AuctionCUT - Auction and eBay Forum

Mark · Site Admin Joined: 02 Aug 2005 Posts: 759

AuctionCUT member (stevew8975) is using eBay reviews and guides to his advantage & is currently positioned strongly as the secondly highly rated reviewer on eBay.co.uk. Steve who runs the http://www.shelfridges.co.uk website and is also an eBay powerseller, answers questions & explains one of eBays latest features - eBay reviews and guides.

1) Could you briefly describe the ebay reviews and guides feature?

Steve: EBay has a section of the site dedicated to product reviews and service guides - all written by members of the eBay community, of the use of other members. These reviews & guides are then ranked by helpfulness, based on the number of Yes or No votes submitted by other members.

The reviews are instantly visible when searching for CD's or DVD's as well as a few selected consumer electrical items - links are automatically inserted into most listings with information on reviews received by that particular product - i.e.. If a buyer is searching for "Eyes Open" by "Snow Patrol", a score out of 5 will be displayed based on the average marks awarded by the writers of any reviews.

Guides are slightly different in that they can cover any range of subject matters - from general buying and selling on eBay to advice on buying boats, football programmes, MP3 players and much more. One of my guides was to highlight a bad buying experience that I received from a particular seller. I received dozens of messages from buyers with similar problems with the same seller, and subsequently this seller has now abandoned eBay due to falling sales. I am not sure if it had any bearing on the matter, but my guide was top ranked in ALL the categories they sold in.

2) What are the benefits of using ebay reviews and guides as a seller & buyer?

Steve: As a seller, I feel it instils a degree of professionalism and displays a sound product knowledge of the market - providing the guide is well written (see below!) - links in listings are permitted to other pages within the eBay site - therefore it is an ideal opportunity to publicise and promote a review or guide. Likewise, a well ranked guide can bring in significant amount of traffic to sellers' listings. Indeed when I check my store Traffic reports (something I have written a guide about!!) I can see that my guides bring in around 15-20% of all the visits to my storefront.

I have also published the same guides on the US, Australian, Canadian, Ireland and Singapore sites - with more to follow. All votes count towards your overall ranking, but a write can only hold a writers-ranking on their home site. I currently have the number 1 guide on eBay UK, and ranked number 2 overall. On the Singapore site however, my guides are all in the top 10, and I am the highest ranking writer by 1000's, but I am registered on the Uk site so I do not feature on their list. All worldwide votes still count towards your overall UK or home site total though.

As a buyer, reviews and guides can help influence purchasing decisions - whether it is which item to opt for, or which buyer to purchase the same item from. When searching for Mobile phones, MP3 players etc, the top ranked reviews in that category are often displayed in the left navi-bar. Guides can either help compare and contrast two competitive items, or be a general guide to the product line - what to look for and what to avoid.

3) What kind of subjects should you write about - how closely should they be related to the market your selling in?

Steve: My first review (and subsequently most successful) was on unlocking mobile phones. At the time I had fair amount of knowledge on the operating system of many phones, and knew that the unlocking information was readily available on the internet with a few very simple searches, and also reasonably easy to complete for the novice user. At the time, unlocking software was selling for up to £10 a time - although the software was in the public domain, it was still copy write to the original author, therefore nobody had (or for that matter still has) the right to sell it for profit. I reported countless listings to eBay with little success so I wrote a basic first draft guide and published it. Within a week it had around 200 helpful votes. A comprehensive update, and subsequent tweaks ensured the votes kept coming in.

I was selling batches of SIM cards in some significant quantities at the time and the guide was part of my "after sales" package. It tied in nicely with my product lines, and not only brought new customers in, but retained existing customers.
I had the knowledge on this subject and felt comfortable writing about it - within my full time career I produce operational process management training manuals, so this was not too far removed from where my skills lie anyway. For a guide to have any credibility it MUST be accurately researched and truthful - it reflects on your selling credibility after all!

