Creating Better-Looking Item
Listings
Now it's time for the fun stuffmaking
your item listings look more attractive. Yes, we're talking style over
substance, but style draws the eyeballs. So let's look at the various ways you
can make your listings stand out from eBay's standard plain-text listings.
Note
The single most effective way to improve your item listings is
to include a photograph of the item for sale. This is such an important step
that I've devoted an entire chapter to the process. Turn to Chapter 23, "Displaying More Powerful Photographs," to
learn more.
eBay's Listing Designer
We'll start with the listing templates that are available with
eBay's Listing Designer. As you can see in Figure 22.1, Listing Designer is available to all users
from the basic listing creation formproviding you pay the extra $0.10 per
listing to use it.
Listing Designer provides several hundred predesigned
templates, which eBay calls themes. You choose a
theme from the list and then choose a related picture layout. Listing Designer
is easy to use and requires no additional software or ongoing
subscription.
eBay Turbo Lister
The same themes that are available in Listing Designer are also
available in eBay's Turbo Lister bulk listing software (pages.ebay.com/turbo_lister/). You choose your template on the
Design Your Listing screen, shown in Figure
22.2. As you learned in Chapter
19, "Automating Auction Management," Turbo Lister is available free of
chargemaking it the listing creation software of choice for cost-conscious
sellers.
Downloadable Listing Templates
If you place a lot
of listings, eBay's $0.10 Listing Designer fee can start to add up. Fortunately,
lots of free auction templates are available for use; it's always good when you
can cut your auction costs. (There are also several sites that offer templates
for sale, which are also worth checking out.)
Most of these templates work by asking for specific input and
then let you choose from a number of colors and designs. This generates a batch
of HTML code, which you copy from the template site into eBay's standard listing
creation form (using the Enter Your Own HTML tab). Other sites have pre-designed
template code you can download to your own computer. The results are
similar.
Here are some of the most popular of these auction template
sites:
Third-Party Listing Tools
Back in Chapter 19,
we talked about third-party bulk listing tools. Most of these third-party tools
also help you create fancy-looking listings, using a variety of predesigned
templates.
Most of these tools work in a similar fashion. You go to a
particular web page or program screen, select a template from a list, choose
available layout options, and then enter your normal listing title and
description. You'll see a preview of what your listing will look like; if you
like the way it looks, click a button to post the listing on the eBay site and
start your auction.
Here are some of the most popular of these third-party
listing-creation tools:
Note
Want to learn more about creating your own auction templates?
Then check out my companion book, eBay Auction Template
Starter Kit (Que, 2006), which offers advice and instruction for choosing
third-party listing templates or building your own templates from scratch, using
HTML. The book even comes with a free CD chock-full of free auction templates,
that you can use in your own eBay auctions.
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