15 Things Writing for eBay Can Teach You about Writing for the Web

Do you ever sell stuff on eBay? I used to be an eBay fool. I
sold everything in my house I no longer wanted. I sold stuff I inherited but couldn’t use. I sold leftover motorcycle parts when I was building my 1977 Honda CB750 cafe racer. I even sold two cars.

Over about 5 years, I completed 715 transactions. My feedback rating is 98.9 percent, which is better than most sellers’ when you start getting into high numbers of transactions. Heck, eBay gave me a purple star, but I forget what that means.

I don’t sell on eBay any more, mainly because eBay has introduced onerous fees and dopey policies that penalize sellers. Besides, Craigslist works just as well and it’s free.

I learned a lot about attracting potential buyers, getting them to read my ads and motivating them to bid on my stuff.

Here are 15 things writing for eBay can teach you about writing for the Web:

1. A good headline makes all the difference. Many eBayers like to browse just to see what’s available. A catchy headline gets them to stop and check out your ad. I always made sure to write the longest headline I had room for and I included words like “mint,” “first-class,” and “rare.” eBay won’t permit you to use “like-new,” but I did it anyway and slipped it by lots of times. It’s not unusual for eBayers to bid impulsively while they’re browsing and a good headline will get them to stop on your listing.

2. Learn a little bit of HTML. Even simple coding enables you to format your ad attractively, bump up the size of your text, add color to highlight key features, include links and more. If you dump your copy into the space provided when you create your ad, it will appear as one long, copy-dense paragraph that is difficult to read. I seldom bothered to read ads like that unless I wanted the product really bad.

3. Use keywords in your headlines and body copy. eBay provides different search options and you want to make sure your ad is found whether someone searches only titles or titles and body copy. I made sure to include keywords that I knew would be entered into the search bar. I also stuffed into my listing as many keywords I could think of, including abbreviations, that a potential bidder might use. I’d also include a bunch of related, but generic words, in white text on a white background. The reader would find those keywords in a search but wouldn’t actually see them in the ad. I guess that wasn’t really fair but it’s not dishonest.

4. Take great photographs. Show your product from every possible angle. I used good lighting and pleasing, simple backgrounds for my items. I also put my digital camera on a tripod and took many, many images until I managed to get the best ones I could. I’d often get questions from potential bidders who would ask me if they could see the item from this or that angle, so I learned to anticipate what someone might want to see. eBay charges by the photo–but it also offers better rates for photo packages.

5. The more expensive the item you’re selling, the more you should say about it. Many things I sold were expensive–from hundreds to thousands of dollars. I learned that high-dollar items sold best with a lot of copy because motivated buyers will read every bit and still have questions. The more I was able to write, the more likely people would bid on my more expensive items.

6. The more expensive the item you’re selling, the more pictures you should provide. I sold two cars on eBay, one a real clunker for $2,000 (my teen-aged daughter’s first car) and the other a sports car in mint condition for $18,000. I also bought a couple of cars and a motorcycle off eBay, but that’s another story. Some potential bidders want to see everything close up; the rest have questions about blah-blah and the photos helped answer them. Despite providing a few pictures of the roof of the clunker, I had one guy ask me if it had a sunroof (it didn’t). At least I could reply by telling him to look at the pictures more carefully.

7. Explain everything. Omit nothing. You would be surprised how many people will ask you if an item comes with the “frammowhammo,” something you never mentioned in the listing. I learned that many people do not read carefully or even read well, so I tended to repeat stuff. One sentence might read: “This item does not include the “frammowhammo.” and later I would write: “If you want the “frammowhammo,” I have one in another auction.” Inevitably, I’d still get questions from people who wanted to know if the much-prized “frammowhammo” was included. I tended to ignore them.

8. Cross sell. If you have two or more items to auction, mention them in all your ads to drive traffic from one ad to the other and to encourage the same bidders to bid on related items.

9. Tell the truth. Over the years, I bought many things from sellers who conveniently omitted important details from their listings, exaggerated the condition of their items, or flat-out lied. There are way too many con artists on eBay, so when you describe every little speck of dirt, every ding, every scratch, people tend to trust you more. I’d go out of my way to address an item’s flaws if there were any. Not only did I get more bids, but also the winning bidder would say in the positive feedback I received that the item was better than described. Of the 715 transactions I completed, 135 were with repeat buyers, so I know that strategy worked.

10. Call for action. Obviously, you want people to bid often and high. I’d go to great lengths to explain that this was the only “frammowhammo” in existence, or available at such a low starting bid that they were insanely lucky to have the chance to bid on it or something like that. I’d urge potential bidders to get in on the action ASAP or risk missing out on the greatest deal in the history of eBay. Okay, so I’m exaggerating a bit, but you get the point. When I could, I’d offer an incentive such as, “I’ll include free shipping or an extra thingie if you use the buy-it-now option.”

11. Provide great service. In my ads, I used to tell people I would pack their items extremely well and ship them within 24 hours of receiving payment. If I went to the post office or UPS store and found priority shipping was a buck or two more than the winning bidder paid for regular shipping, I’d pay the difference. Bidders were always pleasantly surprised to get their items in great shape and faster than they expected. I used to also send them emails (with a tracking number when there was one) after the item shipped and I’d follow up by email to make sure everything was okay when it arrived. I would also ask them to leave me positive feedback. I also guaranteed to pay return shipping if it was clear that I screwed something up. If the items arrived damaged, I’d repay the buyers and handle the insurance claim with the shipper instead sticking it with the buyers to deal with. The payback for me was better feedback.

12. Use humor. People want to be entertained. Make them relate to you or feel warm and fuzzy and they’re more likely to bid. I once got lots of bids on an expensive fancy leather motorcycle jacket that no longer fit me, in part because I said I had become a fat pig riding from one doughnut shop to the next. (Actually, I put on weight because I drank more than your average alcoholic.) I used to have people write to say they had no interest in the item I was auctioning but they loved my witty words.

13. Use references or testimonials. Whenever I auctioned a pricey item, I’d link it to reviews. Then I’d write something like, “Don’t take my word for it. Read what the experts have to say about it.”

14. Use the available tools. eBay makes it easy for third-party developers to write hooks into its auction platform and they provide free tools that enable you to manage your listings, include slide shows and other selling features. Anything that helped improve the look and feel of my ads, I used.

15. Recognize that you can’t please everyone no matter how hard you try. Some people gave me negative feedback for the lamest of reasons, such as their being unhappy with something they won and then realized they actually didn’t want. Some negative feedback I received was in retaliation for my leaving bidders negative feedback when they didn’t pay for the items they won. But overall, 98.9 percent positive feedback is great for the high number of transactions I was involved with. I think my writing had a lot to do with that.