I no longer sell SIM cards, but I still receive a fair number of questions for advice or messages of thanks from readers. Needless to say I also receive some abuse from sellers of unlocking software - these are simply reported to eBay with many of the sender being suspended for breach of the contact member policy!

4) How does it effect the traffic of your listings, does it help improve credibility as a seller and increase the number of bids?

Steve: As mentioned above, the store traffic report will list referring URL's and domains. Drilling into the domain analysis for internal referrals from eBay, I see approx 15-20% of all hits to my store homepage originated from one of the 22 guides I have dotted around the eBay worldwide site. At the time of writing this, my unlocking guide has had nearly 180,000 UNIQUE page views since May 2006 when I first published it. The review has had some unhelpful votes, but this is to be expected - the competition in rankings in the Top 100 is quite fierce - every so often I will notice my No votes jump by 22 at a time - indicating somebody has intentionally voted no on all of my guides!

There is no immediately obvious way to link pages views of my guide and increased bidding, but I have noticed a number of members who have asked me questions have subsequently bought items from me. I also have drilled into the referring domains for individual item listings, but as the review will only show 2 or 3 of my current listings, it is almost impossible to track the exact path of the bidder or viewer.

In the interest of research, I did remove the guides (or used the option - do not display) for a week period when I did not have any new listings or Auctions running - just my Shop Inventory listings, and I did notice a small decrease in page views, but my week on week sales at that time were not of a volume to notice any significant change. I plan to repeat the exercise again soon when I list a large batch of new items onto conventional auction format listings.

5) How long before your review or guide receives decent exposure from ebay?

Steve: This subject is one that I am particularly proud of, as I recognised a few opportunities to increase exposure. From the Main reviews and Guide page it is possible to search by category. Within each main category there are sub-categories and from this list I can see how many guides are against each of them. I looked at the mobile phone list and when I first published the guide, there were none in the Data-Cables or Mobile Phones with Contract sections and only two in the Software/Ringtones category. I published the guide in the first two and therefore gained instant exposure in the listings by appearing in the left Navi-bar next to any searches. I regularly checked the guides in the software section, and as soon as I had enough votes, I edited the guide to change the category. Again, it was instantly displayed in the Navi-bar, and gained more appropriate exposure. Eventually I had enough votes to guarantee display in the main Handsets & Sim Cards Category. From there the votes started rolling in.

I also increased exposure by publicising the guide on a few SIM-card discussion forums and websites - although most of the members of these sites already knew a lot of the information, I did receive a number of "congratulatory" votes.

I have also written a guide on the care and husbandry of Chinchillas, which ties in nicely with one of my main product lines. This guide was compiled after discussions with some mutual friends about the number of unsuitable products being listed for this species of animal. As there were no guides in this section it has gained immediate exposure, but because of the niche market the number of viewers is much smaller. What it has helped though is for me to dominate this niche. I have seen at least 10 other sellers attempt the same product, but with little or no success, where I am still selling as many now as I ever did, as well as building offline sales for repeat customers!

6) Have you any other advice to offer to others about how to write reviews or guides?

Steve: I have been in correspondence with other writers - in particular a guy called Adrian who is currently ranked top 25 with another guide about mobile phones. We have added reciprocal links to eachothers' articles, and he also taught me about publishing on other eBay sites worldwide, and I told him about finding categories without any competitive guides.
I have also spoken to a publisher of non-eBay related information articles who advised me to place a few very subtle typos or grammatical errors. As much as I loathe doing this, there is a very good reason. I have found, reported and subsequently had banned, at least 3 people who simply copy and pasted chunks of my work. The copied typos were undeniable proof of plagiarism!!

As mentioned above, one of my guides about a bad experience earned a lot of votes. When the seller left eBay, rather than remove the guide and lose nearly 500 votes, I simply edited it in its entirety to a new guide, and kept the votes.

For anyone wishing to write a guide, I stick to a few simple rules.

