Maximize Your Presence on eBay

Unfortunately, many eBay Store owners are missing easy sales opportunities. But don't despair--it's a breeze to edit your Store, your "About Me" page and your listings to turn unresponsive surfers into your best customers.

Drive Customers to Your eBay Store

Help shoppers find your Store by optimizing it for search engines. According to Todd Lutwak, director of seller development for eBay, you can get additional free traffic by using keywords in your Store title (35 characters), Store description (300 characters) and custom category names (up to 20).

To discover which keywords (and merchandise) will attract eBay shoppers to your Store, check out the "What's Hot" section of eBay's Seller Central. Also check your Store Traffic Report to improve your search engine marketing efforts.

Get Sales From Your "About Me" Page

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Don't overlook the sales potential of this page. A beautifully designed page helps establish a brand for your company and helps you sell more products. Curtis Thornhill, seller development manager for eBay, offers these suggestions:

• Wow 'em. Use a logo and high-quality photos to show that your business is credible and trustworthy. The copy you write does this, too. For example, share a few lines about how your business got started or how your team finds superior products.

• Hook 'em. Now that you've got shoppers' attention, invite people into your Store. The "About Me" page is the perfect place to showcase your best items. Use product photos and call them your "Top Sellers," "Hot Deals" or "New Arrivals." Organize your product categories into a clickable index so visitors will be enticed to start shopping.

• Sell 'em. Tell people to take action. Pepper your page with "Buy It Now" or "Bid Now" copy. And be sure to prominently display your contact information for potential customers who have questions before buying from you.

Attract More and Higher Listing Offers

Just as with your eBay Store, use relevant keywords in your listing titles and subtitles to help eBay searchers find your listings. To get more bids on your items, try these tested tips:

• Take well-lit and close-range product photos.
• Display the photo at the top of each listing.
• Set a sizzling starting price and a reasonable shipping fee.
• Include the details: type, brand, condition and other attributes.
• If your deal is hot, highlight the retail value.
• Cross-promote your other listings.
• Clearly state your shipping, payment and customer-service policies.
• Accept payments through Paypal.

Shira Levine, senior manager of eBay's PowerSeller program, reminds eBay sellers to learn eBay's listing policies. These rules protect buyers and sellers, so violating them can keep buyers from bidding on your products and also cause your listings to be removed from the site.

Catherine Seda is the "Net Sales" columnist for Entrepreneur magazine. She also teaches search engine marketing at eBay University and in her book, Search Engine Advertising.