Adam Ginsberg: Increase Your eBay Sales with Twitter

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Today, more than ever, selling on eBay is competitive. One key to your success will be the number of visitors you get to your listings.  In theory, the more visitors to your listings, the more items you’ll sell.

Most eBay sellers simply put items for sale and then wait for people on eBay to find these listings.  It used to be that all items for sale would end up on the front page of eBay as the default search results on eBay was based on time ending soonest.  This changed when eBay changed its default search results to be based on their “best match” algorythm.

Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, which are free to use, can be a valuable source of additional traffic to your listings – resulting in more viewers, more bids and ultimately more sales.

Twitter, the fastest growing social networking site on the internet, is a site that can help you get more people to your auctions resulting in an increase in your income. Of course, whether or not that person bids is a different story…but the first step in selling on eBay is to get visitors to your listings.

What exactly is Twitter anyway?

Twitter has become a cultural phenomenon. Everyone is using it, from internet marketing to celebrities.  Twitter.com is a social networking site that allows users to post short, 140-character max, messages almost like like mini-blog posts. Users sign up for a free account and can begin posting immediately.

Unlike Facebook.com, and other such sites, people can become your Twitter “Follower” when they see something from you that piques their interest. You can also follow other people when they post something that interests you. You don’t need prior knowledge of the person or some sort of prior relationship.

How to effectively use Twitter to promote your eBay listings.

First, you should post a tweet (twitter blurb) about once a week to a listing or your eBay store.  Don’t comment more than that or people will either un-follow you or stop reading your posts.

Second, use Tweetburner.com to shorten long url links in teach Twitter post. This is very important very important when you only have 140 characters per Twitter post – and eBay links can be very long.  As well, you can track traffic to each post. Tweetburner calls each shortened url a “twurl.” I’ve made more than 200 twurls and have generated more than 16,000 hits bo my websites, etc.  which is an average of almost 80 visitors per Twitter post. The more followers you have on Twitter the better this ratio will become – as of the writing of this article I have more than 16,000 followers on Twitter.

If you use Twitter effectively you can easily drive traffic to your eBay listings – or any other site you want to promote.  I reached 16,000 followers in less than 5 months.  Oprah reach 1,000,000 followers in 30 days.

In Summary, here are 4 steps to use Twitter to increase your sales on eBay.

Step 1: Twitter is a social networking site where you post comments about what you are doing throughout your day – either in your business life, personal life or both.  You can register for a free account here: Twitter.com . It’s fast and it’s easy to register. Tip:  Create your twitter account using the same name as your userID on eBay. This will help people recognize your auctions and your store.

Step 2: Once you’ve registered your account on Twitter.com, it’s now time to follow Tweeters (other Twitter members) to follow. You want to build a variety of followers and get lots of different people viewing your auctions. Use this link to find other tweeters: http://search.twitter.com. Here you can type in a word or phrase and find people who are talking about that phrase. You can open their profile and use the Follow button on the left top side of the screen. Remember the more people you follow the more people who will follow you.

Step 3: Now that you have followers it’s time to send tweets (twitter messages). You should only sent 1 post to an auction/eBay store for every 15-20 non-promotional related tweets. Once you’ve updated your account with 10 to 15 tweets, then post your first update promoting an item for sale on eBay. Make sure to use Tweetburner.com to shorten the link to the eBay listing (or any url you might want to promote). Remember, you only have 140 characters so use your words wisely.

Step 4: Remember, one key element to making money on eBay is to get people to your auctions.  This will result in higher bids and more sales.

Use Twitter and other social networking sites to promote your eBay listings for an increase in online sales results.

Follow Adam Ginsberg on Twitter here: Adam Ginsberg Twitter