subject: Secrets For Hot eBay Listings [print this page] Secrets For Hot eBay Listings Secrets For Hot eBay Listings
On the first look, to make money on eBay seems a simple enough proposition. The rules and regulations are easy to find. eBay posts selling tips and offers enhancements to make your auctions more attractive to potential bidders. Simple, right?On the surface, you would be correct, but there is a lot of advice that can improve your auctions that is not easily found on the eBay help sections. Listing in ways that attracts your bidders is your most important task. eBay does provide a lot of information in their Listing Analytics, like keyword searching to check rankings, lots of sales metrics to shed light on the behaviors of your buyers and identifying your best and worst listings.What they don't tell you is what the Power Sellers know and use every day to maintain their status and create great income. One of their "secret" practices is to carefully choose their listing and ending days, including the specific times they post and end their auctions.What you have to determine if you want to boost your visibility before your auction closes is the times most of your potential bidders will be online and looking at your listing. A lot depends on your intended market. Time zones will be different for the USA and the UK, for example. The USA has 4 separate time zones with a 4-hour spread between the east and west coast. The UK is 5 or 6 hours earlier than the U.S., depending on daylight savings time.A hot time for potential buyers is during the lunch hour, when employees can surf and not get in trouble with their employers. Most of the bidding, though, will normally be during the first day you listed and on the last day, during the few minutes before closing.Good planning for optimum bids will include a clear knowledge of your market and their bidding habits. If you examine your sales history for specific items, you should be able to see a pattern for your hottest traffic or interest. For example, if your product is something of particular interest to men, like tools, gadgets or hardware, your best time for starting and ending your auctions might be when most men are likely to be at home, like Saturday afternoon.Another factor that might affect your listings is the weather where your major market is centered. One common belief is that good weather is bad for auctions because your potential bidders will be outside enjoying other activities that keep them away from their computers and your auctions. Storms and extremely hot weather are more likely to keep your customers inside their homes and on their computers. Current weather reports for any location can be easily found with a Google search.Holidays and politics can have a disastrous effect on your auctions if you discount their importance when you list on eBay. For example, in the U.S., Thanksgiving afternoon is when most Americans sit down for a huge meal and few will be checking your auctions. Politics everywhere, including elections or dramatic regional unrest or government overthrow, can drop your bidding possibilities to nothing.The point to remember is that, to make money on eBay, you have to be aware of everything that might affect your auctions anywhere. Both the Internet and eBay are truly international and smart marketers will take advantage of that huge potential.
