Writing an Effective Item Listing

You can't neglect the basics. It's a fact that the better written and more effective your listing title and description, the more successful your auction will be. It's just like advertising copy: Great copy produces the best results.

Write a Title That SELLS!

Let's start right at the top, with the title of your item listing. You can use up to 55 letters, numbers, characters, and spaces, and you need to accomplish two things:

• You have to include the appropriate information so that anyone searching for a similar item will find your item in his or her search results.

• You have to make your title stand out from all the other titles on those long search results pages.

Let's tackle the first point first. Most bidders find the items they want by using eBay's search feature, so you have to construct your title so that it includes the words that people will be searching for.

To do this, you have to think like the people who will be looking for your item. Imagine how you would search for this specific item, and then include the right keywords into your item title to make your item pop up on as many search results pages as possible.

What words should you include in your title? Well, if your item has a model number or series name, that's definitely something to use. As an example, you might be selling a 1956 Gibson ES-175 Red Jazz Guitar. This title gets in the year (1956), the manufacturer (Gibson), the model number (ES-175), the color (Red), and a brief description of what it is (a jazz guitar)which pretty much covers all the bases.

Beyond including as many relevant facts as possible in your title, how do you make your title POP off the page and STAND OUT from all the other boring listings? Obviously, one technique is to employ the judicious use of CAPITAL LETTERS. The operative word here is judicious; titles with ALL capital letters step over the line into overkill.

Thinking like an advertising copywriter also pays off. What words almost always stop consumers in their tracks? Use attention-getting words such as FREE and NEW and BONUS and EXTRA and DELUXE and RAREas long as these words truly describe the item you're selling and don't mislead the potential bidder. (And don't bump more important search words for these fluffier marketing termsthat won't help your item show up in bidder searches.)

You also need to make sure that your title "searches" well. That means adopting a few tricks that play to the way eBay's search engine works. For example, when describing an item in your title, you should use the full phrase or title for the item. Leave out a wordeven if it's the word "and"and your item won't come up as a hit on the search. For example, if you're selling a copy of Robert Browning's The Ring and the Book, enter the entire book title in the title field; if you enter only Ring and Book, you'll be excluded from the results of anyone searching for the exact phrase "The Ring and the Book".

In short, use your title to both inform and attract attentionand include as many potential search keywords as possible.

Write the Right Description

If the listing title is the headline of your ad, the listing description is your ad's body copy. This means it's time to put on your copywriter's hat and get down to the nitty-gritty details.

What makes for good copy? Remember, you have all the space you need (there's no character limit, as there is with the item title), so say as much as you need to say. You don't have to scrimp on words or leave anything out. If you can describe your item adequately in a sentence, great; if it takes three paragraphs, that's okay, too. (Just make sure you break your info into easily digestible chunks; three short paragraphs are better than a single overly long one!)

When you're writing the description for your ad, make sure you mention anything and everything that a potential bidder might need to know. Users expect to see certain key data points in your item description; they include

• Name (or title)

• Condition (new, used, mint, and so on)

• Age (if it's a used item)

• Original use (if it's a used item)

• Value (if you know it)

• Important measurements, contents, colors, materials, and so on

• Any included accessories

• Any known defects or damage

• Warranty or guarantee (if you offer one)

When you're writing the item description, you need to put the most important and motivating information in your initial paragraph, since a lot of folks won't read any further than that. Think of your first paragraph like a lead paragraph in a newspaper story: Grab 'em with something catchy, give them the gist of the story, and lead them into reading the next paragraph and the one after that.

Stress Benefits, Not Features

Although you need to be descriptive (and in some collectibles categories, you need to be obsessively so), it doesn't hurt to employ a little marketing savvy and sales-manship. Yes, you should talk about the features of your item, but it's even better if you can talk about your product's benefits to the potential buyer.

Note

If you use an abbreviation in the item title, you might want to spell out the entire term in the descriptionfor the benefit of less knowledgeable bidders.

Let's say you're selling a used cordless phone, and the phone has a 50-number memory. Saying "50-number memory" is stating a feature; saying instead that the phone "lets you recall your 50 most-called phone numbers at the press of a button" is describing a benefit. Remember, a feature is something your item has; a benefit is something your item does for the user.

Use the Right Abbreviations

When dealing with some types of items, collectibles especially, you can use abbreviations and acronyms to describe the product's condition. This helps to conserve valuable space, especially in the listing's title.

For example, if you're describing an item that is in mint condition and still in its original box, you might use the abbreviation MIB, for "mint in box." If you're describing a new (not used) item of clothing that is missing its original tags, you might use the description NWOT, for "new without tags."

There are literally dozens of these common abbreviations you can use in your listing titles. See Appendix B, "Listing Abbreviations," for a complete list of these useful abbreviations.

Don't Reinvent the WheelReuse Item Listings That Work

Here's another good reason to standardize the types of items you sell on eBay. Once you create the perfect item title and description, reuse it. That's right; there's no reason to write a new listing every time you put another item up for auction. Use the old cut and paste to recycle your winning title and description text. That's not to say you shouldn't tweak your copy over time, but once you come up with a winner, why change it? High-volume sellers use the same copy over and overjust as real-world advertisers dofor a simple reason. It works!

Note

One easy way to reuse an item listing is to use eBay's Sell Similar option, which lets you create a new listing based on an older one.