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Mon Nov 11 2013 14:08:29

eBay Seller Says Secret Tactic Increases Exposure in Search

By: Reader

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Dear Ina,
As so many other eBay sellers have reported on your blog and on the eBay discussion boards, I'm one of the so many sellers whose sales came to a complete stop. I've been selling online for a couple of years. At the beginning eBay was absolutely fantastic: good sales, good prices. I was more than happy to pay for all the costs for using this platform.

Then came the changes to the feedback system, the default Best Match sorting order was introduced and not to forget about DSR. In just a couple of years eBay succeeded to transform the once most successful e-commerce platform into a graveyard and hunting ground for sellers.

In the course of years sellers have expressed their displeasure... and eBay didn't want to listen. On the contrary. Best Match wasn't enough to favour the big boys. So eBay decided to build a new search engine where it can just hide your listings.

It's about time that we sellers start fighting back. For this I'm going to disclose one of the eBay secrets I've discovered by accident a couple of months ago. And I've been using this tactic since. I can't promise it works in a category where there are dozens and dozens of sellers selling the same item. But in a lot of cases it will do magic.

Lots of sellers will have noticed the change in the sorting order of Best Match. I strongly believe the new sorting order in Best Match was introduced together with Cassini. Lots of sellers have been asking themselves: I'm a top rated seller with perfect feedback. My item dropped in the results, while another seller with hardly any feedback, excessive shipping,... is at the top.

Before it was easy: put a listing online, offer free shipping, build up a selling history and before you knew you would be on top. A lot of sellers will agree this strategy no longer works.

Even more. eBay completely keeps it's lips sealed what you have to do to have a good position in Best Match. Well, I've discovered something which will give you a huge boost. And the way I found it out is eBay's own stupid fault.

I noticed some of my listings weren't showing in the search results. So I wanted to find out which ones where showing and which ones not. So what I did: I used my buyers account, browsed to my eBay shop and added all of my items to my watch list so I could check under my sellers account which items where followed and which not. After doing this I noticed my items were suddenly showing a lot higher in the search results and were also keeping at the same place a lot longer. So I've been doing this systematically since the beginning of the summer and can confirm it works.

So you want to give your items a super boost in Best Match? This is how to do it:

* If you don't have it already create a 2nd eBay account

* login this account and browse to your eBay shop

* Add all of the items to your watch list

* login to your seller account and check the position of your items in best match. What you just did should give an immediate result

Please note you can put a maximum of 200 items in your watch list. So if you sell more than 200 items you may have to create more than 1 extra account.

I've kept this a secret because I know It's not allowed to mess with the search results. The only reason for doing this is because I was paying eBay for not showing some of my items and completely burry the others.

eBay used to be my main source of income. While sales on other channels have grown a lot and continue to grow, my eBay sales are now hardly 10% of what they have been. The same items, the same price, same description. It sells everywhere except on eBay. So yes, the problem is eBay. Not me, not my items, not my price.

So please Ina, publish this letter and spread the word around.

As a seller we say WE'VE HAD ENOUGH!!! This must stop. We fight back!!!

If everybody begins to do the same eBay can't suspend all sellers. Further more, the more sellers use this strategy the more Best Match will be messed up. So every seller should start doing this. If so eBay can put Best Match and Cassini in a hole where the sun doesn't shine.

With kind regards,
An eBay seller who will absolutely hate eBay for the rest of his life

Comments (35) | Permalink

Readers Comments

eBay Seller Says Secret Tactic Increases Exposure

by: Anonymous Annie

Mon Nov 11 14:53:52 2013

(Anonymous Annie likes this.)

eBay Seller Says Secret Tactic Increases Exposure

by: Ed Gadfly

Mon Nov 11 16:33:04 2013

This way you can spend less time listing items on sites that respect you.

Sad that you need to play games to get what you are paying for.

eBay Seller Says Secret Tactic Increases Exposure

by: Ed

Mon Nov 11 18:12:27 2013

It have know this for a long time. We don't play games. We just told ebay to stuff it and closed our store. We don't do business with companies we can't trust. We were selling over a $100,000 a year and now ebay has nothing.

Only a fool will let some one steal from them once they know it.

eBay Seller Says Secret Tactic Increases Exposure

by: LAbay

Mon Nov 11 19:01:35 2013

Thank you for sharing. I tried it, and I will let you know the results in a few days.

eBay Seller Says Secret Tactic Increases Exposure

by: Bloggo

Mon Nov 11 20:28:44 2013

''We were selling over a $100,000 a year''
eBay's bozo-in chief would look at this sum and think, ''Big deal, it's only $100,000''
Then when 10 similar sellers leave he'd think,''Big deal, it's only a Million Dollars''
Then when it's a Hundred....

eBay Seller Says Secret Tactic Increases Exposure

by: Ric

Mon Nov 11 21:37:50 2013

eBay is the only company I can think of that drives it's paying customers to seek under the table solutions to help drive success.

If only eBay was a company with competent leadership that is genuinely focused on the primary goal of helping sellers be successful, these tricks would not be necessary.

Unfortunately, since eBay's CEO is motivated only by what may impress Wall Street, and with the rest of the corporate leadership similarly focused, sellers need to try any and all methods of overcoming the many roadblocks that are engineered into the eBay system.

