Researching items to sell on eBay on the run!

Have you ever been out somewhere and found that perfect item to sell on eBay?

What do you ususally do when this happens?  Do you:-

  1. take the risk and buy it right then and there?
    Or
  2. write down all the details  and then go home and do you research first?

Ultimately you should do the latter.  Research is the most important aspect of selling on eBay.  You may think something will do really well when in reality there may be no profit involved.

So how can you save yourself time and research items ‘on the run’?

There are two options that are available.

1.   You can haul your laptop computer and mobile internet connection around with you and look up eBay completed listings and other third party sites such as Terapeak.

2.   Or you can look up eBay completed listings and Terapeak using your mobile phone!  Most up to date mobile phones have internet access and if you are like me you may have an iPhone.  Now I am an iPhone groupie!  I just love my iPhone and I never leave home without it.  The benefit of iPhones to anyone running an eBay business is that you have access to the iPhone applications for both eBay and Terapeak.
If you don’t have an iPhone but still have a web-enabled phone you can still look up these sites and do your research, it may just take slightly longer and be a bit more fiddly to navigate through the sites, but it is still possible.

Find hot products to sell on eBay

Optimising keywords for your eBay listings

Here are some tips for making the best eBay listing titles possible.

You are allowed a maximum of 55 characters in your titles so you need to get as many relevant keywords in there as possible.  55 characters may not seem like many but there are things that you can do to get the most out of those letters and spaces.

Spend a few minutes searching eBay current and completed listings for items that are similar to, or exactly like, the item you want to sell.  You can also check out Terapeak, this a a great site that has 3 months worth of completed eBay listings.

Find hot products to sell on eBay
When you are searching through completed listings, either through eBay or Terapeak, pay particular attention to the auctions, or buy it now, listings that actually resulted in a sale.  Look at there successful listings and observe the words that were used in the titles.  For example, if you were selling a ladies shirt you would use the word shirt, but the words blouse, short sleeve, long sleeve, sleeveless, tunic or singlet could also be used to further define the article.  You would also add words that define the size and colour of the item as many buyers put this information in their search.

Avoid characters that would NEVER be used by a buyer such as L@@k, WOW, W@W, !, *, and any other character you can find on your computer keyboard.  These characters may make your listing stand out from the rest if somebody performs a category search, but the majority of people search for products using the eBay search engine and only put in the words that exactly identify what they are looking for.  So you are risking that your listing will never be found, or at best will be found by less people and therefore receive less traffic and a lower sale price.

You may worry that your title does not make any sense by filling it with keywords, but that is fine.  The title is not meant to be a completed sentence or be grammatically correct.  It is meant to be a selection of words that identify your item to a buyer.  Try to think like a buyer, not a seller.

Try to use abbreviations, or acronyms, such as NR, BNWT, OOP where possible. See my post http://www.onlineauctionresources.com/ebay-listings-acronyms.html for more information.

If an item is new put the word “NEW” at the front of the title in capital letters.  Buyers are always interested in brand new items.  This also makes your listing stand out from others and will draw more attention.

After you have chosen the words for your title put them in the eBay search box and see what results it brings you.  You want it to bring up results for products that are similar to what you want to sell.  This way you will know that you are on the right track and that people will find your item and other similar items that they can then choose from.

Here is a quick checklist of DO’s & DON’T's for writing your titles.

  • try and use all of the 55 character space for your title.
  • research using eBay completed listings and other third-party sites like Terapeak and see wat keywords have been used by others.
  • avoid adjectives like WOW, MUST SEE, LOOK, gorgeous, lovely.  Buyers just don’t put these words into the search box.
  • don’t use keyboard characters like *, #, @.
  • use the spell checker.  And take note of spelling variations (see my posts on this topic, http://www.onlineauctionresources.com/au-vs-usa-1.html)
  • use common acronyms to get more into your title.
  • if selling clothing or an item or a particular colour put sizes and colours in to the title.

If you have any other great hints and tips for writing effective eBay titles post a comment below and I will add your ideas to my blog and have you as a guest author with links back to your site.