How to Write an Ebay Auction Title that Generates a Bidding Frenzy

Do you know how to write a compelling Ebay auction title?

Writing an Ebay auction title is not the same as writing a title for a classified ad or a direct mail piece. When you compose titles for these types of media, you're told to use attention grabbing, descriptive words such as breathtaking, spectacular, unbelievable etc. While you may feel compelled to do this in your Ebay description, please resist the urge!

Why is this so?

Ebay allows you a maximum of 55 characters to generate your title so this space must be used wisely. The most important component of any Ebay title are the keywords used in that title. A keyword is a word that a buyer uses to search for a particular item on Ebay.

For example, if you're a man looking for a new pair of shoes, at the simplest level, you'll type in "shoes" into the search box. If you're looking for a particular type, color and brand of shoes, for example, you might type in "white Nike running shoes". These are all examples of keywords. If you happened to be selling this particular item, you would want to include all of those words in your title so your listing will come up in a search using these terms.

It's not enough to just include these words in the description since 90% of buyers on Ebay search by the title only and unless you have those words in your title, your listing won't show up. How do you know which keywords are important? You may want to consider depending upon the item listing:

Name of the item

Brand of item

Designer of the item

Color

Title (if it's a book, cd, video, or record)

Author (if it's a book)

Style or pattern name

If the item is brand new, you may want to include "new" or "sealed" in the title

Size (if it's clothing or shoes)

"Vintage" or "antique" if these applyTo determine what words might be important keywords for listing a particular item, do a search for completed auctions and see what keywords were used in the most successful titles.

One word of caution, please avoid using flowery, descriptive words such as awesome, fantastic or extraneous verbs such as "L@@K" or "Must See".

How many times do you think buyers type these terms into a search box? Stick with the basic keywords, prioritize them according to importance and use as many as you can within the 55 character title limit.

Should your auction title be written in all capitals? The general thought is that this looks unprofessional and doesn't help to increase bids at all. . I've found through experimentation, that it works best to have a few words in all capitals with the rest having only the first letter capitalized. A few capitalized words tends to draw attention to the auction without it appearing as if it's screaming to be seen. Here's an example:

NEW White NIKE Running Sports SHOES! Size 9!

Notice how I included both the words "running" and "sports" as they both could be terms that a buyer uses to search for this type of item. Certain words have been capitalized to make the auction stand out a bit.

The best way to master the art of title composition is to spend some time reading auction titles written by other sellers and note how successfully the auction performed. Make note of keywords, capitalizations etc. Practice writing some keyword titles of your own. Before you know it, you'll be an old pro at the Ebay title game and your sales will surely reflect it!