21/8/09 eBay Powersellers Secrets Newsletter

“In this week’s newsletter Amanda advises you to remember the plain white sealed box theory.”   

Hello!

Yesterday I received an email from a seller who is pretty new to eBay and is really trying to make a go of starting her own eBay business which is great news.   Her email was very positive and I was delighted to hear that she had so far done exactly as she should have done – she had researched hot markets, sourced a product at a great price for the hot market she had chosen and then she had written a listing for the product.

So far so good.

In her email she provided the item number of this particular product and asked politely if I would mind taking a quick look at her listing to check that she had done a good job. So, as I was curious, I had a quick peek at the listing – not something that I normally do because as you can imagine, I would never get anything else done which wouldn’t help me or you in the long run!

So, on with the story. I have to say that sadly I was not impressed with this lady’s listing because although she had included some good information, features and benefits within the listing, there was no photograph within the main body, all the words were bunched up together, there were no full-stops, there were some very basic spelling errors, and believe me I could go on….

This seller was literally on a fast track to killing her eBay business before she had even begun and so that is why I had to reply to this seller’s email and stop them from making the same mistakes over and over.

Granted, listing a product can be challenging sometimes – how long or short should the copy be, what features should you include, how many photographs should you show etc. But seriously there is absolutely no excuse for poor spelling and bad grammar. I know that not everyone is blessed with top-notch language skills, but anyone can use a spell-checker!

So, today   I thought I’d give you a few hints to help you make the most of your listings, because once you get a potential buyer to view your page, you certainly don’t want them heading straight for the back-button simply because they can’t decipher what you have written.

I am sure you have noticed that if you look anywhere on the internet you’ll see ‘sales letters’ – these are written to sell products. If you compare a few of these you will find that most of these sales letters are very long, probably going on for quite a few pages!  

But these sales letters are all very similar. They all start with a massive headline, then a smaller sub-headline, followed by loads of information right down to the smallest detail, along with information like ‘why’ you should buy. It literally goes on forever, reiterating just how fantastic the product is. 

So, can you use this format on your eBay listings? 

Yes, you definitely can and you should be.  

You might think that this approach is all wrong – why would people be bothered to read all that information when it’s so time consuming? Won’t they get bored and end up not buying? 

No they won’t! I have to tell you that people do read all that information and they do buy. The long, detailed listing format works and it will certainly work for your eBay selling.

 

You might be wondering how I know this, and the answer is simple. Thousands upon thousands of extremely successful top internet marketers use this approach day in and day out. If it didn’t work they wouldn’t do it, plus I use this format myself for my eBay listings and my sales pages so I know it works from experience too.

The more information you can give people within your listing, the more likely they are to buy from you. Think about it, because it makes sense really. If you just wrote for example: 

MP3 Player, Black 

Buy it here for just £19.99 

How many people do you think would buy? 

But, if you wrote a great description with a stonking headline to catch people’s attention telling them how fantastic this particular MP3 player is, described all the benefits and features, included a RRP so that people can see they are getting a good deal, added 3 or 4 photographs and explained why they must buy it right now, added a guarantee, told them when it would be dispatched…you get the idea! In short, if you wrote a long detailed description with a proper headline… 

How many people do you think would buy then? 

The more information you can give a potential buyer about your product, the more likely they are to buy. Remember, when buying online, people can’t look at and touch the item like they would in a shop, so it stands to reason that the more detail and benefits you give, the more satisfied people will be that this is the product they want. 

You wouldn’t go into a shop and buy something that was hidden in a plain white sealed box that you couldn’t open would you? Exactly. And the plain white sealed box is the equivalent to a 10 line eBay listing with no photographs! 

Finally, I know that this might take you a little bit longer, but don’t forget, you only need to do this once per product because when you have perfected your listing you simply leave it running and make multiple sales from the listing every day. Sure, you might have to tweak it every now and again, but you really only need to put the effort in at the start, get it right and you can copy your format for your next product listing and your next and so on.


So next time you are writing your eBay listings, don’t be frightened about being detailed and   remember the plain white sealed box theory! 

Until next week as always I wish you the best of success,

Amanda

P.S   For those of you who have already purchased the Home Study Course, this week I have added a useful resource tool to your exclusive web-page which will help you determine hot eBay markets.

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I produce this newsletter on the understanding that these are my own personal opinions and experiences, which are as accurate as possible at the time of publication. I cannot be held responsible for any error in details, accuracy or judgment whatsoever. 

© Amanda O’Brien 2009 

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