Make More Money With Your Ebay Auctions

A picture is worth a thousand words--if it's a good one. With the new eBay perk of free gallery feature, it's even more important to take excellent photographs. It's easier than you think, and with some basic equipment, you'll be able to make your items shine and increase your final bid prices.

It's important to show close-ups of special features, tags, hardware, fabric, condition, or a part of your eBay auction item that buyers will need to see up-close. The more up-close, detailed shots provided, the better your chances are of increasing your final sale price. Even if you think it makes absolutely no sense, it doesn't matter! Customers want pictures. They want to feel like they are actually seeing the item right in front of them. Take pictures of all sides, from all angles, up close, far away, and include shots of anything that you're including with it, as trivial as it may be.

There are complete books devoted to eBay photography, but you can follow these steps for an easy ebay photography studio set-up. Investing in a decent digital camera with at least 3 mega pixels and a good macro setting will pay itself off quickly. Here are a few things you'll need to get started:

• A digital camera


• A large piece of white posterboard or large new white cloth


• A brightly lit area


• Two floor lamps


• A photo editing program like Photoshop, Paint Shop,
or Gimp which is free.

To start, choose a setting like a desk, table, or other elevated flat surface near natural light to take your photographs. Next, place the white posterboard or cloth on the surface. Curve the posterboard against the wall and tack it in place so there is an equal amount of posterboard against the wall and on the table. If you are using cloth, tack the cloth against the wall and drape the cloth towards the front of the flat surface. Place the lamps directly to the left and to the right of your mini eBay studio. An overhead light will also add some extra light. If your eBay items are looking a little yellow when you turn the lights on, you may want to try using fluorescent lighting, which throws off a more desirable nuetral tone. Other lighting such as Ott-Lite, are excellent alternatives are available that mimic natural light.

Place your item on the middle of the white space. Turn your camera on and use an appropriate setting for up-close pictures. Some new cameras even have settings devoted solely for up-close eBay photographs. Usually the setting will be called "macro," but may be a flower setting or facial features. Leave some white space (or negative space as the photographers call it) around the object. All aspects of your items should be photographed, from every angle; the inside, outside, up-close shots of unique features, and shots showing the condition. Make sure you keep in mind that you need an attractive gallery photograph, so position the item in a way that flatters the item. Most items look their best if the item is positioned at an angle and you are shooting straight-on.

A good place to start learning the ropes of basic digital photography: Digital Photography School Blog.

Next, upload your pictures to your PC. Using your photo-editing program, there is only one major thing that needs to be done: cropping. Your items should have little white space around the item to take advantage of the very small thumbnail photo that appears in eBay's search results. Cropping is very easy and quick to do. Most programs also have a "quick-fix" option to do some damage control on your photos. If the color seems off, this feature will often restore it to a correct color with a mere click.

Photo Hosting

After you have uploaded your photos, you will need to host your photos on a website. This will allow you to use unlimited free photos, usually of any size you desire. Shutterfly, Photobucket, SmugMug and ImageShack are some of the more popular ones. Choose the desired size in the options category and upload your photo. After uploading, your photo should have an image URL or HTML tag. Copy one of these and include them in your eBay listing. You must click the "HTML" tab in the eBay description box. After you are done pasting these tags or links, click back over to the standard tab. Your photos have now been included in your listing! You can copy and paste the photos now and place them anywhere in your listing.

Have you ever been up at 3:45 AM on a Wednesday bidding on a coffee mug? No? We didn't think so. And neither are your buyers. Choose a time that you know your buyers will be on the computer and on eBay bidding. The day with the most traffic on eBay by far is Sunday. The time of day that most users are logged on is at night between 5pm and 11pm Pacific Time. Keep in mind eBay "scheduled listing" times are all according to Pacific time.

By starting your listing between 5-7pm Pacific, you will be hitting your target audience across the nation.

Other popular nights are Monday-Thursday. Friday and Saturday are generally unpopular, except during the holiday season. You will see higher ending prices and more bids by ending your item on these popular nights! The more items you sell, the more you may want to sprinkle some items ending on different days to draw buyers into your other listings and store.

• The holiday season: Listing during the day will become profitable during this season for most items.


• Long weekends: Be sure to think one week ahead. If next Sunday is a holiday, your listing could bomb. End it on the following day or the following Sunday.


• Summer: Generally a slow time on eBay for most items, you may want to scale back on your selling or adjust your inventory to include summer items.


• Fall: When back-to-school time hits, sales start increasing and peak near mid-December. Sales still continue throughout January, so base your selling around that if possible.


• Spring: Usually there is an upswing in sales around April-May when everyone is revving up for summer.


• Football Games and Sporting Events: if it's the big game or a Sunday in early fall football season, you're beer helmets might not sell well if they end during a game. Target the time they will be on their computer!


• Catastrophies: There's no predicting these, but if there is a major news event that is affecting spending, such as a stock market plunge or major hurricane, expect sales to drop.


• Bad economies: Use extra caution when buying your inventory during a slow economy. Luxury items may not be as big a seller as during a fast moving economy. Base your sales and promotions around cheaper priced items to create interest.

So you've uploaded your photos to your auction and your keywords are all set, now it's time to sell your item. No, really, you have to get out there and sell it! Pictures alone won't do. A written description of every aspect of your item will not only be appreciated by buyers, but will results in higher bids and higher ending prices on your eBay auction. If a buyer has some questions, they will not necessarily ask you. No matter how obvious the aspect may be, like the color of the item, include it, and describe it to a "T."

-Is it blue or is it navy blue?
-Does it include a manual or authenticity card
-Is it in mint condtion, or is it new with tags? Are they attached?
-Does it have any special features you should mention?
-Does it work? Have you tested it?
-What's the retail price? Is it sold out in stores
-Is there anything special that you can recommend doing with this product?

Consider using either auction templates or eBay's "Listing Designer" feature. This adds an element of color and neatness to your listings that will make them stand out and look professional. EBay has a number of unique designs, however, there are more simple templates that you can use at sites like Auctiva, Vendio, and BiggerBids. Most of these sites also offer a "store window" feature to append to your listings. Even if you don't have an eBay store, you can feature all of your other eBay items in your store window! Customize it to look the way you want it to and append it to your listings. If you use the "sell similar" tab on all of your listings, you will keep the window in all of your listings.

Stating your Policies

Having an "About ME" isn't good enough for your auctions. Even a link to your about me page isn't good enough! There's no limit to the size of your auction page, so why not utilize that? Clearly state out your policies regarding payment, shipping, feedback, as well as anything else you'd like your buyers to read. Have a newsletter they can subscribe to? Definitely include a link in your listing to encourage sign-ups, and tell them why they should.

Signing up for an eBay store is an ideal way to place your products in an easy-to-use web store. Unfortunately, eBay doesn't do a whole lot of advertising for your store items, but they do promote your auctions intensively. Ebay Stores can also be a little bit tough to index and get great search engine traffic with the limited number of store pages.

By hosting your own web store outside of eBay, you can grow your business at your own rate instead of waiting for eBay to promote you.

Make additional pages of content, show off your best items, and have the freedom to build whatever you want (and what your customers want!) without having the restrcitions of an eBay store by building your own store. Ebay knows some sellers are going to need/want to do their own thing, so they've started ProStores, which allows you to host your items on your own web address and have your own web store. The first month of ProStores is free.