September 2005

As experienced eBay sellers know, the summer slump on eBay is never a happy time. With eBay buyers busy going on vacations and having fun, they spend less time buying things online.

With the summer wrapping up, you can start expecting to see the sales start to gain some momentum very soon.

Make sure you're ready for eBay's upswing!

Start doing research now to find your special niche market, and ready your lineup of products.

If you're not a member, visit our home page today to start your free trial and get immediate access to our 16 suppliers, plus access to our Data Export Tool which can help save you hours in product research.

If there's one thing we've been able to pin down that has a definitive effect on increasing the number of bids an auction receives, it's having a professional item description.

So what makes an item description "professional"?

To begin with, make sure you use proper grammar and spell words correctly! This means separating your description into appropriate paragraphs, using proper punctuation, and not capitalizing you're entire description.

Also, make it SOUND professional. Watch what you say. Peter Jennings had been my favorite news anchor for as long as I can remember, and I was quite sad to hear of his passing. But to this day, when I write out an item description for eBay, I try to imagine it being read by Mr. Jennings.

By imagining it being read by someone I considered to be professional, I knew that if there was something that I couldn't imagine Mr. Jennings reading, it probably needed changing.

What you don't want your description to sound like is a letter to your grandma (unless you happen to have a very formal relationship with her).

Next, make it LOOK professional.

If there's one thing that I can't stand, it's a listing that is packed full of animated dancing men, fireballs, flashing stars, or whatever.

Some sellers love that stuff, but what it says to me right away is that the seller is probably an individual in his or her basement, not a company that has the means to take care of me should something go wrong.

In addition, having all those extra animated graphics can substantially increase the load time of your auction.

And finally, learn to use HTML in your listings. eBay allows pretty much any HTML code to be used in your item description. Take advantage of this fact to fancy things up.

Remember, you want it to look professional. Resist the temptation to insert animated graphics or scrolling marquees just because you know how.

For tips on creating ad copy that turns browsers into buyers, read the 12 part series, Turning on Your Customer's "Buy Now" Switch that starts with the February 2004 newsletter.

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