How To Maximize Your Listing's Exposure On Ebay

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When listing an item for sale on eBay you first need to decide which eBay category

(or categories) you are going to list your item in because WHO you are selling to will determine HOW you will list it.

For instance, a Swiss Army Knife is a multi-functional tool that has many uses. It is useful for campers, fishermen, etc. If you wanted to list it in the Sporting Goods > FISHING > Universal Accessories category, your title and sales copy (the words you use in your listing) will be different to how you list it in the Sporting Goods > CAMPING > Knives & Tools category.

To find appropriate categories to list your item in, click on "Buy" at the top of eBay's page, then enter keywords that are relevant to your item in the first search box. Continuing my Swiss Army Knife example, relevant keywords to do searches on would be "Swiss Army Knife", "Camping Knife", "Fishing Knife", etc.

Once you've entered relevant keywords in the first search box, select "All Categories" from the drop down menu in the second search box then click "Search". On the search results page, on the left under "Refine search" you will see a list of all the categories that everyone else in your market is using. To find the best categories to list in click on each of these categories in turn and then click on the "Completed listings" option under "Preferences" on the left hand side. (You must be signed in to your account for the "Completed listings" option to appear.)

You can now see which listings in which categories attracted the most bids and which sold at the highest prices. These are the categories that you need to list in. Don't worry about the competition. You need competition to have a market. Don't make the mistake of listing in the wrong category so you have less competition - people who see your auction won't be interested in it because they aren't looking for your item in that category! Also eBay will remove your listing (and if you persist - close your account) if you list in the wrong category.

Consider listing in different categories if appropriate. TEST, TEST, TEST! It's very cheap and easy to test each category that you think might be relevant - that's one of the beauties of eBay!

As well as testing different categories, consider testing other country's eBay sites. One of the major benefits of eBay (and the internet) is you can reach the whole world from your home. eBay has sites for many countries. The US is still the most popular and by far the biggest site. By selling in more than one country, you have a bigger market and so are likely to sell more. Plus your product may be more popular abroad than at home and/or may be easy to get at home but impossible to get abroad, making it a much more sought after product abroad than it is at home.

It would be very cheap and easy for you to run a few test auctions on various eBay sites to find out if your products sell well abroad. You will find a list of links to each eBay site at the bottom of your country's eBay home page. Naturally it would be easier to list your items for sale on other eBay sites that are in English. But if you are fluent in French, for example, there is no reason why you couldn't list your items for sale in French on the French eBay site. Or perhaps you know someone who is fluent in French who could translate your listing for you? If not, you might be able to find someone who will translate your listing for you at a very reasonable price at elance dot com.

This article is about running an eBay business but there are many other online auction sites, although they don't get as much traffic as eBay does. Some are very specialist. You may find one that caters specifically for your niche so why not test listing on that site with listing on eBay as well as testing different eBay categories and different eBay national sites? You will find a list of online auction sites by clicking on the "Tools" tab at auctionlotwatch dot com.

by: Martyn Boaden

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