eBay Hacks, 2nd Edition

Advertise Your Other Listings in Your Description

Capitalize on an auction’s popularity by using it to promote your other items.

Visibility is one of the biggest factors in any particular listing’s success. The more people that see your listing, the more bids it will get, and the more money you’ll make. Assuming this goal interests you, it’s easy to use any listing to promote your others.

The first thing you’ll want to do is tell your customers that they can save money (in the form of shipping expenses) by purchasing multiple items from you at the same time, which is a great way to increase sales. Probably the simplest and most effective way to do this is to place the following HTML code your auction descriptions:

<a href="http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?
                         ViewSellers OtherItems&userid=my_user_id">Check out
my other auctions</a> - bid on multiple items and save on shipping!

where my_user_id is your eBay member ID. This link is effectively no different from the “View seller’s other items” link that eBay provides, except that your message suggests to customers that they have something to gain by clicking through.

Specific Product Links

The next step is to actually link to specific auctions in your description. This is most useful if you’re selling an item and related accessories separately. For example, an auction for a PDA might contain this HTML code:

Note that I'm also selling a genuine leather case for this PDA <a href= "http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3116521524">here</a> ...