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In my previous article I spoke about what you should do with your eBay titles to raise your eBay traffic and thus your eBay sales.

Today I’d like to point out some ‘worst practices’ to avoid when writing your titles, warn you about the eBay Search and Browse Manipulation Rules, and share some Good/Bad title examples with you.

First, let’s talk about:

What Not To Do In Your eBay Listing Titles:

• Forget to state the nature of the item.
• Include any false or misleading information.
• Include website addresses, email addresses or your phone number.
• Include profane or obscene language.
• Use any of these words: Prohibited, Banned, Illegal or Outlawed.
• Use any other descriptive word that may bring into question the legality of an item by either governmental or eBay standards.
• Include a brand name that is not the specific brand name used by the company that manufactured or produced the item you’re listing (this is called keyword spamming and can get your listing ended and a policy compliance violation placed on your account).
• Use ‘silly’ words such as ‘L@@K’ ‘W*W’ ‘AMAZING’ or even ‘RARE’ except in, well, rare instances J Trust me, there are no buyers on eBay putting ‘L@@K’ into the search box except authors like me writing articles about bad titles.

EBay is very serious about Search and Browse Manipulation. You can click on those words to read the actual policy. However, I’ve called out a few specific things to be wary of:

EBay Search and Browse Manipulation Warnings:

• Don’t make a comparison or reference a brand that isn’t the same brand you’re selling.
• Describe only the item you’re actually selling.
• Avoid giving false details just to attract people to your listing
• Avoid calling out similarities—for example, when selling a DVD, don’t talk about Blu-ray discs
• Comparisons between products aren’t allowed. For example, you can’t say things like “shirt not pants” or “video not Nano.”
• Words with question marks (such as “carved wood dresser – antique?”). If you’re not sure about a detail, don’t call it out at all because doing so can be misleading.

Now for some examples:

Bad:
“Pair of bike tires”
Problem: There is nothing here! No condition, no size, no idea what they are even for.

Good:
“New 26” mountain bikes Tires Bicycle Size 26 x 2.125 Parts Black”
Solution: Now we’re talking; we’ve got the condition and the size in the title. We are using both Bicycle and Bike to get both searchers and also the MTB which is a common abbreviation for bikers. (Didn’t know that? Search the category to get familiar with acronyms used in that niche.)

Bad:
“Extended phone battery for iPhones”
Problem: Okay, sounds nice but WHAT models specifically of iPhones? And exactly what does ‘extended’ mean? Who makes it? Is it an aftermarket battery?

Good:
“Extended battery for Iphone series 4 4s Maxboost Extra Power White”
Solution: Much better. Now the buyer knows if it will fit their phone, what color, brand and size it is. Now it’s clear that the part is an aftermarket one.

Got more examples? We’d love to hear them!

This guest post is by Kat Simpson. Kat is a respected as a trusted eCommerce speaker, educator, and entrepreneur, Kat Simpson has been a successful eCommerce merchant for over 10 years; is a Certified eBay Education Specialist and Gold Level PowerSeller, who also maintains stores on Addoway, Bonanza, Buy.com, and iOffer. Currently Kat is the co-host of popular weekly eCommerce Podcast eCom Connections with Karen Locker of Luna Jardin and Mommysbazaar.

The default search on eBay is title only. Searchers must put a mark in the checkbox and rerun their search to include the description.

So make sure your title grabs those searchers the first time!

Now that you know how important a title is and that you need to use every character – HOW do you fill them up? After all, exactly how much can you actually SAY about, for instance, a pair of jeans?

First thing is to make sure you post the obvious – brand name, size, color, name of the item, then you have some room to add condition – NEW of course, or Almost New (Never use Like New), EUC (which in eBay acronym world stands for Excellent Used Condition), or even ‘for parts’ if it’s a broken item.

Next is the less obvious. This is where ‘keywords’ come into play. Keywords are nothing more than the Key Words a buyer might use to look for your item. For instance, if you are listing a purse, you might use eBay Pulse to find out if more buyers are looking for ‘purse’ or ‘handbag’ or even ‘pouch’. Or if you have the space, you might include them all.

Are you stumbling and unsure where to go from here? If you have an eBay store, there is a free app in the eBay app center. It is from Terapeak and is called the Terapeak Keywords.  In this App you can put your basic keywords you’ve already thought of and the application will give you suggestions based on those. If you don’t have an eBay store, there is still an application in the eBay Labs called the Title Helper to help you do much the same thing.

