How To Use A WYSIWYG HTML Editor To Make Stunning Ebay Auction Listings.

by Thomas Haselhorst

What kind of browser are you using for online surfing? Explorer, Netscape, Firefox, Opera?? Sure, all are good programs but I want to talk about an excellent program called Netscape. If you use Netscape, do you know that you also get an amazing WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) web design program called Netscape Composer for free? Basically you don’t need expensive HTML editors anymore. The list of commercially available HTML editors software is endless – and the price tags are enormous. Most people don’t want to spend a lot of money to get started with their eBay business. Fair enough, since the goal is to make money and not to spend money. So it makes perfect sense to use a program to design auction listings which is available for free. And such a program is Netscape Composer. It has the same professional features like FrontPage or any other similar program. To design stunning and professional looking eBay auction sites with Netscape Composer you need to download Netscape first. If you start up the program, select File->New Composer Page and basically you can start immediately to design your auction listings. You can make you letters in any colour, bold, italics, use background colours (or even images) etc. The options are endless. You can save this file on your local hard drive as html file. I used to have one file for every listing I generate. The best thing is that once you have got a nice and professional looking eBay auction listing, you can use it for ever. Just open your last listing in Netscape Composer and edit according to your new item. Amazingly, this takes only a couple of minutes. But how do you transfer your listing saved as a html file on your local hard drive to eBay? The answer is simple. Once you have logged in into your eBay account and selected your category and starting price you have to type in your “item description”. Did you see that eBay allows HTML format? Have a look when you launch your next listing. That’s the time where you go back to your new listing you just have created with Netscape Composer. Down the bottom of your Netscape Composer page you’ll see a button called: SOURCE - the source code of your listing. Click on that and highlight and copy the entire text. Select then the eBay site and paste this text into the “Item description box”. Make sure that all links are working and that all photos are uploaded to the internet. When you have finalised your listing you will be surprised. A stunning and professional looking “DIY-listing”. You can always use “ready-to-go” auction templates and edit these according to your item. You’ll see that with an professional auction design you can easily attract more buyers and get higher bids. It’s worth the effort. Keep in mind that professional web design software is highly expensive and does the same job. Alternatively, you can choose from a huge variety of third party auction services doing the job for you. But hey, there are incredibly expensive too. Don’t you think that the eBay fees are high enough and you can easily do it yourself without spending any additional dollars. It’s really simple! About the Author Thomas Haselhorst is webmaster of http://www.auction-design-for-free

Tips on internet auction titles

by Shawn Sellen

With the millions of auctions that are on eBay and the thousands of similar products, you have to find a way to set yours apart from the others. You can spend extra money on listing features, but this cuts into your profits. One thing you can do that costs nothing is to have a good title. Remember that when a potential buyer is looking for something specific they will type in their search just like you would a search engine looking for websites of your interest. It is important to have a good title that will contain the keywords of what you are selling. Let's say you are selling a Widget Plus. You would want to make sure that in the title contained both the words widget and plus. The word plus in the product would indicate that the widget plus is an upgrade from the original widget. You also want your potential buyers to know that you have a widget plus and not just a plain widget. I will show a few examples of less than desirable titles: Cheapest Widgets on eBay! (Are they really? It does not have all of the keywords. Too cliché.) ***Widget Plus*** (It has the full name of the product, but the added asterisks to draw attention are annoying) WIDGET PLUS! (This one is similar to the one above. This is like yelling, very annoying.) Keep in mind that your intention is to draw a potential buyers eye without looking cheesy or cliché. In my opinion the best way to do this is the direct approach. Use a title that is professional sounding. When you use a format like this you are showing your potential buyers that you are confident in your product and describing it accurately without having to "pad" it with annoying font tactics. Here are a few examples of good tittles: Widget Plus. Unopened Widget. (What I did here was indicate the product I had and that it was still in the box. This is Important to state in the title if you have an unused product on auction. Buyers will want to see what kind of deal they can get on a new one. I also indicated just widget at the end instead of widget plus to catch the potential buyers that just typed widget in the search box. Widget Plus. Like New Widget. NR! (I did the same as above except that it is a slightly used widget in excellent shape. I also indicated that I have no reserve on this auction. Most eBayers dislike reserve auctions because they feel like they are not getting a deal. Make sure you are accurate in your description. Do not indicate that your item is in better shape than it actually is. I always capitalize the first letter of each word. I believe that this draws attention without looking like the all caps example above. If you use an abbreviation like NR, make sure it is in caps. Nr just does not look good. The exclamation point on the end of this title is totally acceptable because if the widget plus is a good item NR! Is indicating a special deal. Widget Plus. Free Shipping On Widget! (If you are able to, free shipping is a good way to attract potential buyers. If you have an accessory to throw in for free by all means do. This is also a great way to draw potential buyers. Make sure you watch your cost on the freebies, you don't want to lose money. Tittles are one of the most important things in an eBay listing. If they are done properly you can increase the number of potential buyers that will stop and take a look at your auction. If the title looks like the title to a spam email the buyers will go on to the next seller. In the competitive world of eBay you have to use the best title possible to bring the eyes of the buyers to your auction and not another seller. Author information: Shawn Sellen is the owner of http://www.auctionreel.com/ An Internet auction information website that also offers free downloads. About the author: Author information: Shawn Sellen is the owner of http://www.auctionreel.com/ An Internet auction information website that also offers free downloads.

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