Know your product and ensure your facts are correct - you will receive messages from other members with queries, and each one is a potential customer. Do not bluff them or ignore them! Likewise, do not be afraid to message other writers with compliments, advice or CONSTRUCTIVE criticism!!

Spell-check, spell-check, spell-check - there is nothing more off-putting than attempting to read an article with poor spelling, punctuation grammar, and any text-speak abbreviations I will always vote NO on a matter of principle! It is inexcusable!

Know your competition - see what other guides are around, and attempt to write more, or a better version, also check to see if it would gain more exposure in a different category listing, but be cautious about inappropriate placements. Like keyword spamming, eBay will remove guides if they are placed too tenuously!!

Link to your reviews from your item descriptions, or if you have a shop - create a promotions box to sit on your store homepage - it's free exposure and will portray you as a more knowledgeable seller of your product.

And finally - do not take No votes personally! There is a lot of tactical voting going on out there, and as the votes are completely anonymous, there is no comeback like retaliatory feedback comments. If you start receiving lots of No votes, then perhaps it suggests an edit or re-write is in order!

You can read Steve Wilsons guides and reviews at: http://search.reviews.ebay.co......eve2wilson

AuctionCUT Advertisement · Sponsor

Mark · Site Admin Joined: 02 Aug 2005 Posts: 759

Ebay is a rapidly changing marketplace and new strategies are essential to keep Ebay a profitable venture for sellers . To follow up this series of interviews, we're asking all our interviewees one further question.

Mark: How has eBay changed for you since the initial interview, & what advice would you now offer AuctionCUT readers to make the most out of eBay?

Steve Wilson: The e-commerce world is an ever-changing places, there are always new threats and new opportunities arising, so we as sellers have to adapt and change, but likewise so does eBay as a “venue” – and I use the term loosely. EBay has responsibilities to it’s shareholders, as well as it’s buyers and sellers, and if eBay the corporation does not continue to grow and earn, then the sellers can not expect to do the same. eBay does not have a world class reputation when it comes to integrity – it is still thought of as by far too many people as an online boot sale, or a hot bed of fakes or black market goods, but this does no favours for the hundreds of thousands of honorable and decent sellers. eBay does not sell goods, its us the sellers that do the trading, however a buyer simply “got it off eBay”, referring to all of us collectively under the eBay brand name.

There will always be a large captive market with dedicated eBay buyers, but they are a finite resource and like any business eBay needs new buyers. Most of the developed world is now “internet-savvy” and are becoming very specific in what they demand from an online retailer. They want an easy transaction, they want to know exactly what they are buying, with clear, honest descriptions, good photographs and safe in the knowledge that when they click the “Pay Now” button that they will receive their goods a few days later.

eBay has obviously seen the very successful business models that the other big online retailers have developed, and more importantly they have seen that internet buyers have embraced these business models as well. eBay had to do something to bring these type of buyers to the site.

eBay should not be a “them and us”, whether “they” are eBay or “they” are buyers. Without buyers there are no sellers, without sellers there is no eBay, without eBay there are no buyers or sellers. Change is inevitable, and although not every change will favour all of us at all times, business has to adapt to changing demands. High Street stores have to adapt to changing market places and consumer trends, and it is no different for online sellers. Selling environments change, buyer habits change and their needs and wants become blurred. People used to be happy to wait 10 days for a auction to end, but more buyers are impatient and want instant gratification.

Don’t be afraid of change. If you stand still, the world will keep on moving, leaving you behind. Keep on top of eBay announcements, read eBay blogs and news sites, and get involved in a selling community to learn how other people are adapting to changing marketplaces.

Finally, if you are selling for business, do not let emotion over-ride financial sense when making tough decisions. I do look back with some nostalgia to the days that I had close to 1000 active listings for SIM cards, DVDs and CDs , but I had to face facts and admit that there was no longer enough margin in them to make it worth my time. I now have a steady sales stream, with better margins, but I am not spending every waking hour surrounded by jiffy bags and address labels. I can spend more time perfecting the listings that I do run, and offer a more personal service to my buyers