort
of thing. I'd always taken those alerts with a pinch of salt, I
even had a top executive of eBay.com phone me about
that swastika card and apologise for it being removed even
though company policy meant it could not be relisted!!
But alerts about rules genuinely and intentionally being
broken, they worry me a lot. That's actually a good thing
because anyone who worried about tiny problems, or no
problem at all, is unlikely to get themselves barred from
eBay for breaking really important rules. In fact, most
newcomers worry about inadvertently breaking the rules
and being thrown off eBay before they actually get started
selling, and that's why I've chosen a really good article for
you this issue called '5 Ways to Get Banned by eBay' so
you can avoid being banned by eBay for unwittingly
breaching their sometimes very strange rules.
Happy eBaying!
Until next time,
Avril
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***
5 Easy Ways To Get Banned By eBay
***
There is one great problem when you develop an eBay
business. Although it is your business it will always be
eBay that calls the shots, you play by their rules or you do
not play at all. In the past there have been cases of high
flying PowerSellers who for one reason or another have in
eBay's eyes over stepped the mark and have been either
temporarily or permanently banned.
eBay have quite a list of items and actions that are
forbidden and it is your responsibility to know these. Not
knowing something was wrong is no defence. To find the
list of prohibited and restricted items you can visit the 'A to
Z index' on the Site Map and select the 'Prohibited and
Restricted Items' page. So the first way to get banned is to
try and sell any of the items on that list.
The second way to find yourself in trouble is to provide
poor or non existent customer service. This is a really
good way to attract negative feedback and once your
feedback drops below a certain level you may get a call
from those nice people at eBay suggesting that you find a
different platform to sell your goods.
A third way to attract eBay's displeasure is to list items in
the wrong categories. Sometimes sellers will try and place
a non-relevant item into a really popular category such as
cell phones in the hope of benefiting from the high level of
traffic. Not a good idea.
The fourth way to fall foul of the system is to include links
out from your listing to other web pages. There is only one
place on eBay that you can include outward links and that
is on the 'About Me' page. The only exception to this rule
is that you can place a link to a page that gives further
details of the item that you are listing. If you were selling a
web site you could include a link to a copy of that web site.
However, you would have to deactivate any links on that
page such as an order button or any other link that took
you from that page.
Finally this may seem obvious but you must have a real
product to sell. In the past people have tried to market
raffle tickets, catalogues and free items but these are
simply not allowed. Recently some sellers have tried to get
around this by offering items for as little as 1cent purely to
get customer details so that they can offer them items later
away from eBay. Recently eBay have started pulling these
listings and are obviously getting wise to this ploy.
eBay offers a really good outlet for anyone and recently it
was estimated that around one and a quarter million
people around the world use eBay as their regular income
source. Therefore it seems silly for anyone to risk being
barred from this market place by not sticking to the rules.
Dave Bromley is a full time Internet marketer who is the
web master and publisher of the ukauctionline web site
and monthly newsletter. To visit the web site and
subscribe to thenewsletter visit http://www.ukauctionline.co.uk
***
eBay's Most Misunderstood And Under-used Area
***
It seems that everyone in the world is familiar with, or has
at least heard of eBay. It's the world's foremost online
auction site. It has made its presence known in a multitude
of countries including the USA, Canada, UK and Australia,
with many more emerging sites in Europe, and beyond.
What most people don't know (because they don't know
how or where to look) is that eBbay also provides a service
exclusive to eager online BUYERS - I'm talking about the
folks that have a specific item in mind that they want to
PURCHASE IMMEDIATELY, and these buyers don't have
the time to troll the internet, nor the millions of listings on
eBay to find them!
This exclusive area for eBay buyers is called the 'Want It
Now' listings.
It's also a gold mine for any seller who's interested in
furthering an online business. Any listing in the 'Want It
Now' area specifies what item is highly sought and even
what they are willing to pay for it.
Most eBay clients who have an auction running to sell an
item find that they are never, if scarcely, even noticed... So
why not have a look at the 'Want It Now' section of eBay?
A seller might then get hundreds of ideas about items to
sell that he/she is already storing or has access to.
Now, reading all of the 'Want It Now' pages of desired
items may take several hours, or days. I know, because
I've tried. And these listings change all the time. But I
managed to find a quick solution to this, by way of a little-
known program called 'AuctionYen'. I've tried this out and
found that it brings back real-time results from the eBay's
'Want It Now' listings, by category and most sought
search-terms.
