A little-known fact to build your sales: eBay offers its sellers
a line of HTML code (called a "sniplet") to insert on a
blank internet page or on your own website. Once you place this
code on the page, you'll get a full-page listing of your eBay
items currently for sale on the site. You can access the sniplet
tool at www.ebay.com/api/merchantkit.html.
Just agree to the eBay Editor Kit-License Agreement to customize
your page. Once you make your customization choices, you'll get
your magic sniplet.
You can use the sniplet to insert this page all over the
internet--there's no limit to how many times you can use it.
Why not put one up on your personal free home page offered by your
ISP? Remember that if someone buys from your eBay Store after
clicking through a Marketplace link, you will get a 75 percent
discount on your Store item's FVF.
Store Traffic Reports
All eBay Store owners get access to basic Traffic Reports, which
give you the number of page views, the number of visitors to your
Store, and data on unique visitors. One of the more telling
features from the report is that you learn how people are finding
your eBay Store. Do they come directly from your other eBay
listings? From other sites (your Marketplace at work)? From search
engines?
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If people arrive at your Store through search engines, the
Traffic Reports will show you which unique keywords the visitors
used to get there. This is handy when you want to put together your
Keyword campaign.
If you have an Anchor or Featured eBay Store, you'll get
even more data, including path analysis, search terms used within
your store, and data on returning visitors. For more information on
the data available to Featured and Anchor eBay Stores, visit
http://pages.ebay.com/storefronts/traffic-reports.html
eBay Keywords
Successful businesses on eBay know that a Keyword campaign is an
effective way to market your listings on the website. This kind of
advertising works best when you specialize in a particular type of
product that has a distinct audience.
To attract the searching audience, you need to select keywords
that represent the types of items you sell. You then submit the
keywords and indicate how much you would be willing to pay when
someone clicks on your advertising banner to go to your eBay Store
or Store listing (that's why it's called pay-per-click
advertising). You'll also see who else is using those keywords
to advertise, and you have the option of outbidding your
competition for priority placement. The higher you bid, the more
often your banner will appear. Your banner will then show up when a
search is run on eBay that includes your keywords.
Cross Promotions
One of the best marketing tools eBay offers for Store owners
(and one of the easiest to use) is the ability to select items to
cross-promote in your listings. Cross promotions appear at the
bottom of your listing, showing other items you're selling. As
a buyer, I can assure you that cross promotions help increase
sales. When I'm buying one thing from a seller and an aptly-
placed cross promotion catches my eye, I usually add it to my
purchase.
You have control over which items to promote within your
listings. In the "Items I'm Selling" area of your
"My eBay" page, select the item you want to set up cross
promotions for by clicking on the icon in the last column of the
listing. (You can also use the links on each item page, but the
"My eBay" links are more convenient.) Once you click
there, you can manually select which items you wish to promote, or
they can be automatically selected based on your criteria.
Third-Party Solutions
Not only can you streamline your business from eBay, you can
also find tools to help grow your business from independent
companies that make their living helping sellers on eBay.
Most of these independents understand business as well as eBay.
Their business experience can add to your bottom line. I try out
many of these services as they roll out and write about them for
Entrepreneur.com, in my books or on my website. Be sure to check in
from time to time for up-to-date information.
Marsha
Collier is author of Starting an eBay Business for Dummies
and eBay Business All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies.
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