Setting Yourself Up For Successful Ebay Selling

Here's a secret to getting the most out of every eBay listing. Write your description as though no picture of your item existed.

Let me repeat that again in case you missed it. Write your eBay listing as though you had no picture whatsoever to accompany your description. Yes, photos are a significant part of the eBay success formula, but you'll write better descriptions when you don't rely on your photo as a crutch.

Find a quiet place, get yourself into a relaxed state and clear your mind of any chatter. Now set out to describe your item in as much detail as you can in the reasonable amount of time you've set aside.

A few minutes of focused effort can often do the trick for relatively small, everyday items. If your item is particularly valuable, you can afford to spend more time at this than if you're selling an everyday item. The point of this is to spit out the words and phrases that paint a clear picture of what it is that you're offering.

You can simply take notes or record your thoughts on a tape or digital recorder. Recorders are excellent as you can really get into it without fear of missing something. When you're forced to write it all down the stream of consciousness thinking you've entered into is sometimes forced to take a detour.

When you can devote just a few minutes of concentrated effort to describing a single item, you'll have all the most important bases covered. But there's another benefit to this process that goes beyond simply detailing a product's important characteristics. When you examine the smallest of details, additional benefits you never considered before will jump right out at you. Since benefits are so important in raising the emotional state of the prospect, you're fueling desire and increasing your chances of a bid or an immediate sale.

At first glance, you see only the feature. For example, there's the Velcro strap designed to hold a laptop secure in its case. A novice might mention this in their laptop bag listing, but probably wouldn't expand on it. But with this information fresh in mind, you'll be on the lookout for something more. Perhaps that Velcro strip is triple-stitched for longer life, or it's twice as wide as the standard strap to ensure a tighter hold, so the buyer can rest assured that her valuable machine is safe and secure in transport. Which description is more enticing to you?

It doesn't take much to look beyond the obvious. But most sellers never do. But by doing this simple exercise and describing your item as though a photograph never existed, you'll uncover additional artillery, giving you much more leverage in the marketplace.