Home > News > Squidoo Hearts eBay: Straight to you from eBay Live!

Ahhhh, the auctiony fresh scent of eBay. For years, eBay has been the online marketplace of choice for cleaning out the attic and buying great memorabilia from your past. Now, Squidoo is making it even more fun to shop and more profitable to sell. If you’re an eBay seller (or just about any kind of seller), you’ll want to pay special attention to this issue. We have the hottest tips for generating interest and making sales with the ease and convenience (it’s free!) of Squidoo’s lensmaking system. Go ahead. Make a lens and get found.

In this issue:
1. The eBay Book
2. Five Tips for eBay Lenses that Rock
3. Q&A for the eBay Module
4. Make Money with eBay AND Squidoo
5. How Freaknoodles got her Pajamas On
6. Have your Customers Spread the Word

Read on to find out how Squidoo is ramping up the eBay experience for all.

~Kimberly Dawn Wells
SquidU Review Newsletter Editor

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1. The eBay Book
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What are you selling? Are people finding your store? Wouldn’t you like to get more traffic, more buyers, more happy customers… for free?

Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it. That’s what eBay sellers have been wondering all week at the eBay Live conference in Boston.

Then they tried it out. And started getting found.

How does it work? Click below to get Megan’s free ebook “FREE TRAFFIC: Revealing the Secrets of the New eBay Elite.” She got together with a bunch of powersellers and eBay experts to give you an easy guide for how to use lenses to tell your story and sell more stuff.

If you like it, do your friends a favor and send it to them!

http://www.squidoo.com/pages/freetrafficebook.pdf

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2. Five Tips for eBay Lenses that Rock
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Squidoo and eBay are sharing the love by making it easy for auctioneers and shopkeepers to design targeted lenses that attract the right shoppers and turn them into buyers. To get the most out of your lensmaking experience, start your lenses right with five of Squidoo’s most powerful promotional tips.

Choose your niche.
Power seller? Store owner? A separate lens for each category of your products will facilitate create keyword rich, focused lenses that search engines love and shoppers crave. Focus on one thing at a time, then link them all together for even more exposure and impulse browsing.

Bring out your virtual sales person.
Browsers already at the eBay website are one step closer to placing a bid than those at your lens; in fact, some of your lens visitors may have ended up there completely by chance. To capture their attention, educate them, and get that extra click-through, you’ll need to bring out your virtual sales person. Don’t just direct them to “click here.” Sell your product. Play up the benefits, show them how it makes their lives better, and put the image in their head of how great they will feel when they receive it in the mail and put it to use. You may think you’re just selling a product, but your customers are buying an experience.

Give the eBay module some love.
When Squidoo said there was no coding required, they meant it! You don’t even need to know affiliate codes to link to your goodies. Feature one special product with the attention it deserves or showcase up to five at a time. Add several combinations of eBay and other modules to give your lens visual interest and your visitors purchasing options.

Learn from eBay.
The eBay affiliates section has a list of recommended actions for getting the most out of your external promotional methods. Not only are they eBay friendly, they’re solid tips for all-around productive Internet marketing.
- Create unique content
- Use relevant keywords
- Refresh content regularly
These are three big ones that Squidoo helps facilitate. Modules keep copy short and sweet, with no stress on your part for long-winded descriptions. You can set up and maintain your lenses in just minutes per day so there’s no excuse to let them get shaggy. The built in keyword function guarantees you’ll never be tagless.

Share and share alike.
We’re a team-playing bunch and we have so many ways to share. On site, check out our groups and lensrolling features, which spread the word between lenses. To target more users, you’re only click from any lens to email it, subscribe to it, print it, digg it, or make it del.icio.us.

Still unsure? In the true spirit of Web 2.0, Squidoo facilitates its own network of lensmaking professions who are ready to help you succeed. Just visit www.Squidu.com/forum to learn more.

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3. Q&A for the eBay Module
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You’ve got questions? We’ve got answers.

Q: I’ve seen lenses that use the eBay module as an afterthought, and lenses that seem to be one big list of eBay auctions. Which is the right way to use the eBay Module?
A: Both!
Using the eBay module on informative lenses is a great way to encourage impulse buying or help readers learn more. Using a lens entirely of eBay modules can be an effective way to help shoppers find what they are looking for and offer selected options. In order to be effective, all lenses need to be organized and focused, no matter what your goal.

Q: How can I design an effective lens to sell things on eBay, such as just fedora hats, just mousepads, or just Lite Brites?
A: Realize that your goal should not be to offer every link under the sun. If that were the case, a shopper could just as well go to eBay themselves. In order to be successful, your lens should somehow limit what you present. There are three ways to do this:
a. Reduce your lens to offering just one color, style, size, or model number. Focus on JUST fedora hats, instead of all types of hats.
b. Categorize by color, style, size, or model number. Create a module for sunset photo mousepads, a module for really big mousepads, and a module for mousepads with calculators attached.
c. Create a module for each accessory. Multiple modules can direct shoppers to the original Lite Brite, bags of extra pegs, pattern sheets, travel Lite Brites, and Lite Brite t-shirts.
Also remember, “quality over quantity.” Select what you think is the best.

Q: How can I use eBay modules and still make it look like I’m not just trying to sell something?
A: The title of your module can say a lot. If your readers keep seeing, “Buy Calculators on eBay,” they will learn to tune it out as a sales pitch. However, “Calculators to Match Every Office Decor” can appeal to their sense of style, interest, and impulse.

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4. Make Money with eBay AND Squidoo
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As an eBay auctioneer or shopkeeper, you’re probably used to spending money to promote your shop. But did you know that Squidoo lenses are not only free, they help you MAKE money? That’s right! Any time a customer uses your lens to buy a product on eBay, you receive a commission for yourself or your favorite charity. There’s nothing like an extra treat for referring a customer to your own store.

Better yet, if a customer visits your eBay lens but buys something from a store that ISN’T yours, you STILL get a commission! That’s right, go ahead and feel free to swap links with your competitors.

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5. Powerseller Success Stories
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http://www.squidu.com/profiles/freaknoodles-on-ebay

eBayer and Lensmaster Colleen “Freaknoodles” uses Squidoo to build on her brand. “On my Nick & Nora lens, I have links to my store and detailed descriptions of all the pajama patterns I carry, but I also have a poll to vote for your favorite pattern, a guestbook for readers to leave comments, and a YouTube video of the “dancing baby” scene from Ally McBeal, where Ally is wearing Nick & Nora pajamas. The high Google search rankings you can get with a Squidoo lens bring in the traffic, but I think it’s the versatility and variety of the modules that make those searchers hang around longer, which of course makes them more likely to click through to my store and buy something.”

Read more here:
http://www.squidu.com/profiles/freaknoodles-on-ebay

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BONUS ALERT!!!!!! Have Your Customers Spread the Word (For free)
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Do you have a loyal base of customers who absolutely love your products? Why not have them help you create extra exposure for your shop? One or two or ten lenses for your eBay auctions is a great start. What if your customers and friends and family made their own lenses to promote THEIR favorite items from your store? They would get a little extra cash for their referrals, and you would get 20 or 30 or 50 times the exposure. It’s a win-win situation!