I also have a surplus of items in my garage, and dislike the
idea of a bunch of early bird strangers showing up at my
home to pick out items that I'd like to get rid of, via garage
sale. It's been much easier for me to search for the items
that people want most, and sell to them directly via the
AuctionYen method.
Tanis Wahl can be contacted at http://www.auctionyen.com and
***
eBay Auction Headlines - How Keywords Sell Your
Item
***
Millions of eBay auctions are ignored or missed entirely by
consumers and/or searchers, due simply to the fact that
the Auction Headlines lack the hot keywords that people
search for online.
As a technical & customer support representative, I
receive emails from inquiring eBay entrepreneurs
complaining about not being noticed on eBay...
"What can I do?" they ask me. Well, let's think about this
for a moment. How exactly are you listing your item,
specifically in the Title? What are you saying about your
item? How are you describing it?
You must consider who would purchase your item, and
what would they type into the "search terms" on eBay to
find it. This is CRITICAL. These are also known as
keywords.
If you don't know about the power of keywords, then you
should start here.
You could use Yahoo's Overture to search the most recent
and popular keywords. Or perhaps you could find another
free keyword generator on the internet. Another source
would be the eBay Pulse. That gives you the top 10 most
searched terms in a given category.
I've found a much simpler - and over-looked function -
using an efficient little program called 'Hot Item Finder'. It
will analyze the most recently searched terms from the
eBay databases, and also return the most popular
searched items by category as you specify.
Now keep in mind, this software is merely a TOOL. It won't
do the thinking for you. But it should help you immensely in
writing your auction titles if you pay attention to the
keyword suggestions.
Tanis Wahl writes articles for Technical & Customer
Support www.hotitemfinder.com and
***
Magic eBay Auction Title Words Increase Sales For
Free
***
Many eBayers list an item to sell on eBay and don't pay
much attention to their eBay title and this is a surefire way
to auction failure.
eBay item titles are extremely important, your must be spat
out in the eBay search results or your item will not get the
exposure you need to ensure sales.
What surprises me is that there are millions of eBayers out
there who don't even know this free tool exists let alone
use it!
Ok, so lets get down to the juicy part, my favourite eBay
tool has to be the advanced search function.
I NEVER list an item on eBay without first using the
advanced search function.
Using advanced search function you can view every single
item that is currently listed or ended on eBay.
Because we want to know the price your item can possibly
sell for and we want to see which words the eBayer seller
used in their item titles THAT SOLD.
Look to the centre of any eBay page, you will see
Advanced Search.
On clicking this option you are presented with the Search:
Find Items page.
At Enter Keyword or Item Number insert relevant words to
your item, use one word if possible get a broad list of
results.
We are only interested in the items that ended, so tick the
box underneath that says 'Completed Listings Only' and
click search.
eBay will now output a return of results matching your
keyword that ended on eBay.
This search result does not sort the items by sold and
unsold. So a quick way to know is look at the monetary
amounts, GREEN it sold and RED didn't sell.
We want the magic words for the Green price amounts,
because they sold and we want our item to sell, so by
using the sold items we can see use the same successful
keywords.
Now scroll down each one and find all the green items,
and look for common words in the item titles.
It's a good idea to sort the list into price order, i.e. click on
price until the list is displaying the highest prices down to
the lowest prices.
Write a list of common words, but don't include the, and,
of, at etc.
As a quick example say I was selling an ebook and my
initial title was 'Growing Bonsai eBook'.
I do an advanced search on eBay, using 'bonsai',
completed listings only.
I can see the following relevant words in sold items title:
Tree, Japanese, Cutter, Tool Kit, Garden, Pot, Shaping,
Learn, Guide.
Now I have some good relevant keywords for my title that I
know sell.
If you don't have relevant keywords in your item title, you
item won't show up, won't be seen, won't sell. and your
item won't sell. So by doing keyword research you are
upping your auction's success rate.
Remember, don't spam your title, only include words that
are relevant to your item. eBay does not allow you to use
irrelevant words and will remove your item.
Back to my example, my original title:
'Growing Bonsai eBook'
With my new keywords:
'Grow BONSAI Trees Care Shaping Plant Cutter Tools
Guide'
You can see how many more chances my item will have of
being seen and returned in a search result now that I have
used words other eBay sellers' successfully sold items
using and I now have a good chance of a sale.
Final Tip: try and make your title flow and read smoothly,
don't just throw in keywords that don't make sense to the
reader.
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