Upload Your Image File to the InternetOr Use eBay Picture Services

When you have your photos ready, you need to do one of two things: Upload the photos to your own personal website or picture hosting service, or get ready to add these photos to your new eBay item listing.

"Mike Sez"

Probably the most effective way to reduce file size is to set a lower resolution (dots per inch). For photos that will be viewed exclusively over the Internet, set your dots per inch to 96 dpiwhich just happens to be the standard resolution of a computer monitor connected to a Windows-based computer. (Mac monitors typically run at 72 dpi.) Any resolution higher than 96 dpi is overkill.

You see, when it comes to photos, eBay gives you a choice. They can host your photos for you, or you can have someone else host your photos. Which one is the right solution for you?

Using eBay Picture Services

When you have eBay host your photos, you have some choices to make. If you want to show only one picture, you're okay with eBay. If you want to show more than one photo, or if you want to show larger photos, you can still use eBayyou'll just have to pay for it.

Here's how eBay Picture Services' fee structure works:

• First photo: free.

• Each additional picture (up to six, total): $0.15 each.

• Picture show (multiple pictures in a slideshow format): Free.

• Supersize pictures (allow users to click a photo to display at a larger size): $0.75

• Picture pack (up to six pictures, supersized, with Gallery display): $1.00

If you like to get fancy with your pictures, those costs can add up pretty fast. Let's say you have two pictures of your item (front and back, perhaps) that you want to display in large format. You'll pay $0.90 for this privilegethe first picture is free, but you pay $0.15 for the second picture, plus $0.75 for supersizing.

If you frequently include multiple pictures in your auctions, it might be cheaper for you to find another site to host your pictures, which we'll talk about next. But if you typically include only a single photo, eBay Picture Services is both affordable (free!) and easy to use, especially for beginners. Here's how you do it:

1.	Start the process to create a new item listing, and work your way to the Describe Your Item page.
2.	Scroll to the Pictures section and click the Add Pictures button.
3.	When the Add Pictures window appears, as shown in Figure 18.7, click the Add Pictures button in the first (top left) box. Figure 18.7. Adding pictures via eBay Picture Services.
4.	An Open dialog box now appears on your computer desktop; use this dialog box to locate and select the photo you want to use. Click the Open button when done; the photo you selected now appears in the Add Pictures window.
5.	To insert an additional picture (for $0.15 extra), click the Add Picture button in the second box and repeat the instructions in step 4.
6.	To insert even more pictures, click the Add Picture button(s) in the next box(es) and repeat the instructions in step 4.
7.	When you're done adding pictures, select which picture options you wantStandard, Supersize Pictures, Picture Show, or Picture Pack.
8.	Click the Upload Pictures button. This will upload the selected photos from your computer to eBay.
9.	Back on the Describe Your Item page, scroll down to the Listing Designer section and (if you want to use the Listing Designer feature, which costs $0.10 extra), select a position for your photo from the Picture Layout list.

That's it. eBay will automatically upload the pictures from your hard disk to its picture hosting server, and automatically insert those pictures into your item listing.

Tip

One plus to using eBay Picture Services is that you get a free picture of your item in the title bar of your item listing pagewhich you don't get if you host your pictures on another website.

Using Another Web Host

Many users are less than thrilled with eBay's picture hosting service. They find this service somewhat expensive (if you want to show a lot of pictures) and somewhat limited in how the pictures are displayed in your listing.

A better solution for some users is to use another Web hosting service to host their files. Here you have a lot of options.

First, if you have your own personal page on the Web, you can probably upload your pictures to that Web server. For example, if you have a personal page on Yahoo!, GeoCities, or Tripod, you should be able to upload your images to that site.

If you don't have a personal page but could have a personal page (via America Online or your Internet service provider), that's a potential place for you to upload picture files. If your company has a Web server, there's a chance it will let you use a little space there.

If you don't have any other options, you can go to a site that specializes in storing image files for eBay users. These sites include the following:

• Ándale Images (www.andale.com)

• Auction Pix Image Hosting (www.auctionpix.com)

• Photobucket (www.photobucket.com)

• PictureTrail (www.picturetrail.com)

• Vendio Image Hosting (www.vendio.com)

Most of these sites charge some sort of fee for hosting your pictures, either on a monthly basis for a certain amount of storage space or on a per-picture basis. Compare the fees at these sites with what you'll pay at eBay, and then make the smart choice.

Tip

eBay now offers its own advanced picture hosting service, dubbed eBay Picture Manager. You get 50MB of storage for $9.99 per month; more storage is available for additional fees. Learn more at pages.ebay.com/picture_manager/.

After you have your pictures uploaded, you can add them to your new item listing. Just follow these steps:

1.	Start the process to create a new item listing, and work your way to the Describe Your Item page.
2.	Scroll down to the Pictures section and click the Add Pictures button.
3.	When the Add Pictures window appears, click the Host My Own Picture link at the bottom of the window.
4.	When the next page appears, as shown in Figure 18.8, enter the full web address of your photo. Figure 18.8. Pointing to a picture file uploaded to another hosting service.
5.	If you have multiple photos, check the Picture Show option and follow the onscreen instructions to add additional URLs.
6.	Click the Save button.
7.	Continue with the rest of the listing-creation process, as normal.

Adding a Picture Within Your Item Description

Another picture option is available for more advanced usersespecially if you're comfortable adding a little HTML code to your item descriptions. This option lets you insert images directly within your item description. (And eBay won't charge you for it, either!)

As you learned in Chapter 17, "Creating More Effective Item Listings," you can include HTML code in your item descriptionsand you can use this code to link to pictures you've already uploaded to a picture hosting service. This process isn't as hard as it sounds, assuming you've already found a hosting service, uploaded your picture file, and obtained the full URL for the uploaded picture. All you have to do is insert the following HTML code into your item description, where you want the picture to appear:

 <img src="/books/2/945/1/html/2/http://www.webserver.com/picture.jpg"> 

Just replace www.webserver.com/picture.jpg with the correct URL for your picture.

You'll also need to go through the process to add a picture to your listing, and from within the Add Pictures window click the Host My Own Picture link at the bottom of the window. When the next page appears, check the The Description Already Includes a Picture URL for My Item option. Your item will now display with the picture(s) you've selectedand you can expect the bids to start pouring in!

The Absolute Minimum

Here are the key points to remember from this chapter:

• Adding a picture to your item listing will increase the number of bids you receiveand the value of those bids.

• The easiest way to take pictures of the items you want to sell is with a digital cameraunless you have a small, flat item, in which case scanning is probably better.

• Take the best picture possible, and then edit the picture (in a graphics editing program) to make it look even better.

• Make sure that the picture will fit on your item listing page, and that the file size of the picture isn't too large.

• You can choose to let eBay host your pictures (with some potential cost), or you can find a third-party hosting service (that might also charge a fee).

• You add photos to your listings when you're creating the item listing, on the Describe Your Item page.