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Table of Contents for this issue.....
1.
Author’s
Comments
2.
Q & A,
Suggestions and Comments
3.
eBay
Classified Ads
4.
Establishing
a New Account on eBay
5.
Building
Feedback on eBay
Author's
Comments
We
had a great Fourth of July holiday.
We hope that all of you in the
US
did too.
Q & A,
Suggestions and Comments
If you have anything for this
section or you have a suggestion for a topic for an article,
please send us an email with your suggestions or your input.
With your help, we can improve the Boomer Video eZine.
eBay Classified Ads
Classified ads
on eBay are a bargain for attracting traffic to your website.
They run for 30 days or until cancelled.
They are included in the search results along with the auctions
on eBay. The basic cost
for the 30 day exposure is $9.95.
I
am experimenting with classified ads now to see how they work and how to
make them effective.
eBay promotes
auctions much more than the classified ads so it is difficult to find
out how to create ads since eBay is not much help.
I have
stumbled around with the classified ads long enough to find out that
eBay limits the categories that will allow classifieds ads. I became
very frustrated when I would put in a category and could not create a
classified ad. If I changed
the category, then I could create the ad.
I
was reading
Jim Cockrum
’s newsletter and since he knows so much about
eBay, he makes it easy.
I recommend
that you subscribe to his newsletter so you can get some of this great
information too.
You can find the subscription link for his newsletter in the box
at the top left of this newsletter.
The
categories in which eBay allows classified ads are:
In
his newsletter, Jim told how to find the categories that allowed
classified ads. I have used
his technique to use four pictures to explain it.
Go to the main
page of eBay and click “Advanced Search”.
On the resulting page,
click “Search”.
On the next
page, select Classifieds in the Format drop down box and click
“Show”.
The next page
will be all the categories in eBay.
Scroll down until you find categories that are not zero (zero
indicates that classifieds are not allowed in that category).
The first category that allows classifieds is Real Estate.
My
thanks to Jim for this technique. His
member’s only site www.silent-team.com
is full of great tips and information about eBay and how to better use
eBay to your advantage.
The
two classified ads that I created are found at these links:
Real
Estate Sales Site
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=160131103642&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=006
Promoting
“How to Choose The Best Web Host for YOUR Website”
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=160131095385&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=006
I
have been disappointed with the lack of traffic that I have seen from
these ads. However,
I plan to run them again when they expire.
I will pay a little more and choose ad features that will give
them more exposure. We will
then see what happens.
I made a mistake on the links for the Real Estate
Sales site ad. I built the
HTML for the ad using Front Page (FP) on the sbi-guru.com website.
I forgot that FP does not create the entire link until you upload
the webpage. FP assumes if
you are linking within the website everything is within the root web (http://www.sbi-guru.com/).
The “Click here” links were both to “/Order_Page.htm”
within the FP generated code.
My mistake was that I copied the code from FP and
pasted it in the eBay ad description.
This left the root web unresolved.
When some one clicked on it, it tried to resolve to the root web
of the hosting website, in this case eBay.
eBay does not know what Order_Page.htm was and gives an error
message.
In the future, I must remember to enter the entire
link if I am copying and pasting into eBay from Front Page.
I tried to correct the description, but eBay does not
allow it. However, I
found that under certain conditions, I can add to my description.
I added a P. S. explaining my error and gave the correct link to
the PayPal order page. If
you go to the above link for the real estate site, you can read the P.
S. at the end. Live and
learn.
I also want to thank
Art Bedard
for emailing me to let me know
that the links did not work.
This is the
eBay info page for classified ads. Bookmark
it since it is hard to find through eBay.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/adformatfees.html
This ad format
fee page also has on it all the categories and sub categories that allow
classified ads.
To
create a classified, click “Sell”.
Select the keywords to describe what you are selling.
Enter your title and description.
Make certain that you select a category that permits
classified ads.
When
you get to the part where you tell “How you're selling”,
select the Classified tab to specify the Selling Format.
This
will work as long as you selected a sales category that allows
classified ads. It will be
inactive if your category does not permit classifieds.
A word of
warning…. eBay will not
let you set up a classified ad unless you have more than ten positive
feedbacks or you are verified.
Establishing a new account on eBay
It
is easy to establish a buyer account on eBay, but eBay is a little
more demanding about setting up a seller account.
I appreciate that they are since there are too many con artists
who take advantage of the Net to cheat people out of their money.
The three
steps to setting up an eBay seller account are:
Step 1,
you must prove your identity.
You
can do it by providing a credit card, by paying $5.00 and going through
the online verification process, or by providing a bank account for
verification.
Here
is the eBay page about establishing your identity
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/seller_account.html
Step 2,
you must set up how you are going to pay your eBay fees.
·
credit card
·
direct bank
·
PayPal (monthly and one-time
payments)
·
Check (business only)
Step 3, you must offer PayPal or a Merchant Account Credit Card as a Payment Method.
This is required for all eBay accounts so you also must set up a
PayPal seller account.
I
established my identity with a credit card, but I also chose to validate
my identity so I could create classified ads.
This costs $5.00 which is charged to your credit card.
When you are verified , it is indicated by a small symbol that
shows by my name on eBay. You
can see it in a picture later in the issue.
The
verification process is all online.
I think it is taken from your credit report.
You will be asked questions about your address.
How long you have live there?
What was your previous address?
Information about credit cards you have.
When you answer the questions correctly, you will automatically
be verified without having to speak to anyone.
It is really pretty slick.
Building Feedback on eBay
I opened the
SBI-Guru account on June 17 and 10 days and $6.42 later, I had 10
positive feedbacks.
Feedback is
the life blood of an eBay seller. People do not know about you
except by what other people say about how you conduct your business.
You need some transactions to show that you are a good person
with whom to do business. A
100% positive feedback builds your good reputation.
To do this
quickly,
go to the category for ebooks which have instant downloads.
Do a search for ebooks under the category “Everything Else”.
Sort the search by lowest price first.
Find auctions that end soon or have a “Buy Now” option and
bid on them or buy them.
The
item will be delivered electronically immediately when you pay.
As soon as you pay for the item, leave positive feedback.
Most of these sellers are automated and will immediately leave
you positive feedback.
Here
is a picture of the "Items I've Won" section of my eBay
account.
I
actually have 10 positive feedbacks, but for some reason, eBay is only
showing 8 on my header. This
is a picture of my header and what the symbols mean.
That wraps up our
issue for this week. Until
next week, stay tuned.
John and
Linda Howe
www.boomer-ezine.com
http://www.entrepreneur-ezine.com
www.boomer-guru.com
www.boomer-entrepreneur.com
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