These bad Listing practices will turn me, and many others, away from your eBay listings.
When you start selling on eBay, you get the chance to play at marketing, just like a big company. And just like big corporations, you get to write up snazzy copy for your listings. "Copy" is an ad agency word for "text", or the actual words in your description.
The main difference from corporate ad copy and your auction listing is that a company like Sony or McDonald's can afford to hire a Madison Avenue, ad agency for millions of dollars who have professional copy writers who have years of experience thinking up all those cute ads. Many of you, however, are not professional copy writers. And rather than being cute, your descriptions can be alarmingly annoying. So much so, that I will never read beyond the title, let alone the actual copy. Here are some of the reasons why I might skip your auction and even pay more money on an auction that doesn't annoy me.
First the Auction titles I skip past.
1. "L@@K" (are those suppose to be eye balls? gross.)
2. !!!!!! (did your keyboard get stuck?)
3. "Must See" (The opposite is always true!!!!)
4. Xw-26 (a title that includes your inventory numbers, please explain why I need to read that.)
5. "Rare" (it rarely is. Usually I've seen a hundred of them.)
I will stop reading a listing with:
1. Bright colored R A I N B O W fonts and "web safe" fonts, especially red and blue.
2. Pretty Pale colored fonts that are hard to read.
(hint, black fonts are very easy to read; which means, If you use black, chances are that I will be able to read your auction description. You do want me to read your auction, right?)
3. No punctuation or Poor punctuation.
- A. "..." is not a period... It isn't pause... either...-nor is it a line break (see 4 below.) ... nor is it cute...
B. "," "." a comma or period is not a line break, nor is it a "space".
C. A reminder:after a comma or a period,hit the space bar on your computer.A lot of sellers have a hard time finding the space bar after typing punctuation,that's why they made it the biggest key on your keyboard.
4. No line breaks. A line break is when a sentence stops-
and a new sentence or paragraph starts on a brand new line, like this.
Alot of sellers seem to have a hard time finding the "line break" key.
That's why most keyboards have two, the 'return' button and the 'enter' button.
At the end of a paragraph, you hit the return button twice and it makes a neat space between the blocks of text. Which makes it easy for me to read your description.
Please note that if you are writing your auctions in HTML you need to add a line break by typing in the proper code.
5. ALL CAPS. I HATE SCREAMING ESPECIALLY WHEN I CAN'T REALLY HEAR IT. All Bold. I Don't Know What that Is About.
6. Huge over sized fonts.
- I hate fonts that fill up my whole display screen so that your auctions description looks more like an eye chart than anything I want to wast my time reading.
7. annoying embellishment and phony or copied content that you yourself don't know anything about but you've desided to add it to the description on the off chance that a buyer will think you know what you're talking about.
- A. Don't make up a date for an antique. (Listen, I may have seen the Vase you're selling sold in K-Mart in 1975, so I know it isn't an "Art Deco Vase from the 1920s" like your auction stated.) Chances are that the people who bid on your auction are experts and do know the exact date of your items. If you do have a valuable item, then your auction is likely to attract collectors. And collectors know when those items were really made. I question the integrity of dealers who make up dates. I mistrust dealers who "guess" at a date. Please don't say "this is a guess", every time I've read that in an auction the "guess" has been way off. As a mater of fact it sounds like the seller knows better and wants to get away with deceiving the buyer. And why would I buy from you if I don't trust you? I mean, what else are you going to lie about, I mean guess?
Also, dealers who make up dates and provenance deserve the lack of respect they often get from buyers and other sellers.
B. Don't copy & paste from a web site. The lazy dealer will type the name of her widget into google. Find a two page history about that widget. Copy that information (which is illegal by the way) and paste it into her auction. I want to remind you, as a buyer I don't come to eBay for a history lesson. And for the most part I don't have the time to read those histories. As a top-dollar, paying collector I will know the history of what I collect already. I would rather read two pages of an actual description of the object you are selling. Skip the history lesson. If I need more history about the object, I know how to use google.
C. If you feel you must add some bit of history because shoppers might be unfamilure with the widget, then make the history lesson brief. Only mention the essentials. If you are selling a Tussie-Mussie you might do well to describe what a Tussie-Mussie is used for and perhaps the origins of the name, but skip the florid history lessons in victorian customs and culture.
8. Music, Videos or images that total over 1 mb.
I hate country western music, Hate it, Hate it, Hate it. It seems that 90% of the auctions that use music midi's are playing C&W. No! I do not want to have to turn my volume bar up and down for every other auction, It is easier to go on to the next page.
I don't come to eBay for cute or informative videos about your product or self. I'll go to YouTube, so provide a link. I have never closed a web page faster than an auction page playing music or downloading a video. Also if you have large images, link them with a thumbnail. I have high-speed, if it takes more than 4 seconds for me to down load an auction page, I'm out of there.
9. Third party Check out. I refuse to use any thing other than eBay check out. I refuse to give my address and personal information to a third party. I don't care how secure they CLAIM it is or even if they PROMISE they will never share my information. Besides it being a supreme hassle for me, explain to me again why I would want vendeo to have any of my contact information. I don't. You do. If you want them to have it, then you give it to them (which is illegal by the way.)
10. Nasty warning labels, threats, poor advice. If your auction template is filled with mean threats and accusations, before I even bid on your auction, I will assume you are a jerk to work with. "If I do not receive payment within 7 working days I file non-paying bidder" "Non Payers beware!!!" If you feel you must warn me of your attitude and the eBay policies I am well aware of, please voice it in a positive rather than a negative.
Positive: "I expect payment within 7 days of auction close." "Serious bidders only" "I accept bids form buyers with more than 10 feedback ratings"
In case you have a problem understanding what a negative sentence is, one sure indicator is the use of the word "No", "Never", or "Not". Using these words is an indication of lazy writing, but it also suggests a hostility toward buyers from the get go.
Threats, "If I don't have any bids on this auction before the last day I might close it." "If I don't receive a response in three days, I will ..." The first threat tells me it isn't worth dealing with that seller on any level. Never. The second threat can be made into a direction. "I expect the buyer to respond to my initial email within 3 days from the auctions end."
Poor advice, "The best way to bid on an auction is to bid early and bid the most amount of money you are willing to spend, that way you can sit back and let eBay take care of the biding for you." This dealer thinks I am a complete and utter idiot. I avoid people who treat me like a child and I resent people who play me for a fool. Teaching the buyers how to bid on your auction is a conflict of interest and demonstrates that this dealer lacks scruples. The same goes for dealers who 'explain' how to leave positive feed back.
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