Here are some things that effective titles have in common:

• They use descriptive keywords to clearly and accurately convey what you’re selling.
• They make maximum use of the full 80 characters allowed.
• They include the item’s brand name, artist or designer
• They include item-specific attributes such as size, color, condition and model number.
• They state exactly what your item is, even if the title repeats the category name.
• They don’t waste characters by including the singular and plural forms of keywords
• They don’t waste characters for punctuation.
• They don’t include silly words like ‘W@W ‘ or ‘L**K.’
• They don’t worry about creating a proper sentence.
• They don’t overuse acronyms
• They don’t use all caps.

This guest post is by Kat Simpson. Kat is a respected as a trusted eCommerce speaker, educator, and entrepreneur, Kat Simpson has been a successful eCommerce merchant for over 10 years; is a Certified eBay Education Specialist and Gold Level PowerSeller, who also maintains stores on Addoway, Bonanza, Buy.com, and iOffer. Currently Kat is the co-host of popular weekly eCommerce Podcast eCom Connections with Karen Locker of Luna Jardin and Mommysbazaar.

If you subscribe to an eBay Store, you can list free this week (May 7th – 13th).
Check out the Detail Here

Tips for Maximizing eBay Promotions:

1. If you do not have an eBay store, its $15.95. If your fees would be less. You “could” subscribe. However, please note, selling “limits” apply, so this may not be a good promotion if you plan on listing 100s of items on a new account or on an account with listing limits.

2. If you are using these promotions to sell long-tail items (items that do not sell frequently), don’t use automatic relisting, and just wait to relist until the next sale.

3. eBay frequently runs store vs. non-store promotions. If you believe this will continue, it might be a good idea to have a store user ID and a non-store user ID, so that you can take advantage of both styles of promotions. Vendio supports multiple eBay User IDs, just go to preferences>channels and add your additional IDs)

4. The majority of auctions are 7-day, you can try 3-day or 5-day auctions to be “out of the pack”.

5. For future promotions, create a folder specifically for items you want to list for free, when eBay runs these types of sales, you can just bulk launch.

Happy Selling!!

The first criteria, of course, are do they have a customer base. Amazon hits it out of the ballpark on this one. Although specific figures are held tightly in the Amazon world, some have been given out and they are pretty impressive. Currently Amazon has over 121 MILLION customers and their fourth quarter revenue exceeded $17.43 BILLION. This is definitely a marketplace worthy of your time and effort just based on those numbers.

The second thing to consider when looking at a possible new marketplace is whether it is a fit for your products. There are a few products that cannot be sold on Amazon at this time (one never knows what the future may hold). These prohibited items currently include: Items not intended for distribution within the US, Illegal Items, Offensive Material, Nudity, Advertisement Listings, Counterfeit Merchandise, Unauthorized or Unlicensed merchandise, Recopied Media, Transferred Media & Promotional Media.

Amazon also has restricted categories where you must have special approval to sell in: Automotive, Clothing, Collectible Books, Industrial & Scientific, Jewelry, Shoes, Sports Collectibles, Toys & Games (during the Holiday season) and Watches. In addition, there are some categories where you will need approval to sell certain products. Those categories include: Camera & Photo, Electronics, Software, Toys & Games (additional approval may apply) and video games.

Now, approval for these products and categories can be as simple as asking, and it can be as difficult as setting up a website that meets Amazon’s specifications, providing pictures that meet their requirements and implementing prices changes on your other venues. If your main product line is in one of the gated or restricted categories, you will be better off doing some research before signing up.

However, if you are selling a variety of items or have plans to source a variety for your Amazon presence, please don’t let these lists deter you. There are over 30 categories on Amazon and most are happily accepting new sellers.

The next thing to understand about selling on Amazon is that Amazon is NOT to be considered a ‘customer acquisition channel.’ Amazon is very clear that the customers who purchase from you on Amazon are a customer OF AMAZON and not of your business. Any attempt to solicit these customers to your website in any way will result in having your account banned on Amazon. They do not play around here. Even an accidental website link in email correspondence, or a business card thrown into a package is a very serious breach of contract here. EBay is proprietary with their customers to some extent but still allows you to place marketing materials in the packages, solicit them for an off-eBay mailing list and even off eBay links on your “About Me” page. Don’t try that on Amazon!

