Don't pay for eBay selling tools!
Powerful research, fee calculation, and listing services are available for free - Sam Carson reviews the best.
Tags: Selling, Research, Fees, Listing, Free Tools
So, you're selling a few things on eBay?
Want to
optimize your listing for the most traffic and highest impact?
There are
several tools available to help with research and listing. Here's the
best part: powerful research, fee calculation, and listing management services
are available for free.
Last week I had seven awful looking Gnomes sitting in my
garden, but with the free tools I was able to:
-
Target my eBay listing to the most effective category, at the
best time of day, with the keywords buyers are most likely to be searching
for.
-
Understand what kind of listing is the most effective in the
market.
-
Find a title for my listing that would give the best
impact.
-
Get an idea, in advance, of what fees I would be paying, and
what my profits might be.
-
Easily create a listing that effectively promotes my
Gnomes.
-
Monitor my listings as they were selling, on a convenient,
single page.
-
And most importantly, make more
money.
Understand Your Market
So goes the selling mantra. It
holds true for selling on eBay. I could quickly put my Gnomes up for
sale, but with a bit of research, I can direct my eBay listings for maximum
impact.
eBay have their own free research tool. On the left of
any search results page is a "Search Options" box, and within that is a
"Completed Items" checkbox. Select this box and search again to find
finished listings that match your keywords — this tells you which items sold and
for how much. The Completed Items search requires a lot of work to get any
idea of general trends, because the data is unfiltered — you have to read through one item at a time. It would be much easier if this information was compiled by
a research service.
Terapeak provides an
online suite of research tools, and the basic tools for eBay.com are free ("International" sites come at a cost). Just enter keywords in the search
bar, and Terapeak will spit back enough data to keep you amused for
hours. For example: 33% of similar auctions resulted in a sale, and at
an average price of $20.35; it is better to sell Garden Gnomes on a Sunday or
Monday than a Wednesday, and the most effective Category to list in is "Home
and Garden".
Terapeak also offers the "Title Builder", a free tool which works with the
same data to pin-point the best title for your item, by showing the most
effective keywords in recent sales. I learned that "Gnome" is most
common, but that the keyword "Statue" will fetch more cash than the more
frequent "Elf". So, I know that "Garden Gnomes" is not the best title
for my eBay listing, but rather "Elf Garden Gnome Statue". That doesn't use up
the 55-character allowance, so I fill each listing title with a description of
the Gnome's position - "sitting in a tree", "catching a fish", "dancing a jig", and so on.
Mpire Researcher also offers a free and
complete research tool for eBay.com (although you do need to complete a quick
registration process). Mpire's data finds similar results to Terapeak,
but with a simpler interface. Where Terapeak will list mountains
of data, Mpire makes it clear by showing essential data, and highlighting the
best decision. With Mpire, I find the best way to list my Gnomes is
through a standard auction with the Gallery upgrade, and it shows the optimal
subcategory - one reserved just for Garden Gnomes and their lesser known
cousins, Garden Sprites!
Now I've done my research, and I list all my Gnomes on eBay following the free
advice from Mpire and Terapeak. I'm confident now that I will get the best
price for my diminutive friends.
What Will eBay Charge?
A search will produce a long list of free eBay fee calculators,
but it is important to ensure that whatever calculator you use is up to date
and easy to use. For eBay.com users (and promised to International
sellers soon) eBCalc is an efficient
tool on one nice clean page. International users will find
ecal works for them, where each
country's eBay site has a unique page to bookmark for easy access.
Free Auction Fee Calculators provides a
long list of fee calculators, and not just for eBay.
I know from my research that I should expect my Gnomes to sell
for about $20 each, and that the Gallery upgrade will really help. By
entering these details into a fee calculator, I can see I will be charged a
total of about $2.62 by eBay, for each of my Gnomes. That's pretty
steep but at least I know where I stand, and how much profit I can expect to
make. Now to produce a listing.
Setting Out The Stall
Auctiva is
web based software for managing eBay listings. It does this in a
colorful and easy to use environment, complete with tutorials. After a
quick and well-explained signup, Auctiva imports listings directly from eBay
so their tools can be used immediately. You can develop eye-catching listings
using their free template gallery, upload photos, add counters and organise content
with their tools. Auctiva makes it easy to manage eBay profiles, as
well as feedback and listings, simplifying the selling process from beginning to
end. One of the things Auctiva does very well is make it easy to see
what add-on services have fees attached, as little green $'s denote what will cost
money.
AuctionSplash has
tools similar to Auctiva, but is Windows-based software. As it
resides on the desktop, it means listing building and management tools
are available offline. When online, AuctionSplash's shows pop-up notifications on the desktop when
a bid has been placed, and indicates when an auction is about to close, providing
reminders while an auction is under way. Like
Auctiva, the various tools available in this software package make creating a
listing easy with over one hundred pre-made templates,
and also provides free seamless picture hosting: when a picture is uploaded it
goes to the AuctionSplash server and not to eBay, saving money on fees without
any extra effort.
ChannelMAX has a similar service, and
is web-based. The interface is not as clean as the other two, and at
first is quite intimidating, but this is a powerful tool for managing eBay
sales. With it you can develop listing templates, or your own eBay
"storefront". It can monitor listings, control inventory, and even
contains a page for "employees". Now I'm feeling ambitious! ChannelMAX's
pricing is rather complicated, but everything I need is free and the few
services they do charge for are reasonably priced.
Before long, my Gnome ads are constructed
and placed, and it's fun. Over the next seven days, I monitor my
targeted listings from a central page in my management software.
My starting prices were low, and they all sell - beating the $20 average I had
hoped for! As the payments come through, I package them carefully and send the
wee folk to their new homes. I'll miss them, but only a little.
Goodbye Gnomes
I enjoyed selling those seven little people, but it wouldn't
have been so much fun without the free research, fee calculation, and listing
tools I used. Better yet I made more money, knowing exactly how to target my
listings and get maximum impact from my eBay fees.
If you are selling without a little help from the likes of
Mpire, ecal, and Auctiva, give them a try — I think you will be really
surprised that such good services are available for free. You don't have to
use these tools to sell on eBay, but it makes it quicker, easier, and more
profitable.
Now the Gnomes are gone, but I'm wondering if I can get rid of
my wife's CD collection!
More Information
Research
Terapeak
Mpire Researcher
Fee
Calculation
eBCalc
ecal
Free Auction Fee Calculators
Listing
Auctiva
AuctionSplash
ChannelMAX
More Free Selling Tools
Completely free selling tools
Partly free selling tools (have a free "lite" version or limitations on free use)
Discuss This Article
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About the Author
Sam Carson is from Canada, but now lives in London, England, where he is reforming after years lost to a heavy sailing habit.
He can usually be found at Carson's Post.