Sellers may be able to overcome the 200 watched item limit by creating lists, and moving items onto those lists so as to avoid inundating their watched items with their own listings.

eBay Seller Says Secret Tactic Increases Exposure

by: Bloggo

Mon Nov 11 22:01:16 2013

As soon as enough Sellers start doing this, eBay will suspend or purge them. It's the eBay way.

eBay Seller Says Secret Tactic Increases Exposure

by: Map

Mon Nov 11 23:36:15 2013

Sellers do not do what this person in doing.

You will ruin your account.

Ebay knows about all linked accounts and they will not miss this and you will pay for it.

This is called Search & Browse manipulation which is a policy violation that can get you canned.

SELLERS SPEND SOME TIME READING THE EBAY TUTORIALS.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/tutorial/searchandbrowsem
an/intro2.html

eBay Seller Says Secret Tactic Increases Exposure

by: Rocky

Tue Nov 12 00:18:42 2013

Uh, well... I guess it's not so secret any more. eBay will squash this little trick in no time!

eBay Seller Says Secret Tactic Increases Exposure

by: Bloggo

Tue Nov 12 01:42:50 2013

Check this guy's job out.
''Ken Moss, eBay vice president of technology and science.''
I wonder if JD is the president of technology and science.

eBay Seller Says Secret Tactic Increases Exposure

by: AgendaSwallowsAll

Tue Nov 12 02:36:41 2013

Been doing this for at least a year but I'm not so sure it does anything but make those listings appear higher in search on any System other than that attached to one's individual IP address. What else would explain one having 10-20 listings on page #1 & page #2 with zero to maybe 3 sales per day other than Donahoe so having killed the site to such an extent there really is no traffic any longer.

We offer a lot of items no one else has, the type of product we'd list and sell 10-20 or more of in a day if not an hour once listed and this was the case for years.

There has to be an explanation for this, either our items aren't where they appear to be when viewing from our IP address or JD really has killed ebay.

eBay Seller Says Secret Tactic Increases Exposure

by: Bloggo

Tue Nov 12 03:18:28 2013

@AgendaSwallowsAll - Your explanation matches my own experience.

eBay Seller Says Secret Tactic Increases Exposure

by: NullApps

Tue Nov 12 03:50:20 2013

I'm not convinced this really works. I suspect it is like Google. I never click my own links in Google and constantly see my websites fall to the bottom of search. But the moment I clear all my cookies my sites are back at the top. Don't forget Best Match is a system that is catered to the specific user so it isn't out of the question that watching your own listings just makes them more relevant to you even if it is a different account. The big question is did your sales improve afterwards? That's the only real way to know and the only thing that really matters.

eBay Seller Says Secret Tactic Increases Exposure

by: KathleenJohnson

Tue Nov 12 06:42:05 2013

Ina:
I am very surprised that you would condone manipulation of eBay's standing rules and even print this letter.

I understand the driving need to "win" and out manipulate eBays aloof management stance - but at all costs including credibility?

-----------------------

eBay Seller Says Secret Tactic Increases Exposure

by: cosqueen

Tue Nov 12 06:42:38 2013

Does anyone know if this works with another family member's eBay account, ie placing YOUR listings on their watch list?

eBay Seller Says Secret Tactic Increases Exposure

by: Map

Tue Nov 12 06:56:23 2013

Sellers, Work on your Titles. ebay has classified many adjectives now as keyword spamming the title.

Get rid of 3 things. Synonyms, Words & Phrases from the items titles that do not directly describe the item.

Get rid of all words like NOS EUC, Nice.

Ebay wanted sellers to pack keywords in the titles when they expanded the character limits from 55 to 80.

Problem is they changed search engine and did not properly train sellers how we should make a title.

Try this sellers re work the titles.

I am half way thru my listings and we are seeing improvement in Omniture traffic.

REMOVE Synonyms, Words & Phrases that are considered keyword spam.

eBay Seller Says Secret Tactic Increases Exposure

by: squern

Tue Nov 12 07:57:57 2013

What do you call a company who charges for something they don't deliver?

Who stings you for exposure which it then ensures you don't have?

Who charges you for a service it acknowledges it doesn't provide (postage)?

Several words come to mind, allied to criminality, but one will do:

EBAY

eBay Seller Says Secret Tactic Increases Exposure

by: comet

Tue Nov 12 10:56:54 2013

I just went and looked at a bidder's FB history and noticed---of the 11 total FB the guy has---5 of the SELLERS are "No Longer Registered Users".

Sad ain't it.

Ebay doesn't NEED those former sellers now do they--there are millions just champing at the bit to register and sell sell sell.

Unless---there are NOT these mythical sellers-in-waiting.

Sad.

eBay Seller Says Secret Tactic Increases Exposure

by: cillianred

Tue Nov 12 11:22:19 2013

Map: Thank you so much for your constructive advice. I'll definitely be taking a look at the titles of my listings.

I have to say, I've been reading the various articles and associated comments here for a long time and am so very tired of reading all of the negative comments.

It was a breath of fresh air to read something constructive and helpful for a change :) Matter of fact, it was so nice that I felt obliged to create an account and comment on it.

Thank you, Map!

eBay Seller Says Secret Tactic Increases Exposure

by: FullTimeEbayer

Tue Nov 12 11:49:54 2013

Search Manipulation is very thin ice. It would be a shame to be barred from selling due to a mistake like this.

I fully agree with Map - I reworked my titles last year and make sure that I use the full 80 characters whenever possible. Also if you simply repost your title in your listing it will also help with search. Do not keyword spam - they will bury you or tie your hands.

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