To balance the negatives I just pointed out, let me again emphasize the humungous, constantly growing audience your products will have on Amazon. Remember 121 MILLION customers? Remember the $17.43 BILLION dollars in sales during Q4 2011? These are amazing numbers and the Amazon growth curve shows no sign of slowing. Amazon customers are very loyal. There are many customers who prefer to shop on one site versus any other method. However, Amazon customers, particularly their Prime Shipping customers, are almost fanatically loyal. I recently heard the Amazon Prime program being referred to as an addiction. The blazingly fast delivery of items ordered through that program always impresses the buyers and only increases their loyalty.

So should your business be on Amazon? Not only Yes, but Heck YEAH! Get your piece of this growing eCommerce pie today.

This guest post is by Kat Simpson. Kat is a respected as a trusted eCommerce speaker, educator, and entrepreneur, Kat Simpson has been a successful eCommerce merchant for over 10 years; is a Certified eBay Education Specialist and Gold Level PowerSeller, who also maintains stores on Addoway, Bonanza, Buy.com, and iOffer. Currently Kat is the co-host of popular weekly eCommerce Podcast eCom Connections with Karen Locker of Luna Jardin and Mommysbazaar.

This includes 3, 5, 7, 10, or 30 days, or Good ‘Til Cancelled listings and applies to eBay, eBay Motors and even eBay Canada!

The downside is that if you selling limits (recently discussed in eCommerce Bytes), you won’t be able to exceed that limit.

Happy Selling!!

Many merchants will list their catalog item, either through Vendio or directly on Amazon, and they fill in product details, such as description and images and their information doesn’t show up on the product listing page! For Amazon, this is the correct behavior.

If it is a catalog item that Amazon sells, it is likely they created the product details page (the listing page). If it is a catalog item that Amazon does not sell, it is likely that a seller created the product details page. In either case, as a new seller “hanging” off an existing catalog page, you will not get control of the product detail page (which includes description and images).

The upside of this is that sellers do not have to spend very much time creating listings. The downside is “ownership” of the information. Without having ownership of the information, it is your responsibility as the merchant to make sure that the information is always correct, and stays correct. The seller who owns the detail page can change the content at will, leaving you selling products you do not have or selling a product with a different description or image! This is a constant juggling act for merchants.

Another thing that can happen when you do not own the detail page is that the seller who created the original listing can delete their listing AND the details, leaving you selling an item with no description or images!

For sellers new to Amazon, the above concepts can be quite confusing. Let us know your experience!

1. Short, Snappy Posts. People on Facebook will usually see you content through their feeds, rather than explicitly visiting your page. When you’re appearing in their feeds, it’s best to have short and snappy posts. This helps catch their attention and keep it. Overly long or boring posts tend to lose readership. Share relevant articles to your industry, samples of other’s writing or work, or behind the scenes
2. Post Regularly. Get people used to reading your content. Try to post on a regular schedule, daily if possible. Since a status update really shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes to write, you can even write it all at once for the week and just post it at the end of the day every day. (You can schedule your posts in advance, using a great management tool called Hootsuite. Check it out!)
3. Have a Two-Way Dialogue. Get your readership involved. Ask them questions. Have conversations. DO NOT just use your page as a one way outlet of sales, coupons and promotions. Instead, use your page to actually talk to your customers. Give them a chance to express themselves. No one likes that guy at the party who only talks about themselves. Allow reviews, even. Or what they’d like to see you sell.
4. Encourage Free Speech. One of the biggest mistakes brands make is limiting what customers can and can’t say. Even if customers are posting dissident information on your boards, you should welcome the opposition. Let your readers speak freely. Make sure you address concerns professionally and courteously, but you’ll be admired for your ability to take a hit and keep on ticking.
5. Respond. If you don’t respond regularly and quickly to comments and questions, people will simply stop responding. On the other hand, if you respond quickly and regularly, people will enjoy participating more and do it more regularly.
6. Use Multimedia. Don’t just use text. A few years ago, communicating through social media with just text was entertaining and engaging. Today however, to really catch someone’s attention you should use a variety of media, including images and videos.
7. Be Human. Don’t just be an anonymous brand. Let them get to know you, who you are, what you stand for and your personality. Don’t be afraid to make a joke or let a little humanity come through.
8. Give Value. Every once in a while, host a contest or giveaway that’s exclusive to your Facebook fans and customers. This helps create reciprocity and increases loyalty. Reward them for following you on Facebook.

