eBay® PowerSeller Business Practices FOR DUMMIES®

Chapter 17. Creating Listings That Sell with HTML

Imust admit, the very thought of using HTML used to terrify me (pinkyswear you won't tell anyone else). HTML. Doesn't it sound so very high-tech and geeklike? But HTML isn't all that scary once you realize that it's just a fancy name for HyperText Markup Language, a pretty easyto-use language for creating online content. All you need to know is the markup part. HTML uses tags to mark up pages to include elements such as text and graphics in a way that Web browsers understand. A Web browser sees the tags and knows how to display the document (that is, the Web page) on-screen. HTML also makes possible the whole work of links. When you click a link, you jump to another place: another Web page, document, or file, for example.

Many eBay sellers somehow think that putting dancing bunnies, flaming fireworks, and background music in their auctions will bring in more bids. Unfortunately, that's pretty far from the truth. (But video on demand can be a good thing.) People go to your auctions to find information and get a great deal on something they want, not to marvel at your creative work. They need to see the facts, placed cleanly and neatly on the page.

Warning

The addition of music to your auction may cause another problem: an extremely s-l-o-o-o-o-w page load for those on slower connections. If loading your page takes too long, it's a proven fact that the majority of customers will click back and go to another listing.

So what should you ...