In this chapter of Ebay, we’re going to finally get down to the actual nitty-gritty of selling your items. This is where the real fun begins.
As I said in an earlier chapter, this is a business. So if you treat it as anything else, you won’t be successful with it as a business. Oh you may sell an odd item here and there. Anybody can do that. But to do this consistently and build a reputation, because buyers will be rating you, you MUST get your act together and follow these instructions carefully. Otherwise, do yourself a favor and find something else to do.
Okay, having said that, the first thing you have to do is get a hold of your product and take a photo of it. If you’re selling 100 cameras, you don’t have to photograph each one, if they are the same. Just photograph one of the cameras and when you post your ad, mention that there are only 100 in stock. That’s advertising and jumping ahead. But the point is, you only have to take one photo per unique item.
One thing you must understand about selling on Ebay is that volume sales come from volume postings. You are not going to sell everything that you post. So if you want to do a large number of sales then you have to put up a large number of items to be sold. That’s just the way it is and you can’t fight the law of supply and demand.
Having said that, you want each listing to be as effective as possible. This is where clever advertising comes in. This is something that you really can’t teach somebody. The art of ad writing is a complex one. I can give you plenty of resources to get books on writing ad copy, but ultimately you have to learn the craft on your own and perfect it. That’s why not every writer in the world is a Hemmingway.
However, there are some simple things you can do to make your listing effective that don’t involve a course in creative writing. Let’s start with the title of the ad, since this is going to be the first thing that the person sees. You want it to stand out and be to the point. You also want it to be crystal clear as to what it is. Why? When people are doing a lookup for a certain item, say baseball cards, they’re going to type in baseball cards. They’re not going to type in b-ball cards or something fancy like that. So whatever the item is, that’s what you want your title to contain.
You also want your title to be as short as possible. If you’re selling an item that has a company name, make and model for the item, then that’s what you want in your title. For example, let’s say you’re selling an old Yamaha DX-7 Synthesizer, then that’s what you put in the title, so it’s perfectly obvious what it is and people will know that it is EXACTLY what they are looking for. Don’t just put “synthesizer” as there are dozens of makes of synthesizers, both old and new in the world. Be VERY specific.
In our next chapter, we’re going to continue with putting together our ad for our listing on Ebay.