Once you have succeeded in drawing your potential buyer in with your title, the next step is for you to them all about the item with a well put together description. But what should you write in your description to keep your potential buyers interest?

At its heart, your item description is an ad. Without making it too obvious, you should be writing sales copy. You’re trying to get buyers excited about your products, and that’s usually hard - but on eBay, if you have the right thing to sell and give enough details, the buyers almost excite themselves.

Technical Details

Be sure to include all the technical details that you can think of, including the items manufacturer, the products condition, the size, when and where it was developed, its current history and anything else that you feel might be special about it. Don’t be too linear, the best descriptions are ones that are written in conventional and friendly language and show a real knowledge and understand of the product. Whatever you decide to write, make sure it’s the truth.

Remember that most of the people who’ll be buying your item will be just as knowledgeable about it as you are, if not more - this is their hobby, and they’re experts. Don’t feel like you need to explain the basics of the item: just go into as much technical detail as you can. As a rule, don’t write anything in the description if you don’t know what it means, as the chances are someone will, and if you’ve got it slightly wrong then you’ll look like you don’t know what you’re talking about.

Interesting Details

You may find that you actually enjoy writing numerous things about how got the product, why you have decided to sell it and who you think might like it. This isn’t a priority, but it gives your auction an additional touch as well as some character and might make your potential buyer more trusting of you. People might be curious to know why you’ve decided to sell 500 DVDs all in one go and if you take it upon yourself to explain the reason why to them, then they’ll feel more assured that you’re not into anything illegal. If you’re selling them because you’re moving house and don’t have the space for them in your new accommodation, then tell them that.

Write as Much as You Can

Leave nothing out of your description, even if that seems to you like it makes it cumbersomely long. There is no way you can be too thorough: someone, somewhere will appreciate that you took the time to write the extra information.

Never assume that potential buyers who are interested in additional information will email you to ask questions, many buyers are too shy and thus, won’t do it. Think of possible questions that potential buyers might have and add them to your description, as people have a tendency to ask the same questions over and over again.

Each time a buyer does email you with a question; you should both answer their question and update your description so that it will include the answer next time. If people ask questions that are answered in the description, try putting these parts of the auction on a line alone, or in bold, to make them easier to notice.

The reputation you have as a seller is probably the most important thing that people pay attention to when buying and selling on eBay. It is based on this number whether or not a potential client will trust you or not.

Each time you buy or sell something on eBay, people can leave feedback for you, and you can leave feedback for them. This feedback can be positive, negative, or neutral, along with a comment. Your feedback rating, then, is worked out using a very simple sum: the number of positive feedback comments people has left for you, minus the number of negative ones. This means that someone with a feedback rating of 28, for example, might have 30 positive ratings and 2 negative ones.

If you a decent and considerate buyer, then you should find that the vast majority of your feedback will be positive, without you needing to do any attention work. But if you want to help it along, then there are numerous things you can do.

Always leave feedback for others: People will feel an obligation to leave feedback for you if you leave it for them (eBay will send you an email after each transaction to offer you the opportunity). Take the time to write a positive comment about sellers who do what they should and the chances are they’ll do the same for you.

Pay for the product promptly: Your average seller loves nothing more than to be paid as soon as possible, paying as soon as you win the auction will save the seller a whole load of worries, especially if you choose credit card or PayPal as your form of payment. You should find that your positive feedback will appear only a few minutes after you’ve made prompt payment of your purchase.

Don’t be a difficult customer: Understand that your seller might take a day or so to respond to you, and perhaps a few days to send your item - harassing them is nasty and unnecessary, and won’t get you good feedback.

Build up a relationship: If there is a seller that sells a variety of products that are to your liking, the purchase a few more times from them. They should be more than happy to receive a repeat customer, and will take it upon themselves to always leave positive feedback they might even offer you a few special deals.

Sellers won’t generally be reluctant to sell to buyers without much of a reputation, simply because it is the buyer who takes most of the risk in a transaction. It is worth remembering, however, that transactions where you are the seller and where you are the buyer are counted towards the same feedback total - so if you ever want to start selling, being a good buyer is especially worthwhile.

On eBay, people generally pay far more attention to the rating of a seller than they do a buyer, the vast majority of sellers can’t even be bothered to check the feedback of a buyer, while bad feedback on a seller can potentially be a deal breaker. When you are purchasing something, you should worry more about the seller’s reputation than your own.

Over many years, eBay has implemented numerous auction types, in an effort to give the buyers and sellers more options and flexibility in running their own business. There are numerous people out there that don’t like the idea of their product possibly selling for much lower than the price they hoped. On the flip side, there are those who have tons of the same products but prefer not to sell them individually. This article will give you an overview of the many different kinds of auctions and how to effectively spot them.

Normal Auctions

These are the bread-and-butter of eBay, the auctions everyone knows: you bid, others outbid you, you outbid them, and the winner gets the item, simple.

Reserve Auctions

Reserve auctions are basically for sellers who do not want to sell their items for less than a fixed price, a concept you may be already familiar with if you have some experience with real auctions. They work exactly like normal auctions; the only difference is that you the seller would be told whether or not the bid for your product has reached its reserve price. If no one is able or willing to meet the fixed reserve price, then the auction is cancelled and the seller keeps the item.

You can spot these auctions by looking out for ‘Reserve not met’ or ‘Reserve met’ written next to the current bid on an item’s description page.

Fixed Price (’Buy it Now’) Auctions

Buy it now auctions work in two specific ways. A seller of a product may implement a buy it now button to their auction, which gives the buyer two options either they can make a normal bid or the can pay the asking price for the product and receive the product straight away. Many sellers today, eliminate the entire auction process now and simply just list all their items at fixed asking prices. Of recent, eBay has no added a new method to fixed price auctions, the ‘best offer’. This simply means that you can now negotiate prices with someone who put their product up for sell using the buy it now feature, which could prove to be a highly effective way of getting bargains on things that don’t seem to be selling to well.

