eBay Tips Newsletter September 2009
1. How to achieve Top-Rated Seller Status, STAT  Attention eBayers: The new eBay Top-Rated Seller Program is kicking into gear next month!Today we're going to tell you how you can achieve this elevated selling status in record time so you can benefit from the increased exposure and enhanced credibility conferred by the "TRS badge" (pictured right) -- and enjoy the juicy 20% Final Value Fees discount! (If you're unfamiliar with the new Top-Rated Seller program, check out what we said about it last month.) We recently sat down with our in-house eBay expert Carson Clark to talk about the new Top-Rated Seller Program and ask him what advice he'd give eBay sellers who want to attain Top-Rated Seller status as quickly as possible. Here are the top 5 tips he gave us... 1. Know how to optimize your listings for eBay Search  In order to achieve eBay seller status, you've got to sell at least $3,000 a year over 100 transactions."That's a cakewalk," Carson says. "Most of my clients end up exceeding these kinds of numbers on a monthly basis let alone in a full year." But if you haven't hit that mark yet and are determined to do so quickly, then you need to make sure your listings appear near the top of eBay's search results so more people see them. ... And the best way to do that is to follow our proven eBay search strategies. 2. Write relevant, keyword-rich titles  "The better your impression-to-clickthrough ratio is, the closer your listing will appear to the top of the results," Carson points out."For example, say everyone is selling Product X, but more people are clicking on your listings than on your competitors'. "If you gets 10 clicks and your competitor gets only two, then your listing will bumped higher in the search listings." In other words, you need to make sure your listing titles grab people's attention and encourage as many people to click on them as possible. How do you do this? By making sure the keywords people are typing into eBay's search engine appear in your title, so people can immediately see that you're offering them exactly what they're looking for. But you also have to make sure your title is RELEVANT. For example, according to Carson, "Some eBayers will create titles that say something like, 'Fantastic anti-aging cream - like L'Oreal'. Those ads aren't going to get clickthroughs because they're not relevant to the searchers who want real L'Oreal anti-aging cream and not just something like it." 3. Make sure your titles are UNIQUE  You have to make sure your listing titles stand out in the search results.Carson believes this is where the "little guys" are going to have a huge edge on the big corporations that have been dominating their niche on eBay. That's because... "A lot of big corporations put up tons of identical listings selling exactly the same thing. That strategy is going to work to their disadvantage now because they're just not going to get a great click-through rate on all those listings. One or two might get clicked on, but that's not going to give them the impressions/click-through ratio they need to appear at the top of the search results." So by creating unique, keyword-rich titles and subtitles that stand out from all the identical ones, you can now compete against the mass listers and blow them away! 3. Provide excellent service to keep your Detailed Seller Rating "clean"  In order to achieve Top-Rated Seller status, you need a 4.6 average DSR. BUT you also need to make sure you have no more than two 1-star or 2-star ratings in any of your categories.That means you have to offer top-notch service to all your buyers. When you do have to deal with an unhappy buyer, do whatever you can to resolve the situation and get the low mark struck from your record. 4. Offer Free Shipping  Again, this one goes back to ensuring your listings appear higher in eBay's 'Best Match" search results. Last spring eBay outright stated they would give a boost to listings that offer free shipping to their customers, so it just makes sense to do that. Not only will you get a better position in the search results, you will also score major points with your buyers! (Just be sure free shipping won't deep-six your profits!) 5. Make sure your listings CONVERT eBay is going to reward listings that are proven sellers by giving them a boost in the search listings as well. This is especially important for sellers who offer multiple items through "Buy it Now" listings. If you have a listing that sells, then make sure you relist it instead of creating a new one. eBay will bump it higher in the search listings -- which means it will get more impressions and higher click-throughs and even more sales. And that means when you relist it, it will appear even higher in the search results and make even more sales!  So how do you make sure your listing converts?That one's easy... By using the proven salescopy strategies we teach you in our best-selling course, Insider Secrets to Selling on eBay. (Which you can take for a full test-drive for 30 days for just $2.95 if you click here now.) So those are Carson's top 5 tips on how to get Top-Rated Seller status, STAT. If you're already following our recommended best practices for eBay you should qualify for Top-Rated Seller status very quickly. As Carson pointed out, the requirements aren't hard to achieve, and they benefit both buyers and home-based sellers alike. "Smaller sellers who are able to provide good communication with their customers will be able to compete more effectively against the giants," Carson notes. "Sellers who offer the best value will see their listings sell more quickly, and listings with better salescopy and guarantees will convert to sales more efficiently than the mass-listed over-priced junk that has been flooding eBay lately." Better service and better quality-items for the buyers -- and greater exposure for your listings and more sales for you! Not to mention the 20% discount on your final value fees... all in all, we think the Top-Rated Seller program is going to be a huge boon for eBay. But what do YOU think? We'd love to hear your thoughts on the changes eBay is in the process of rolling out! Send us an email at: questions@marketingtips.com. 2. Reminder: eBay Selling Manager now Free!  As we mentioned a few issues ago, eBay started offering its Seller Manager software at no cost this past June. So if you're looking for new software options to manage your eBay business, you should definitely check it out.Seller Manager allows you to manage your listings, send bulk feedback, and print shipping labels and invoices in bulk. There are also a number of add-on applications that are no cost or free to try for the first 30 days, so you can check them out and see which ones would be most useful for your business. You can find out more about Selling Manager here. Selling Manager Pro, the upgraded version of Selling Manager, offers automatic listing, buyer auto notification, and many other useful options, but costs $15.99 a month. However, you can also try it free for 30 days, so you might want to compare the two options and see which works best for you. Automated software such as Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro can save you a lot of time managing your listings so you can devote more of your time to growing your business instead of simply running it. If you find you're always trying to play catch up with your eBay business and never able to get ahead of the game, be sure to check out these software programs today. 3. Sweet "Picture Pack" Deal ends Sept. 18th  Here's an opportunity you need to seize if you haven't already done so:Until September 18th, eBay is offering its 12-image "picture pack" deal for only 25 cents! Normally this listing option costs $1.00, so by taking advantage of this offer you can save 75 cents on every listing you have. Not only can you post up to 12 pictures of your item, potential bidders will also be able to use the "photo-zoom" feature to roll over your images and get a closer look. Offering great quality pictures to potential buyers can often mean the difference between a sale and a pass. So if you haven't already acted on this deal, we suggest you do so now! You can find out more about it here. You only have a few more days to save a lot of money from this deal -- so hurry!
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