Key word spamming occurs when members place brand names or other inappropriate or unrelated keywords in a title or description for the purpose of gaining attention or diverting members to a listing. This is also called search engine manipulation. Keyword spamming in your title or listing is not permitted on eBay. The searchable text sellers place in listings must be directly relevant to the item being sold.

When doing store critiques, I have seen this tactic used many times. I’m not sure why the spammers even think that buyers will buy from them in the first place – it is obvious that they are using underhanded techniques. For example, one customer was selling handmade beaded earrings. Her title read:

“iPod Nano Wii Playstation 3 earrings LOOK”

Key word spamming is a waste of your time and the customer’s time. Not only is this seller driving customers to her listings who aren’t even interested in earrings, but she isn’t even targeting customers who might actually be interested in buying her product. eBay gives you 55 characters for your title – use them wisely to attract potential buyers to your listings. What good does it do you to have hundreds of page views, if the customers are searching for a product that you don’t even offer?

Another example is using inappropriate brand names to describe your item. I see this one often:

“Homemade candle pillar like Yankee Candle Clean Cotton”

This seller is using an established brand name to drive traffic to his homemade item. Many sellers offer homemade candles on eBay, but a seller cannot claim they are “like” an established brand name – that description is subjective and the seller’s personal opinion. Stick with factual information only. You don’t want to manipulate your buyer into purchasing something, and then be dissatisfied and leave you negative feedback.

Abuse of key words can lead to:

Listing cancellation
Limits on account privileges
Account suspension
Forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings
Loss of PowerSeller status

eBay is over-run with key word spam and this makes it very difficult for legitimate honest sellers compete when so many other sellers are blatantly breaking the rules. to If you see any listings that are obviously key word spam, report them to eBay trust and safety. Read this helpful guide on Key Word Spam Busting.

[Image Source: Flickr]

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Reader Question: What Exactly is Key Word Spamming on eBay?

Feedback is eBay’s seller and buyer evaluation system that indicates a user’s reputation on eBay. As a seller, you want to build your feedback score to indicate your reputation and experience. Here are a few tricks for building your feedback score quickly.

1) Buy small, inexpensive items such as office supplies, 1 cent CDs and DVDs, paperback books, school supplies, cosmetics – things you will actually use. As soon as the item is received, ask your seller to leave feedback for you.

2) Leave feedback quickly for your buyers and sellers that you buy from. They will usually reciprocate.

3) Ask your sellers to leave feedback for you if they have not done so in a reasonable length of time.

4) Ask your buyers to leave feedback for you. After you have shipped an item and allowed enough time for the buyer to receive it, send a follow-up email if the buyer has not left feedback for you. Not only can you politely ask the buyer to leave feedback, but you can verify that he is satisfied with the transaction and he received the item.

5) Understand DSRs (Detailed Seller Ratings) and how these scores will affect your business. Click here to for some tips on improving your DSRs.

[Image Source:Flickr]

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eBay FAQ #11 – How Do I Increase My Feedback Score?

Possibly yes and possibly no. There are many ways you can make money on eBay, but keep in mind that eBay is like any other business. It takes commitment, persistence, and a hard work ethic to make a profitable business. If you don’t consider eBay selling as a business, you can very well lose money. Here are some benefits to having an eBay business:

1) Tax advantages for a home business. Many of your expenses such as internet access, supplies, mileage, and a portion of your mortgage can be written off on your personal income taxes.

2)You can make money by selling used items that you already have in your home. You don’t necessarily have to buy any inventory to make money. (At least not at first.)

3) You can shop for inventory while you do your regular shopping for your family. Many items from drug stores, grocery stores, and the mall can be sold on eBay for profit. You don’t necessarily have to go out of your way to find products to sell for profit. You can pick up items when you are out running your normal errands.

4) You can make money selling a service. If you are a graphic designer, artist, web designer, or consultant, you can make money on eBay selling a service and you won’t have to buy any inventory.

5) eBay selling must be managed like any other business. You must pay attention to expenses, cash flow, accounts receivable, and profit margins.