Fixed price auctions are easy to spot, as they have a little ‘Buy it now’ logo either next to or instead of the current number of bids on the search listings page.

Multiple Item (’Dutch’) Auctions

These are auctions that entail a seller selling more than one of a specific product. Dutch auctions are done simply by place bids. Buyers make a bid for a product then specify how much of that item they want, then everyone within the mix pays the lowest possible price that was bid amount the winner bidders. If you find it pretty tasking to grasp, don’t worry about it, everyone does, that’s why these auctions are very rare to see.

What is more common is when a seller has a lot of one item, and lists it using a combination of two auction types: a multiple-item fixed price auction. This just means that they say how many they have, and offer them at a fixed price. You can enter how many you want and then just click Buy it now to get them.

After you’ve been through all of this, you might find yourself faced with dilemma, when you’re given the option, should you make a bid or should you just use the buy it now feature and save yourself all the hassle.

Being an eBay seller brings a lot of responsibility, sometimes you may feel like you aren’t doing everything that you could possibly do. This checklist should help you keep right on top of things.

Have you found out everything you possibly could about your items? Try typing their names into a search engine - you might find out something you didn’t know. If someone else is selling the same thing as you, then always try to provide more information about it than they do.

Do you keep tabs on your competition? Always keep a keen eye on products that are the same as yours are selling for and what prices these products have their starting bid set to. There’s usually no real point in starting your auction at a fixed price of $150 when someone else on eBay is selling the exact same item at $140.

Have you got pictures of the items? It’s worth taking the time to photograph your items, especially if you have a digital camera. If you get serious about eBay but don’t have a camera, then you will probably want to invest in one at some point.

Are you sending out emails to your sellers? Its well worth it sending out a small email when a transaction goes through successfully, something like ‘Thank you for buying my product, please bring it to my attention when you have made payment for it’. You can also follow that up with an email such as ‘Thanks for the payment, I have posted out the item today’. You may be surprised just how many problems you will potentially avoid just by using this method of communication.

Also, are you checking your emails? Remember that potential buyers can send you email about anything at any time, and not answering these emails will just make them go somewhere else instead of buying from you.

Do the descriptions for your items have all the information that your buyer might need to know? If you’ve made plans to offer international posting, then it’s always a good idea to list the different charges for respective nations and list them on every auction. If you have any additional terms and conditions, example giving refunds on items providing they haven’t been opened, then you should make sure that this information is made available to the buyer.

Have you been wrapping your items correctly? Your wrapping should be professional for the best impression: use appropriately sized envelopes or parcels, wrap the item in bubble wrap to stop it from getting damaged, and print labels instead of hand-writing addresses. Oh, and always use first class post - don’t be cheap.

Do you make a follow up email? Is it really worth sending out another email just a few days after posting the product to the buyer saying ‘Is everything good with product? I hope you received the product that you wanted just as you expected.’ This might appears as though you’ve created an avenue for your customer to make a complaint, but your stance should always be fixated on helping your customers not taking their money and running.

Being a really good eBay seller, more than anything else, is about providing genuinely good and honest customer service. That’s the only foolproof way to protect your reputation.

Becoming a full time eBay seller is practically living that internet marketing dream, making an excellent income working solely from home or wherever else you have access to a computer, being your own boss all the rest of your time. It’s the promise of dreams for so many individuals and now it has finally come true for you.

What they don’t tell you in the success stories, though, is that becoming a full-time eBay seller is by no means for everyone. You really, really ought to try it part-time before you even consider taking it up full-time, and even then, caution is advisable. Before you burn your suit, here’s a list of questions you should ask yourself.

How Much Do I earn from eBay now?

Do some mathematically equations and try and work out how much hours you work each week, then divide your total work hours by the amount of actual profit you make every week. Your conclusion should be, if you were working full time on the job, would you earn as much money as you are currently?

Do I Have a Good Job?

Think about what you might lose if you give up your job to focus on eBay. If you’re in a well-paid job with good promotion prospects then it’s well worth reconsidering: you might get a few years down the line and wish you’d stayed in your traditional job, as you’d probably be the CEO by now.

Would I Really Make Much More Money?

Unless you choose to sell large quantities of products whether small or large, most of what you’ll find your time doing will be waiting for auctions to end and it is possibly for you to wait while your at a work place just as easily as you can from home. That is primarily why the amount of money you’re actually making on eBay depends greatly on the kinds of products you’re selling, for low priced items, taking the full time route could prove to be a good move. For highly priced items, there’s a good chances that you’ll be stunted by the amount of money you’ll require to invest in further inventory long before you hit any limits you might have on time.

Is my Home a Good Place to Work?

Quite apart from anything else, you might find that the dream of home working is more of a nightmare in reality. People can start to depend on you to get things done that need to be done during the day. If you have a wife and children then they can resent the fact that you’re in the house but refuse to have anything to do with them for large parts of the day. Giving in to any of these things and stopping work for a while will cause your profits to fall.

Can I survive if it All Goes Wrong?

Well looking at it from this scenario, if you had maybe a month or two where you sold nothing, do you think you’d be able to survive? Or do you think you’d panic and begin an erratic search for a job with fixed rates, cursing the very day you found eBay? That’s the real question you have to ask yourself. If you made it through the entire batch of questions, then I think maybe you are cut out for life as a full time or part time eBay seller, even if you don’t believe so, you’d be very surprised how far you can actually get working only part time.