Hopefully this will be helpful in getting started and STAYING started on your Facebook page. Please feel free to post any questions you may have about maintaining your Facebook pages. Good luck!

About our Guest Blogger
Jess Kupferman, Vendio’s Guest Blogger (and winner of our Blogging Contest) is a creative and engaging expert branding specialist, speaker, and gifted social media strategist and designer. Always plugged in to the latest developments and best practices in the industry, Read more about Jess here.

Ready? ACTION!

1. Host a video contest from your shoppers, and publish the best video of people using and/or loving your products. This can generate a lot of fun and buzz while getting you a great cloud-sourced video ad. For a great example of this, see the Gmail video contests.
2. Upload a few video testimonials. Having others see how much people love your product or service can have a powerful effect.
3. Demonstrate a product. Maybe if you demonstrate all the cool stuff you can do with your stuff, people will be so impressed that they’ll HAVE to b
   uy it!
4. Get someone else on camera to teach. Have someone well known in your industry teach on camera. Or, why not demonstrate some of your own expertise. Knowledge is power, my brothers.
5. Show the behind the scenes of your business. People love seeing the nitty gritty of how things are done, and they’ll love seeing how you put things together, how you get your ingredients, make buying decisions, or quality control your products.
6. Let them get to know your team. Introduce other people in the office on video. Explain their best qualities and why you can’t live without them. People love a happy workplace!
7. Prove or disprove a myth relating to your industry.
8. Issue a challenge and ask people to submit videos. For example, challenge your audience to catch a certain sized fish using only a certain bait. Whoever can show video proof wins a prize.
9. Cover an event. For example, a live seminar, conference or trade show- if you sell something like accessories, a behind the scenes look at the newest scarves, materials, beads, and what not is super interesting.
10. Introduce yourself to your audience. Tell them who you are and what you care about, and WHY you care about it.

I hope these ideas are enough to get you started thinking about how you can enhance your stores with some super compelling video.

About our Guest Blogger
Jess Kupferman, Vendio’s Guest Blogger (and winner of our Blogging Contest) is a creative and engaging expert branding specialist, speaker, and gifted social media strategist and designer. Always plugged in to the latest developments and best practices in the industry, Read more about Jess here.

Abandonment is one of those terms that has a very unique meaning when applied to the Internet. The term refers to reasons why a user abandons a site before taking the action the site owner desires, typically purchasing a product or making an inquiry.
There are a number of beautiful sites on the Internet with unique innovations. Unfortunately, these sites, although beautiful and quite fancy, rarely turn a profit or, sadly, unnecessarily limit their profit potential. Site owners must focus on only one thing when building a site converting visitors to customers- sales.

To avoid abandonment issues, try focusing on the following:

1. The site should always load as quickly as possible to accommodate visitors that are using older Internet connections.
2. The site should be designed for ease of use, not necessarily what looks good. (Although as a designer, I can assure you that you can design for both attractiveness AND functionality)
3. All advertisements must click through directly to the items that are being searched, not the home page of the site.
4. Site pages should be kept short to improve load times.
5. Flash, music and other atmosphere elements of the site should be removed or optional to speed up load times. Actually, this is very bad practice these days, so if you are using any type of music or flash, best to do without.
6. Signing up for the site newsletter must be incredibly easy – and easy to find!
7. Customers should be required to fill out the minimum of information to make a purchase.
8. Make sure prices are clear and concise.
9. Make use of featured products so customers will peruse those things first.
10. Make sure your categories are functional, not clever.
11. All images should be low-res, and optimized for the web, to ensure quick loading.
12. Email communications from the public must be responded to within 24 hours.
13. Communications made after business hours must be responded to first thing in the morning.
14. The site could offer accumulating bonus points for purchases that eventually lead to a free gift.
15. Create a site blog that explains your products, expertise, or industry news.
16. Show customer testimonials or other engaging content to get them to stay and read about you.

The list is fairly endless, but you should always view site designs and advertising from the perspective of the customer. The universal question for each aspect is, “How could we make this easier for shoppers?” By emphasizing this approach, you will create a much stickier site and avoid abandonment.

Please comment below and let us know if you have any tips to help shoppers stick around.

About our Guest Blogger
Jess Kupferman, Vendio’s Guest Blogger (and winner of our Blogging Contest) is a creative and engaging expert branding specialist, speaker, and gifted social media strategist and designer. Always plugged in to the latest developments and best practices in the industry, Read more about Jess here.