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Listing tools automate the process of adding listings to eBay,
to stop you having to go through the 'Sell Your Item' process
every time. There is a surprising amount of choice out there
when it comes to eBay listing tools, to the point where you
might not know what to choose. Here's an overview of what's
useful and what's not.
Turbo Lister.
Turbo Lister is a free download from eBay, and allows you to
sell on eBay without ever having to actually visit the site. You
can write descriptions, save them and list them over and over
again - if you want to, you can even do most of your eBay work
offline, and just go online for a few seconds to upload it.
You can list in bulk and schedule your listings to start any
time. Since this is eBay's officially supported program, you're
guaranteed that upgrades to eBay's site will never break it and
leave you out in the cold. Personally, though, I find the design
quite bad - it's not really that much easier than just going
through eBay directly.
Blackthorne.
Also from eBay, this is what used to be called the 'Seller's
Assistant'. It's a downloadable program, but it's more powerful
than Turbo Lister is. It lets you do everything in bulk:
listing, re-listing, and even feedback. You can export your
sales data to an accounting program, and track your auctions
while they're still going on. You only have to enter things like
payment choices and shipping details once, and they're saved
forever.
So where's the disadvantage? It costs $9.99 per month, or $24.99
for the pro version, which also lets you print shipping labels
in bulk and manage an inventory.
Andale Lister.
If you want to try something that's not been made by eBay,
Andale's lister is still web-based, but aims to streamline the
process.
You can create 'profiles' with different selections for your
auctions. For example, you could create a 'Normal' profile that
doesn't include any of the listing upgrades, a 'Promote' profile
that includes Bold and Highlight, and a 'Super Promote' profile
that buys Bold, Highlight and Featured Plus. This makes it
easier to choose the set of options you want for each item.
It's all about saving things you've done. Each time you upload a
picture, it gets added to a 'Picture Library' for you to use
again, and you can store an inventory and choose from it to
create a listing. You also get nicer-looking templates than eBay
provide.
Of course, if eBay had their act together then this is what
their own process would be like - but they're happy for
third-parties to make money doing the work instead of upgrading
their own site. Andale Lister can cost anywhere between 20c and
4c per listing, as you get discounts for volume.
Now that you're listing in bulk, you can spend more time trying
to attract people to come and bid on your auctions. But how
should you be doing your marketing? In the next email, we'll go
through some of the options available to you.
About the author:
Kirsten Hawkins is an Ebay and internet auction enthusiast from
Nashville, TN. Visit http://www.auctionseller411.com/ for more
great tips on how to make the most from Ebay and other online
auctions.
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