Post from: EveryJoe

eBay FAQ #10 – Will I Make A Lot of Money Selling on eBay?

This is a common question from new eBay sellers, and the answer will vary from seller to seller. So, I will answer this question with a few other questions.

How much time do you have to dedicate to listing items each day? 30 minutes, one hour, or more? Once you are selling on eBay, you will also need time for shipping your items, answering questions, shopping for new items to sell, and other home office duties. eBay is much more than just listing items.

Do you have a room full of items ready to sell, or will you have to go out and buy inventory? If you have a stash of items ready to sell, you can go on a listing rampage and knock out quite a few in a day. If you have to buy items to sell, you will gradually list items as you acquire them.

Do you have a store yet? You can put unsold auction items there for a fixed price with the best offer feature for about 5 cents for a 30 day listing.

The bottom line: Llist as many items as you comfortably can. Don’t let eBay take over your life. But, people can’t buy what they can’t see if it isn’t listed! Find the balance and do what works for you. There is not a magic number of listings per day that will generate a certain amount of sales. As your business grows, you will constantly be adding items to your store and your inventory will grow.

[Image Source: Flickr]

Post from: EveryJoe

eBay FAQ #9 – How Many Items Should I List Per Day?

Selling on eBay is more than just filling in spaces on a computer screen. If you are a new seller and aren’t sure how to manage listing an item, these steps will help you.

1) List items in batches of 5-10 items. Batching items is more time efficient than listing one at a time.

2) Prepare the item to be photographed (iron it, remove stains, clean it, etc.).

3) Take pictures. Click here for tips on taking good photos.

4) Edit pictures. If your pictures don’t turn out well, retake them. It is worth the time investment.

5) Put items that have been photographed in a laundry basket or other plastic container, so that they are protected and neatly out of the way.

6) Sit at your computer and list items. Physically handle the item and examine it while you are typing your description so you can describe it accurately (no need to write it first). If you need help with the description, click here for some tips.

7) Weigh the item as it would be packed as you are listing the item and determine how much to charge for shipping. You can just put the item on the scale with a box and some packing materials if needed to get a pretty close estimate. Learn how to determine what to charge for shipping.

8)After the item is listed, put it away in storage in a certain area so it doesn’t get mixed in with non-listed items and it is ready to be pulled and shipped. Don’t package it until after it has been sold and you have received payment. (Some buyers won’t pay!) Potential buyers may have questions about the item and you might have to pull the item out to get a measurement or look at some other detail. You don’t want to waste time packaging something that might have to be opened and repackaged later.

9) When your item sells, pull it out, package it, and ship it. I print an invoice to include inside the package. Get the customer’s address off the invoice. Just write the address on the package and take it to the PO. If you like, you can try printing your postage online through USPS, Paypal, or Stamps.com.

10) Most sellers ship their items first thing in the morning. You want to take care of the people who have already paid for their items (and are waiting to receive them) before listing new items. Most sellers work on their items during the day, or shop, and do their listing at night.

Post from: EveryJoe

eBay FAQ #8 – What Are the Steps to List and Ship an Item on eBay?

Those cool backgrounds are called auction or listing templates. Quite a few websites exist that provide free auction templates, memberships to use pre-fab templates, or you can even hire designers to create templates especially for you. Here are a few ways to get “those cool” backgrounds on your listings.

1) Write the HTML yourself.

2) Hire someone (look on eBay under Graphic Design Services) to write the HTML for you.

3) Use Auctiva, Auction Supplies, or Xample.net, they are free.

4) The eBay Coach preferred method – Seller Sourcebook (SSB). This membership is not free, but some things are worth paying for. SSB provides access to thousands of templates for only $8 a month. SSB is very user friendly and experiences very little downtime. (I’ve been using them for years and have never experienced any downtime.) You will not find better customer service than on SSB and questions are always answered quickly and professionally. Oh, and check out their Partners Page, you’ll see me! I’ve used the free services, but I prefer SSB because of the huge variety of templates, the ease of use, and the professional staff.

[Image Source: eBay Selling Coach]

Post from: EveryJoe

eBay FAQ #7 – How Do You Put Those Cool Backgrounds on Your eBay Listings?

