subject: How To Ensure That Your Ebay Listing Is As Good As It Can Be [print this page] To MAXIMISE YOUR INCOME on eBay, you must ensure that your listing attracts as many bidders as possible. So it is important that your listing has the best title, the best photo, the best heading, the best sales copy, the best bonuses, etc, to attract bidders. But how do you know which is the best title, photo, etc, for your eBay listing? The simple answer is you DON'T - unless you TEST!
One of the many advantages of running a business on eBay is that it's very easy and cheap to test anything. This greatly reduces your risk. You can test everything about your listing: When to start an auction When to end an auction What category to list in What auction format to use (auction, Buy It Now, Classified Ad, etc) Reserve price or No Reserve What starting price or what Buy It Now price What photo What title What heading What description (you can even test which font works best) What guarantee What postage terms, etc, etc, etc
How do you test? Well, let's say that you want to test the title. You would run several auctions using title A, and several using a different title B. If title A consistently gets more bids and/or sells at a higher price than title B, use title A and drop title B. You can then test title A against title C and so on.
Only test one thing at a time, otherwise you won't know what it is that you've changed that has altered your results. As an example, let's say that you have two titles, A & B, that you want to test and two photos, C & D, that you want to test. If you run auctions using title A and photo C to test against auctions using title B and photo D, you won't know if it's the different title that is changing the results or the different photo. The A & C combination might out-sell the B & D combination so you stop using title B and photo D. The A & D combination or the B & C combination might out-sell the A & C combination, but you will never know.
The hit counter that eBay provides also gives you excellent feedback. A hit is when someone clicks through to look at your listing. If you aren't getting any hits, your title may need changing. You either aren't appearing in the relevant search results, or you are appearing but your title and/or your photo is not grabbing people's attention. You may be listing your item for sale in the wrong eBay category.
If you are getting lots of hits but no sales, then your title is doing its job but the content of your listing is letting you down. Change and test the wording of your description or the terms and conditions until you improve your results.
You can choose to have the hit counter displayed in your eBay listing or hidden from public view (but still visible to you when you're logged in to your eBay account). I recommend that you choose to have it hidden. If you aren't getting many hits, potential buyers may wonder why no one else is interested in your product. They may think: "What does everyone else know about this seller/product that I don't?" This may make them feel uncomfortable about bidding on your item.
But if you are getting loads of hits, your listing will attract unwelcome attention from your competitors who will start to copy what you are doing, undermining your Unique Selling Proposition.
If your listing doesn't sell, it's not the end of the world. You only lose the low listing fee. And eBay will allow you to re-list the item and won't charge you a second listing fee if it sells the second time. Try changing something, like the category, or the title, or the starting bid, or whatever, before you re-list.
