Increase Your Item's Visibility

Bold, Highlight, Featured, Gallery, etc.

EBay offers a number of feature options that can make your auction-listing stand out from others in a search result page. Choose carefully as each adds initial cost to your auction listing. Available include:

• Gallery - Probably the cheapest, but most important feature to include is the Gallery Picture. This feature places a small picture next to your listing. Seems simple and unnecessary, but consider the auction surfer. When they are searching for an item, they will quickly scan the search results. Pictures allow them to see representations of what they will find on your auction. While the Auction title/subtitle got your auction listed in the first place, the Gallery picture places you above consideration of auctions not having the Gallery picture. If there’s no picture, you are causing potential bidders to read your title/subtitle, decide if they want to go to your page, and then surf to your page to decide if your auction is even relevant. Most people simply won’t waste their time. Here’s an example of a search for headers for my Chevy Truck:

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• Subtitle – Subtitle basically allows you to provide additional search keywords in your heading by allowing you to enter up to 55 additional characters of descriptive text. If additional keywords will allow your auction to appear in more legitimate search results, then you should use a subtitle. At $0.50 additional, this is a super way to increase your visibility.

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• Bold – The Bold option adds a minute amount of visibility to your listing. Not necessarily a “Must Have” feature, however, your listing will cause the casual browser to focus on your listing first. The bargain shopper will look at the details of every low “current price”, however, even they may be drawn to your auction first and place a bid. At a dollar a pop, I’m not sure you always get what you hoped you were paying for.

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• Border – Probably a better option than Bold, however, it is also pricier. At $3.00 per listing, your items should carry a more than reasonable profit margin to support the cost of this listing feature.

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• Highlight – One of the more expensive options at $5.00 per listing. Generally only seen on very expensive listings such as Digital Cameras, etc. For the average person, this is starting to get too expensive to justify, however, there is no doubt that it adds attraction and demands attention.

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• Featured Plus – Have you ever searched for something on eBay and noticed that certain listings always appear at the top section of each search result? You’re experiencing Featured Plus! For those willing to fork over the $19.95, your listing will appear at the top of searches with keyword matches, and at the top of category sections (i.e. the category list you choose for your auction). 

When does Featured Plus become a necessity? Obviously only higher priced items will be able to afford the listing cost option, but what if your category of choice is something like Digital Cameras. In the example below there were 28,614 results returned for digital cameras. The first 3 pages of listing (200 per page) were for auctions ending in less than 1 hour. We’re talking real competition here. Not exactly a niche market, but if you find yourself in a similar situation, Featured Plus provides you with a very necessary edge over your competition.

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• Gallery Featured – The Gallery Featured option allows your item to periodically appear in the special Featured section above the general Gallery. Your picture will be almost double the size of non-featured Gallery pictures, and will also appear in the general Gallery. 

At $19.95, I personally believe this option will not reap expected rewards for the smart business owner. eBay even provides the following disclaimer:

“Note: The exact position of your listing and the number of times it appears at the top of the page are affected by factors such as the timing of your listing and the number of other Gallery Featured items in your category. Because of this, eBay cannot guarantee that all Gallery Featured listings will receive the same exposure.”

I’m also confused by what & where Gallery featured items are located. If you go to the Sitemap, select Gallery, and Antiques, you’re taken to what I believe eBay would call the general category page. Seems simple enough, however, Select Antiques off of eBay’s Home Page and you are taken to a page that will allow you to select a sub-category. You can’t get to the top level page from the category selections on the Home Page. Does this mean that you can only get to the General Category page from the Sitemap’s Galley link, or are Gallery Featured Auctions also shown on sub category pages? I’m really not sure, but if it’s this hard to navigate to where your special advertising is located, is it really all that special?

• Home Page Featured – With the Home Page Featured option, you auction listing has a chance to rotate into a special listing section on eBay’s home page. At $39.95, it is eBay’s most expensive listing option outside of standard listing fees. At this expensive a price, you’re led to believe that you’re getting real exposure for your money. After all…a listing on eBay’s Home Page. On close examination, it’s not as good as one would think. Take a look at the following screen capture with a 1280 X 1024 screen resolution setting:

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Now, let’s assume that most people are actually using a 800 X 600 screen resolution setting. How many pages down does the user have to scroll to see this $40 special option people are paying for to get that added level of exposure? 3 Pages. Hardly the exposure we want. 

Let’s suppose that we could deal with the fact that surfers have to scroll down one or more pages to see our expensive advertising. Just what will they see when they get there? An abbreviated 34 character description of your auction header. No Gallery Picture. No Subtitle. No Bolding. No Border. Just 34 characters out of 55. Take a look at the listings below and see if you are attracted to them in any shape or fashion:

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If I want to see all featured items, I can click on the link that will take me to a standard search page result of all featured items (with Gallery Picture, etc.). 1477 of them in today’s click. Where will your auction appear in the list of 1477? You ‘can’ sort and search, but still not the exposure we need.

Now to be fair, eBay indicates that your featured listing will also appear in special display on eBay's Buy Hub page (although still in abbreviated form). Perhaps this page receives the kind of hits that will bring bidders to your auction. I’m not betting on it. For me, I believe my money can be better spent on research tools that will help me to get the hits I need from the search engine oriented surfer.

• Gift – Sorry. I just think this option is silly. Especially the way it is described by eBay:
  “Think the item you're selling would make a great gift? Let buyers know-show your item as a gift on eBay. With the Gift Services feature, you can:
  • Add an eye-catching gift icon next to your listing on search and browse pages. 
  • Express Shipping 

Let buyers know whether you offer any of the following services: 

• Gift wrap/Gift card 
• Express shipping 
• Ship to gift recipient

Buyers can search for gift items and narrow the search results based on the services offered, so using the Gift Services feature can help buyers find your item more easily.

Be sure to include details about the services you offer, including any fees you charge, in your item description. 

The fee for using the Gift Services feature appears next to the option on the Sell Your Item form.”

Perhaps you disagree. At $0.25, I guess it’s not an investment that will send you to the poor house.

EBay Sell Your Item Options that May Add Visibility to Your Auction

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• Page Counter - 

  We covered this topic back in Step 9, “Auction Hit Counters”. As you remember, Sellathon’s ViewTracker™ is definitely the way to go! ViewTracker™ tells you... in real-time... exactly how your auction visitors found you, what keywords they searched for, what category they browsed, how they sorted their search results, if they're watching your auction, if they're planning a snipe, how much time they spend on your auction, the best time of day to sell... and much more!

If you are not using ViewTracker, eBay provides free Hit Counters (via Andale) for you to use on your auction page. While not the prettiest counter out there for free, it is a no-brainer to add this to your listing as a part of the Sell Your Item process. For other options refer back to Step 9, “Auction Hit Counters.”