Have you ever wondered how some eBay listings seem to get hundreds of views and others get only a few despite advertising the same product at the same price and appearing on the same page? Well, although eBay does provide vast amounts of traffic for you, sometimes, you need to use extra methods and strategies to give yourself a helping hand. One such method is to utilize the power of “reviews and guides”, this tool is not heavily promoted by eBay to its sellers and so you may not realize just how useful it is for build credibility and, driving traffic to your listings.
How to increase your eBay listing views with reviews and guides
eBay has a separate section simply called “eBay Reviews and Guides”. This is the section you need to access in order to post information about a product or service and is where you can publicize yourself! You can’t add links to your own website here but that’s not what you want to do anyway – this is purely to advertise your own eBay listings, products or shop and direct potential buyers to your goods.
So, how does it work? Well, have a think about the type of products you sell. Do you sell a certain brand of product on a consistent basis? Or a particular beauty product or electronics accessory? You probably specialise in a particular niche and have several different products that all complement each other or that are connected to each other in some way. Now you may not have thought about this before but what this actually means is that you are an “expert” in your particular niche or product type. You might be thinking that this is entirely inconsequential – yes, you sell relevant products, yes, you know all about them and yes, that might make you an expert, but how is that going to get you extra traffic?
Actually, your knowledge can be put to excellent use and can really help you build up your business. All you have to do is confirm to potential buyers that you are an “expert”. In doing this you instantly become more credible, more trustworthy and genuine as a seller. And how do you do this? You write reviews of your products or guides about something to do with one of your products which become easily accessible to people searching for information on that product. And it’s not just if someone searches for a review or guide using eBay. If someone types in review + baby monitor, for example, into the Google search, your particular review or guide will appear in the results! Your eBay ID and shop name will be displayed at the top of your guide or review because it’s written by you and also – and this is a really big plus – some of your current listings will also display on the page – so hey presto, instant advertising and all absolutely free!
What this means is that if you have a decent, well-written review on a particular product and then the potential buyer then sees that you have a current listing for that very same product, there is every chance that they will click through and purchase your product rather than searching for another seller.
It’s the same concept with “guides”. Let’s say that you sell pest control products, for example. A guide that will help someone get the best out of the latest “mole repeller” is going to be very relevant to your target buyer. As is a guide to recommended pest control products or extra tips about how to use a certain product – perhaps written from experience of that product.
If you sell baby goods, then a guide that will help new parents with their newborn would be relevant as would a kind of “new parents checklist” detailing things needed for a new baby in the first 12 months and so on.
Do you get the idea? The thing to remember is to make sure you have the very products that you are writing about listed so that they appear within your review or guide as this is where you’ll get the click- throughs from. But, whatever you write, you must be honest and ensure you list the pros and the cons. You’re not writing a sales letter here, it’s a review or a guide and should tell both sides of the story. Your aim is to write informative, helpful, professional guides and reviews about subjects where you have expertise or lots of experience because ultimately you want your readers to see you as an expert, respect your information and then click on your link to visit your shop or product listings.
Of course this will also work in reverse too. Buyers can click through to your reviews and guides from your feedback page, but to ensure every chance of getting a sale, place a link within your actual eBay listing sending people to your reviews and guides. This is a huge credibility builder, especially as you’ll start to get “helpfulness” votes from the readers of your reviews and guides. When a reader is pleased with the information you have provided, they will vote on them using the “Was this guide helpful?” button. The guides with the most votes are shown as the “Most Helpful Member” guides
So, assuming you’ve written a really great guide or review, this number rises and as it rises you might find yourself placed as a “Top Reviewer” and this will be stated alongside your eBay ID.
If you want to see a really good example of this go here. This seller is a “Top 5000 Reviewer” and has written a nice little piece on Rabbit and Guinea Pig hutches. If you look to the right-hand side of the page you can see that the seller’s items for sale are listed and all are relevant to the piece they have written. The beauty of this is that the guide/review will attract a targeted market and this seller’s products relevant to that target market are just one click away! Perfect.
There are so many different ways you can use reviews and guides to your advantage and you can also write about anything you like. You don’t have to write about your own products if you don’t want to because your list of products will still appear on the right-hand side giving you the potential for click-throughs. You could just pick a current popular topic or trend that you know people require information about, although this is less targeted, so it does help if your guide is relevant to your product – after all, that’s the aim here!
There are endless amounts of topics you can cover in reviews and guides; if you are a seller of genuine designer handbags you should consider writing a guide about how to spot a fake handbag (I’ve actually done this in the past and it proved extremely successful). This will prove to buyers that you are genuine, honest and helpful; after all, it’s highly unlikely you would tell someone how to spot a fake handbag if you were selling fakes yourself!
In a similar niche such as “clothes” you could write a style guide or a sizing guide to help potential buyers choose well-fitting items, or you could even target a real mini-micro-niche such as “How to choose the best quality compatible ink cartridges”.
Remember, this doesn’t cost you anything apart from your time. You don’t need to write reams and reams, just 500 words or so, but make it quality content that people will be interested in and that confirms you as an expert in your niche – this is the key! Don’t be afraid to showcase your knowledge and expertise because this is what will bring you more customers, more loyalty, more business and more profit!
The more reviews and guides you write, the more pages your ID or shop name will appear on, so if you do one thing this month, make it this. Try it and you’ll be amazed at the increase in hits you’ll see.