1) Relist the item.

2) Add the item to your store inventory with best offer.

3) Relist the item and change an element on your listing. Change the photo, change the key words in the title. Change the price or shipping fee.

4) Do nothing. Leave the item in your “unsold items” folder and wait a few weeks, and list it again.

Don’t be discouraged if an item doesn’t sell right away. This just means that the right buyer hasn’t seen it yet. Be patient and do your research. Selling an item on eBay isn’t a matter of if, but a matter of when and for how much.

Post from: EveryJoe

eBay FAQ #6 – What if My Item Doesn’t Sell?

Calculating shipping for an item is not as complicated as you may think. If you plan to start selling regularly on eBay, you will want to invest in a digital scale. You can find them for $10 or less at office supply stores, or my favorite place – eBay!

To calculate the shipping fee, weigh your item. Let’s say you are selling men’s polo shirts. The weight will be around 10 ounces. Go to USPS.com and determine the shipping cost for an item weighing 10 ounces.

Next, check what the competition is doing. Do a search on eBay for Men’s polo shirts, and randomly choose about 10 listings. Record the shipping fee for each. (Be sure to study the sellers’ DSR rating for “shipping fees” and determine if their customers feel the shipping cost is too high. You can then gauge how to set your shipping fees.) Take an average so that you will be in line with the competition.

Your shipping fee should be slightly more than the actual shipping charge since you will be using supplies such as bubble wrap or other cushioning material, your own poly mailers if you aren’t using USPS Priority supplies, and of course, your time.

Shipping is a popular topic and future posts will address all of the specifics of shipping including:

Where to purchase supplies at the lowest cost

How to ship internationally

Excessive shipping fees in relation to circumventing eBay fees

Online shipping services

How to make the shipping process faster and more efficient

Post from: EveryJoe

eBay FAQ #5 – How Much Should I Charge to Ship an Item Sold on eBay?

This is a common question, and one that will be answered regularly on eShopOwner. Contrary to popular belief, you do not have to acquire your inventory from wholesalers, dropshippers, or purchase truckloads of items at a time to make money on eBay.

Here are a few sources of inventory – some of which you may not have thought of!

1) Your own home. You probably have unwanted gifts, new clothing with tags, outgrown clothing, toys that aren’t played with, stacks of CDs and DVDs, and duplicate kitchen gadgets.

2) Thrift stores and garage sales.

3) Off-price stores like Marshalls, Stein Mart, Ross, and TJ Maxx.

4) Drug stores.

5) Closeout stores like Big Lots.

Want to know more? Be sure to subscribe to eShopOwner so you can learn more about where to find items to sell for profit on eBay.

Post from: EveryJoe

eBay FAQ #4 – Where Do I Find Things to Sell?

Here are some simple suggestions for a successful eBay store:

1. Study your eBay Store traffic reports. With this information, you can make educated adjustments to your store that will improve your sales. You must continue to pay attention to what’s happening in your store, and what’s happening in the competition’s stores.

2. List your entire inventory in your eBay Store. At $0.03 per listing, 500 items will only cost $15 per month. Your store listings will show up on eBay searches and on search engines, driving traffic to your store. The more items you have to attract buyers the more sales you will potentially make.

3. Accept PayPal as a payment method. More than 90% of eBay buyers pay using Paypal. Failure to accept Paypal will cripple your efforts to collect payment from your buyers. Furthermore, you will lose potential buyers by not offering this payment method.

4. Have a fair return policy. A fair return policy pays for itself many times over in sales and repeat business than it costs in actually issuing refunds. If an item is returned, just relist it again and move on. Returns and refunds are part of doing business in the retail world.

5. Keep your shipping fees fair and competitive. You’ll pay the price for excessive shipping fees on the DSR (detailed seller ratings) because your customers can rate the fairness of your fees. New sellers often think they are clever charging a ridiculously low price for the item ounterbalanced by an enormous shipping fee. This is called circumventing fees and you can be suspended from eBay if you use this strategy.

Post from: EveryJoe

eBay FAQ #3 – How Can I be Successful on eBay?